Nando Parrado: The 'right' decisions

One of Nando's most interesting points - and one that makes this a strange category of motivational speech - is the spontaneity of the survivors' behaviour.

"Brilliant, the universities say. Brilliant decisions," Nando tells us. But he emphasises that they were barely decisions at all, more like instinct.

Instructing the slowest member of the three-team party that went for help to return to the crash site wasn't based on a theory of management, and didn't emerge from a process. It was simply the decision they made, and it was the right one.

I can't help thinking - if it's not a bit odd to compare the work of a comfortable New York intellectual to extremes of experience like this - there's a bit of Malcolm Gladwell's Blink in this.

Nando Parrado: Luck, destiny and the ability to react

A heartbreaking detail from the story: Nando was offered several free seats on the aircraft before departure, and rushed to call his mother and sister - 'to give them a gift of love'. Both were killed in the crash.

Later there's a counterpoint to this in the sheer luck that allowed the passengers to survive; there were three points of impact (moving at more or less full speed). After the second, the aircraft slid 25,000 feet without hitting any rocks at all.

And after that we get into how the survivors began to organise themselves.

Nando was clear that he 'isn't a teacher', but order is emerging from the way he tells the story. Loosely: The universe will deal indiscriminately with you; the important thing is having the resourcefulness to take control in the aftermath.

He's telling us a story, though, so it's entirely possible there are 503 different interpretations elsewhere in the room...

Nando Parrado: I shouldn't be here...

I shouldn't be here. I should have died on a glacier thirty-six years ago.

This is Nando Parrado's opener.

He's not wrong. His aircraft crashed into a mountain at cruising speed, and at cruising altitude. As he points out, that more or less never happens.

He and the other survivors are the only two people ever to survive a comparable accident... (there were 16 survivors in total).

The future of Advantage...

There isn't much about strategy yet - there's more about the strengths of Advantage, and the main solid statistic to emerge is that it does £2.5bn turnover (£1.5bn leisure, £1bn business).

But John does refer to the opportunities for retail agents in the wake of XL (see also Terry Fisher in the partnerships session).

An 'Integrity' slide pops up which is pertinent to this - 'transparency' 'agent friendly' and 'reputation' are the keywords, and John mentions Advantage's hard stance on non-principal bed banks.

There's some talk about tour operating too - Advantage isn't going to move into it, because 'we have supplier partners who do it better', but it will continue to provide tools for agents who wish to pursue dynamic packaging.

So far it feels as much a sales pitch as a statement of strategy, though; and perhaps that's the right approach for a period of instability...

Update 29/09/08 - Here are the key announcements our chief reporter Juliet Dennis pulled out of John's session (or just read her full story):

• Plans for an ATOL for selected members
• Outsourcing of back-office functions
• A new trust fund facility
• Campaigns to raise brand awareness and consumer confidence in agents

Partnerships: The undercutting that wasn't

At the last minute a question about undercutting comes in to Marc Bennett from Thomas Cook.

Marc explains that it isn't always their fault, and - more importantly - that Thomas Cook offers online price matching to Advantage members. Richard says Hoseasons do too.

It seems a little odd that anyone wouldn't know about something like that. Perhaps it's time for an Advantage e-marketing alert on the subject...

Partnerships: A brief quote-a-thon

We get a clutch of memorable quotes as the discussion moves on to Triton (I think Lucy's the first person to have said the T-word on stage?):

Julia on the break with Triton:

People talk about size, but it's also about what you do with it, it's about performance...'

Terry Fisher on Stephen Freudmann's assertion that Advantage won't survive:

'I'm not sure where Stephen Freudmann is coming from, and I haven't been for many years...'

Richard Carrick's response:

'Stephen 'Robinho' Freudmann, who thought he was going to Chelsea and ended up at Man City...'

Partnerships: 'A renaissance on the high street'

TTG's Lucy Huxley asks Advantage commercial director Julia Lo-Bue Said what Advantage is doing to help members reassure customers in the wake of XL's failure.

This follows on from a discussion of maintaining partnerships, and being selective about partners, during which Terry Fisher of Gold Medal mentions the company's decision not to work with Zoom or XL.

Julia's answer seems to be mainly print point-of-sale materials, and to an extent this is fair for a business weighted towards retail.

But what about customers that arrive on your website? This sits oddly with the previous session (booking online) and I'm half surprised Richard Carrick - who presented it, and is on the panel here - doesn't pipe up.

Terry Fisher of Gold Medal goes further:

'Renaissance is the right word. There's a renaissance going on on the high street'.

Gold Medal has seen 'huge' growth since XL, he says, and this is 'an opportunity to fight back against the internet.'

Now that bit sits really oddly with the last session...