I don’t think you had to know much about Delta Airlines to see this one coming. Rising star James Whitehurst has just resigned from his COO position at Delta Airlines. My hunch is that this will hurt Delta more than many think it will and that odds are pretty good that we’ll see Whitehurst at the helm of a company pretty soon. Richard Anderson looks to be a good choice for Delta, but no one likes to be passed over, especially for an outsider. I think a lot of people were expecting Delta to choose someone from their own bench given the depth that they have. Ah, but who knows what goes on in those boardrooms once the doors are closed?

Whitehurst’s bio (from Delta’s website):

Jim Whitehurst, 38, is Chief Operating Officer. He is responsible for Operations, Sales and Customer Service, Network and Revenue Management, Marketing, and Corporate Strategy.

A native of Columbus, Ga., Whitehurst graduated from Rice University in Houston, Texas, with a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Economics. He also attended Friedrich-Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany, holds a general course degree from the London School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

I had an unexpected and delightful surprise today when I learned that our guest speaker for our Strategic Thinking Program was Mr. John Grier, the Managing Director and Group Head of Citigroup’s Global Transportation Investment Banking program. Mr. Grier spoke to my class of 269 first year MBA students at Cornell about the value of thinking strategically in the business world and what he considers to be a common set of attributes found across successful business leaders. He drew upon his experiences working with many of the airline industry’s leading figures. It was a brief speech but one that I very much enjoyed. I would have liked to speak to Mr. Grier briefly after his speech, but putting an Investment Banker in front of business school students is kind of like putting a piece of red meat into the lion’s den. The wannabe IB’s swarmed quickly and, seeing as I have no interest in IB myself, I decided to extract myself instead. Regardless, I am pleased that I got the opportunity to listen to him speak.

I have successfully relocated to Ithaca, New York, so as to attend the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University where I will be studying business for the next two years. The advantage gained by Planes to Profit is that I will be gaining skills through my MBA studies that will allow me to frame my discussions both more quantitatively and qualitatively. The disadvantage is that time will be in short supply and writing here will be a luxury. Since arrival, I have also learned that Cornell’s Hotel school offers a class in Airline Service and Management as well as a Yield Management class. The Johnson School encourages its students to take classes outside of the Johnson School, so I am hoping to work those in to my schedule. With those possible exceptions, however, my business education will be broad based and without any formal emphasis on the airline industry, although, when given the opportunity, I will attempt to frame my work in that context. My raison d’être at Cornell is to further develop my strategic thinking capabilities in a business environment, which, I hope, will allow me to create and develop more thought provoking analysis and commentary on the aviation industry. Planes to Profit is my venue for sharing those thoughts.