Page 183 - The Bible On Leadership

Courage 169

as a young (or presumably middle-aged) person can get. It’s not unlike
being in a platoon of infantrymen and getting sent to the front lines . . .
What the experience teaches you is . . . you learn quickly to make
courageous choices.’’ 17
The heroes of the Bible were created by the courageous choices they
were often forced to make. Noah and the flood. Jonah and the whale.
Moses and the Red Sea. Queen Esther and Haman. Jesus and Pilate. In
each case a great leader became even greater when he or she encoun-
tered a difficult obstacle. Anyone can lead in good times. It takes cour-
age to lead in difficult times: ‘‘We commend ourselves . . . in troubles,
hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonment and riots; in hard
work, sleepless nights and hunger; . . . through glory and dishonor, bad
report and good report.’’ (2 Cor. 6:4–8)
Although Jan Carlzon, CEO of SAS, was not faced with an array of
obstacles quite like the above, he had his courage tested repeatedly by
adversity of other kinds. When Carlzon tried to launch Euroclass, a new
business-class fare, he encountered opposition both within and outside
Scandinavia. First he had to hurdle the domestic Board of Civil Avia-
tion, since this idea ran counter to the egalitarianism so prevalent in
Sweden. That was relatively easy compared to bucking the resistance of
Air France, which put a surcharge on their business-class passengers and
demanded that SAS do the same.
Carlzon writes that he wasn’t about to abandon his strategy ‘‘even if
our determination touched off a war between civilian aviation authori-
ties, which is exactly what happened.’’ Air France, a Goliath in the
European skies, threatened to stop SAS from flying to France if they
did not institute the surcharge. SAS courageously made a similar threat
to bar Air France planes from their landing fields.
It was not just ‘‘David’’ versus ‘‘Goliath.’’ ‘‘We were fighting almost
the entire European airline industry,’’ writes Carlzon. After an initial
price war, the airlines called in the respective foreign ministers from
their countries, who engineered a compromise. SAS would not have to
institute a surcharge, while Air France could give business-class dis-
counts to normal-fare passengers.
Carlzon felt this successful, courageous stand against larger rivals was