By: Jeff Allinder

While scrolling through my Facebook feed last weekend, I came across a vignette posted by a pilot friend of mine. Did you know that during World War II, the United States lost nearly 95,000 aircraft*? During World War II, many fighter planes came back from battle with a significant number of bullet holes. In an effort to reduce these enormous losses, the Allies began to identify the areas of the returning planes that were most commonly hit by enemy fire. Then based on that analysis, they sought to strengthen the most commonly damaged parts of the planes with the goal of reducing the number that might be shot down.

A mathematician, Abraham Wald, pointed out that perhaps there was another way to look at the data. He asked this question: “What if planes shot in areas other than those identified on the returning planes were damaged so severely that they never made it back? What if instead of reinforcing the bullet-riddled areas of the returning planes, the Allies needed to recognize that these planes were still able to return, while planes damaged in other areas were forever lost?

This insight led crews to shift their focus and instead reenforce the areas of the plane where there were no bullet holes.

So, what does that have to do with the broadband business?

Like those pilots and support folks in WWII, telecom executives have a great deal of knowledge about their business. Most reached their position based on intelligence, hard work, and intuition. Also like our WWII predecessors, executives are busy with day-to-day management and may lack the perspective to solve problems that are outside of their core responsibilities.
For many businesses, there may be big opportunities available related to revenue growth, cost savings and other solutions that positively impact your bottom line. But without a shift in perspective, these opportunities might never be uncovered.
That’s where Leverage Broadband Strategies comes in! Even though we can’t fly airplanes we can offer fresh perspective and decades of industry experience, and our primary skills (like data analytics, research, and optimizing customer facing operations) might be the ideal supplement to your current operations.

Just as Abraham Wald helped the Allies re-focus to identify the true vulnerabilities of the Allied aircraft fleet, an outside perspective is often helpful as you seek to analyze the vulnerability of your business.

Are you ready to review your business through different eyes and a fresh perspective? If so, our team is here to help! Call me at (727) 366-6445, or email jeff@leveragebroaband.com, and let’s start a conversation.

*Source: Equipment losses in World War II – Wikipedia