What do you do if your strategic decisions as an airport manager are not yielding the desired outcomes?

It is important to understand what you are looking for. KPIs individually might not tell the story. E.g. Consider Actual Passenger numbers and Actual Income per Passenger. A fall in both will just indicate the output (effect). Whereas a fall in the service level (input) might drive a fall in Passengers and force price cuts. What you are looking for in this stage is not only the level of impact but the specific questions that you are going to get feedback on in the next stage of your quest for actions to address the strategy failure.

KPIs may be useful, but dig into all intermediate process KPIs if you have them. Clearly you are not meeting your overall KPI, the objective of the strategy. But the first order of business is to assess the strategy itself and its appropriateness specifically to your organization and situation. For instance, do you have the internal skills, people, or right service offerings to pull off the strategy? Do you have the appropriate capacity in the airport, for instance, so flight delays are at a minimum...if you are seeking to achieve superb customer experience? Need to examine the assumptions that underpin your strategy first and compare them to your ACTUAL capabilities right now. The strategy may be too ambitious for the organization.

Gathering feedback is your opportunity not only to gather information but also to engage your staff. The old saying "a problem shared is a problem halved" certainly applies here. E.g. openness with your Customers will help turn negative feedback into positive input and support. Openness with your staff will make them believe that 1. You are human and approachable as you make mistakes, just like them. 2. You are giving experienced people the opportunity to contribute. In short ask the right questions and listen more than speak.

Since the strategies are not yielding any results, it is clear that we need customers feedback to remedy the situation. The general saying 'he who pays the piper dictates the tune' is still valid in today’s business world, where customers are the true dictators. And also suggesting hat customers, who ultimately provide the revenue, have significant influence over the decisions and direction of a company. To get it right this time, we need to conduct a 'needs assessment' from the viewpoint of the customers; perhaps it will help refine and improve the efficacy of the strategies."

Agreed with the need for feedback. Depending on the focus of the strategy, I would start with internal people and speak to customers afterward. Why? Customers will tell you about their experience, but this varies greatly on their individual expectations, degree to which they travel daily or weekly, familiarity with other airports, etc. The employees deal with the same or similar issues every day and the consensus opinion will be more easily revealed. See what's tripping them up. Is it a morale problem, operational difficulties, or lack of skills, etc.? Use the "5 Whys" methodology from Lean Six Sigma and / or an Ishikawa diagram to structure your initial exploration.

I would start with this step first and almost reverse the sequence of this description of "Review Strategies." You already know that the strategy is not working, therefore you need to consider what changes in your new strategy or recent decisions have made your technology, processes, people, infrastructure, etc. more ineffective in executing the strategy. Did the decisions hinge on executing plans for which your organization did not have the skills to deliver? Or the physical facilities, maintenance plans, service levels, etc.? The strategy decisions and the organizational capabilities have somewhere gotten out of synch.

One approach should be to consider the adoption of OKR (Objectives and Key Results) methodology to drive better strategy execution. Many organizations use KPIs as measurement standards which is a good business practice but the challenge is that these are lagging indicators. OKRs can also be lagging but more importantly the also can and should be leading indicators. With the right mix, you can significantly increase an organization’s opportunity to achieve their top strategic priorities by focusing on outcomes that matter most.

The overall "failure" issue being discussed has probably only emerged after months of failure to monitor progress. If you monitor performance today, any failure you discover could be fixed tomorrow. If you wait for month end reports then todays failure could only be fixed sometime next month.

One practice that is often missed is recognizing weekly results that are leading to quarterly OKR results. Acknowledge the effective action individuals are taking to help everyone on the team learn faster. Add a 10 minute "what is working" agenda item to weekly team meetings. End the week with high fives and high vibes.

Accurate and precise planing is a key to predictable and well performing business flow. With an accurate plan management can eliminate a lot of risk and have a plan for different scenarios (wether they derived from the business environment or other unmanaged sources).

Airport manager? Is it the planes or the property. Two completely different arenas. Gate construction and management, with increased air traffic and the multitude of carriers and aircraft can be a nightmare. Anyone stuck in TSA lines, or sitting on the tarmac, has a lasting impression of the airport. Expansion should always be the goal, from runways to terminals to airport access Airports used to upgrade international terminals. Now airports are shopping , dining, and lounge destinations. These amenities make money, and attract travelers. New, modern, efficient terminals help sell air travel. Airlines require them.

May consider to run an audit, according to ISO-9002, following the leads to identify any potential deficiencies. Executes follow-up actions, i.e. Plan-Do-Check-Act to accomplish the set goal(s).