Let me start with a little backstory: It’s autumn 2012 and after working as the chief pilot for a major telecommunications company in the Midwest, I was hired as the director of aviation to build a flight department for an energy company in the Chicagoland area. Of course, I thought I knew everything I needed to know. I had my NBAA CAM and I’d been watching my director do his job when I was chief pilot and figured, “How hard can it be?” Well, to say that I was naïve, ignorant, and even arrogant would be gross understatements. The problem was, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. And over the course of the next four years, as my team and I built the department from zero to four jets, one helicopter, two locations, and over thirty personnel, I was continually confronted with gaps in my knowledge that I had to scramble to fill. Fortunately, I was surrounded by personnel in the industry and within my company who were willing to help, plus I had become both humble and realistic enough to not hesitate to ask for assistance.
But what if there had been a book? A reference book—a source of knowledge that covered the most important areas of knowledge necessary to lead a business aviation flight department. It might not have had all the answers, but it would have raised my knowledge level to the point where I did know what I didn’t know, and it would have provided me references to find the answers. Well folks, that book is here.
For the past three years or so, a friend and I have been compiling and editing a book we titled, The Business Aviation Book: Leading Operational Excellence. It will become the most definitive work to date on the skills and subject areas required to run a business-aviation flight department. I wish I could say it was my idea, but it wasn’t. After writing a book on my leadership research in 2020 and publishing a second edition in 2021, I thought my leadership writing might be over.
Enter, Mike Nichols, a longtime friend. I had known Mike for several years when he was an executive at the National Business Aviation Association and we had worked together on a few projects during his time there. In the wake of the COVID pandemic, Mike retired from the NBAA to pursue life at a slower pace. He had a pet project in mind, the aforementioned book, and he graciously looked me up to help him with it. I was honored to participate in the project. Initially, we both foolishly thought we could do all the writing ourselves, but it soon became obvious that despite our combined industry expertise, we didn’t have the breath or depth of knowledge necessary to cover all the subjects required. So, we sought personnel we knew in business aviation, people who were authorities in their subject areas and who were willing to give their time for the sake of our industry. The resulting work is positively groundbreaking. Here’s what it will cover:
Section 1 – Leadership
01 – The Changing Role of Aviation Director
02 – Leadership
03 – The Intersection of Leadership & Management
Section 2 – People Management
04 – Employment Regulations
05 – Management Theories
06 – Attracting & Retaining Talent
07 – A Culture of Belonging
08 – Developing and Advancing Yourself and Your Team
09 – Understanding Compensation and Total Rewards
10 – Mentoring and Developing Our Future Workforce
Section 3 – Effective Communication
11 – Introduction to Communication
11 – Executive Presence
13 – Managing Conflict
14 – Change Management
Section 4 – Structuring Strategies
15 – Flight Department Structure and Regulatory Compliance
16 – Aircraft Use Policy
17 – In-house Aircraft Management
18 – External Aircraft Management
19 – Internal Reporting Executive
Section 5 – Safety & Security
20 – Safety Management Systems
21 – Aviation Security
22 – Information and Cyber Security
Section 6 – Risk Management
23 – Risk Management
Section 7 – Maintenance Management
24 – Maintenance Management
Section 8 – Environmental Sustainability
25 – Environmental Sustainability
Section 9 – Aircraft Operations
26 – Aircraft Scheduling
27 – International Operations
Section 10 – Money Matters
28 – Aircraft Transactions
29 – Aircraft Finance
30 – Budgeting
31 – Aviation Taxation
32 – Book and Market Depreciation Concepts
33 – Public Company Considerations
34 – Carriage of Candidates for Election
35 – Fleet Planning
While Mike and I wrote a few of the chapters (as you might expect, I wrote the chapter on Understanding Compensation and Total Rewards, for example), the majority of them have been written by people who are well known and respected experts in the industry—people you have undoubtedly heard of. As you might expect, getting personnel in our industry to devote the necessary time to write material of the quality required for this book has been a challenge. It has also been a challenge for Mike and me to manage our own schedules to write and edit. It has taken over three years from the day Mike and I first discussed the project until its impending fruition. We think you’ll find it was well worth the wait.
The Business Aviation Book: Leading Operational Excellence will be published this fall by my company, Chris Broyhill Books LLC and it will be available through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Additionally, signed copies will be available through my website at https://chrisbroyhillbooks.com. The AirComp Calculator will pay to format and publish the book as a service to the industry.
