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Show Wednesday, September 18, 1996 The Park Record A-21 ValueJet president guides airline through disaster and back into air FOIM ISA- Public relations crisis turns into opportunity for charismatic leader by Marc Rice AP BUSINESS WRITER ATLANTA (AP) - It was a moment for Lewis Jordan to savor in an otherwise joyless summer. He stood before the television cameras that lately seemed to follow fol-low him everywhere, this time to announce that ValuJet Airlines, grounded after the crash of Flight 592 in the Florida Everglades in May, had cleared a key regulatory hurdle in its bid to fly again. Progress, yes, but not the final OK to resume flying that he and thousands thou-sands of laid-off ValuJet employees employ-ees had hoped for. Yet as he began to speak, about ValuJet 100 employees many of whom hadn't drawn a paycheck from the airline for 10 weeks gave their president a rapturous ovation. "He's a wonderful person. Very intelligent, very human. He's the heart of this company," said Marlene Cottle, a ValuJet reservations reser-vations worker who took a job at Federal Express to tide her over and still didn't know when her airline air-line job would return. The OK from regulators and the pat on the back from workers put two key groups on Jordan's side as he prepared to lead a scaled-down ValuJet, barely 2 12 years old at the time of the crash, to a new start. Final approval to begin flying may come later this month. All Jordan has to do now is to win over a fickle fick-le public, skeptical investors and increasingly testy labor unions. "I look at the list of experts, and I see many of the same names that in '93 said we would never make it," Jordan said in an interview. inter-view. "It's more up to those of us who have to do something than it is up to those who sit off to the side and criticize." Jordan, 52, was tapped to run ValuJet in 1993 after a successful 30-year airline career and was quickly elevated to industry darling dar-ling as the discount carrier enjoyed sensational growth. Its fleet had expanded from two planes to 52 at the time of the crash. ValuJet's rapid rise was largely credited to Jordan's flair for frugality fru-gality and snappy marketing. When the good times came to a Screeching halt on May 11, Jordan's job was suddenly transformed trans-formed into a daily juggling act of commiseration, public relations, damage control, crisis management manage-ment and, not the least, rebuilding the airline. ' "As far as starting a new airline over, in some ways I would have o say that's true," he said. Jordan demonstrated his skill at guiding a new airline when he helped ValuJet attract passengers &nd investors in droves. ; Fired from Continental Airlines after a clash with chief executive officer Robert Ferguson Jn 1993, Jordan was hired by Robert Priddy, one of ValuJet's three co-founders, to run the new low-fare airline. The early days were heady indeed. Jordan instituted a penny-pinching penny-pinching management style that kept costs at rock bottom and allowed ValuJet to offer one-way fares as low as $39. Wearing golf shirts and khakis instead of business suits and promoting pro-moting an odd mascot a grinning airplane nicknamed "the critter " Jordan set a lone of informal- out after a tragedy is something that most executives dread, Rothstein said. "It's scary, even for a seasoned executive," he said. "It's too easy to say the wrong thing." Jordan, who learned of the crash while working on a home-building home-building project for Habitat for Humanity, admits the role of spokesman after the tragedy was not one he relished. "I certainly prefer being less visible," he said. "Some people take a leadership leader-ship role by running out front and saying 'I'm in charge,' and others ity that clicked with the public and employees. In contrast, rivals including Atlanta neighbor Delta Air Lines looked like Grumpy Old Airlines. Anyone questioning Jordan's commitment to low costs needed only to see him work from behind a desk purchased cut-rate from Office Depot. Where other airlines air-lines served hot meals, ValuJet handed out breath mints. Then came the crash, in which 110 people died. A month later, ValuJet was grounded. As the Federal Aviation Administration cited deficiencies in ValuJet's safety and maintenance record, some wondered loudly if the bare-bones bare-bones approach personified by Jordan extended into those areas. "They were making money and growing, but it was all smoke and mirrors," said airline industry consultant Mike Boyd, a former admirer of Jordan's who now is a persistent critic. "With what's come to light about how that airline was run, it's a wonder to me how he's still at the helm," said Boyd, president of Aviation Systems Research Corp. in Golden, Colo. A native of Griffin, Ga., Jordan's previous public exposure was notable for the number of times he posed for pictures with the critter. This summer he became a fixture on television screens, at turns a sad-eyed figure offering comfort to families of Flight 592 victims and a resolute executive vowing from Capitol Hill to ABC's "Nightline" program pro-gram that his airline would fly again. "The most important thing in any kind of crisis of this magnitude magni-tude is communicating openly and honestly," said Philip Jan Rothstein, a crisis management consultant in Ossining, N.Y. "If you haven't been doing that all along, no one is going to believe you out of the blue if you suddenly become 'honest,'" Rothstein said. "If the employees are willing to come back, it's a pretty good indicator." Facing the public day in and day M'ffmUB entertaining you since 1987. Sept 18 JAMMIN' BAND sop. i KING TRANCE Friday & mtmir SEFTM2I AMIE GREM & SHOES 323233333333fi OV rt CrO OV OV OV OV OV OV CTD uV OD SEPT 22 i BING0 sept 2li SPAimi NIGHT SEPT 24 KAMOKE Come playNTN Interactive Video .only atCJsero's Nightclub.Testour skills aiipfflie. Compete with fn or foe. VTA J XA P R IV At Hi FOR MIMBitlS accept the leadership role as circumstances cir-cumstances dictate," Jordan said. "I just happened to fiil the role that was most visible." The crash appears to have been caused by a fire originating in a shipment of chemical oxygen generators gen-erators that ValuJet says was mislabeled mis-labeled by . a subcontractor. Nonetheless, ValuJet has greatly beefed up its maintenance system as a prelude to resuming flights. "He seems to have focused on meeting the FAA's requirements and getting back in the air, instead of taking a defensive posture," said airline analyst Aaron Hollander of First Equity Group in Stanford, Conn. "You've got to give him pretty good marks for ... decisive action." But Boyd faults Jordan for allowing the problems to develop in the first place. "Whether he delegated or not, he should have been aware," Boyd said. "This was not about who picked the napkins." Susan Clayton, a ValuJet flight attendant and local union president, said Jordan, through the force of his personality, has brushed aside problems. "He is very charismatic," said Ms. Clayton, who along with union leaders has pushed unsuccessfully unsuc-cessfully to oust Jordan and Priddy. "He does have an open door policy it's open as long as you go in and say how wonderful he's doing." Jordan has dismissed the union's complaints as a personal vendetta and notes that many flight attendants publicly support him. He may soon, however, have a another labor battle on his hands. The Teamsters are trying try-ing to unionize ValuJet's mechanics. Stock Performance Utah company stock performance for the week of Sept.12-16 Name Close 916 Close 912 Name Close 916 Close 912 ALTAGLD 3.87 3.25 NOVELL 10.12 10.50 AMSTORES 39.62 40.00 PSTVANS 3.37 3.50 ANESTACP 13.50 13.00 QIJESTAR 35.62 36.63 BALLARDM 18.00 17.62 RESRCHMD 17.37 17.00 CENTMINE 1.00 1.06 SIMONTRK 14.00 13.87 CROWNENG .687 .687 SKYWEST 16.37 16.25 COVOLTEC 9.12 9.00 SMITHSFD 27.25 27.88 CYCL03PS .81 .81 SOSSTAFF 10.75 10.87 DAWTECH 3.69 3.62 SOWSTAIR 22.62 22.37 DELTAAIR 69.75 69.00 SUMITFAM 4.62 4.62 DYNATEC 3.62 3.62 4HEALTH 6.75 6.75 EFIELEC 1.12 1.12 TELSCORP .69 .56 EQUITYOL 3.37 3.25 THERATEC 11.50 11.00 EVANSSUT 21.63 21.25 THIOKOL 45.62 45.25 FIRSECCP 27.37 27.62 UTDPKMIN 12.12 12.50 FRNKQUST 17.62 17.37 TjTAHMED 12.37 12.25 GENVSTL 3.87 4.00 ZIONBKCP 89.50 89.75 GULLLABS 5.06 4.87 INTRLNRE 1.69 1.62 INTLAUTS 9.500 7.250 Dow Jones averages IOMEGACP 14.13 14.31 IONLASER 14.00 14.37 LARD AVIS 9.25 9.06 30 INDUS 5866.26 5771.94 LUCASIND 3.70 3.70 20 TRANS 2054.76 2042.50 MARKERIN 7.62 7.37 15 UTILS 219.25 216.39 MERITMED 7.75 7.75 MITYLITE 8.37 7.75 This Utah stock report is provid- MONROC 4.87 5.12 ed by Derrell Reeves of Paulson NATRSUN 20.00 21.25 Investment Co., Park City. 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