$ 385 million loss in the last months of the fiscal year 1994 signaled the Continental may go bankrupt. Can new CEO Gordon Bethune Continental turn around? Continental was in a desperate situation, because deregulation of the commercial airline industry in 1978 opened a new era focused on mergers and acquisitions and bitter employee relationship management. Reverend airline brands with a commitment to quality, as Continental, have been the main purpose of acquisition. After Texas Air Chairman Frank Lorenzo (HBS 1963) provide a continental in its hostile takeover bid, escalating tensions between Lorenzo and the old guard - especially when Lorenzo said Continental bankrupt the fall of 1983, and then fired and replaced half his staff with cheaper union labor. In October 1994, five months after the release of its second bankruptcy Continental, Bethune was elevated to chief executive officer and created Next Continental plan to return to profitability. Two years after the opening of Forward Plan, Continental was on top of the industry in a number of key performance indicators. "Hide
by Nitin Nohria, Anthony J. Mayo, Mark Benson Source: Harvard Business School 34 pages. Publication Date: 23 January 2006. Prod. #: 406073-PDF-ENG
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