Super Deciders

Chapter 2Case 1: Making People Decisions

Claudio Feser, David Redaschi, and Karolin Frankenberger

In London, Isabelle was able to pacify ATG's main investors. That said, they asked a lot of questions about ATG's strategy, about ATG's organization, and about the company's top team; questions that she couldn't answer. She agreed to come back once she had found the answers.

In the following weeks and back in Zurich, Isabelle spent a lot of time familiarizing herself with all facets of ATG's situation. Above all, she wanted to understand how, as its new CEO, she could strategically develop the company. She asked ATG's strategy officer, Konstantinos “Kosta” Georgiades – a creative young Greek who had completed his master's degree at St. Gallen just a couple of years earlier – to develop a perspective on the travel market and ATG's position. He didn't have much time in the trenches, but he understood ATG remarkably well.

But while she waited for Konstantinos' report and her other research to come to fruition, ATG's overall situation continued to worsen. The economic environment was rapidly deteriorating, and therefore demand for leisure travel was plummeting (see Appendices 3 and 4). Isabelle needed to understand the financial implications of this new development as fast as possible. She asked Hugo to develop a financial outlook for the rest of the year and for the following 24 months. She specifically requested his estimate of how revenues, profits, the equity, and the cash flow ...