A tale of strategic and governance errors/In my opinon

This is a story of leadership, corporate governance, national culture, finance, European politics and terrorism and how all these factors converged to undermine a great airline - Swissair - in October, 2001. Some of the important causes of the Swissair downfall are clearly related in the case: the McKinsey-inspired strategy of buying into Sabena and smaller and often ailing airlines; weaknesses in top management and a supervisory board that had poor knowledge of the air transport industry; and the missed opportunity earlier on to build a strong alliance with other EU airlines and vital US partners (Alcazar). In early 1998, the SAirGroup board finally decided not to strike a deal with BA and not to join the Oneworld alliance. Instead, relying on SAirGroup's strong reserves, the board adopted a plan developed by McKinsey to pursue minority shares in a number of small European airlines. It is unlikely that EU membership would have made much difference in the light of the other factors.