Challenge: After four major crashes between 1997 and 1999 Korean Air adopted some serious safety programs and needed to increase awareness of its these programs and initiatives to regain credibility among regulators, influencers, passengers and its own employees.

Strategy: Create a dynamic program targeting employees and worldwide media. Safety message is to be wrapped in total operational reform initiative that can be communicated worldwide. Focus on third-party endorsements and showcase all operational achievements.

Tactics: Achieving Operational Excellence: Korean Air – We created this program to be used internally to educate and enthuse and externally to re-establish confidence in Korean Air’s abilities.

• We created this message point to be used internally and externally: Korean Air is achieving operational excellence through strengthening its core skills and reinforcing its infrastructure.
• We created a graphic that explains Operational Excellence.
• We provide recurrent media and communications training for Korean Air’s Chairman, Y.H.Cho, including speech delivery techniques.
• Desk-side briefings are held twice yearly with important aviation, safety and travel media in New York and Washington.
• An Operational Excellence Update is distributed to media and Korean Air’s North American sales force. It is distributed to all other sales forces and employees through Korean Air’s internal Notes system.

Results:

“Korean Air has continued to enhance its operational excellence through improved flight training, simulator and safety programs, language training, fleet rationalization and standardization, state-of-the art automated flight planning and dispatch capability, intra-theater communications capabilities, and adaptation of an enhanced risk management program.” 
                      Delta Air Lines’ spokesperson, Todd Clay, August 18, 2001

“Korean continues to make significant progress in enhancing its operational performance.”
                               Leo Mullin, former CEO, Delta Air Lines, March 2001

“The carrier has had a spotless safety record since 1999.”
                                                             Wall Street Journal, June 2001

“Korean Air’s goal is to achieve and sustain Operational Excellence in all aspects of the airline. Started almost two years ago, our Operational Excellence initiatives focus on strengthening core skills and reinforcing infrastructure. The programs are producing results, and the process is working.”
                                  Y.H. Cho, Chairman, Korean Air, September 2001