Background info on SkyNet

> WHEN WAS SKYNET STARTED/HOW DID IT START
>you could use 1972 as that is when the London company started and is
>usually so stated. It began with tv and film industry physical
>distribution. That is now called logistics solutions. LON stored picked
>and packed the films and shipped them. It is far from a new concept.
>
>
> > WHAT IS THE BACKGROUND TO THE NAME SELECTION
>My old company sky courier in the USA was taken over by Airborne who
>uses it for their same day domestic USA product. MIA needed something
>new and came up with Skynet.
>London was Sky Intl and about a decade ago we went for the logo
>worldwide.
>
> > WHO;S IDEA WAS IT TO START SKYNET
>Albert Hernandez was a competitor in the USA at the time. We were
>working on the same idea at opposite ends of the earth. He joined Sky
>USA in the mid 80s and the rest is history as we joined his Latin
>region with our Euro Asian groups. We were both strong in the others
>weak areas.
>
> > WHAT WERE THE ORIDGINAL OBJECTIVES
>To sum it up; I was standing in the middle of some awful place such as
>Jan Smuts begging some freight agent to do a ''courier'' delivery in
>1977 and not charge too much for it. In those days trained staff from
>the household names of today were taking this product to freight agents
>to sell it. Once the ''agent'' agreed to do the delivery for
>some amount of bucks we move on. I did not have it in my head at that
>time to charge him 20 grand to join a network because it would be so
>good in the future. All I had in the USA was a very good domestic
>business that needed an intl outlet.
>I needed a delivery done in your country. Then you asked me if you could
>send me one or two consignments a month. The rest is easy to figure out.
>
> > WHAT WERE ITS COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES
>low cost competition with the big names. No HQ. No exec vp's. Every
>local ''agent'' was a mom and pop. In JNB it was an x TNT lady and her
>husband who built steps for planes. She was from the Transval and he
>from Lisbon. Then it became a group of chaps from CPT that just worked
>hard and enjoyed life. Blackburn being one of them. But they had a small
>fleet of planes running around RSA.
>More agressive sales people that went for the juglar and could then earn
>numbers that today are un heard of. Think of a 'rep' today earning 200k
>USD in NYC. And that was on commission only no car and a 2% allowance on
>entertainment.
>How many folks do you know that what agree to go onto a no salary deal
>if it was legal?
>
> > WHO WERE THE FOUNDER MEMBERS
>LON NYC MIL MAD AMS JNB LIM BOM TLV LIM RIO SYD BOM. In one shape or
>another they have been around for 25+ years. Just apply the names.
>
>
> > IN WHICHCITY/COUNTRY DID IT START IN
>NYC LON
>
> > WHAT ACCOUNTED FOR ITS GROWTH AND HOW RAPID WAS IT
>no cost entry. low cost operations. again no HQ to support or owned
>fleet of
>aircraft. In NYC & LON even the vans were driver owned then so no
>overhead
>there either. The concept of working for a payroll and not a pay cheque.
>It was very rapid as the profits could be poured back into sales and not
>into
>fleets.
>
> > WHAT WERE THE MILESTONES IN ITS HISTORY
>skycom in early 1990 and mc in 2001
>
> > WHAT IS THE BACKGROUND TO SKYCOM,I BELIEVE IT WAS QUITE REVOLUTIONARY
>FOR
> > ITS TIME
>it was needed. first stumbling block with no hq who would fund it.
>LON took it on and the up front cost was circa gbp 200k in 1990. There
>was
>no guarantee it would work and if it did not who would have given LON a
>penny for it? Now everyone hates paying the 30 us cents a shipment.
>
> > WHAT UNIQUE FEATURES DO YOU BELIEVE SKYNET HAS
>in most instances employee & family ownership. Take MAD as an example.
>Now the child who was 10 is 29 and running the business. I think part
>of the success is not having people who are worried about getting the
>sack and will take a chance.
>No need for kiss ass or save ass mentality so far. Just get the job
>done.
>
> > WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON THE FUTURE OF SKYNET ,AND THE ROUTE IT WILL
>FOLLOW
>it has to look to the global day specific market and think of a true
>franchising situation with the mc offering more than pod studies but
>investment in global marketing assistance and financial controls via a
>clearing house.
>
> > WHAT OPPORTUNITY AREA DO YOU BELIEVE EXIST FOR SKYNET TO TAKE
>ADVANTAGE OF
>the day specific market. The link up with road transport companies to go
>this route. The offering of more dot com delivery solutions.
>
> > NETWORK STRENGTH IN TERMS OF LICENCED OFFICES/AGENCIES
>suggest Eduard at the mc in AMS could give you the latest counts.