Issue 6 2021

CEO MONTHLY / ISSUE 6 2021 7 SHY Aviation, Bold Practices this diligence has been crucial to survival. Pivoting to helping Governments with repatriation and PPE cargo transport during the pandemic, it found itself serving more of these types of roles than ever before. It was this flexibility and adaptability that allowed it to survive, and eventually thrive, being able to encourage dramatic yet sensibly scaled growth. Its 24/7 on demand offering, outstanding customer service, and staunch resolution to going above and beyond the call of duty have all been tested by the last 12 months, and it has responded in kind by rising to the challenge. The workload having almost doubled due to the need to adapt to paradigms that changed on the daily, the team showed tremendous effort and dedication. This is something that has been evident to the clients and to the founders. Giles Vickers-Jones, the company’s Founder and Chairman, is incredibly proud of his staff and the herculean efforts they put in. In this way, the pivot was made far easier than it perhaps could have been; the entrepreneurial spirit of the owners and their colleagues proved SHY Aviation’s processes to be made of incredibly strong stuff. Its growth and upscaling meant for the hiring of more staff. This is something Giles mentioned to us as being a new frontier for the company, as previously, himself and his business partner personally handled all departments. This was something he enjoyed immensely, and caring so much about SHY Aviation’s future made it hard to switch to delegating these things, but he found that in doing so it relieved some pressure from his shoulders and has benefitted the company overall. The hires included senior management staff, including 2 highly paid experts in their field, a new FD, and a new strategic officer, amongst others. All of these people have proved their worth over and over again since the choice was made to hire them, and the owners could focus more on running the business overall rather than having to split their time between getting into the nitty gritty of multiple departments. The immediate benefit to this was further growth opportunity. SHY Aviation was able to move towards an improved structure which keeps specific tasks within specific teams, leaving things that require expert attention in the hands of the newly hired experts. Whilst Giles described this initially as a leap of faith when passing these over, SHY Aviation has consequentially flourished, and propelled it further along the path to becoming a world leader in jet charter. To Giles and the team, every problem is an opportunity in disguise for further learning and bettering SHY Aviation. This is an attitude he himself learned from many of his previous roles, which has included TV presenting and hosting, book writing, column writing, and the owning of several other businesses that he has grown with his business partner. Giles is used to seeing businesses flourish, but every single one of them has taught him new lessons, lessons that he takes onto the next one. He also was the head of a production company, a testament to his ability to project manage effectively, and was dabbling in other areas when SHY Aviation was being set up. It eventually became the priority as its expansion took off, presenting Giles with a daily, dynamic learning curve like no other before it. This has very much informed himself and his current staff, as well as the belief he has in them that was proven over the course of the last 12 months. SHY Aviation’s tenacity, dedication, skills, and capabilities have pulled them through, and will continue to do so. Moving forward into the future for Giles and SHY Aviation, the immediate future will see a continued focus on expansion with a number of mergers and acquisitions in the pipeline, and developments into EU market segment, and focusing that on the US in year 3. Giles expects further growth in the next 3 to 4 years of over 25%, taking SHY Aviation up to an £120 million company, and cementing its place as the world leader for jet charter. It intends to do this by not only being the best, but the easiest to use; backed up by its already stunning customer service. Needless to say, the future forecasts clear skies for SKY Aviation. Contact: Giles Vickers-Jones Website: shyaviation.com