Who is Rober Gowens?

[GeorgePerry]

http://www.mooney.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=460&Itemid=54

Apart from the press release I don't know much about the new CEO of Mooney.  Except from what seems like alot of marine experience (racing and marketing) it doesn't seem like he has any relevant aviation experience?  Anyone have more information?

[KSMooniac]

I am slightly optimistic about his background in the high-end boat industry (Cigarette) and consolidation/updating/turnaround experience.  That *could* be just what Mooney needs.  Fast boats are even more of a luxury than a new Mooney, and if he was able to lead that company through some difficult times then perhaps he is the right guy for Mooney now. 

Mooney is ripe for a bottom-up review of the manufacturing process to reduce the costs and improve efficiency.  I would think there is enough price elasticity in the market to sell many more planes if they could get the costs down.  I expect the Cirrus & Cessnalumbia costs will come down, or at least stay flat going forward as they tune their production lines.  Reduced fab & assembly time is a potentially huge advantage of the composite airframes over the Mooney airframe, and I could envision a scenario where the Mooney ends up costs significantly more than either competitor.  Hopefully they can take some action to delay it.

[RobertoTohme]

Let's face it, It'll take creative marketing to move new Mooneys; remember that Mooney is seen by the broad majority of the aviation community as the "exotic plane"...  the one you need to sacrifice utility and comfort for performance, and at a price beyond the competition in it's class; this makes Mooney a "want" airplane" instead of a "need" one.  Same as with any exotic car or pleasure boat, marketing those goods becomes more difficult because your prospective customer base narrows a lot.  This is an area where Mr. Gowens, coming from and industry of strictly "wants" should come in handy; I've never met anyone that "needed" their Ferrari, or Porsche, or a pleasure boat for that matter, but all of those are being sold in greater quantities than Mooneys.   The aura around our planes is full of misconceptions (hard to fly, hard to land, expensive to maintain, etc), and I've never seen an effort from factory to set the record straight.  The right marketing can make a company a success; take Cirrus for example, that with a crappy handling airplane has become #1 in sales of the 4 seater class by selling the false sense of security of the CAPS system to yuppies that don't know a damn about aviation, but have the discretionary money for a plane purchase; proof to my statement is their accident record, even with CAPS.

That being said, let's at least give Robert Gowens the benefit of doubt about the direction he'll be taking in the future; I'm sure he knows he grabbed a tiger by it's tail but feels up to the challenge, and 2 months is not enough to get a full grasp of the problematic of an old company; 6 months from now we'll have a better picture of the heading taken and then we all can start posting critique about it...  On top of that, with this economy souring, the job just became much thougher.  Talk about a pissed off tiger he's got now...

[mooniac58]

What are you talking about.  I NEED a Ferrari! 

I would add that if he can just get this company through these new economic times that would be good.  I was just reading yesterday about some major brand names that might be going under after Q4 when they can no longer pay on their loans.  I know that Mooney already signaled some distress earlier with big layoffs, so I just hope they weather this storm with their neck above the water.

Losing the Mooney brand would be a huge loss, just like losing Ferarri.

[GeorgePerry]

Roberto...you hit the nail on the head!  You’re echoing many of the points I tried to make in another thread

http://www.mooneyspace.com/index.cfm?page=1&mainaction=posts&forumid=3&threadid=20#post165

Mooney can't do anything about the economy or the company’s past sales performance, but they can address the "image" issues through affective marketing.  From a performance standpoint the Cirrus SR22 and SR22 turbo DO NOT beat Mooney Ovation and Acclaim were it counts...and that’s in speed, economy, and safety.   Useful load is close enough not to matter and the slight rate of climb advantage cirrus has is simply a function of the "slower" wing design.  The undeserved reputation Mooneys have for being, cramped, hard to fly, hard to land, expensive to maintain are just untrue.  The sooner Mooney revamps their marketing efforts the better.

[RobertoTohme]

George,

I will be at the factory picking up 8RT from Garmin updates this coming tuesday, and I'll take the time to talk Tom Canavero into a better marketing strategy.   I don't know if my pitch would fall into the right ears, but it's worth a try to set them thinking in the right direction....  I have no aviation degree, but I've bought distressed companies and turned them around with sound common sense, good advice and strict cost control, so I know this is possible; I just hope Mr. Gowens is in the listening stage right now and sketching his plan of action for the  short, mid and long term future of the company.

[GeorgePerry]

I found this picture on the southeastern Mooney sales site (premier aircraft sales) http://flypas.com/comparisons.html  Its not comprehensive in that it doesn't show the SR22 turbo, but it wouldn't be too hard to imagine.

This is the type of graphical info that needs to be readily available for potential Mooney buyers right on Mooney's website.

 

[RobertoTohme]

Following up with my previous post on this thread, I spent 3 hours at the factory in Kerrville of which the last one was talking to Susan Harrison (international sales) and Cindy Roth (MAC marketing director).   Ms. Roth politely listened to what I had to say, and confirmed that a new twist in marketing was being brewed and would be released in the near future, somewhere along the lines of my thoughts but without giving me specifics.   Susan and I had a very interesting talk about the international market and what kind of drive and direction she needed to take to bolster Mooney's presence in Latin America, where there's a lot of untapped potential but the structure as it sits right now doesn't necessarily help the matter.

So, I guess now it's sit and wait what the new marketing strategy will be...  Hopefully a good one.

[M20BE]

Who are the people behind Mooney ? I heard an Australian investor ? If so, let's hope he didn't lost too much money on the stock market lately..

[Mcstealth]

I have an inside contact that I haven't exploited. Let me see if I can get some soup.

 

McStealth

[KSMooniac]

I'm not sure if the news made it over here...but Mr. Gowens and many other directors of Mooney have left the company in the last couple of weeks.