Business resembles migration

Pioneers don't want others to follow in their wake

When Jet Airways was grounded, I could not but wonder whether peering into the future 14 years ago, Lee Kuan Yew had some reason for qualifying his praise for a pioneering enterprise. Lee was ecstatic after flying Jet from Bangalore to New Delhi in 2005. The 40-year monopoly of India’s skies had been broken. Jet’s founder, Naresh Goyal, had been SIA’s general sales agent in India. Since business is business, he harboured no grudge because his beloved Singapore Airlines had failed in its $(SGD)846-million bid for a joint venture domestic airline with Tata.
 
And yet … and yet …