Life and Business Lessons
While travel can teach, Rios also believes pilots learn equally important life lessons while flying. He tells this riveting tale about two such lessons he learned very early as a pilot:
“I was soloing before I earned my license, doing touch-and-goes, when air traffic control asked me if I could do a short approach (take a shortcut) to the runway. I was too macho-confident and said I could do that for sure, so that I would sound like I knew what I was doing, but I was inexperienced and went off the runway. I knew I was in trouble just before touching down, so I closed my eyes in panic to just hold on for life, but when I felt those wheels touch the ground with a thud, I knew there was no one else who was going to determine the outcome of the flight but me. So, I quickly learned to take control and be ready to turn as things changed and came at me. I began dodging around signs and lights and pivoting to wrestle from the situation a good outcome. As I was taxiing afterwards, I felt the plane vibrating and shaking, but it wasn’t broken — it was my feet shaking on the rudders! I learned two things from that experience: (1) Take ownership to work through an unexpected situation. (2) I don’t have to do something because somebody makes a request of me. I was the responsible pilot in command. I should have honestly answered that I didn’t feel capable of doing that short approach and offered to fly out, even 10 miles, to turn and line up properly with the runway. I consider the lessons learned from that flight a major life accomplishment, I learned the value of knowing how and when to pivot.”
In addition to learning from such adrenaline- fueled experiences, Rios also reads to educate himself. One book he’s passionate about is Thinking in Bets by professional poker player Annie Duke. Yet, Rios doesn’t recommend it solely for gambling. “She makes a distinction that we should disassociate results from decision-making,” he says, “Results do not make a decision good or bad.” He takes this mindset to work, saying, “Some people never decide because they always want more data; that’s information paralysis. I tell my team that we’re going to make the best decision we can based on the data we have, and accept the results whatever they are.”
His second book recommendation is Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?: Leading a Great Enterprise Through Dramatic Change by CEO Louis Gerstner, on how he reversed IBM’s decline in the 1990s by making it customer centric. Rios says, “He reminded IBM that they existed to serve their customers; the customers didn’t exist to serve IBM.”
In 2021, Rios left Avionica to become president of Flight Data Systems and FreeFlight Systems. Both are owned by The Jordan Company, a private equity firm. In his new leadership role, Rios modeled Gerstner’s customer-centric approach. He says, “We brought together two companies with different cultures and made them into stronger, customer-focused companies.” Today, both companies offer advanced navigation and flight data solutions to all aviation, from airlines to business aviation and increasingly to rotorcraft as avionics become lighter, smaller, and need less power.
Rios promotes employee culture and engagement, as demonstrated by his presentation of quarterly awards to Gerald Godbee and Jennifer Weiss.
Show Up
Keeping the focus on customers is at the core of Rios’ leadership philosophy, and it guides his hiring practices. In addition to employees who are motivated to continuously improve, he says, “I also want stewardship in my employees. I define stewardship as being a champion for the best interest of those around you, and being a champion for our customers by making decisions that are in their best interest.”
Yet, Rios is not entirely guided by lofty business philosophy. His mentor and friend, Segredo, told him that sometimes success happens by just showing up. “He meant, sometimes you can’t envision possible outcomes to create a plan,” Rios explains. “When he asked me to transfer from engineering, where I’d worked for 14 years, to sales, I didn’t really feel comfortable with sales because we engineers want a complete, logical plan mapped out and sales is more emotion-driven. But I learned that often great things happened when I just showed up and met with the prospective customer.”
Rios enjoys soaring through the skies with his wife Violi (in back) and children. 14 May/June 2024
Tony Rios showed up for aviation as a fledgling software engineer, cut his shirttail, and great things have happened for — and through — the second-generation Latin American immigrant.
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