Think Like a Pilot: Course Correction vs. Control in Business Strategy

Business strategy is not a rigid step-by-step guide to success. At its best, strategy is directional rather than prescriptive. It establishes a goal and a general idea of how to achieve it, but the realistic path will always require some adjusting. Conditions shift, opportunities emerge, and just like wind in an aviator’s flight path, reality doesn’t always cooperate.

A few short months ago while travelling through India, my group and I left our city hotel at 5 a.m. to the countryside for a hot air balloon ride. When we arrived in a dusty field, several white vehicles were already onsite as the roar of fans inflated the giant balloon. As a licensed pilot myself, I’m fascinated by anything to do with flying. I’ve always found that flying has a way of sharpening how I think about leadership. You’re constantly balancing variables and rarely doesanything go exactly to plan.

As dawn approached, described by our guide Puneet as “neither day nor night,” we boarded the basket and with a few firm blasts of the burner, gently rose into the air just as the sun broke overthe Aravalli hills.

There’s No Steering a Balloon

Compared to a plane, a balloon pilot has far less control. There’s no rudder or throttle, for example. Instead, flight is shaped by seeking the right wind pockets and rising or falling to find the direction the pilot needs.

Watching the pilot work, I considered his strategy. Similar to business, leaders cannot steer everything from the top. Instead, our pilot influenced the direction by adjusting altitude, responding to his environment, interpreting signals and adjusting as needed.

As we drifted toward a line of low hills, our pilot radioed his ground crew with his intended landing site. I noted the wind direction by watching smoke from a cooking fire blow parallel to the hills. We’d be landing in a crosswind. People in the village below usstepped out to watch us descend. Through a blur of shouted commands in Hindi and English, and a last-minute swerve to avoid an acacia tree, we touched down as softly as a butterfly with sore feet. That messy, improvised and masterfully managed moment was a lesson in letting strategy shift to meet real-world conditions.

Course Correction Is the Real Skill

Throughout our hot air balloon experience, there was no panic or scramble. Just steady communication, timely decisions and quiet confidence. Our pilot made us feel comfortable, telling jokes along the way and displaying a level of authority that instilled trust.

The real skill in strategy is not writing the perfect plan but knowing when and how to adjust it. Leaders sometimes hesitate when they need to pivot because they are afraid it will look like failure or indecision. But in flying, as in business, the only thing worse than changing course is when someone refuses to listen when the shifting environment tells them to.

Course correction doesn’t mean business leaders should abandon their goals. It means remaining aligned with them while accepting that their original path may no longer be viable. Our pilot never forgot where he intended to land, he needed to find the best possible way to get us there based on the conditions in front of him.

We all hope our well thought out plans will carry us smoothly from take-off to landing. But real leadership means navigating the unpredictable. Whether floating above northern India or managing a business through changing market conditions, the outcome will be shaped by how confidently leadership responds when it goes off course.