Trustability Over Scalability
There are two kinds of people who enter an industry.
The first group spends years learning the rules. The second group spends years asking why the rules exist in the first place.
The difference sounds subtle until you see it play out in real life.
During a recent episode of SkyboundOps, I sat down with John Howe from Valerex Aviation, an aviation executive whose path into aerospace didn't begin in hangars, repair stations, or parts warehouses. Before aviation, his career was built inside organizations like The Coca-Cola Company, SAB, and Red Bull, companies where distribution, forecasting, route-to-market strategy, operational discipline, and customer behavior aren't departments.
They're survival mechanisms.
When he eventually entered aviation, he brought those lessons with him. And almost immediately, he noticed something. A lot of companies were incredibly busy, but not all of them were intentionally building businesses.
At first that might sound unfair. Aviation is full of hardworking people. Nobody would question that. But there's a difference between activity and direction, and the more we talked, the more that distinction kept showing up.
Many companies chase opportunities, while some companies build position.
Those aren't the same thing because while one creates motion, the other creates momentum.
Building A Business On Purpose
One of the things I appreciated most about the conversation was how often it came back to intentionality.
- Not growth.
- Not scale.
- Intentionality.
When most people think about building a business, they naturally gravitate toward the biggest opportunities available. Bigger customers. Bigger contracts. Bigger accounts. Bigger logos, and the logic seems sound. If the opportunity is larger, surely the outcome will be larger too.
The reality however, is usually more complicated.
The largest opportunities attract the largest competition. Everybody sees them. Everybody wants them, and everybody is fighting for the same attention.
What struck me was how differently John approached the market.
Rather than asking where the biggest opportunities existed, John spent more time looking for places where value could genuinely be created. Smaller operators. Smaller MROs. Customers who still valued relationships. Customers who needed responsiveness. Customers who wanted a partner instead of another vendor.
The more we discussed it, the less it sounded like aviation strategy and the more it sounded like business fundamentals.
- Know who you serve.
- Know why you serve them.
- Know what problem you're actually solving.
A surprising number of companies never get that far. They spend years chasing opportunities without ever deciding what kind of company they want to become.
That's where our conversation naturally shifted toward systems because once you know where you're going, the next question becomes how you're actually going to get there.
Systems Remove Guesswork
One thing became obvious very quickly. This is someone who believes deeply in systems - not because systems are exciting, but because systems create visibility.
Throughout the conversation we discussed forecasting, reporting, operational discipline, ERP platforms, decision making, and the role data plays inside a growing organization. Again, this wasn't particularly surprising given John’s background. Organizations like Coca-Cola don't make decisions because somebody had a good feeling on Tuesday morning. They make decisions because they understand what's happening inside the business.
That mindset carried directly into aviation.
At one point we talked about ERP selection and operational visibility. What stood out wasn't the software itself. It was the reason behind it, because the goal wasn't technology, it was information.
Better information creates better decisions.
Better decisions create better outcomes.
Simple.
Except many businesses never get there because they're operating with incomplete visibility. They're reacting instead of anticipating. They're making assumptions instead of decisions.
One comment stayed with me throughout that part of the discussion. That's when John talked about wanting data to drive decisions so he wasn't taking shots in the dark.
That's such a simple statement, but it reveals an enormous amount about how somebody thinks, because when you stop guessing, something else happens, and you become more consistent. And consistency leads directly into the next thing we spent a considerable amount of time discussing.
Trust.
Trust Is Built Long Before You Need It
The most memorable moment of the entire interview came from a word I'd never heard before.
Trustability, not scalability, trustability.
At first I laughed because it sounded like one of those words that shouldn't exist but somehow makes perfect sense the moment you hear it. Then John and I spent the next half hour proving why it matters.
The aviation industry talks endlessly about scale. More customers. More transactions. More inventory. More locations. More revenue. Just more...
There's nothing wrong with scale.
But customers don't wake up in the morning wondering whether a supplier is scalable. They wonder whether a supplier is reliable, whether somebody is going to answer the phone, whether somebody is going to tell them the truth. They wonder whether somebody is going to stay engaged when things stop going according to plan.
One of the stories we discussed involved a failed installation that entered the repair cycle. Most companies provide updates when there's news. His team chose to provide updates whether there was news or not.
Think about that for a second. The repair wasn't moving faster, and the situation wasn't magically improving. But the customer simply knew somebody was paying attention.
That level of communication doesn't appear on a balance sheet. It doesn't show up in a dashboard. Yet it creates something incredibly valuable.
Confidence.
The longer we talked about it, the more I found myself thinking about trust like compound interest. Every conversation, every follow-up, every promise kept, every difficult situation handled correctly adds another deposit.
Eventually customers stop viewing you as a vendor and they start viewing you as someone they can rely on. And that's where the conversation became even more interesting because trust isn't really built through transactions.
It's built through people.
The Human Side Of Growth
For someone who talks frequently about systems, data, reporting, and operational discipline, one thing surprised me. John kept bringing the conversation back to people. To relationships and communication. To mentorships, and human behavior.
At one point we discussed an engineer who had followed him through multiple organizations. Smart. Capable. Technically excellent.
The challenge wasn't expertise, it was relationship building.
Like many professionals, there was an assumption that good work would naturally create good business. Unfortunately, that's not how the world works. Relationships aren't built through a quote. They're not built through a purchase order. They're not built through a successful transaction.
They're built through consistency.
- Phone calls.
- Conversations.
- Coffee meetings.
Checking in when there's no immediate opportunity on the table. Or talking about things that have absolutely nothing to do with business.
The thing is, technology creates efficiency, but people create loyalty. And the organizations that understand that distinction gain an advantage that no software platform can replicate.
That's probably why the conversation eventually landed on leadership. Because if trust is built through people, then leadership becomes the mechanism that scales trust throughout an organization.
Not through policies, presentations, nor culture. But through expectations. Through creating an environment where people aren't afraid to make decisions, learn, fail, improve, and grow. That's where phrases like "be brave" and "be bold" stop sounding motivational and start sounding operational.
- They're not slogans.
- They're permissions.
- Permissions to think.
- Permissions to act.
- Permissions to grow.
What I Actually Took Away
By the end of the interview, I realized John and I hadn't spent an hour talking about aircraft parts. We hadn't spent an hour talking about aviation software, and we hadn't spent an hour talking about certifications, MROs, suppliers, or inventory.
Those things were part of the conversation. They weren't the conversation.
The conversation was really about building something intentionally and knowing who you serve. Or creating systems that eliminate guesswork, while using data to make better decisions, and building relationships before you need them so you can create trust through consistency.
And leading people in a way that allows all of those things to compound over time.
The aviation industry spends a tremendous amount of energy talking about scalability.
After this conversation, I found myself thinking about a different word entirely.
Trustability.
And honestly, I think that may be the more important one.
The best conversations don't always give you answers. Sometimes they give you a better lens through which to view your own business.
This one gave me a new word: trustability.
If you'd like to continue the conversation, connect with John Howee, CEO of Valerex Aviation,
You can find him on LinkedIn, visit ValerexAviation.com, or reach him directly via WhatsApp at +27 71 987 1996.
And if you're anything like me, you'll walk away from the conversation thinking a little less about scale and a little more about what it actually takes to earn trust.
Thank you John Howe Kaitlin Howe Chantal Howe Tannah Erasmus M.Can YARIMCA Ziyad Saidu Mohamed Kevin Taylor and the entire Valerex Aviation family!
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