( CNN ) -- Loose airline seats . Flights that are delayed or canceled . The shifting blame game of who 's responsible for American Airlines ' ever-growing problems . At the end of the day , travelers want to get from Point A to Point B safely and on time . They do n't want to worry that their seats might come loose or that management and labor ca n't seem to get along . American Airlines and any other company that ca n't fulfill its core mission on a regular basis , whether it 's safe and efficient airline travel or safe peanut butter or cynanide-free Tylenol , may not be long for this world . Clumsy fliers spilling Diet Coke and coffee on plane floors and seats , causing `` gunked-up '' seat-locking mechanisms , hardly seem to constitute a root cause . American Airlines says spilled soda , coffee helped cause sticky moments . `` These are solvable problems , '' says Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter , who wrote about the mid-1990s turnaround of Continental Airlines in `` Confidence : How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End . '' 11 witty and sage airline 'gunk ' retorts . `` You have to take the right operational and strategic moves . You have to rebuild confidence . But it 's by acting very quickly , not by a nice note to customers . '' Troubled companies can be turned around , says Kanter , if executives take specific steps to address their problems and move forward . Add your own suggestions for how American Airlines can keep or earn your business in the comments below . Admit what 's broken and fix it . There 's no doubt that American is having problems with its seats . However , Kanter says that 's probably just the most obvious problem . `` The company needs to admit the facts publicly , put them on the table fully and take responsibility at the very highest levels of the company , '' she says . And it 's probably not just the seats . `` This is a quality failure of a massive kind and has to signal other quality problems , '' she says . `` The situation is always worse than you think . There are a lot of other things that have deteriorated that you do n't know about . You have to be digging deeper because I bet there have to be other things going on . '' Who still wants to fly American ? Turn to employees for solutions . Any solutions must include pilots , flight attendants and mechanics , says Kanter . It 's often the front-line employees who really understand what 's wrong and can brainstorm the solutions to these problems . It may be too hard to get current management to turn to employees for solutions , when employees are rightly or wrong being blamed for so many of the problems . `` These antagonisms have been building for many years , '' says Kanter . `` In a turnaround , it 's management that has to change because they 'll never regain the trust of employees . '' Spend money on the core business . With limited money to spend , `` the airline must shift investment away from things that are not directly related to passenger and ( front-line ) employee experience , '' says Kanter . `` If that means some corporate staff need to have smaller departments , so be it . They should immediately shift company resources to people delivering the product and those experiencing it . '' You need happy front line employees to deliver a good product to your customers , she says . And in the case of an airline , that product needs to be safe . `` Every day people are deciding whether or not to board that plane and every day they can make different choices . The American board and top management need to take this incredibly seriously . '' Many of you fly American Airlines frequently . What would you tell American or any airline to do to keep your business ? What basic requirements do you have ? What extras would you like , and would you pay for them ? If you prefer another domestic or foreign airline , please share specific experiences .
American 's problems can be fixed if management wants to make changes . Comment: Employees are the likely source of most solutions to the airline 's problems .