The linked Business Week article echoes your comments...

"Listen Up, Execs: Playing It Safe Won't Cut It"

United Airlines Inc. (UAL ) and other carriers are suffering under pressure from cheaper, no-frills rivals such as Southwest Airlines Co. (LUV )...

Why are so many industries in a slump, their strategies confined to shedding operations, employees, and research? Why are their business models either uninspiring or deeply troubled?...

...Chief executives have to reduce expenses, he said, but some of those savings have to be invested in new possibilities for growth. "You can never come out of a downturn with only the same products that you had when you went into it. Leaders have to understand--at a gut level--the new possibilities that are out there."

etc."

http://www.businessweek.com/print/ma...2021_mz007.htm