As co-founder and CEO of Social Flights, LLC, Jay Deragon has blended his more than 25 years of experience in global strategic management consulting and his renowned expertise in social technology to launch a revolution in air travel for the flying public.
Deragon and Social Flight’s founding team devised an innovative web-based service that enables travelers to reserve seats on private aircraft at rates comparable with commercial airline fares. By incorporating familiar social media tools, the Social Flights model aggregates travelers by social networks, making it possible to create itineraries for groups of people who share destinations, interests or affinities.
For Deragon, Social Flights is a culmination of his nearly 7-year study of and participation in the evolution of business methods, models and relationships as impacted by the burgeoning social landscape. Deragon’s landmark blog, The Relationship Economy, chronicles core trends in the era of ‘business unusual’. Ranked in Advertising Age’s top 150 blogs and The Daily Reviewer’s top 100 blogs, The Relationship Economy is revered as a must-read for managers and strategists seeking to embrace social technology in business. He contributes regularly to Personal Branding Magazine and serves on Business Week’s Market Advisory Board. Additionally, Deragon is a frequent guest columnist and speaker on the topic, having participated in conferences and events nationwide. He has authored two books, five white papers and produced dozens of educational videos to purvey his progressive theories, as well.
Deragon’s renown in social technology has also earned him top management consulting assignments for companies large and small—opportunities that are quite familiar to Deragon. Prior to his focus on social technology, Deragon was a highly sought consultant who led global and Fortune 500 companies and start up enterprises to organizational success.
Deragon attended the University of Maine, with continued studies at Darmouth College, Penn State and the University of Wisconsin. He hold an array of certifications, including Quality Engineer, Quality Function Deployment, Advanced Risk Management, Statistical Process Control, Hoshin Kanri, D.I.S.C Instructor, Organizational Change Management and Strategic Planning.
Today, Deragon runs his global enterprises, including Social Flights, LLC, from Nashville, Tennessee, where he resides with his most important social network: his wife and children.
“The best education I’ve received came as the result of being introduced to W. Edwards Deming’s teaching in the early 80′s. I participated in the Deming Users Group and became associated with some of the top thinkers and teachers of The Deming Philosophy, Profound Knowledge. After years of study and practice the related knowledge still applies today especially to use of social technology to organizational improvement and innovation.”
How I View The World
Early in my professional career, in the early 1980s, career I was introduced to Dr. W. Edwards Deming and his teachings.
The Deming Philosophy has stuck with me since then, and subsequently when I view business and market developments I always tend to view them through the lens of Profound Knowledge. This can be both a curse and a blessing.
Social Technology is a kinetic system that should be continuously improving and not confined to parts of the system. Social technology is largely being applied to marketing, advertising, PR and recruitment. These silo efforts are and will continue to disrupt ‘systems’ because efforts and communications are disconnected.
Profound knowledge creates order out of chaos. Without it social technology creates disorder and chaos. To learn how to use profound knowledge requires a knowledge, not social, network. Know the difference? You can read this ‘Profound Knowledge & Social Technology‘ to learn more about how I view the world.
To learn more about my professional life you can review my Linkedin profile here.
email: jay.deragon@gmail.com
