Just Three Companies Control 97% of This Growing Market Hello, Reader. Dave Gilbert here, Editor of Smart Money . Let’s start today’s issue off with a story. Two men sitting next to each other on a flight started to chat, as is often the case. Except this is back in 1953, these weren’t just any two men, and their conversation ended up changing an entire industry. One man, C.R. Smith, happened to be the CEO of American Airlines Group Inc. ( AAL ) , which of course was the airline they were flying. The other man was also named Smith, Blair Smith, though they weren’t related. He was a sales executive with International Business Machines ( IBM ) . The conversation made its way to the frustrations of the day. Blair was having difficulty making a sale, and C.R. was frustrated with the slow pace of the airline reservations process that relied on manual systems and old-fashioned phone calls. A single reservation could take an hour. The two didn’t stop talking when the flight landed. In fact, C.R. took Blair to the reservation center at the airport.