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Q. You said that Gulf Air is
a great airline but a bad business. What makes it a great airline?
A. It is a great airline! Twenty
years ago this was one of the premier airlines in the world, it had
a great reputation for service delivery, in flight service and cabin
crew. Other airlines used to look at Gulf Air in envy!
Q.
What went wrong?
A.
You'll have to ask the people before me, but I guess we stopped investing
in the brand to the right levels for a business of this size. We
probably, to a degree, haven't analyzed on a regular basis the customer
segmentation, or spoken to our customers about what they want from an
airline. We maybe have not been as innovative as we should have been
in benchmarking ourselves against other airlines and continuing to delight
and surprise our customers.
Q.
Could you be more specific?
A.
This business is not about airplanes - it's about the customer' It's
about making sure you have a network that suits the requirements of
your customer. It's about flights leaving at the right time. It's about
reliability. It's about seating, leg room, in-flight entertainment.
It's about attention to detail, service in the cabin. It's about what
cabin you are in. It's about arriving on time and getting your bags.
So it's about how you spend time within the airline, because this is
one of the few items that you purchase where we control you.
Q.
What do you mean by 'control' ?
A.
You pay the money but then you are in our control. As soon as you walk
into the airport, through security, into the check in counter, we have
access to your name. We could say good morning, or could say nothing.
You go through into the lounge, then you go to your cabin, and then
your locked in our environment and the seat belt light goes on. Can
you expect an emotional journey because you don't know if you are going
to arrive on time? Is it a business trip or the start of your holiday?
How does Gulf Air handle a problem, whether it's a delay, or a lost
bag, or a double booking. It's totally different to booking a room at
a hotel. If you book a room at the Gulf Hotel you go upstairs and close
the door You can rent a car and drive it 100 mph if you like, but when
it comes to air transportation it's a unique experience because we all
consider ourselves experts on travel!
Q.
Can you give an example of how
you feel the airline lost its way?
A.
The biggest issue at this airline is they have lost the support of the
business customers, which has a knock on effect, in regard to quality,
perception and yield. If the perception is that your not world class
then you may have to bring your prices down to attract your audience,
which means you de-value the proposition and that's a downward spiral.
When I talk about a bad business there are elements of it. I think we
lost focus on the customer, the other issue is that we are overly bureaucratic.
Q.
Why is that?
A.
Because I guess we haven't empowered people enough. If people are trained
and given responsibility, they are made accountable and that's pretty
powerful. It came over as being a little bit old fashioned and that
again slows down our progress, slows down initiative, slows down the
'can do' attitudes For example, you ask "why do we do it this way?"
and your answered with "well we've always done it that way" so
you ask "Why is that?" and your answered with "because we've always
done it that way"..... It goes on and on.
Q.
Do you come up against that a
lot?
A.
Not now (laughs).
Q.
You have given yourself three
years. Why three years?
A.
Because all the ingredients are here. We've got a good group network
and a good brand. We have to review the brand which we have started
to do. We have to look at how we change the in-flight service delivery
to make it much more contemporary to regain our customer base and we
have to give our staff the supports This building here (Gulf Air HQ)
supports the field, supports the customer. It shouldn't be "this
building here demands reports", you know - the rules and regulations
that tie the field. This is the support base. There's a lot of good
people here who have certainly responded well to the change in direction.
We are telling them clearly that it's a three year turnaround and in
three years we have to make a lot of changes. Obviously there has to
be an investment from owning states, the company has to be capitalized
properly, have a strong balance sheet, and have the proper gearing to
turn this business around.
Q.
Was it hard trying to convince
the owning countries that you could do this?
A. I
haven't done it yet. We are still working through the process. There
is a meeting in mid September when we put our plan to an extraordinary
general meeting. I think that what the countries have decided, not me,
by appointing an expat into this role for the first time - as you know
the job has always been a 5 year rotation amongst the States - is that
the management practices and style will have to change. All the owning
states want this airline to be successful. They don't want it run as
a public utility where it has to subsidized, so to be successful and
profitable it must be run commercially, If you want to run it as a public
utility then that's fine, the shareholders can do as they want, but
they must then be prepared to subsidize.
Q.
How do you feel Gulf Air is nowadays
perceived by the traveling public?
A.
In Europe the brand is strong still, in this part of the world it has
been damaged. We have to regain the confidence of the public by focusing
on the staff first. If the staff feel good about their airline and good
about their employer that should then be translated through to their
service to you.
Q.
Do you have even the tiniest
fear that you won't succeed?
A. I
don't! I am totally convinced we can turn this business, provided we
are given the mandate to do so.
Q.
What do you think are going to be your biggest problems?
A.
Look, we say it's a three year turnaround, I think one of the problems
is that people think it's going to be a one year, two year turnaround.
We will put together a strategic plan to slowly rebuild this business
over the next three years. We have to be competitive. We have to upgrade
the product. This is business it's not rocket science here. We just
have to apply proper business process. I have just brought in a number
of airline executives to support me including John Butler as vice president
of Marketing and Sales, Luke Medley as vice president of Services. new
marketing director, Shane O'Hara, who was head of marketing for Star
Alliance, and we have a new graduate programme. So what you find on
this are some great people and leadership, empowerment, and a vision.
From my perspective as a businessman this business can be turned, the
decision is with the shareholders. I have no doubt we are capable of
bringing this airline to profitability.
Q.
In three years?
A. In
three years!
Q.
Have you come across any hostility with the fact that you put Westerners
in senior positions?
A.
No, because the majority of those in senior positions are Bahraini's
or Gulf nationals. Don't forget, all I have really been doing is bringing
in people with the right skills. My job is to make Gulf Air a world-class
airline.
Q.
What motivated you to come to Bahrain?
A.
The uniqueness of the challenge of being able Lo rebuild what was a
great airline.
Q.
What's your career history?
A.
I started off at Ansett Airlines when I worked for three years, from
check-in to ticketing, to more aspects of airport operations. I finished
studying (I studied marketing) and moved into the airline business working
in a mixture of service and hospitality Airlines, car rental and hotels
are all very similar about service, finding solutions, and controlling
costs. It's an industry that I zig zagged as a young man as it wasn't
that well planned, so I moved across into sales and then backward into
marketing and then to the operations. I worked in Asia, and moved to
Europe with Hertz writing business plans and business modeling, and
then ended up as one of the vice presidents of Hertz, Europe, Middle
East & Africa.
Q.
Why did you go back into the airlines'?
A.
I always loved the airlines business. It's probably one of the most
challenging roles there is - the people, the dynamics, it's very fast
moving, interesting and challenging.
Q.
Did you have a strong business influence in your younger years?
A.
Sport has always played a very big part in my life. I love winning.
I love the heavy competition.
Q.
What's been your greatest victory?
A.
I guess my greatest victory is being involved with companies of the
caliber of Hertz, Forte, and Granada. They are highly successful companies,
highly competitive, and always achieving new goals. If you achieve,
at a senior level, the turnaround of a business so it achieves it's
goals, that has a huge impact on the employees and your customer But
when you work in a business that is profitable, entrepreneurial, has
success, that is huge for your confidence, and working in these environments
has been fantastic.
Q.
Are you able to switch off at the end of the day?
A.
Not as much as I would like. (laughs)
Q.
What's been your greatest lesson in life?
A.
The greatest lesson I've learnt is to believe in people. You have to
empower them and to trust them, because at this level if you try and
do everything yourself your going to fail. I've learnt you have to build
dreams, have a vision, and work to achieve that vision. I've also learned
that you don't second guess, because if I second guessed, I'd have more
gray hairs. Business is about leadership, it's about coaching. It's
like in sport when you must anticipate and understand the weaknesses
of your competition. It's looking for competitive edges. In my mind
I know what this airline in three years can look like. That's what I'm
working towards.
Q.
You keep going back to sport so I've got to ask you, what sports do
you play?
A.
Now? I'm too old, (laughs) I'm a crock now (laughs), but I used to play
Australian Rules football - that's how I hurt my back and became a crock.
Q.
How do you relax?
A.
On the weekends? I take my kids round to their sporting events, I'm
their taxi driver.
Q.
Do you really push them?
A.
No, because my father didn't really push me, he encouraged me to participate.
You can't push
kids at sport. It's like in business, you've got to encourage people.
You see parents shouting on the sidelines - it's just terrible. You
give them opportunity, encouragement, and you steer!
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