Tiger, I agree with you on some points but not on others.
CEO salaries are high for good reason, its a 24/7 job and you must make decisions for the benefit of the shareholders as a whole, which may involve even selling the company and eliminating your own position. Furthermore, one mistake, or a change of management fashion fads, and you are out on your @rse. It is not easy.
To put it in personal terms, "I'll be f*&^%ed if I'm going to work my @rse off and carry the responsibility to make tens or hundreds of millions for shareholders without a percentage of it coming to me. I want equity if you expect me to hire people smarter then myself and really increase shareholder value".
I also agree that Qantas needs to change and that change is painful for them for good reason. - Qantas has had an effective monopoly for a long time and prising it from their fingers is going to hurt. Australia will be a lot better off without Qantas and their monopoly.
Where I do not agree with you is that Dixon bashing is tall poppy syndrome. This guy is a classic narcissistic personality disorder manager. The letter about Hamilton Island and the Jetstar Asia move are dead giveaways. Dixon is not interested in building a great airline - he is interested in building great self esteem for Dixon, nothing else. In pursuit of continually bolstering this self esteem he will literally do anything and leave a train wreck behind. I've watched it before.
However a train wreck Qantas might be just whats needed to open Australian skies.
