There is a game we play in management (real management, not wankers) called "life boat drill".
We play it by imagining that the company has suddenly hit an iceberg in the market place (you know what I mean!), say in QF's case a flu pandemic or another SARS.
We then assume there are only enough lifeboats for say, half the crew (staff), and we ask ourselves the question :"If we absolutely, inevitably and quickly had to cut our staffing in half to survive, who would we keep? In other words, who gets a seat in the lifeboat?
Now when we do that, you get some very interesting surprises. Sure, the deadwood goes first, but then you sit down with the salaries and wages paperwork and you work out who you absolutely MUST have in your organisation to survive.
The first surprise is that the guys on the floor who have the experience to actually do the work are relatively cheap. You need them, so they get seats in the lifeboat. Then you look at say finance, you decide to keep the bookeeper and the wages clerk so that people get sent bills and people get paid. You decide to keep the salesmen because you have to keep revenue coming in. You might also a foreman or two because they have enough experience to do a bit of planning, and maybe a records clerk. They all get their seats.
So who doesn't get a seat? For a start anyone with a title beginning with "Executive General...." these people are very expensive. They boss other managers around. Out they go! The managers below will just have to muddle through on their own.
Then there are all the "project managers" and their associated staff. You don't need them. All projects are now closed. We are in survival mode, we don't want anything new and if we do, we'll buy it complete from outside.
Then there is the human resources department - we dont need them, we are not hiring.
And even better we get rid of all the "performance pay" consultants and the ridiculous, time consuming and demeaning employee performance review systems. You know if you are good at what you do or not, because if you are good, you get a seat in a life boat.
And each time you cut out one of these levels, you get rid of the secretaries, personal assistants, company cars, expense accounts, superannuation, mobile phone, leave loadings and meetings associated with each of these clowns ,who produce nothing but hot air, meetings and paperwork and grief for other people.
What you have left is a bare bones operation, operating out of a tin shed or converted factory in a low rent area (not in the Sydney CBD). Communication is swift with lots of feedback because its not modulated through ten layers of management.
If you want to know how maintenance on a certain aircraft is going, you go out to the hangar and look, if you have half an aviation brain and can ask the right questions you will know instantly. If you want to know if your customers are satisifed, fly steerage and look for yourself.
I could go on....