Lowdown,
one of dixon's actions of late was to "compartmentalize" Qantas into five separate divisions, each one responsible for maintaining/containing their own profits/costs.
What we see now is one department competing against another with regard to the apportionment of cost with no one really concerned about how things affect the whole business just their department or KPIs.
The decision to use loose coffee no doubt saves the cabin services department money but probably results in an increase in engineering costs AND delays due to an increase in incidents of blocked drains.
Yes, the dregs shouldn't end up in the sink but despite peoples best intentions they obviously do.
This sort of thing is occurring all over the company.
There isn't a holistic approach to anything anymore only concerns for ones own department or worse, KPIs.
The other problem is to do with communication or the lack of it due to the fact that our management structure has been layered with non airline people.
Speak to anyone operational and they will tell you the same. We all invariably report to people who have no idea what it is that we do, how we do it or why.
For them the airline industry is just a concept. Take cabin crew as an example. We report to and are managed by people from banks, call centres, the scout movement, casinos, CES etc.
Can you imagine how frustrating that is? I've been to my managers with operational issues only to get black stares of incomprehension or pithy replies just to get me to go away.
End result, people no longer bother or worse, care.
This airline is fundamentally sick but hell we are making lots of money and that really is ALL that matters to those running it
