Hands on leadership, Lord King style
Willy Walsh is a fun name. And he's Irish.
Expectation: personality, creativity, lateral thinking, inspiration, no bull****.
Realisation: an early-model android. It's not just that he's short. Michael Edwardes, who faced up to Red Robbo at BL, was short. It's that WW is short on stature, short on leadership and, above all, short on putting together a manageent team that don't look like the invasion of the body snatchers.
In the days running up to T5 launch, somebody told BA management that they hadn't had enough training/familiarisation with the luggage handling system. It doesn't matter whether that warning is genuine or mischevious. It's a dead cert that, unattended, it will prove itself to be correct on the fateful day. Who at BA did the baggage handlers' leader raise this concern/warning? Whoever it was, the warning was ignored. Of course, it wasn't relayed to WW because no one gets on in BA by imparting bad news to one's boss. That's typical corporate culture today. Only the right kind of boss at the top can encourage honest communication rather than whitewash. WW is clearly not that kind of boss. He is a drone surrounded by drones. Witness his performance when interviewed after the T5 meltdown. He actually thinks that saying sorry will help his PR. But the BA head of ops who read out to reporters a platudinous statement of the obvious, with all the personality of a speaking clock, and then glided away without answering any questions, that's the true and unacceptable face of BA. As long as WW allows such people to be senior managers at BA, the airline will continue to be a pseudo-nationalised basket case.
It's amazing that pilots can somehow overcome corporate obstacles of this magnitude and get aeroplanes safely to their destination. I feel so sorry for them. They are working for an airline that once had enormous prestige and through no fault of theirs, is now reviled.