Flying Club
I visited EZY head office at Luton for the first time around 1998 when head office consisted of a portacabin (easyLand) with three desks in it - one for Stellios, one for the Chief Pilot, and one for the Chief Engineer (I exagerate - but not by much). I continued to visit on a regular basis (as a supplier to EZY) and watched the growth with interest as more and more portacabins were bolted on.
If you read Barbara Cassani's book 'Go: An Airline Adventure' she writes about a similar start up to EZY. The early years were very exciting where everyone knew everyone and worked crazy hours doing roles not within their job description and was run very much like a Flying Club - happy days.
Unfortunately - when you get to a certain size, and continue to grow, you cannot run it like a flying club anymore - now you have the stockmarket and shareholders to answer to. Now you have a shed load of people who do not self manage themselves but need managing. So you need managers.
In my working life I have never been in an organisatioin where the managers were not blamed for everything - even when the management staff have been turned over numurous times (as they have in EZY). Perhaps there is no such thing as a good manager - he simply does not exist - maybe because you cannot keep all of the people happy all of the time.
During my time at BA - in the early years the senior management were heaviliy critisised for having no Airline Experience - now you have an Airline Pilot running the show but he is still "useless".
The point I'm making is that large organisations need management. Managers need to be able to manage. Often management will make decisions which not everyone will like. But the days when EZY were a 'flying club' are long gone.
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