It's not all over!
In reply to Alan Joyce's press conference yesterday Captain Richard Woodward made some great comments in this video. He came over well, finishing with a challenge for Alan Joyce. What are your real plans for Qantas Mr Joyce? Captain Woodward is right, Joyce is floundering, (when you take a hook out of a fish's mouth, they flap around a bit afterwards) he has indeed sent out mixed messages for months but as we wake up today, nothing is clearer about what direction Qantas is headed as a business other than it's all the staffs fault.
Think about it, what amazing new positive development in Joyce's business plan has evolved since the now famous August 24th announcement which was announced on August 17th?... nothing, zero, zilch, only mixed messages causing industry followers to guess things like, Far Q KL or Singapore? All we know so far is Q has on order 100 odd narrow body NEO aircraft (with sleeper seats to accommodate the Martin Ferguson types) that will compete against the likes of SQ, CX EK etc who all favour modern wide body equipment.. clear as mud, right?
Frankly, it's a mess, everything Joyce and co talk about always ends up feeling like a reduction in service levels, routes, staff whilst the opposition airlines fill the gaps that Joyce's poor decisions produce for them. In business terms it is AJ lead by LC who are "kicking own goals" for the opposition airlines to take advantage of. Virgin's horizons to expand as alliance gets green light
JB must be over the moon, more importantly SQ managers will be rubbing their hands with glee pondering over their next move (new weapons in the armory) to take on the old enemy and arch rival Qantas.
What amazes me about Joyce, his press conference took nearly 30 mins of national TV time (ABC News 24) but he revealed nothing new, moreover he appeared defensive, and if we all take a deep breath and watch the raw footage of the conference again (posted on this thread part 2 reveals a lot) I believe Joyce has damaged the Qantas board and their credibility in managing the airline. Take it from me, many journalists left that room yesterday mumbling "what was all that about Mr Joyce?" more of the same, "he blamed everyone but himself." I believe many journalist would probably nominate 13.10.11. Qantas Sydney airport press conference as the most boring and non conclusive press engagement of the year. When I think about it, I can't remember a CEO of recent times justifying every aspect of his pay details like AJ did yesterday. For me this is a sign that he and his board are worried about getting voted down at the AGM, lets hope they are, it is they who are letting the side down.
This week in media/marketing terms, yesterdays Qantas press conference coupled with guest appearances from GT on sunrise, Martin Ferguson, the News Ltd aviation hacks working overtime, was a demonstration of how powerful the "Qantas Marketing Machine" (QMM) really is.
Please do not blame all the mainstream media. I believe we have seen some great pieces in support (at least going to the trouble to find both sides of the issue) regarding the staffs struggle to be heard ie; SMH, Ten News, Radio 2UE 2SM and the ABC including the new news 24. Believe it or not there has been some good stuff from SKY news as well.
I liked this one from the ABC, the QMM works hard on this story but no one from Qantas would go on air.
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The QMM doesn't control all the media outlets, and the fight isn't over, this week was a set back, we learn and move on, but learn from our mistakes. It's all about finding a common simple war cry or slogan with a message for all the Qantas staff unions, start singing from the same song sheet when you get to the name of the song, my working title is "Save our Qantas" suggested to me by one of my sons... You know, it's funny, in the advertising game sometimes the best slogans are the simple ones.
There are many punters out there who don't necessarily care to much about the business side of airlines but would support the pilots, engineers, CCs rampies and bag wrestlers automatically, if you all just said, "Save our Qantas," they know there are problems because they hear it on the news, at the end of the day, they relate to all of you, the workers, or to put it another way, you guys are brand Qantas to the punters, and some of them may have shares.
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Last edited by TIMA9X; 14th Oct 2011 at 04:32.