Tartare, as far as I'm aware a Board of Directors is supposed to overlook a company and what it does, how on earth could you possibly overlook a company in an industry that you've never worked in before?
An excerpt from the Constitution of Qantas Airways:
"The Directors are responsible for managing the business of Qantas and may exercise to the exclusion of the members in general meeting all the powers of Qantas which are not required by the Corporations Act, by the listing Rules or by this Constitution to be exercised by the members in general meeting"
The Business of Qantas is Aviation, who better to Manage the Business of Qantas then than those with real Operational Experience?
I think AngryRat is quite correct, why should we not have a few "Inside Directors" whom have knowledge of the Industry that has been gained after many years of actually working within it and whom holds other degrees/experience that is relevant to their duties as a Director? Is this not what an "Inside Director" is?
An excerpt from the Qantas Corporate Governance Webpage:
"The Board comprises a majority of independent Non-Executive Directors who, together with the Executive Directors, have extensive commercial experience and bring independence, accountability and judgement to the Board's deliberations to ensure maximum benefit to stakeholders including shareholders, customers, suppliers, employees, government regulators and members of the community where Qantas operates."
Infact looking at their Board of Directors it seems that there are only a few with actual Aviation experience:
Richard Goodmanson who was CEO of America West Airlines, an Airline which has apparently spent a reasonable number of years in Bankruptcy, was involved in the 1989 Strikes as they were part owned by Ansett, were involved in a couple of scandals resulting in large fines was apparently on the verge of being grounded back in 2000.
William Meany, who was Managing Director and Chief Commercial Officer of Swiss International Airlines, yet another Airline that spent a fair number of years Bankrupt but which has apparently managed to come good after being part bought out, it is unclear though whether he worked for them before or after they went bankrupt so we'll give him the benefit of the doubt and was with South African Airways who seem to do alright, maybe he'll do some good, he hasn't been there long!
Barbara Ward, who was CEO of Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services, a Leasing Company, no more, no less.
As you can see, only 3 people with previous Aviation Experience and they were in those positions with no previous experience, just appointed it would seem. So I ask you Tartare, why would you put a group of people with no actual coal face experience in Aviation be ultimately in charge? Because that is what the Board of Directors is, Ultimately in charge, if the group is taking the wrong path, wasting money, doing poorly, it should be their duty to identify why and force the Management to get it back on track.
Perhaps if this not the way it currently works then perhaps this is how it SHOULD work, why not introduce some kind of Supervisory Board? Why not have a group of actual Workers who understand the day to day running of the company and the challenges that face them with some sort of power so as to not have all the power centered around a group of "Non-executive" Directors?
This in my opinion is the problem with MBAs in general, something you alluded to in an earlier post. For the most part they seem to believe that an education in Business Administration means they are able to run a company with no real understanding of the Industry in which their Business operates and this is their folly. I'm only young but I've personally had to deal with 2 of these creatures and have nothing but contempt for them, they were fools who blinded the Owners with glossy polished bulls**t and effectively took already well run businesses and made them far more complicated and reliant on themselves to secure their position to no real gain for the business and an effective loss in the form of their salaries which should have gone to the people actually doing the job of keeping everything running smoothly despite their disruptive influences.
A question for you, why do companies not take those Employees who show exceptional skills and loyalty to the company and put them through an MBA with the intention of putting their experience within the company and industry to use along with their new skills gained through an MBA? I remember hearing this used to happen once upon a time, take someone with the Industry and Company Experience and then through an MBA course or some such give them the additional skills to become part of Management.
Now we simply have Career Politicians, Career Directors, Career Management, people who are there through no real skill or experience but simply through contacts and sheer luck and most riding on the back of well established companies and businesses that were formed and run by those that came up through the ranks. Mind you, this is not all management, just it would seem the vast majority.
Also, please ignore the confrontational nature of my entire post, I sort of got to the end and realised lack of sleep has added an angry edge but alas I CBF to retype it to sound less so and yes I realise a lot of what I've typed will probably be wrong and I await to be schooled in it, such is the way of life and no one should be above learning a new way of doing or viewing something.