Over the years, Cowley expanded control of his fiefdom in Australia, beyond News. By 1992, he had taken over from Murdoch as joint chairman of Ansett, which was 50 per cent owned by News Ltd- but only after first securing Murdoch's agreement to force out the other joint chairman, Sir Peter Abeles, which he did within months.
Ansett was a challenge for Cowley, as it repeatedly lost money. News eventually sold out of the airline in 2000, offloading its stake to Air New Zealand for $680 million. Singapore Airlines had been the underbidder. It was exquisite timing as Ansett went into administration a year later and eventually collapsed.
"Airline businesses are very difficult to run and very difficult to make a profit in," Cowley says. Its why you would think he wouldn't judge anyone managing an airline too harshly. But he does if that person in Alan Joyce, the chief executive of Qantas, who worked at Ansett for four years until 2000 as head of network planning.
Cowley says when running any business a chief executive should surround him-or herself-with good people and especially in the airlines, when its all about the people working in that business, and not just the service you sell.
"Its important that Qantas remains successful and properly funded and again that's people," Cowley says. "Alan Joyce is a strange man. I've had one of his top people come to see me. It was scary. He's worried where Qantas is going or not going.
"It'll be interesting to see where Alan Joyce finishes up. I think he's a misfit."
Under Joyce's five-and-a-half years of leadership, loss making Qantas had seen multiple changes in strategy as he struggles to turn around the ailing national flag carrier. In February, the airline reported a first half loss of $252 million- its biggest half-year loss since 1995.
By contrast, Qantas reported a doubling in its first-half profit in February 2008. Joyce was made chief executive in November of that year.
The carrier's poor performance saw its stripped of its investment-grade credit rating last December and relegated to junk status. Cowley wonders about the muscle of the Qantas board.
"They probably just accept everything he [Joyce] tells them, rather than question everything he tells them."
Cowley says one of his strengths in his business career, and in his personal life, has been judging people. "I'm good at assessing people and looking at whether I can trust them and that's helped me all my life."
The Australian Financial Review [AFR] 31 May-1-June 2014 page 50