British Airways - The New Easyjet
ENTREPPRUNEUR
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British Airways - The New Easyjet
A friend of mine is a frequent business traveller - throughout Europe and across the Atlantic. Last night I was talking about the way half of the economy is in the hands of public equity companies and this is a really bad way to run society. They have a massive flaw. They are forced to forfeit logic and instead lunge around in desparate attempts to jack up the share price minute by minute.
BA demonstrated this when they sold GO - their passport from the past to the future. Go's profits would have about compensated BA for its losses elswhere.
His response was "BA is now like Easyjet". Prices for typical business journeys are now similar. You can question how true this is but if customers like him believe it then maybe they can turn the corner. They are more expensive but have eg LHR which is worth a premium for some people.
BA demonstrated this when they sold GO - their passport from the past to the future. Go's profits would have about compensated BA for its losses elswhere.
His response was "BA is now like Easyjet". Prices for typical business journeys are now similar. You can question how true this is but if customers like him believe it then maybe they can turn the corner. They are more expensive but have eg LHR which is worth a premium for some people.
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BA is NOT 'like Easyjet'
Whilst BA may have some prices at an equivalent level at the moment, it will not last.
Easyjet and the rest of the LCA's have, as their culture, a low cost base - BA does not.
There has been no real attempt at BA to control costs and get the management/worker ratio down to an acceptable level.
As an instance - at a meeting that I attended the other week, it was admitted that we had twice as many managers as we needed. It was stated that the managers will have to apply for the remaining jobs and the 50% who did not have a job would then be 'redeployed'.
So although it is admitted that we have too many managers they are not prepared to cut the numbers - just shuffle them around onto different 'projects'
So now is the time to make the most of these low fares - because they will not last.
Whilst BA may have some prices at an equivalent level at the moment, it will not last.
Easyjet and the rest of the LCA's have, as their culture, a low cost base - BA does not.
There has been no real attempt at BA to control costs and get the management/worker ratio down to an acceptable level.
As an instance - at a meeting that I attended the other week, it was admitted that we had twice as many managers as we needed. It was stated that the managers will have to apply for the remaining jobs and the 50% who did not have a job would then be 'redeployed'.
So although it is admitted that we have too many managers they are not prepared to cut the numbers - just shuffle them around onto different 'projects'
So now is the time to make the most of these low fares - because they will not last.
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BA overmanaged. Fact.
Why not let them go? No really I want to know.
Is it illegal? If you are overmanned in management by 100% then fire half of them.
This seems to be the consensus, so can someone honestly tell me why BA are having a hard job in doing it? They seem to have no qualms about firing other staff.
Are they delibaratley trying to destroy what so many people care about?
This might sound callous but the poor sod who fell from the car park, the IT director ought to have been worried. BA is an airline, not a software house. Their IT department is a joke, poorly run and overpaid. The web site is overly complex for what it should be doing, direct selling at competitive prices! IT should be outsourced to someone like CSC, and no I don't work for them but they do our IT better than we ever did.(BAE.)
An airline is to serve the public, not a bunch of career minded self obsessed pointless paper shufflers.
end of rant.
Tel me why they can't be fired? Someone?
Why not let them go? No really I want to know.
Is it illegal? If you are overmanned in management by 100% then fire half of them.
This seems to be the consensus, so can someone honestly tell me why BA are having a hard job in doing it? They seem to have no qualms about firing other staff.
Are they delibaratley trying to destroy what so many people care about?
This might sound callous but the poor sod who fell from the car park, the IT director ought to have been worried. BA is an airline, not a software house. Their IT department is a joke, poorly run and overpaid. The web site is overly complex for what it should be doing, direct selling at competitive prices! IT should be outsourced to someone like CSC, and no I don't work for them but they do our IT better than we ever did.(BAE.)
An airline is to serve the public, not a bunch of career minded self obsessed pointless paper shufflers.
end of rant.
Tel me why they can't be fired? Someone?
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It's simple! No doubt BA management have spent a portion of their excess profits on team building exercises for their workforce of managers and thus they have now built a cohesive team of thinkers and problem solvers. Clearly this team is now so cohesive that the thought to the chief beancounters of wasting this very expensive cohesiveness by dispensing of any member of the team cannopt be contemplated. After all the training cost has no doubt been capitalised (probably as "restructuring") to hide it in the accounts thus, conveniently, the scrapping of this investment by dispensing with a manager is not possible.
However as other employees have not had the benefit of this bonding process, they are dispensible. Type rating training do I hear you ask? Well it just goes to show what many contributors on this board have said about the ignorance of managements and the schools that produce them about how airlines work.
Now - does the above masterful deduction enable me to obtain a job in management I wonder??? Trouble is I like flying 'em too much.
However as other employees have not had the benefit of this bonding process, they are dispensible. Type rating training do I hear you ask? Well it just goes to show what many contributors on this board have said about the ignorance of managements and the schools that produce them about how airlines work.
Now - does the above masterful deduction enable me to obtain a job in management I wonder??? Trouble is I like flying 'em too much.
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Why can't they be fired
When I worked for a BA subsidiary (not very long ago), I was told by a mainline union rep that because of a 1948 agreement, BA could not fire someone just because there was no job for them. She saw nothing wrong with this agreement, and pointed out that it was up to the senior management to renegotiate it if they didn't like it.
Doesn't apply to Very Senior Management, nor to subsidiaries as far as I know.
I was gobsmacked, but she insisted (repeatedly and soberly) that it was so.
Doesn't apply to Very Senior Management, nor to subsidiaries as far as I know.
I was gobsmacked, but she insisted (repeatedly and soberly) that it was so.
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The board won't let Rod fire people as compulsory redundancies are 'not the BA way'. From their point of view it probably makes sense because they'd be the first people to go when the axe started to fall. If you'd seen the contortions management performed to avoid sacking engineers at MAN you'd know what I mean!
