Qantas Insolvency/Administration ?

[fishers.ghost]

Qantas management has an end game.That is not in dispute.But what exactly is that end game?Put the business into administration and offer everyone a job at reduced wages and conditions?.Jetstarize the business by continuing to starve mainline of capital.Under what circumstances can this be done?.Indeed can it be done?
Whatever the result the journey to that result is going to be painful and messy .

[mcgrath50]

Will the public let it get that far? I was amazed to see the uproar against QF being taken over, maybe if the publicity is handled right (big if), they can be stopped.

I don't understand how management can see collapsing a company as a success, but maybe i'm just old fashioned.

[Old Ianmeadow]

We have engaged Boston Consulting to oversee the project.


Future of Leadership - Alan Joyce (http://leadership.bcg.com/asia_pacific/joyce.aspx)

[breakfastburrito]

I've said it before:
Bubblehead, perhaps this is exactly the outcome the board are looking for. It is completely counter-intuitive, but all the evidence suggest this is EXACTLY what they are hoping for. They are destroying Qantas to justify its destruction (hint Qantas Sale Act (http://www.comlaw.gov.au/ComLaw/Legislation/ActCompilation1.nsf/0/9214588D1DF479B2CA256F71004E5675/$file/QantasSale92.pdf), section 7, clauses (e) and (f), page 13 - plausible dependability).
That is my working thesis until I see evidence to the contrary.
Qantas Staff to Strike ? (http://www.pprune.org/dg-p-reporting-points/445578-qantas-staff-strike.html#post6306890)

[Worrals in the wilds]

We have engaged Boston Consulting to oversee the project.


Well, it should all be fixed then, if you believe the happy tales on the BCG website...:E
BCG - Transportation, Travel & Tourism - Impact Stories (http://www.bcg.com/expertise_impact/Industries/Transportation_Travel_Tourism/ImpactStoryDetail.aspx?id=tcm:12-21295&practiceArea=Transportation+Travel+%26+Tourism)

From their gloat story at the above address regarding an unnamed airline:


"Front-line workers were re-engaged in the company and in helping to improve the work environment:

Approximately 150 improvements were identified and implemented, with more than 90 percent of the ideas coming from the front-line workforce.
Front-line workers felt respected for their ideas and the ability to contribute. This led to an increasingly larger number of ideas being submitted by a larger number of contributors as the project continued.
An environment of trust was reestablished between company leaders and front-line workers."
I guess that wasn't the consulting job they did for Qantas. Maybe Qantas bought a cut price version. :}


IRT the original question, I suppose the secondary question is do they have a plan or are they just lurching from crisis to crisis? Sometimes when you think there was an evil plan it turns out later that there was just mind bogglingly huge incompetence.

[surfside6]

I cant speak for other areas of Qantas but the level of disengagement among Cabin Crew has never been worse.A notice this morning indicated that less tham one third of Cabin Crew had participated in the current engagement survey.It closes on the 1st of April.
It has been said before but is worth repeating.The window dressing that resulted from the last survey did not work.What is required is behavioural change...from management.Threat,fear and intimidation are de rigeur in Cabin Services.A certain demographic(male Onboard managers over 55 and with more than 25 years service)has been targeted.One by one they are being stood down,punished or dismissed for trite misdemeanours.This sends a message to the rest of the "team".No one is safe.There is no job security.Ironically those sending the message have no job security either.
Employees have been developing exit strategies for many years.Many have already gone to other airlines where their experience is seen as an asset.When the other shoe drops there will be a mass exodus.
Tooheys and Tooths Breweries provide a good example of what happens when the best and brightest are treated like ****e.Tooths was once the invincible Brewery in NSW.Its management similar in attitude to the current Qantas lot.Tooths brewery no longer exists

[teresa green]

The Australian public are fairly apathetic about most things,(except sport) but they came out of their slumber when the National Carrier was threatened with sell off. MP's all over the country were bombarded with phone calls, emails etc, as the public suddenly realised Qantas was in danger. My own MP said he had never seen anything like it. If that is the boards plan, they should consider very carefully, they could well wake a sleeping giant, that have considerable bite, and suddenly find themselves invited to the Parliament with a please explain. Strange people Australians, they will bag anything that annoys them, but touch something that belongs to the country, which means them, its at your own peril. Australia and Qantas cannot be separated, they are joined at the hip, always have been, hopefully always will be.

[Torres]

Qantas Insolvency/Administration?

Bit of a wild, fertile imagination? :confused:

QF insolvency would result in Director's personal liability and any form of parent company Admininstration would risk both Qantas and subsidiary companies.

Neither insolvency nor administration is the end game.

To the contrary in fact. :=

[Worrals in the wilds]

Many have already gone to other airlines where their experience is seen as an asset.

That's good to hear, I'm glad employees are voting with their feet.
Often it's the valuable employees who leave first, because they're 1. marketable and 2. have the drive to move. Of course many valuable people can't leave due to personal reasons (financial pressure, not being able to move cities etc) and guess what happens? They get disengaged. Guess what that does for your business, particularly when you're in the customer service game? Lots of harm. You don't need an MBA or a consulting company to figure that out but it seems to be too hard for Qantas management.

So what is the end game? Run a really crappy airline? Seems a pity when a number of low and medium cost operators seem to be able to keep their staff reasonably engaged and costs down. We never have fifteen concurrent threads on here about how terrible Virgin or Air New Zealand are to work for.

Either way, surely it would be really hard for them to go broke while they are one of only two major domestic carriers in Australia. There's Tiger, but they don't seem to be all that expansionist or wanting to break the LCC mode. If another competitor entered the ring it might get interesting (a la the Qantas/Ansett/Virgin thing) but barring that, I'd have thought they were in a pretty secure position.

[QFinsider]

The end game is rather simple...


1.Grow J* through the QF balance sheet
2.Lever current contracts by effectively circumventing them
3.Offshore as many positions as possible
4.Wait until an idiot in the lodge brings in another form of workchoices..
5.Accelerate redundancies through the mainline
6.Repaint aircraft and BCG/Oldmeadow make a fortune
7.Assume no one notices that their "cheap" J* airfrares disappear

Clifford the genius of Rio Tinto achieves his oft stated ambition of driving through change into the workplace..This was all set in motion way back when Pemberton, Strong and Dixon were trying the original APA buyout with Packer senior and macquarie, titled project Suzie!