TheWholeEnchilada
1st Sep 2012, 23:05
Jetstar Models a new type of chief
Narelle hooper and Catherine Fox
Jetstar Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka says workplaces won't change until woman and men start to demand to work in different ways and draw the line. Speaking to a Financial Review Corporate Woman event on Thursday, the former management consultant and Qantas strategy head used her own appointment as an example.
Hrdlicka and her husband Jason have two young sons. She told the audience that when Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told her he'd like her to be CEO earlier this year, she said: "Your mad - there's no way I can run Jetstar Group and have two dogs and the whole package. . . it's just not going to work"
She told him she couldn't spend two weeks a month in Asia doing deals as well as a heavy domestic travel schedule, "that's not the kind of parent I want to be".
She said Joyce told her. "I'm offering you the job of a lifetime. . . I don't want you to do the job the way it was done in the past.
"He said: "There is a must better way to run this business and the role modelling you will do by running it differently is exactly what the business needs'."
US-born Hrdlicka cam to Australia in 1994 to run a business and joined Qantas after spending several years with Bain and Co.
She took up her present role in July. Hrdlicka said that while the first six months was an intense period of establishing credibility and relationships, "I am very clear about my work balance rules".
She said 80 per cent of the time she wants to drop her kids at school and get home by 6pm. She gets back online after dinner and bedtime. "You have to be very clear about where the that line is and manage that line because nobody else can manage that for you. And you have to have enough strength in the relationships around you. . .
"If you don't have commitment at the top to create a diverse work environment, you're not going to get there." She advised people to "dig in and check the settings on things. . . ask why we do that?"
Just to keep your head down and keep going was dangerous, as more diverse workplaces benefited everyone. "We have to debunk some of the myths. These things are deeply embedded," she said.Australian Financial Review September 1-2,2012, page 12
Will this attitude be extended to those down the ladder?
Narelle hooper and Catherine Fox
Jetstar Group CEO Jayne Hrdlicka says workplaces won't change until woman and men start to demand to work in different ways and draw the line. Speaking to a Financial Review Corporate Woman event on Thursday, the former management consultant and Qantas strategy head used her own appointment as an example.
Hrdlicka and her husband Jason have two young sons. She told the audience that when Qantas CEO Alan Joyce told her he'd like her to be CEO earlier this year, she said: "Your mad - there's no way I can run Jetstar Group and have two dogs and the whole package. . . it's just not going to work"
She told him she couldn't spend two weeks a month in Asia doing deals as well as a heavy domestic travel schedule, "that's not the kind of parent I want to be".
She said Joyce told her. "I'm offering you the job of a lifetime. . . I don't want you to do the job the way it was done in the past.
"He said: "There is a must better way to run this business and the role modelling you will do by running it differently is exactly what the business needs'."
US-born Hrdlicka cam to Australia in 1994 to run a business and joined Qantas after spending several years with Bain and Co.
She took up her present role in July. Hrdlicka said that while the first six months was an intense period of establishing credibility and relationships, "I am very clear about my work balance rules".
She said 80 per cent of the time she wants to drop her kids at school and get home by 6pm. She gets back online after dinner and bedtime. "You have to be very clear about where the that line is and manage that line because nobody else can manage that for you. And you have to have enough strength in the relationships around you. . .
"If you don't have commitment at the top to create a diverse work environment, you're not going to get there." She advised people to "dig in and check the settings on things. . . ask why we do that?"
Just to keep your head down and keep going was dangerous, as more diverse workplaces benefited everyone. "We have to debunk some of the myths. These things are deeply embedded," she said.Australian Financial Review September 1-2,2012, page 12
Will this attitude be extended to those down the ladder?