QANTAS - WHERE TO NOW?

[Squawk-7600]

Joyce is a muppet put there by Dixon to continue his legacy of talking down the airline so he and his mates (including Singleton) could buy it for peanuts and raid the $3.5 billion piggybank. Joyce has turned on his "mates" and made it more difficult for them to do that. Joyce was always going to be the fall guy and Singleton wouldn't sweat one second on publicly shafting Joyce, as Joyce's head was always intended to be the one going up on a stick when Qantas fails.

[1A_Please]

‘‘Nowadays there is an invisible chairman — does he make himself available for interviews? — and an invisible CEO in Alan Joyce, who is probably doing his best but every time he bobs up there’s more bad news,’’ Mr Singleton said. ‘‘He has no people skills and it’s all bad, bad, bad.’’
Mr Singleton thinks the leadership has to be held responsible for the plight the company is in.

Usually don't agree too much with Singo but have to agree with him on one thing. AJ maybe an alright manager but he is no leader and QF (and QAN the listed corporation) now needs a leader who can inspire the staff, win back the customers and reassure the shareholders. Unfortunately it seems the ideal candidate is currently sitting happily in the No. 1 chair at VAH's headquarters.

[Start4]

The pieces of the puzzle fall into place

I'm not fan of AJ but I am always majorly suspicious of the dynamic duo Singo and Dicko and their investor club mates.

The events as they have unfolded:

• 2008 AJ appointed as QF CEO taking over from Dicko.
  
• AJ and Dicko having regular dinner dates and appear to be best mates.
  
• 2011 Dicko and Singo admit that they were part of a consortium considering taking a large stake in QF but fail for whatever reason.
  
• 2012 QF share price tumbles as a result of a last minute profit warning leading to speculation that the Dicko/Singo consortium were back in the game.
  
• AJ, using Macquarie and Citigroup, mount a defence against a takeover bid potentially stabbing his mate Dicko in the back.
  
• AJ and Dicko reportedly have a falling out and no longer doing regular dinner dates.
  
• Singo suddenly feels the urge to put his 2 cents forward and undermine AJ.

I actually agree with most of what Singo is saying . I am just a little skeptical about his motivation. I hope you are getting the picture I am trying to paint here.

[AEROMEDIC]

Singleton

Mr Singleton said there was a leadership black hole at the airline after the company enjoyed years of strong executive and board leadership from Gary Pemberton, James Strong, Margaret Jackson and Mr Dixon.

Two out of four is just a pass.

Remember Margaret Jackson's statement to shareholders during the failed bid. She reckoned any shareholder not accepting the offer needs a psychiatrist.
And..... Dixon's stated primary aim was to increase shareholder returns. Customers and employees were not part of that.
Good business practice ALWAYS looks after the customers and employees because profits and returns will automatically follow (assuming the business model is sound).

[DirectAnywhere]

Remember Margaret Jackson's statement to shareholders during the failed bid. She reckoned any shareholder not accepting the offer needs a psychiatrist.

Mate, at the offer price of $5.60 she was spot on.

The airline would have been out of business 12 months later but that's a seperate matter entirely.

[teresa green]

Obviously Singo has been reading PPrune. It has been full of the same comments ever since Dixon took hold of the yoke. All downhill. It just took him ten years to realise it, but ask any employee from the cleaners to the almost top brass, they could have told him anytime he wanted to ask.

[Ngineer]

I actually agree with most of what Singo is saying . I am just a little skeptical about his motivation. I hope you are getting the picture I am trying to paint here.

You mean pick a bottom in the share price before buying in (and the Emirate's deal should put a floor under the current lows), then try and put a message out to the shareholder that the current management is no good....just before launching a bid perhaps?

[balance]

An interesting interview. I do like Singo's new ad.

Sky News Australia - Video

[kumul1]

Good light hearted interview but for a supposedly well versed entrepeneur, Emirates, FREE fuel??? really, that myth has got to go to bed. Do some homework. Even the allegation of subsidised fuel????

The EK fuel bill has grown so high that there was no profit share last year in light of the fuel prices.
Aeroplanes tanker fuel back from destinations where the price is lower than Dubai for the next service.
Pilots are 'encouraged' to avoid extra uplift to comply with a very tight Fuel Policy.

I do admit that labour cost in DXB is cheaper than OZ but that is buisiness. Everybody looks for countries with cheaper labour...even the big Q.

He is right about AJ though.

[AEROMEDIC]

Margaret Jackson

The airline would have been out of business 12 months later but that's a seperate matter entirely.

Yes, but she din't know it at the time. Like the others, she was" blinded by the emotion at the time".

[Kangaroo Court]

Any housewife could run Qantas better than it's being run right now.

[onetrack]

Yes, but she din't know it at the time.

Shouldn't that be, "didn't care"? Anyone with more than 2 working brain cells would have to understand that any purchaser who shelled out $11BN for QF at its peak, wouldn't have been able to service the debt, and QF would have been on the auction block, shortly after the GFC hit in late 2008 - and sold for less than the value of the office equipment.

Too many corporate "leaders" have one solitary aim - to fill their own pockets with as much loot as they can scam out of shareholders - and then depart the scene rapidly, leaving others to pick up the crash wreckage. It's a much-repeated scenario.

[Kangaroo Court]

The Ponzi scheme has reached its end though. There's nothing left to trade but tired aircraft, loss making routes and a disgruntled workforce.

The change has to start at the top.

HE'S GOTTA GO!!

[Ace Wasabe]

Conflicting Agendas and Incompetence

John Ward and Bill Dix were against the privatisation of Qantas.They left as a result.Enter James Strong.It was supposed to be Qantas taking over TAA.Wrong!.It became the submerger with TAA and its managment taking over QF.They had no skillset to run an international airline.They met with a lot of resistance.Out of frustration and a cardiac event Strong left.Enter the unremarkable 52 year old Geoff Dixon.He too met with resistance.Consultants began running the show.Operations were put under marketing.Silos created and the staff became the enemy.The culmination of all this was the failed takeover bid which would have netted Dixon $60 mill.Not bad bickies for an employee selling out the firm he is employed by.Jackson becomes the scapegoat for the bid's failure.Oldmeadow was always in the shadows.Impulse was purchased and turned into Australian Airlines.It failed but morphed into Jetstar.Management soon realized it was a great way to threaten the unions in the main business by driving down wages and conditions.The war against employees starts in earnest.Any remants of the old Qantas guard were either forced out or retired and replaced by compliant inexperienced children.
Against its own corporate constitution Strong finds his way back as a Director.Clifford takes on the role of Chairman.Two self charecterized alpha males cant share the same space so Dixon exits.Dixon has mentored a successor with Alan Joyce.Joyce is Dixons earpiece which does not sit well with Clifford.Joyce is compliant and the new chairman calls the shots.Clifford stays in the background but his agenda of union busting is evidenced by the grounding of the airline.
Qantas mainline cedes more and more so called unprofitable routes to Jetstar.Cost apportioning sees mainline loaded up with Jetstar costs making the Orange cancer seem incredibly profitable.The whole Qantas Group depends on mainline for its existence.It is also in the most competitive environment.QF management still have no skillset to run an international airline.They need an experienced partner.Many doors are knocked on.None are opened.Clarke of emirates sees an opportunity in the crippled Kangaroo.The rest is history.
The whole debacle is a combination of agendas(Strong,Dixon and Clifford)and management ineptitude.There has been no long term plan save for maximising Exco remuneration.The greed in the mix.Joyce has no clue where Qantas is going.That is now in the hands of Clarke the experienced airline campaigner
The name Qantas will survive.The international operation most probably will not

[TIMA9X]

Joyce Not Up To The Job? Part 1 - 2

By QF94 - Not a truer word spoken. I know it's Singleton's words and that his advertising agency dumped, but it's a public figure trashing AJ and saying what staff have been saying for a long time.

Spot on, in my view but I also agree with

By Offchocks - I don't think AJ will be culled just yet, not that I agree yesterday's announcement was the saving of the airline, but it will have bought him some time until he stuffs up again!

I have maintained for a while now, if the image of your product is not right in the public eye, then you have to agree with Singleton whatever his motives are, what he said on Thursday is probably the best summation anyone has come up with in the public arena .. AJ in real life is probably a nice bloke (not that I am in a hurry to find out) but there is no doubt in my mind the current lot running the show at Q are way out of touch with the realities of running a premium service orientated business, something the Qantas brand was always known for.

LC and AJ have no idea about this, they have failed badly by pursuing the two brand strategy, favouring the Jetstar model over a tried and proven product.. which they and they only must take responsibility for and fall on their sword..

It is Jetstar that has damaged the iconic brand value Qantas maintained for all those decades. Having said that, I don't blame the staff at Jetstar, not one bit, they do a fine job, but the two products should have been kept very separate from each other since conception, they simply just don't fit.



And another thing, note how OW has been removed from the frontline when the media is concerned.. only a year ago she was everywhere AJ was when it came to media coverage... Why is that? It is my view, OW enhanced the poor image of the Qantas brand ten fold because of her perceived complete lack of industry knowledge, a well supported feeling by many behind the scenes in the media. Again not her fault, she too was a poor choice for that job, a lack of people skills.... the endemic problem right throughout the top management at Q, it's all me me me I know best stuff with no consideration for the real people who keep the show on the road, the operational staff..

The operational staff, (pilots, CC and Engineers etc) are the airline and believe it or not, the very people the punters relate to.. if they sense that the frontline staff are disillusioned then it all breaks down, plenty of evidence of that these days as a direct result from poor managers bereft of handling people in a people business.

Now more than ever, if Qantas is to survive, the chairman, CEO and the board must go... and go soon... before it is too late... they simply are not up to the job.... they are already junk status in my view... no idea, John Singleton is right in what he said on this issue.. for me, no doubt about it..

As Singo said, it's a Sol kind of feeling



.

[DEFCON4]

The new big dog

Make no mistake Tim Clarke and Emirates are now calling the shots at Qantas.Hopefully the Emirates expertise will transform the airline.But at what cost?
Joyce and clifford are the two biggest impediments to Qantas' success.Interesting to see what happens at the upcomging AGM.

[QF94]

And then!
At the end. When asked, how he would turn the business round, he called for a change a the top. Fair enough.
Then proceeded to suggest the Australian Government should apply protectionist taxes, due the fact that Emirates is "subsidised", receive "free petrol", and pays AUD$2 per hour "slave wages".

I was astonished. How could a guy sound initially so impressive and then completely destroy his own credibility in the space of one interview?
And he wants to buy Qantas?

That's why he wants to buy QANTAS. Pay wages of not much more per hour than the share price, have government protection for the business, turn a neat profit, and then on-sell the business to the next sucker after he's ripped the guts out of it.

[ampclamp]

In this case, your enemy's enemy will not be your friend. Singo may get some excited with his anti AJ rhetoric but be fearful if that consortium is making its move.

[Stalins ugly Brother]

Just watched that interview with Singo, Gotta say that Advertisement he ran during the interview for Qantas was Brilliant, gave me goose bumps!

An Australian that gets it, unlike Joyce.

[Ken Borough]

Impulse was purchased and turned into Australian Airlines.It failed but morphed into Jetstar.

In a word, this is 'wrong'. For the record, Impulse morphed into Jetstar, and had nothing to do with AO.