Apples with Apples

[Arfur Dent]

At the risk of being accused of being naive I suggest the following:-

In the same way as I quietly questioned the wisdom of ordinary people borrowing 125% of the value of their houses in the recents past, I often wonder why our gallant leaders expect a year on year improvement in our performance even if we have just had a spectacular record year.

What value are all the figures telling us that we're X% below 'targets' based on a year that broke all previous numbers? Even without a recession we are going to stop beating previous years at some stage aren't we??

Surely, we are now in 'survival' mode and we can stop comparing ourselves to records made in different times. Check the product, keep the team together, and prepare for the coming of the 'Bull'. Don't compare the Bull with the Bear just for effect. Treat us well and we'll all go forward when the good times return won't we??

[Loiter1]

It's the by-product of the short term mentality that many publicly listed companies have nowdays. Everything is based on shareholder return, and thus the longer term perspective goes out the window at the expense of short term orientated gain. Cathay is not Robinson Crusoe on this one. Much has to do with the orientation of todays MBAs, especially the US ones. Anyway, I digress.

[Dan Winterland]

Target driven expectations. They can only dissapoint!

[42ongo]

exactly right

Panic in the short term and screw the long term strategic planning...........

I had a colleague who once the monthly target was hit maybe by the 25th or so in the good times actively encouraged customers not to use us until the start of the next month so as his target for the following year would be readily achievable

I think he got away with this strategy for quite a while before being tumbled

[Apple Tree Yard]

Stop allowing yourselves to be 'rumbled' by every utterence from the management. They are actively encouraging your collapse in confidence, and undermining your confidence in your career security. The facts are simply this: a) they are not cancelling any aircraft orders. b) they are not (nor will they) lay off pilots. c) CX has ALWAYS used these circumstances to their advantage and increased their competetive position. For those of you who have not been here very long, do some research on the company's history since the late 80's. Don't allow them to 'mess with your heads'... ATY

[hongkongfooey]

Jagman : great minds think alike ( IMHO )

Dan :

42 : Yep

ATY : on the money

During SARs, A/C flew around close to empty, no unforced LWOP or redundancies.
Now I'm not saying the world economy is not in pretty serious shape right now but with relation to CX/KA at present ...............WTF ????????????
As ATY said, try not to let management drag you down to their ultra negative level.