AJ Speech to American Chamber of Commerce - confirms 2800 Qantas job losses

[Fantic125]

That man has to be the most incompetent CEO in Australian corporate history ....

I would have to disagree with that comment. There's many more out there that have raped, plundered, pillaged and destroyed organisations over the years.

He may not be the best, but he's not the worst.

 

[lovestotravel]

That man has to be the most incompetent CEO in Australian corporate history (Sol included!)

Hopefully QF's problems can be saved with a new CEO, like how TLS has recovered in the past two years.

Again he's following what the board wants.... He's not making these decisions alone...

Pay increase = To deal with the cough he has to deal with this year......

 

[mannej]

That man has to be the most incompetent CEO in Australian corporate history (Sol included!)

And history will show your comment to be pretty ignorant.

 

[Mal Ware]

I would have to disagree with that comment. There's many more out there that have raped, plundered, pillaged and destroyed organisations over the years.

Yeah, he is just destroying jobs in a slow and methodical manner keeping the negative focus on Qantas in the media while he arrogantly continues on his powertrip.

 

[Mal Ware]

And history will show your comment to be pretty ignorant.

Ignorant or just correct?

 

[nlagalle]

Yeah, he is just destroying jobs in a slow and methodical manner keeping the negative focus on Qantas in the media while he arrogantly continues on his powertrip.

Destroying jobs or removing jobs no longer required? In my company over 1000 will become redundant in the next 12 months...

 

[mannej]

Ignorant or just correct?

Ignorant.....

 

[Platinum A332]

And history will show your comment to be pretty ignorant.

Well, I hope history judges my comments incorrectly and we do see a Qantas brand still in existence.

Since Alan Joyce has taken over, International market share has dropped around 3 percentage points (only slightly above 18% now), and the share price has dropped over 30% (Virgin has gone up by 30%). Even the international market share of Jetstar is in decline. Customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction is at the lowest points in history. Yields on the domestic market are being squeezed whereas Virgin is advancing.

I am not being ignorant in my assessment of Alan Joyce. You cannot argue with facts.

 

[medhead]

While I think Joyce has an extremely destructive approach to employee moral and makes many questionable decisions about operations that seem to favour Jetstar, a view not helped by his selective quoting of passenger numbers in the past. But I wouldn't call him the worst CEO by a long shot.


Sent from the Throne

 

[Boeta]

...At the end of the day people don't like change.. they like the good old days and will do anything to keep outdated work practices in place that they are so used to. And sometimes companies need to restructure to stay competitive...

This is the most hard hitting truth IMO and has been the biggest failing of Joyce. His apparent lack of reaction to QFi difficulties, profitability waning and lack of adaptation or innovation across the business is what will catch up with him.

 

[moa999]

Well, I hope history judges my comments incorrectly and we do see a Qantas brand still in existence.
Since Alan Joyce has taken over, International market share has dropped around 3 percentage points (only slightly above 18% now), and the share price has dropped over 30% (Virgin has gone up by 30%). Even the international market share of Jetstar is in decline. Customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction is at the lowest points in history. Yields on the domestic market are being squeezed whereas Virgin is advancing.
I am not being ignorant in my assessment of Alan Joyce. You cannot argue with facts.

Very selective point in time...
Allow me another. Since Joyce joined Qantas (Oct 03) - Qantas had declined $3.61 (Oct 03) - $2.32 (28 Nov 08 - made CEO) - $1.14 today
Virgin has declined much much more IPO $2.40 (Dec 03) - $0.32 (Nov08) - $0.43 today
Virgin was at rock bottom in Nov08 post Toll spin-out and frankly close to gone, QAN was still declining from the rejected $5+ takeover bid....

Also the key issues in aviation in the last two years have been in international routes due to fuel price and competition - Qantas has far more exposure to International than Virign..
Lets try a few more over those same time periods
Today Nov08 Oct03
Qantas 1.14 2.32 3.61 (QAN.AU - Yahoo Monthly)
Virgin 0.43 0.32 2.40 (VAH.AU - Yahoo Monthly)
Singapore 10.77 10.38 12.00 (C6U.SI - Yahoo,Monthly)
American 0.50 8.78 13.28 (AAMRQ- Yahoo Monthly)
IAG (BA) 152.6 155.1 208.0 (IAG.L - Yahoo Monthly)
Lufthansa 9.91 10.34 13.65 (LHA.DE - Yahoo Monthly)
Cathay 12.32 7.52 14.85 (0293.HK -Yahoo Monthly)
Delta 9.34 10.98 -bankrupt (DAL)
QF certainly not a top performer, but some far worse (eg AA, Delta)

Results speak for themselves and since Joyce has taken over he has done nothing but drag the Qantas name through the mud, left all staff looking over their shoulder, left shareholders with massive losses and hand fed the brand to the media as fodder, all the time increasing his massive personal wealth.
The little leprechaun will eventually leave the Airline in more of a mess than he himself created to go and live the good life while the Australian traveling public, the workers and the shareholders are left to deal with the mess.

Unfortunately Joyce is left dealing with the mess that certain former CEOs fail to deal with... In good times they took the profits and paid high dividends - whilst totally neglecting fleet investment and getting costs to world standard.
Just focusing on International for a minute - the global aviation game is a ridiculously low margin game - key costs such as aircraft capital, fuel are relatively standard, the only controllable costs are things like airport charges, maintenance, and staff costs.... Australia is world leading (in a bad way for shareholders) on almost all three and also has bad aviation taxation policies (eg fleet depreciation) and a government that has been very willing to give foreign airlines (with far lower cost bases) access rights who have grown at the expense of Qantas.
If all Qantas International staff were paid the same as Garuda, Air NZ or even Jetstar , I suspect Joyce would have a very different attitude... it is hard to have good relations with staff when you have amongst the highest staff costs in the world....

Domestically... even Borghetti (who has much lower staff costs) has stated that it is unsustainable for Virgin staff to have their salaries increased to Qantas levels --- ie he is trying to get this advantage domestically.

Alan may not be doing the best job, but he isn't doing the worst. I dont think Geoff Dixon did any better as all he seemed interested in was trying to sell it off.
At the end of the day people don't like change.. they like the good old days and will do anything to keep outdated work practices in place that they are so used to. And sometimes companies need to restructure to stay competitive. Redundancies have been happening all over the place, nit just at QF.

Agree. The world has changed substantially since the days of a government controlled two airline policy - one has disappeared - the other one is struggling on.

While I think Joyce has an extremely destructive approach to employee moral and makes many questionable decisions about operations that seem to favour Jetstar, a view not helped by his selective quoting of passenger numbers in the past.

Per above... Easier to be positive with employees when you are starting from a postition of lowest cost than highest cost.
Per speech today... since Joyce made CEO - 100+ new aircraft - 50% to QF and 75% by value --- 12 A380s is a massive investment in the unit that faces the highest competition

 

[mannej]

Well, I hope history judges my comments incorrectly and we do see a Qantas brand still in existence.

Since Alan Joyce has taken over, International market share has dropped around 3 percentage points (only slightly above 18% now), and the share price has dropped over 30% (Virgin has gone up by 30%). Even the international market share of Jetstar is in decline. Customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction is at the lowest points in history. Yields on the domestic market are being squeezed whereas Virgin is advancing.

I am not being ignorant in my assessment of Alan Joyce. You cannot argue with facts.

That does not make him the worst CEO in australian history as you have stated. Pretty subjective from your side.

Still ignorant considering there have been CEO's lead companies to ruin pre-GFC

 

[chonetsao.co.uk]

Very selective point
Lets try a few more over those same time periods
Today Nov08 Oct03
Qantas 1.14 2.32 3.61 (QAN.AU - Yahoo Monthly)
Virgin 0.43 0.32 2.40 (VAH.AU - Yahoo Monthly)
Singapore 10.77 10.38 12.00 (C6U.SI - Yahoo,Monthly)
American 0.50 8.78 13.28 (AAMRQ- Yahoo Monthly)
IAG (BA) 152.6 155.1 208.0 (IAG.L - Yahoo Monthly)
Lufthansa 9.91 10.34 13.65 (LHA.DE - Yahoo Monthly)
Cathay 12.32 7.52 14.85 (0293.HK -Yahoo Monthly)
Delta 9.34 10.98 -bankrupt (DAL)
QF certainly not a top performer, but some far worse (eg AA, Delta)


Unfortunately Joyce is left dealing with the mess that certain former CEOs fail to deal with... In good times they took the profits and paid high dividends - whilst totally neglecting fleet investment and getting costs to world standard.

Some good point. But I think to compare AA and DL with QF is to compare apple with pear. If QF is in the same market of AA or DL, QF may already declared bankrupcy when AJ took the decision to grounding the fleet. Then you may have a non existence share price of QF.

 

[markis10]

I have removed a number of posts that were either against forum rules, attempting to moderate another member or quoted deleted text, if you find a post that's not in the spirit or rules of AFF please use the report post feature.

 

[markis10]

On a lighter note, at least some of the press saw some humour in the talk:

At an American Chamber of Commerce lunch in Sydney yesterday, Joyce talked about how Australian prime minister Ben Chifley had ''smoked his pipe'' before discussing his ''closed-loop feedback system''.
''We are shaking up the service culture, loosening the ties, giving our people greater opportunity to freestyle and respond to our customers and their needs,'' said Joyce.
The Qantas chief executive did not say whether he, too, had adopted a freestyling approach to running the airline.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/joyc...appers-cool-20120808-23ukc.html#ixzz22zB7ONzC

 

[Must...Fly!]

That man has to be the most incompetent CEO in Australian corporate history (Sol included!)

Hopefully QF's problems can be saved with a new CEO, like how TLS has recovered in the past two years.

Telstra have been saved by NextG and competitor incompetence.

Guess who built NextG

 

[pshepvic]

Telstra have been saved by NextG and competitor incompetence.

Guess who built NextG

Yep, Sol. He actually did a lot for Telstra, despite the media portrayal. Yes there were a number of things he may not have been too delicate about, but without him our best network would probably be Vodafone. Say no more.


Sent from my iPhone using AustFreqFly app

 

[mannej]

Good old media portrayal. I think the Aussie athletes are finding out about it the hard way!

I find it interesting how some things are deemed in the interest of the public, yet others are not.

 

[simongr]

Yep, Sol. He actually did a lot for Telstra, despite the media portrayal. Yes there were a number of things he may not have been too delicate about, but without him our best network would probably be Vodafone. Say no more.

And that is the problem with Vodafone - it is actually hard to say any more...

 

[777]

My fundamental problem with Joyce is that i disagree with him on what the assets and value of Qantas are. Joyce has explicitly said that he thinks Qantas' great strength is jetstar and the ability to get capital and invest it in low cost franchises around Asia. He believes that their superior management of low cost franchises is the future of the company and that they are better at it than anyone else.

Alternately, he has given little or no value to the Qantas brand, to the reputation for safety and service built up over many years and to the loyalty and respect that people feel for Qantas. This is evidenced in the ways in which Qantas has plummeted down the rankings of most respected brands and companies under his tenure. This not an accident or someone else's fault this is effectively company policy to redeploy internal resources away from Qantas.

What i really think he is doing is dismantling the house of cards piece by piece and it will inevitably collapse. Ignoring the claims about Qantas actually directly subsidising jetstar, the reality is that Qantas is the thing that holds the whole thing up. Is the Qantas Frequent Flyer program profitable without a strong Qantas? How much of what drives value to jetstar are the routes seeded by Qantas, the prominent marketing on the Qantas web site and the spill over from the Qantas brand? You take Qantas out of the picture and the whole thing collapses and every thing he appears to be doing is weakening Qantas and moving towards that scenario. I don't believe they are superior managers of low cost franchises i believe they are running down the value of one asset to try and build the value of another and i'm not convinced by it as a strategy.

As folks know i'm a very active Virgin flyer and don't fly Qantas much these days. However the original reason for that is that Qantas stopped flying where i needed to go and ceded the route to Jetstar. Qantas seems to be doing this more and more and i'm sure i won't be the last individual to reach that tipping point where the whole package of Qantas has so many holes in it that i can't make it work for me anymore.