Alan Joyce (AC)

[Pushka]

Is doing a charitable/honorable deed more charitable if you personally will not benefit from a successful outcome or have no personal investment in it other than doing a good deed for others?

 

[RichardMEL]

Is doing a charitable/honorable deed more charitable if you personally will not benefit from a successful outcome or have no personal investment in it other than doing a good deed for others?

I would think that would be the very definition of charitable work would it not?

Sort of like the "professional" (ie: paid) people who solicit donations vs say my friend who asks for cash donations for the local no-kill shelter.

but really? not attacking your point or trying to but is this now a 'my chartiable or community effort is more worthy than yours" competition?

I suppose if everyone got recognition it would be like every kid who shows up for soccer training or even once gets a "participation medal" or something that makes the whole thing have zero meaning.

It's a very fine line isn't it trying to find appropriate recipients and you will always generate contraversary on either who is included or who is missed or the rest.

Everyone agrees that the knighthood to Prince Philip was obviously ridiculous, but many other such awards are less clear cut imho.

I'm not trying to say that AJ's community works makes him more or less worthy of recognition than anyone else.. seems to me there should be room for all the worthy. I guess where that line is drawn is the huge dilemma and I honestly wouldn't want to be on the committee who determine such things - it would be a thankless task I reckon.

 

[nlagalle]

We can disagree on that, but lets talk about Mr Joyce. He arrived in Australia in 1996 and joined Ansett, then worked for Qantas, becoming CEO in 2008.

He has performed very well for shareholders, finally bringing the airline back to significant profit in the last couple of years. This included bringing industrial action largely to a halt after the infamous grounding of the fleet, mostly not reducing fuel fines when the price of fuel reduced significantly, and by selling Qantas FF points by the A380-load to partners and making QFF members a product to be marketed to by those partners and making award redemption almost an Olympic sport, such is the difficulty in many situations.

All in all great for shareholders, but nearly all at the expense of Qantas passengers. He doesn't appear to have any Directorships outside of the Qantas group nor any charitable or philanthropic links that I can tell (eg his profile on Qantas web site and the inevitable Wikipedia article). His most prominent public advocacy, Marriage Equality is very much in his own personal interest.

In as much as CEOs of prominent companies inevitably get these gongs, he'll get one, but I can't see anything resembling 'service or contribution to Australia' other than running his airline in the best interests of its shareholders.

I also believe there he has done a lot of work for Prostate Cancer too. Given the lack of dividends on the shares you can't really say it's been too great for the shareholders (who were banking on returns as opposed to capital growth - who bought when shares were $0.97)

 

[drron]

So..... are you saying that if you were offered an AC you would refuse it? Sorry, obviously you would based on your post, so no need to ask you. Hang on... was that a condescending character assessment?
Making a non-profitable airline highly profitable.... through fuel charges, selling FF points or whatever...(does it really matter here the revenue comes from?) means he has turned the airline around.

I did turn down an offer of a nomination though many years ago.Was an MBE then.

 

[Pushka]

I did turn down an offer of a nomination though many years ago.Was an MBE then.

Nice . That you were nominated that is.

 

[drron]

Nice . That you were nominated that is.

It was just an offer of nomination.It was politically motivated which is why I turned it down.But probably would if not political.

 

[tm.smile]

I personally think that AJs award is well deserved. While he is in a privileged position to speak out for causes he or those around him are passionate about, many men and women are in similar positions do not advocate for social justice causes given the opportunity.

Other than SSM, Qantas under his leadership has been a big supporter of Reconciliation, Prostate Cancer, OzHarvest and the Future Planet fund (just to name a few). The Indigenous Education bit about his OA refers to his Ambassadorship of the Australian Indigenous Education Foundation. I can't think of any other brand in Australia who is so strongly supportive of social causes.

As for the profitability of the airline, there are plenty of choices in Australia for international flying and an opposing domestic carrier that would be happy to jump in were the flying public intent on choosing someone else. You can't make money charging inflated prices if no one is willing to pay...

 

[drron]

Maybe this business.They don't go out of their way to promote it much just get in and do it.Have supported many start ups in IT as well.Usually voted as best place to work unlike QF.
Atlassian Foundation - Social Ventures Australia

 

[tm.smile]

Well QF was just voted as the most attractive company to work for... Staff engagement is also currently very high.

Part of advocating for social issues is also ensuring the public is aware of the issue.

 

[Dr Ralph]

Well QF was just voted as the most attractive company to work for.

Curious what the criteria is for that. Clearly job security isn't a relevant criteria.

 

[drron]

I can see why QF may be a favourite company with travel benefits.And that survey was done by interviewing jobseekers-not current workers.
For the last 3 years Atlassian has ben number one twice and slipped to number 3 last year.

Best Places to Work in Australia: 100 or more employees - Great Place to Work® Australia
Now businesses have to apply and I think QF hasn't but most of the ranking is based on employee interviews.
But we are getting very OT.