Willie Walsh is presiding over a disastrous start for the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow, (known in the UK as Deathrow,) and for those that have recently traveled through T5, you will understand why. But logistical problems aside, what does this calamity say about Walsh the leader. What kind of operation does he run?
The Guardian this week provided a few insights. Walsh has recently said, " The buck stops with me. I am going not going to find someone else to point the finger at". Interesting then that this week he fired two long standing senior executives with 40 years of service at BA. Accountability is one thing. After all,m if they messed up then why should he not hold them to task. Well, for precisely this reason: Union sources claim the following. That Walsh runs an autocratic regime where people lacked the confidence to tell him about the serious problems in the run up to the terminals debut. Quote:" That's the nature of the ship he runs ( airline surely ). He is an autocrat and that reflects itself in the way his directors operate. Nobody wanted to go to Willie Walsh and say there were problems."
Bill Gates has said that the secret of Microsoft's success, is that the bad news travels up. Anybody can go into his office, call him Bill, and tell him something needs fixing without fear of retribution. I fear that if Walsh doesn't change his outmoded leadership behavior, BA will go the way of Pan Am and its ilk. In the economic climate we are now in, collaboration, not directives will be the mantra of the survivors.
2 comments:
When I joined the airline business in 1960 it was still an unusual business, quite different to others. Many of the flying crew were still ex-Forces so their traditions provided one element. In customer service the style wasn't much changed from the traditions of the shipping companies and our uniforms were still quite naval. Yet it was also quite definitely a civilian service and with the requirements of overseas postings etc life still had almost a vocational quality about it.
The people who worked to develop and grow the airline business through the next 30 years have largely remained staunchly loyal to their companies and their traditions - to the point that several have recently expressed to me a sharp division in their personal emotions at the situation into which BA has been led. On the one hand they remain desperately empathetic to the plight of the passengers, on the other there is a strong feeling of immense pleasure that the ruthless management theorists and bean counters (eg "a reasonable man gets nowhere in negotiations" - Willie Walsh) have got their come uppance.
No one is foolish enough to think that the old style could have survived the changes of the last 15-20 years but they are unaminous in believing that the way the airline industry is run today is wrong.
For an insight into the effect Walsh's style of management is having on a group of BA pensioners you might care to see http://bastafftravel.blogspot.com
may be ? i am not sure whether he is leader material or not
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