The right stuff

In the time that this issue of the magazine is being put together there have been two announcements that underscore the fragility of Qantas’s hold on its diminishing marketshare.

China Southern said it was going to triple its operations into Australia after launching a new Perth service, while Qatar Airways announced Perth as a new destination with daily flights.

Both announcements would seem to underscore Joyce’s strategy, but there is much more to

strategy than just the numbers.

There is no doubt that Joyce has the numbers right – they are in fact the same numbers that have been driving aviation for decades, and that is the relentless need to take costs out of the business to meet passenger demand for lower and lower fares.

And as a numbers man he certainly has the right stuff, taking honours in maths and physics, and he certainly has the airline experience.

Joyce was appointed CEO and managing director of Qantas in November 2008 after being the founding CEO of Jetstar from 2003 to 2008.

Prior to that he spent over 15 years in leadership positions at Qantas, Ansett and Aer Lingus, with key roles in network planning, schedule planning and network strategy functions.

At Aer Lingus he also worked in IT, sales, marketing, operations research, revenue management and fleet planning.

In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald’s Deborah Snow, Joyce described himself as “very competitive’’ and “very

driven’’, qualities he sources to the tenements where his parents grew up in Ireland.

CAPA – Centre for Aviation’s founder and executive chairman Peter Harbison says that it “is foolish to underestimate” Joyce’s determination for what he sees as the right course.

But clearly from Deborah Snow’s excellent interview, Joyce has been shaken by the death threats made to him and fellow executives, along with abusive letters calling him “foreign filth” – despite Joyce taking out Australian citzenship the best part of a decade ago.

Nevertheless, Joyce is unrepentant about his course of action to restructure the Qantas Group.

“I’m doing this all because I am absolutely convinced this company needs to change,’’ he told Snow. It could have been a lot easier for me to kick the can down the street, have union leaders love me, but that would have been a terrible legacy for this company and this country because Australia needs a strong Qantas. ’’

What seems to irk him most are suggestions that as an Irishman, he doesn’t “get’’ what Qantas means to the Australian psyche.

“I’ve even had politicians say that to me,’’ Joyce says, sounding offended. “And I have to say, it’s insulting and annoying.

I have said to them, ‘I am an Australian, I decided to be an Australian eight years ago, I’m very proud of this country and I’m not going anywhere. ’ ” Of course the extraordinary irony in this tale is that the Irish make up the historic backbone of the Australian union movement, and Joyce’s roots are also from the wrong side of the railway track.

But it is highly unlikely that any CEO delivering the message that Joyce must would be liked.

His heritage, his boyish looks and accent make him an easy target, and that is un-Australian.

Many may not like Joyce’s cold mathematical analysis of the situation, delivered in a quirky manner, but even the briefest examination of history will show that he is chillingly correct.

But Qantas has had some mis-steps on this journey over the past six months, the classic being the 1000 redundancies.

When the airline says they will all be voluntary, why make them compulsory? The maths of that decision certainly don’t add up.

And that may be Joyce’s weakness.

For as Albert Einstein, the greatest mathematician of our time, said: “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. ” Perhaps Joyce should reflect more on that quote and maybe he will be looked upon – in time – as a genius.