Should Alan Joyce keep his job as Qantas CEO?
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Tony Webber, former chief economist at Qantas: JOYCE MUST GO
I think that his time is up. They need a fresh pair of eyes looking at the business, but one of the issues might be that they might find it difficult to find someone to replace him. The guy has turned out to be very, very resilient.
If you just looked at things very objectively, if you looked at the group’s performance since he took over leadership and the share price and the dividends you’d say it’s absolutely miserable and that there were grounds for him to move on to something else.
He obviously has very strong support from groups of shareholders and the board and has proved to be very resilient. I definitely think he’s bought himself some time.
Ivan Deveson, former General Motors senior executive and Melbourne Lord Mayor: JOYCE MUST GO
I have to say I have deep reservations about his leadership and his results over the recent years.
He came to Australia with experience in a budget airline and it’s a big step up to an international airline the size and scope of Qantas, and I just feel that from what I know, from a spectator’s viewpoint, he does not have sufficient support of people in the community or in the organisation.
This terrible demise of a great airline signals time for change. I’ve come to a conclusion that he has run that race.
When a company gets into as much difficulty as Qantas is in now, everybody should look in what I call ‘the mirror of self-analysis’ and ask themselves if it’s time for some new blood. If I was asked to vote on it, I would vote for change.
Ian Curry, CEO of the Australian Shareholders Association: JOYCE MUST STAY
Mr Joyce should stick around for the time being to oversee the cost cuts he announced today, but he should go once the company has found some stability. He’s got to stay on. You can’t just dump a CEO and not have a successor.
Our position is that the board should be actively considering succession, if it’s not already, because we think Qantas does need now to perhaps have a new person in charge.
If he was to go straight away, then a new person, if they were available fairly quickly, would need to review all that and then need to put together their own strategic direction and get Board approval.
That would leave the company in some sort of a hiatus where nothing much was happening at all.
Steven Purvinas, Federal Secretary, Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association: JOYCE MUST GO
Unfortunately the one person we wanted to be included in that announcement was Alan Joyce himself but it appears like he is going nowhere.
Probably the biggest concern that we have is that there appears to be no change in direction of strategy from the Qantas board and while there is no change in strategy there is no hope for the future of this airline.
Qantas has delivered profit year-on-year from 1992 until Alan Joyce took over.
The previous CEOs never blamed the Qantas Sale Act for the healthy profits they were delivering then. It is the board’s strategy causing all the problems not the workers.
Time to go? Photo: AAP
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon: JOYCE MUST GO
The only way for Qantas to get out of this nosedive is for Alan Joyce and the board to resign.
You may remember just two and a half years’ ago Alan Joyce was saying Qantas International was going very well, it was making a huge profit.
Six months later things changed. There seems to be some opacity in the Qantas accounts … [and] what I’m alleging is that the Qantas Group is effectively shifting costs from one part of the airline, from Jetstar Asia in particular, onto Qantas so that Qantas International looks less healthy than it actually is.
Ben Sandilands, Author, Plane Talking: JOYCE MUST GO
Joyce and his management are not wavering from their ruinous domestic capacity war.
They do not recognise any of the mistakes they have made in five disastrous years of mismanagement for investors and employees alike, and they will not participate in the continuing expansion of international travel, not at the full service level, and now, not even at the low cost level.
The current Qantas strategy for pausing while the rest of the world rushes past is like stopping in the fast lane of a freeway. It’s dangerous and stupid. More of the same management brilliance will kill Qantas.
The message for Qantas management is a clear one. Resign. And give Qantas a new start.
Alan Joyce, chief executive officer, Qantas: JOYCE MUST STAY
I’ve been CEO for five years and we’ve been profitable for most of that time and I believe I’m the right person to make sure we take this company through the challenges that we’re facing at the moment.
We’ve got severe challenges because of the environment we’re operating in; severe challenges because of the fuel prices and we have a plan to turn this business around.