Men Who Killed Qantas - Matthew Benns [90]
The anonymous sources also told how a foreman in Sydney had been demoted for not getting aircraft out on time, even though he felt the aircraft were not fit to fly. Steve Purvinas, the Association’s federal secretary, repeated a story to the Australian Financial Review from a Cairns-based duty manager who said that the airline used to be 95 per cent about engineering ability and five per cent about the company. ‘Now it’s the other way round,’ he said. ‘Qantas used to promote and encourage the best engineers but now it’s about the most time spent playing golf with the boss.’18
The boss, Geoff Dixon, reflecting back on his time at the airline, told the Australian Financial Review: ‘To me it is the end of a very, very terrific job, but you move on. All I’ve done is my job really. What I would say is that the company is in a very strong position. The industry is absolutely going through a crisis but Qantas is well placed to see it through. I don’t think you can expect anything more than that.’19 Dixon bowed out at the AGM in November, with 40 per cent of the company’s shareholders angrily voting against his $12 million golden parachute. The feeling across the floor was that huge executive pay packets were a ‘slap in the face’ to the airline’s 35,000 workers whose pay Dixon had tried to cap at just three per cent.20 It was definitely time for a change.
The search for Dixon’s replacement had just begun when the straight-shooting former Rio Tinto boss Leigh Clifford took over the chairman’s job from Margaret Jackson. Clifford was keen to make a break with the boys’ club style of management and the team responsible for the embarrassing and botched private equity bid the year before. Executive recruitment firm Heidrick and Struggles had been hired to manage the process, which had come down to three internal candidates. CFO Peter Gregg, 53, made no secret of the fact that he was keen for the job. He had been appointed by Dixon and worked hand in glove with him, taking responsibility for being the architect of the airline’s strong financial position. John Borghetti, 52, a 35-year Qantas veteran and stalwart of Dixon’s executive team, was the outside chance. The favourite was Alan Joyce, the 42-year-old chief executive of Jetstar, who had built up an airline and made it profitable in just a few years.
Only Joyce was invited to make a presentation to the board, having being told he was the favoured candidate. On the day of his presentation the other two candidates, unaware of what was happening on the other side of the city, were meeting to discuss the delivery of the new Airbus A380. Clifford later argued to the Australian Financial Review that the process had been exhaustive and that getting all three to present their views for the future would have led the other candidates ‘up the garden path’. He explained: ‘You don’t want to put people in a situation where it’s one shot. Good boards are not going to make their judgements like that.’21
Clifford clearly wanted to make a break with the past. Joyce’s running of Jetstar was very different to Dixon’s running of Qantas. Dixon was from the tough old school and liked people to see things his way. Joyce was younger and happier to listen to people’s views. He was not a macho man. Perhaps the first step to ending the public’s view of the company as arrogant was to put a completely different face at the top.
A new era for Qantas was being born. Both Gregg and Borghetti would be gone from the airline within a