It is the book everyone’s talking about. Joe Aston’s The Chairman’s Lounge shines a light on the inner workings of Qantas and Alan Joyce’s legacy. In this opinion piece, Bunnik tours co-CEO Dennis Bunnik shares his views on the book as well as what went wrong during Joyce’s legacy.
That was a tough read. Fascinating and compelling. But for someone who was reasonably involved with the lobbying effort to help save the travel industry during the Covid years, it was hard to relive some of those moments.
I definitely recommend you take the time and read it yourself. Real change only comes from shining a light on things that people don’t want you to see. And there is plenty that the Qantas executives and the politicians don’t want you to see.
Many words have been written about Albo’s upgrades, the Chairman’s Lounge and their perceived influence on the Labor Government’s decision to knock back Qatar’s request for additional flights. Let’s not kid ourselves though. Politicians from both sides have been gorging at the Qantas trough for years and there’s little doubt if the Coalition had been in power the decision would have been the same. That is the power of Qantas.
Hopefully this book, and destruction of Qantas’ brand value over the past 5 years, will create the necessary change that will ultimately help us all. Just like Covid showed that our structure of Federation is seriously flawed the unbridled political influence of Qantas through the bestowing of Chairman’s Lounge membership and handing out upgrades like lollies at a kid’s birthday party is wrong and needs to stop.
The biggest takeaway from Aston’s book for me, is the danger of power and its absolute ability to corrupt, distort and ultimately destroy a brand. In this instance, it was not just the Qantas brand but also that of Joyce, his leadership team, his board, and our political leaders.
Reading the chapters it becomes clear that as Joyce’s power increased there is nobody that he, and Qantas, did not shaft. The Qantas employees were first in line, followed by customers, the travel industry and eventually all Australian taxpayers. Most of these were shafted many times over.
How did it happen? Alan Joyce was given too much power. It was offered to him and he grabbed it with both hands. He became his own hero and as he consolidated his power and his ego grew, the normal checks and balances fell away. In the process he, and Qantas, lost all perspective of the bigger picture.
With the power came arrogance. It became all about them, and only them. They were the National Carrier, and he was their rock-star CEO. Of course they could do whatever they wanted, it was their self-given right.
Obviously, the system was designed and played in such a way to reward this type of behaviour. Bonus systems encouraged management to focus on short-term results to maximum their own payouts. The board remuneration system; including overly generous travel benefits that no board member would dare lose through speaking up ensured the board stayed quiet.But it goes deeper than that. The collapse of Ansett back in 2001 gave Qantas total domination of the domestic market and, through careful political grooming it has ensured it still retains this domination 23 years later. According to Aston over 80 per cent of Commonwealth spending on domestic flights is with Qantas. Despite the need to book the ‘lowest practical fare’.
This Qantas situation, to me, is the perfect illustration of how power corrupts and why we need the checks and balances in place. No one organisation or person should be able to wield so much power that they become totally consumed by their own greed – be that greed for money or greed for even more power and control. This is true not just for Qantas but for all aspects of our industry, the broader business world and, of course, politics.
I have no issue with Qantas management on focussing on Qantas first. That is their job. It’s the job of every manager or business owner. However, outside of our own roles we have a collective responsibility to think of the bigger picture and help our sector and society advance. Why? Because if we do then we all benefit. Including our own companies and customers. This applies in good times and in bad. During Covid, it was only when the industry came together that we achieved the best results from our lobbying. For this reason, I have always been a strong advocate for collaboration for the greater good. As we have seen with Joyce, the concentration of power with one person, one company or one sector is never good.
Hopefully, the corner has been turned at Qantas and Aston’s book instigates the lasting changes required.
Feature image: Dennis Bunnik
