I am sitting in the MLL having a coffee and perusing the G&M.

This quote from Isidore Sharp, CEO of Four Seasons Hotels, caught my eye for wisdom and relevance to AC's present situation

"My job was getting employees at every level to focus on one priority: pleasing customers. And it was also getting managers to focus on the obvious corollary: pleasing employees"

Here is a simple and effective strategic plan for revitalizing the airline.

I fear i'm going to offend.....but at the Four Seasons you have a vast range of associates who make from minimum wage + up and can appreciate good leadership and praise. While at AC, they start much higher then that and can be tainted by a lifer making 5, 6, 7 times that and virtually free flights and still feel they deserve more.

Both groups are in the service sector, but one group appreciates that and the other would like to forget that.

So, this might work on the newer folks, it won't work well on the seasoned, locked-in unioniized vet who has a sense of entitlement. More, more, more.

When I read today's extract from Sharp's book in the Globe, the comparison with AC could not be avoided (and I knew it would quickly be posted here). Another classic quote is "But the fastest way for management to destroy its credibility is to say employees come first and be seen putting them last". AC in a nutshell. Sharp said it was not easy to change the "commanders issuing orders" approach, but he did do it.

I have to read the book!

Does anyone have the link?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...lobebooks/home

Remember Robert Milton's comment about how leadership means being "in charge"? He, and AC management in general, could learn a lot from this paragraph:

Well Milton is back running AC, so perhaps we should buy him the book. hes pulling the strings from London.

It seems to me that unionized work forces in the G8 countries are finally coming to realize the hard way that you can only suck a company dry for so long before something bites you. For any endeavor or enterprise in life you get out of it in proportion to what you put into it.

One of the delicious ironies emerging from this economic downturn, or crisis if you prefer, is that the unions and their members might finally realize that if you want the goose to keep laying eggs, you have to feed it once in a while.

Speaking of the goose that lays eggs, of course every penny of every hefty bonus that was paid to the senior executives who managed AC into its current liquidity crunch was highly deserved, wasn't it?

I think that overall AC's unions have been pretty realistic through the ups and downs of the industry. They have usually made concessions when necessary. Big ones were made in 2003. More will probably be made before the current crunch is over. If Mr Milton was incorrect when he claimed to have left AC in good shape to withstand the next downturn, that's hardly the fault of AC's unions or of its unionised employees.

If only you took the time to do some research before opening your mouth, you would of realised that the unions at AC didn't hesitate to make massive concessions to help out the company last time around, in 2003....

The ones I can think of right now....

Extra 1/2 hour unpaid a day (that alone is 6% decrease in salary)
Temporary pay reductions
Creation of a new pay scale for employees hired after 2004 (which is significantly lower)
Loss of 1 week paid vacation
Loss of evening/night premiums for phone agents
Reduction of sick/family days from 15 to 6 a year
Accepting a 6 yr long collective agreement to help out the company

Etc etc etc.

I probably am missing a few, feel free to add in.

So please, don't go around saying that Unions are milking the company away, Execs who are leaving with ten's of millions of dollars, in this tough economy, are the ones milking the company, certainly not the unions.

Cheers

QED. These are all things that are demonstrably unsustainable. If you're gliding along at FL350 and drop down to FL300, you're still flying pretty high.

I agree - after years of flying I had the worst check-in experience at the SE gate at Pearson - rude, condescending, arrogant, etc. - seasoned vet, yes; willing to please customers, no

The only solace would be that this agent may be a casualty of bankruptcy

Thanks for the link.. I have pre-reserve the book.. It will be good reading!

I'm not a fan of unions, but at times they have their place. As pax, we've experienced a long trend towards being treated more as self-loading cargo. It's probably fair to say that the environment at AC hasn't been terribly conducive to creating a harmonious working environment for the employees.

Izzy Sharp makes a few good points in his book (at least, the exceprts that have been published thus far). He notes that if the workers work for you, then you (as management) should work for the workers. I doubt very much that's been the consistent case at AC. No wonder then, that the unions feel embittered at times!

But in today's expert, Mr. Sharp observed how opportunities can come out of economic downturns. Co-incidentally on the next page of Report on Business (page B4), Calin Rovinescue notes that AC needs to take advantage of the strong relationship with AE and the most frequent flyers, and that AC doesn't necessarily need to shrink back to profitability and that other solutions may be possible.

I hope Mr. Rovinescue is right and that a creative solution to the bankruptcy situation is forthcoming. And I hope that he's able to create a better working atmosphere at AC as well, for happy workers will most likely result in happy pax.