bafan

Maybe he's just getting on with his job......?

PAUL PALMER

Quite. Which is why I still wish that he were back at Aer Lingus

bafan

But the share price has done quite well in the last year......?

redsox1918

His sole aim is to increase the share price. If you own shares that is great but he is not doing it for you as he also has alot of shares in the company.

I would not trust this dwarf as far as I could throw him unless I was a member of the flight deck!!!

BAHumbug

I didn't say he had to use the systems. There are plenty of 'dogsbody' jobs (no offence intended) that he could turn his hand to. And, yes, I seriously do think people like that OUGHT to turn their hand to front line jobs periodically.

BAH

Mutu

I dont think thats at all apporpriate
I dont think one extra man helping out will make any difference
I dont think pax are queuing up demanding to know where the CEO is
I thought he was preparing for the BASSA talks coming up
I thought he had a big business to run in a dreadful marketplace
I thought he has BA/AA ATI to sort out
I thought there was talk of some BA IB merger deal
I thought he had key discussions with the pension trustees to prepare for
I wonder if JAL is taking up any of his time

As we dont know there is no point making a negative point out of nothing
I am sure he is applying himself to his job as much (or more) than many BA staff do from time to time

ian001

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8100/4.2.0 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/120 UP.Browser/5.0.3.3 UP.Link/5.1.2.1)

The OP does seem to have an obssession with WW...

Long term, his biggest problem at the moment is not the weather, but stopping BASSA from destroying the airline. I'd prefer he focussed on that and other strategic issues as mentioned by one of the more measured contributors.

Also, a lot of companies do have "back to the floor" initiatives and although superficially attractive its actually more of a hinderance to front line staff having an inexperienced member of staff from head office at your side.

Swanhunter

^ on both points.

adrianjc32

Whilst it would be good to see him around the terminals I rather suspect he would be mobbed by customers who want to tell him how vile we are because of the weather disruption. Why did we not 289 reservation agents in a cupboard to drag out when there is disruption, why cant we tell them when the snow will melt, why are there not an infinite number of hotel rooms etc etc. Frankly I do not think it would achieve much at all. Instead he is in charge or OCIC who are taking a high level overview of our operation and making decisions about the operation designed to return it to a steady state as soon as possible. It would be nice to see him around the terminals, but not until the operation is starting to recover and is more robust.

Silver Fox

I would modify it slightly to say "Short term, his biggest problem at the moment is not the weather, but stopping BASSA from destroying the airline.

Long term his biggest problem is deciding what business BA is in as they don't seem to know at the moment imo.

BAHumbug

That's not entirely true. Such initiatives do work but depend on the head office person being willing to listen to the front line member of staff and accept that, for once, they do not know better. In my view, this is where such initiatives fall down.

BAH

Tupelo

I consider the OP a troll and the title of his post an offensive violation of FT terms of use. "Dwarf"? Really? I have no opinion of WW either way, but I do wish the children would refrain from posting.....

bernardd

I don't have any particular knowledge of what's going on inside BA, but my sense is WW may have won a small battle in the Courts with BASSA but I fear they're not in danger of winning the war. Frankly I wonder if they aren't in grave danger of stoking up so much allienation the position may prove unrecoverable.

As many, many people have proved in the past, a strong team all pulling in the same direction can achieve much more than the individuals. The leader doesn't have to be liked (I offer Sir Alec Ferguson!) but he has to be visible, honest, open, fair, trusted and respected. I wonder how many BA people would ascribe those attributes to their present leader? Maybe getting his hands dirty on a regular basis would help WW - it certainly never hurt Herb Kelleher and he's about the only CEO of a major airline with an enviable long term financial track record.

Silver Fox

I agree. I think he/she should have said "Irish leprechaun". Which shouldn't offend anyone.

ian001

I don't disgree with you and in an ideal world it would be good if the above could happen.

But WW is CEO of an airline that in an industry that is dysfunctional at the best of times. If only he could just get on with the difficult enough day to day business of running an airline.

In his in-tray at the moment is: the pensions deficit, TATL ATI, increasing competition between alliances (for member airlines and customers), the IB deal, the unions, getting the company back to profitability...

Plus there is all the other day to day stuff that we ignore/take for granted: the painfully unexciting but important business of cargo, policy and regulatory issues (competition policy, environmental policy, taxation), BAA, the CAA, corporate governance, investor relations, media relations, business planning, safety/engineering/operational issues, possible business projects/potential deals that we don't hear about (franchise deal with a domestic airline in India etc)..

And we all expect him to personally read and respond to any correspondence from customers!

I would also add that from my experience when companies arrange formal visits for Chairman/CEO to visit sites there is so much stage management by the local managers that the experience is quite unreal. I remember at a previous employer when our Chairman (who used to like doing a days' work in London and hop onto BA3 to be in New York in the evening, and slum it back to LHR on a jumbo in F, but I digress!) visited and what was supposed to be an open Q&A question with staff was in fact completely orchestrated with every question vetted and planted in advance.