Friday 16 May 2014

SWIMMING LESSONS


THE HISTORY OF MAS

MAS started like a small restaurant.. all DIY and the manager cum owner works like mad and the salary was small. Aziz doesn't mind.

When the restaurant gets bigger, reaching the economies of scale, the manager think tank. Grows vege himself, chicken farm, rempah ratus diy, beverages process improved, having their own busses to send their staff home.


Aziz was seen as old fashioned gentleman blind of the potentials by the $eing eye$. "Let us run the show!" They came in many, rushing for the top posts with fat salary. Then... they split amongst themselves. We sign up agreements, you take the chicken farm, you take vege farm, F&B and so on.

The restaurant became a self made franchise. Only to serve customers.
We supply vege, chicken, beef and all (we signed contract remember?)
The busses, you rent, drivers you hire, old drivers.. let them wash the dishes.

The restaurant finally could not make the ends meet due to 'profit sharing'. The uplines and downlines are smiling all the way to the bank. So when the restaurant close shop.. who would cry hardest?


THE SOLUTIONS:

In the third and final part of the interview with Tan Sri Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman, the former Malaysia Airlines managing director says for MAS to fly high again it must be serious about plugging mismanagement, leakages and corruption.

This, Abdul Aziz says starts by appointing the right people. "If they have proper leadership then the rest will work out by itself. If they have the wrong leadership at all levels then everything will go haywire," he said, adding that it was time someone be held accountable - not the least over the disappearance of Flight MH370 two months ago, but for the current financial situation that MAS finds itself in. 

He also acknowledged that having too many CEOs in the last 10 years (five) does not augur well for an airline or any company that wants to turn around.

One must, Abdul Aziz advised, be consistent and have a long term plan. And this consistency can only be achieved if the man at  teh top is allowed a reasonable amount of time to implement his plans. In last week's segment, Abdul Aziz called for a review of lopsided and iffy deals which has continued to put the ailing national carrier in the red.

Saying he would accept if called upon to do national service once more, Abdul Aziz also posed these questions: why is MAS using the same business plan of 40 years ago? And why is it operating low fare at full service?