I just wanted to make the observation that Singapore Airlines, a company close to my heart in many ways, has quite frankly lost it's mojo.
Love them or hate them, EK and their Middle Eastern brethren are upping the stakes with new aircraft, new routes, and new customers. They may certainly fail, but at least they have a vision and a plan.
What does SQ have? SQ is now being run by a bunch of cost-conscious, risk-adverse Singaporean technocrats to whom Vision and Strategy were subjects they once scored A's in their Ivy League MBA classrooms.
This once-iconic industry leader has acquired a core of uninspired mediocrity. The short list over the past few years:
- Living off the Singapore Girl and her sarong kebaya;
- Destroying the PPS loyalty base in the name of cost savings;
- Comfortably milking the cash-cow routes - China, India, Europe - and minimal route expansion or aggressive fleet buys;
- Totally incoherent, fragmented and poorly executed stabs at perceived market segments - SQ, SilkAir, Tiger(!), Scooooot(!!);
- Total hubris, followed by indecision and quiet dilution of the "Class Beyond First";
- And finally, of course, there's that website - merely the public face and major sales channel of a 21st century enterprise. What happened? Amateurish, incompetent execution that, in a real company with real accountability, would have gotten the CEO and/or every senior manager directly responsible tossed out on the street.
I'm not an industry expert, and no doubt I've got some bits wrong. But I do run a business and it's clear as daylight that this company is totally lacking in Leadership, Accountability, Ideas, and even a basic clue about the Future!
I hope, with genuine sincerity, that the powers-that-be in Singapore Inc. and Temasek Holdings wake up to this fast and find this company proper leadership before it's too late.
Love them or hate them, EK and their Middle Eastern brethren are upping the stakes with new aircraft, new routes, and new customers. They may certainly fail, but at least they have a vision and a plan.
What does SQ have? SQ is now being run by a bunch of cost-conscious, risk-adverse Singaporean technocrats to whom Vision and Strategy were subjects they once scored A's in their Ivy League MBA classrooms.
This once-iconic industry leader has acquired a core of uninspired mediocrity. The short list over the past few years:
- Living off the Singapore Girl and her sarong kebaya;
- Destroying the PPS loyalty base in the name of cost savings;
- Comfortably milking the cash-cow routes - China, India, Europe - and minimal route expansion or aggressive fleet buys;
- Totally incoherent, fragmented and poorly executed stabs at perceived market segments - SQ, SilkAir, Tiger(!), Scooooot(!!);
- Total hubris, followed by indecision and quiet dilution of the "Class Beyond First";
- And finally, of course, there's that website - merely the public face and major sales channel of a 21st century enterprise. What happened? Amateurish, incompetent execution that, in a real company with real accountability, would have gotten the CEO and/or every senior manager directly responsible tossed out on the street.
I'm not an industry expert, and no doubt I've got some bits wrong. But I do run a business and it's clear as daylight that this company is totally lacking in Leadership, Accountability, Ideas, and even a basic clue about the Future!
I hope, with genuine sincerity, that the powers-that-be in Singapore Inc. and Temasek Holdings wake up to this fast and find this company proper leadership before it's too late.
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