How to knife your internal customers, then detain your external ones without trial

The past last weeks of July 2005 were dominated by two high profile strikes with daily media coverage.

In one, the Pick 'n Pay strike, the majority of stores remained open despite protests at most outlets. The media was kept up to date, and the public remained in the loop via frequent press releases. In the forefront, CEO Sean Summers remained accessible to the press, limiting speculation and remaining closely in touch with the negotiation process. The strike appears to be over, a settlement reached and the damage contained.

If one could have tried to illustrate the difference between heads and tails, the other drama provided the counterfoil. The management of SAA are alleged to have lied to their staff about short-term company profitability at crucial times in the wage negotiation process. This misled unions into accepting increases based on inflation data in the interests of the airline. Management then crowed about a miraculous turnaround in fortunes announcing a profitable last four quarters (This, after having lost the plot badly on the futures markets the previous year). The unions were not amused. Would you be? Then, despite weeks of warning of the pending strike, Khaya Ngqula, SAA's big spending CEO took a vacation at a private game lodge while his airline practically came to a standstill on the tarmac. The airline (alias the South African taxpayer) dropped a cool R1 billion in the process. Nice one, Khaya (talk about a hands-off approach!)

A few years ago most South Africans were acquainted with at least one person who had been hijacked in recent times. By last weekend, there were not many of us who didn't know at least half a dozen people stranded by the SAA strike (albeit in comfortable hotels). Ngqula and his team's inaction cost his customers many billions more than it cost his airline. This does not amuse customers, or their friends.

Curiously enough, airline passengers actually have lives, strange as it may seem. Some of them have important engagements to attend like emergency surgery, editing deadlines, addressing conferences, and insignificant as it may sound, kids to take to school, and perhaps funerals to attend.

Let's consider the impact of this PR disaster. Whether or not a leader's decisions are popular, he will be judged by the perceptions of his two main customers:

1. The external customer (substitute "passenger")

2. The internal customer (substitute "ground staff and crew").

SAA's professional management (read "okes with management degrees but little experience at running an airline") led their key internal customers up the garden path. Those same internal customers have many more years experience at passenger transportation than their masters. Did management think they were going to get away with it? The strikers, in turn, dumped their external customers - who were in most cases given scant warning of the pending strike. While the strike was in force, many stranded passengers received no information whatsoever, with the airline running at under 20% of its capacity.

The upside is that British Airways, Kulula.com, Nationwide, One Time and the like are experiencing boom times. Here's the problem. It's going to take SAA quite some time to repair their damaged reputation. And passengers have long memories. They don't forget easily.

You can no longer get away with running a company without transparent communication. It's also not possible to prosper when management plays ducks and drakes instead of practicing sound leadership principles.

Joke is, if Khaya is shown the red card as he should be, he will simply walk away from it all with his pockets well lined and climb back onto the national CEO circuit in search of some other eager company desperately looking to snap him up at an even higher salary to meet some or other quota. There is no vested interest.

If South Africa is to be ready to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup and the many other conferences planned for this country in the future, we need to take a serious look at our leadership practices and our customer service focus. It's unforgivable to set yourself up for disaster by playing silly games, especially when the stakes are this high.

We want the world to take us seriously. We need to start being serious about the way we communicate with our customers. And South African customers need to stop being so apathetic about bad service and inexcusable conduct.

It's quite likely that we haven't seen the end of this. In the next few weeks the pilots are getting ready to take industrial action too unless their case, largely centred around management incompetence, is properly addressed. Problem is, this time, no planes will be taking off at all. And certainly not one with me in it!

So if you're planning to fly some time soon, choose your carrier with care. I will be.

Paul du Toit