It is difficult not to feel philosophical when you sit across the table with Arvind Jadhav at his office in New Delhi. What, you wonder, goes through a man’s head when he is hated by the rank and file in the organisation he heads? What, you wonder, does a man feel like to be the lone wolf with no pack to call his own? Before the questions coalesce, the answers shake you out of your reverie. Arvind Jadhav, chairman and managing director at Air India, doesn’t give a rat’s backside. Really!
That changed in July this year when employees found their salaries were not credited to their bank accounts on the last day of the month. It was Jadhav’s way of telling folks at Air India the ship is sinking. The ripples were felt as far away as Frankfurt where the airport authorities were convinced the airline was headed into bankruptcy. They wanted bank guarantees on their payments and Jadhav had to fly to the city to convince them Air India wasn’t going belly up — not yet.
The Next Move
Clearly, the battle to save Air India is at a particularly interesting juncture. “Right now my turnaround strategy is like a chess game,” says Jadhav. “My opponents are waiting to find out what my next move will be.” A lock-out would have broken the back of the unions. And if it lasted 15 days, all the existing wage agreements with the unions would have lapsed, allowing the airline to push for a big round of cuts and more flexible employment terms.
(This story appears in the 20 November, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)
Dear Sir, Please see the following link : http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/masala-noodles/entry/satyam-way-for-air-india Guess it does cover the sentiments of the Nation quite well.
on Nov 26, 2009Kudos to Forbes for this candid piece!
on Nov 17, 2009Pl ask mr. jadhav about his own austerity measures that don't seem to apply to him<br /> 1. Holiday for self and family in Malaysia while flying 1st class on Malaysian Airlines and stay at co. expense at best hotels<br /> 2. Travels to Frankfurt in Lufthansa 1st class when there are 3 flights daily from India by AI<br /> 3. Lives in a posh AI allotted 3BHK flat in Sterling Apts and wants to take in the next door apt. which is also owned by AI<br /> 4. All his showmanship is only at the cost of the employees who have no say in the running of the airline. <br /> He has NO turnaround plan except a wage cut.<br /> In the last few months there have been hundreds possibly thousands of upgrades to 1st class from economy as per his direct instructions for politicians, bureaucrats and so called CIPs. Hasn't this cost the airline ?<br /> His direct flights to NYC have made a documented loss of 750 Crores in the last six months that hes been at the helm. What has he done about that?<br /> <br /> <br />
on Nov 16, 2009Many issues are being glossed over, including motivation and HR fires burning. Emails from employees to newspapers and the Manadarins in Ministry have gone abegging for last several years. Many predicted the outcome and the folly and fallacy of the merger. The no. of consultants have proven to be an eyewash. Reminds one of Humpty Dumpty, and therefore agree that nothing like a lockout and revamp of Air India. An urgent and generous VRS is a necessary corollary.
on Nov 16, 2009Turning around an organisation is a team work, and can not be done by one individual. There are many PSUs and CPSUs who are navratna and making huge profits but they are run professionally and run by professionals. All decisions are taken on the basis of corporate governance and with long term profitability. Today every one is talking about 31000 employees, nobody is answering where these 31000 employees came from. Whose job is it to calculate man power requirement.They have not been recruited themselves.There were two airlines namely Indian Airlines and Air India, who created Vayudoot and recruited their near and dear ones in Vayudoot?<br /> Vayudoot failed and its balance sheet and staff was merged in these two airlines. Who inducted so many workers first and then the same job were outsourced. Then another low cost supposed to be created with name Alliance Air with old B737 and ATRs and again massive recruitment and re-employment of old retired staff took place, now again they are being merged. Then two big Air Lines i.e Air India and Indian Airlines are merged and before they could merge Air India Express comes. <br /> And each new entity comes with new staff where so called 31000 old staff is not trusted with job of new entity and it is projected Air India is over staffed. In Air India problem is not staff, but quality of staff. Out of 31000, about 10000 is very efficient and quality par excellence. Remaining 21000 is not even worth serving BEST or even DTC, forget airlines.<br /> There is a need to evolve a mechanism so that this 10000 efficient staff is not demoralised, if they turn unhappy - it would be a sad day for AI as they can find their way to other places but AI minus them would be a joke. In Air India no decision is taken with economic sense, decisions are taken some times to please political masters, sometimes to please unions and some times with no sense.<br /> This is one organisation where you will find cry of overstaffing still you will see highly connected retired individual get redeployed at huge cost with no work for them.
on Nov 16, 2009Time and again every one seems to be blaming the employees for the mess in AI. Decisions taken at the boardrooms and ministries seem to have been forgotten. Besides , Mr. Jadhav mentioned that the rut starts at the booking offices onwards. On the other hand everyone seems to have a sense of urgency once the D-10 ontime performance have been mandated by the CMD. This goes on to prove that the employees react to the actions of the top management. So why wasn't there any benchmark for performance? Probably because the top management did not want it, I guess. And why isn't there one now ..even after 2 years of merger. <br /><br /> <br /> It is really nice to know that Mr. Jadhav is trying to set AI in order. But I think that he should first come out of the mind set that the employees are solely to be blamed for all the mess. Secondly, I think that one needs to understand why this merger is not working. After all the purpose of this merger was savings through economies of scale. No one seems to be talking about that. <br /><br /> <br /> Was competition, recession etc. not factored in while conceiving the merger idea?? <br /><br /> Even now with BA and IBeria being merged, there is a cost involved ...about $350 million. Did the Indian Government and AI top management along with Accenture think that AI-IA merger would not have cost at all???<br /><br /> <br /> Time and again I have seen that Mr. Jadhav only talks about employee cost and bloated workforce. Then should he not also mention that this workforce includes a Hindi Language implementation implementation department? Should he not mention that AI - IA was forced to absorb all Vayudoot employees?<br /><br /> <br /><br /> <br /> What I see from Mr. Jadhav's comments is that he is not ready to accept the past (as he has mentioned in your write up) which is actually the reason for this mess.
on Nov 16, 2009