Chanticleer
Todd Sampson accidentally nails the big problem at Qantas
The fact the adman thinks his experience has never been more valuable to the embattled airline shows how important the choice of a new chairman is.
Elton John once sang that “sorry seems to be the hardest word”. Not at Qantas, where the apologies came thick and fast at Friday’s annual general meeting in Melbourne.
Chief executive Vanessa Hudson, outgoing chairman Richard Goyder, and every one of the directors who addressed the meeting adopted an appropriate tone of contrition and duly promised to rebuild the Qantas brand to its former glory.
Todd Sampson’s prayers for survival were answered on Friday. Eamon Gallagher
Director Todd Sampson, who was most at risk of being voted off the board, spoke in a hushed tone, explaining that he had wrestled with his decision to seek re-election. But after much soul-searching, the T-shirt-wearing director – it was a long sleeve T-shirt, perhaps in a nod to formality – judged that his long career in advertising meant he could help with the airline’s rescue.
“Of all times in Qantas’ history, especially with a new CEO, this is when my experience will be most valuable,” Sampson said.
Moments later, he survived his brush with shareholders – although a third voted against his re-election.
But the reason Sampson provided for remaining on the board goes directly to the heart of Qantas’ glaring governance problem. How can shareholders rely on the very people who got Qantas into this mess – or at least failed to prevent management from crashing their airline’s reputation – to fix the problem?
Surely the time Sampson’s experience would have been most valuable was 12 to 18 months ago, before the company made a raft of terrible decisions, including unsuccessfully appealing the finding it had illegally sacked thousands of workers to the High Court, selling tickets on thousands of flights it had already cancelled (as the ACCC alleges) and putting an artificial deadline on the redemption of hundreds of millions of dollars of flight credits.
With Sampson and fellow director Belinda Hutchinson retaining their board seats, the importance of getting their choice of chairman right has grown again. This is the big lesson from Friday’s meeting: the next Qantas chairman must be able to deliver a complete leadership and governance overhaul.
It’s fitting that the protest vote against Qantas’ remuneration vote – which came in at a staggering 83 per cent – was only just behind that of NAB, which received a protest vote of 88 per cent in the wake of the royal commission.
There is much Qantas can and should learn from the turnaround at NAB, which was led by a CEO and a chairman from outside the business – respected, steady leaders who immediately reassured large and small investors alike that it was not business as usual.
Qantas is arguably one step behind NAB, having appointed Hudson as its new CEO. She may prove to be a revelation, but the promotion of one of Alan Joyce’s chief lieutenants does not scream new broom, particularly given how much animosity there was towards Joyce at Friday’s meeting.
So the replacement for Goyder, who will depart by November 2024’s AGM, is crucial. Indeed, it may be the most important hiring decision Qantas has made in a generation.
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