Latest / Best of Business / Bruce Cotterill: advisor to business leaders on Air New Zealand staff threatening strike action

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Bruce Cotterill: advisor to business leaders on Air New Zealand staff threatening strike action · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: Now Air new Zealand A the problems get worse. They're
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  Speaker 2: under pressure now to save Christmas for thousands of travelers
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  Speaker 2: because the cabin crew union has told the airline its
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  Speaker 2: workers are going to go on strike on December. The
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  Speaker 2: eighth Air New Zealand is saying if the strike does
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  Speaker 2: go ahead, it could unpacked fifteen thousand travelers over the weekend.
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  Speaker 2: The airline also faced criticism from two prominent business commentator
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  Speaker 2: Sam Stubbs in one newspaper and Bruce Cottrell in another
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  Speaker 2: newspaper for a sliding performance in the Price of Flying
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  Speaker 2: and Bruce Cottrell is with us. Now, Hi, Bruce, good aheader,
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  Speaker 2: what about that strike? Did you think Jesus can't get
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  Speaker 2: any worse?
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  Speaker 3: Well, it could always get worse, I suppose. But it's
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  Speaker 3: just about setting our expectations, isn't it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah? Well yeah, but setting our is the expectation, not
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  Speaker 2: set by the price though, Bruce, and the price is
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  Speaker 2: so high exactly.
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  Speaker 3: Well, And that's what I tried to say in the
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  Speaker 3: column here, that this is it's not a cheap service,
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  Speaker 3: is it? It's and you expect performance when you're pay
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  Speaker 3: in a thousand bucks to fly return to Wellington. Yeah,
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  Speaker 3: and you do expect a level of performance and that
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  Speaker 3: level of performance isn't there at the moment. So it's frustrating.
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  Speaker 3: It's frustrating for travelers. I'm sure it's frustrating for a
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  Speaker 3: New Zealand as well.
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  Speaker 2: I wonder, I mean, what set you off? What got
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  Speaker 2: you to finally write this column. Was the new CEO
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  Speaker 2: basically saying everything was fine at the airline. I just
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  Speaker 2: wanted because I'd also picked that up. And I just
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  Speaker 2: wonder if they do not realize how how opinion is
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  Speaker 2: turning against them. What do you think?
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  Speaker 3: I think? I think a couple of things. One was
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  Speaker 3: one was that comment, and you're quite right when he
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  Speaker 3: said that the airline was in fantastic shape when he
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  Speaker 3: was on with Mike one morning. The other the other
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  Speaker 3: comment that really grated me was after arriving in Wellington
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  Speaker 3: an hour and twenty five minutes late and missing a meeting,
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  Speaker 3: for the pilot to come on the speaker and apologize
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  Speaker 3: for being quote a bit late. You know, I just
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  Speaker 3: and that's that's what I mean. About expect If the
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  Speaker 3: if the team and in New Zealand are lowering their
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  Speaker 3: expectations and an hour and twenty five is just a
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  Speaker 3: bit late, then those expectations will never recover. And you
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  Speaker 3: know yourself, right, if you don't aspire to be better,
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  Speaker 3: you'll never be better. And that's and we just need
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  Speaker 3: we just need a bit of amph as a country
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  Speaker 3: at the moment. It's not just in New Zealand. I
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  Speaker 3: think the whole country needs it.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think you're right. Do you think that
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  Speaker 2: we're just kind of becoming a bit mediocre in our brains?
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  Speaker 3: Well, I don't know if we're becoming mediocre, but I
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  Speaker 3: do think if you know we're sitting around but still
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  Speaker 3: blaming COVID, then there's something wrong with us. You know,
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  Speaker 3: we are a country that have become what we what
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  Speaker 3: we are, or what we at least were until recently,
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  Speaker 3: by boxing above our weight. And I think we're starting
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  Speaker 3: to see a lot of evidence of not wanting to
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  Speaker 3: do that anymore for whatever reason. And you know, I
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  Speaker 3: put off writing that column for two years because I
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  Speaker 3: don't want to knock in New Zealand. But gee, it's
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  Speaker 3: getting hard to remain silent. And the feedback that we've
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  Speaker 3: had over the weekend as a result of the column
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  Speaker 3: would indicate that I'm not the only one that's feeling
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  Speaker 3: like that.
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  Speaker 2: No, you're not. You're not the only one at all.
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  Speaker 2: And and I'm going to talk about this later on actually,
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  Speaker 2: because I think you're onto something there. How long before
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  Speaker 2: you start flying Jetstar?
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  Speaker 3: Well, as I say in the column, I don't want
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  Speaker 3: to be that guy. I want I want in New
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  Speaker 3: Zealand to be outrageously successful and and I don't want
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  Speaker 3: to be the person that takes the cheaper option or
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  Speaker 3: flies with flies with the enemy. I'd rather do everything
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  Speaker 3: I can to support New Zealand or en zen Ink
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  Speaker 3: or whatever you want to call it. But we do
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  Speaker 3: have to lift our sites. We have to lift our
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  Speaker 3: own expectations of ourselves and of the businesses that are
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  Speaker 3: there to service. Otherwise we will We'll end up going
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  Speaker 3: to do something else.
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  Speaker 2: And Air New Zealand is losing the loyal customers. So
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  Speaker 2: what is your one tip to Air new Zealand if
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  Speaker 2: you could give them one.
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  Speaker 3: If I could get them give them one tip, I
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  Speaker 3: would say, recover the aspiration to be the best line
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  Speaker 3: in the world and give you people at the front
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  Speaker 3: line who are interacting with your customers, the permission to
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  Speaker 3: solve the customers problem.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Bruce, thank you very much. It's so good to
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  Speaker 2: talk to you. Appreciate it, Bruce, Cultural professional director, business
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  Speaker 2: leader and adviser and of course our Herald columnist, which
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  Speaker 2: is where he wrote it in the Herald. You know,
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  Speaker 2: honestly that column got I got. I got sent to
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  Speaker 2: that column randomly by one of my friends, and then
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  Speaker 2: I had to talk to the boss over the weekend
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  Speaker 2: who just brought it up. He's like, oh, did you
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  Speaker 2: see what Bruce said. Everybody's talking about the column. If
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  Speaker 2: you haven't read the column, go and read the column.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about it because I have I
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  Speaker 2: have more disound it, but I don't have time right now.
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  Speaker 2: I want to talk about it with you later on.
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