On February 8th CBS run a story about the “CEO Of the People” A Japan airlines CEO putting him on pedestal to be admired by other CEO’s. I have all the respect in the world for Haruka Nishimatsu and his management style and philosophy. However I believe that such simplistic populist reporting in slightly irresponsible.
Although in today’s unusual environment where everyone is closer to bankruptcy it may seem difficult to tell the difference between banks and airlines, but the John Thain reference marks an untenable comparison! For the global airline industry there is a persistent shortfall between the actual return on invested capital and the level of return expected by investors (i.e. the cost of capital). Some individual airlines generated high returns, but on average the sector is unable to deliver a sufficient return for investors. “No-frills” airlines on average fare not much better. Banks historically do rather well on profitability matrix.
To take a leader, however personable, charismatic and humanistic, from such lousy industry as aviation (with respect to my aviation friends) and put on a general pedestal without caveats and context is in my humble opinion irresponsible reporting. Perhaps we could start a debate about leadership values and corporate values and what role should profit play in an ever more connected, enlightened, and consciously aware society. Perhaps we can start a debate about adding more dimensions, including social dimensions to profitability, which would be worthy debate. However the CBS News report did not move beyond the simplistic, populist, one-dimensional praise and apples and oranges comparisons and that is a shame!
