Emirsyah Satar (left), CEO of Garuda Indonesia, is an airline leader who believes in walking the talk, even if it means cleaning lavatories.
Accepting his Airline Executive of the Year award from CAPA (Centre for Aviation) during its Awards night this week in Singapore, he spoke of the early days when he took charge.
“When I started, we knew that we needed to change our appearance and the first and best way to do that was to start cleaning the lavatories onboard the planes. So that’s what I did. I cleaned lavatories. And, man, it was not easy, I tell you.”
Clearly a leader who believes in inspiring and leading his team, he attributed the current success of the airline to the mantra – “One team, one spirit, one goal”.
Speaking to CAPA chairman Peter Harbison, he likened Garuda’s journey to playing golf.
While the company is doing well, it still has a long way to go before it attains the level of having only a single handicap. Giving up or staying satisfied with where it is, is not an option and it can play up the advantage of having the huge market of Indonesia as its home base.
Satar accepting the award from Peter Harbison (CAPA) and Damian Hickey (Travelport).
Asked how he transformed the attitude and culture of the airline, Satar said that there has to be a balance between logic and heart – too much logic and employees will suffer; too much heart and the company will suffer.”
Managing the balance is crucial and a lot of hard work and hard decisions had to be made, he said.
Another challenge is managing the high-level Indonesian politicians. Letting them know that the airline would now be run on an international standard had to be done with consistent messaging. They had to be bold and stick by their principles. All stakeholders had to be handled sensitively.
Satar said that partnerships are crucial and important to Garuda’s growth. While it had limited capital, Garuda recognised the need to widen its network and one cost-effective way of doing it was through partnerships, which open doors to more routes and revenues.
When asked which market was tough for Garuda, Satar immediately quipped, “Europe”.
“Competition is aplenty and most airlines in the market are well-established. It’s not an easy market for Garuda to get into.”
Satar said that Garuda is slowly but steadily growing in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and China. “The best and biggest growth for us, right now, is in Japan and China. We truly value our partnership with ANA and the doors they have opened for us.”
With LCCs gaining so much market share, he said that Garuda has to carefully plan its strategies to be prepared for more battles. This means, learning to streamline operations and become more efficient ie keep costs low without eroding service values.
Satar (2nd from left) with his team and a delegate from AirAsia Indonesia.
Managing human resources is an art. It’s not about quantity, but quality of talent. As we say at WIT, getting the Talent with Attitude.
In his final statement of the evening, sponsored by Travelport, Satar said, “The way to transform Garuda is to improve appearance, attitude and staff.”
Other winners of the night were:
APAC Small International Airport of the Year (<15m pax) – CAM Macau International Airport
APAC Medium International Airport of the Year (15-25m pax) – New Kansai International Airport
APAC Large International Airport of the Year (>25m pax) – Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA)
APAC Airline Start-Up of the Year – West Air (China)
APAC Low-Cost Airline of the Year – Cebu Air (Philippines)
APAC Airline of the Year – All Nippon Airways
