FDs as leaders: Taking command and control of costs

That’s a bit of a Holy Grail: FDs are no different to CEOs, editors or anyone else in a position of responsibility to deliver something, and the thing that makes the difference between someone who can persuade people to do what they need doing and someone who can’t is something management consultants have made billions from claiming to understand – because no one knows what it is.

Which brings me to British Airways. As we were going to press, news reached us that it had been granted a High Court injunction to block a 12-day strike by their cabin crew, on a technicality around the Unite ballot having counted as valid the votes of some cabin crew that no longer worked there (seemingly because they had already been laid off). BA lives to fly another day, or 12. But surely the humiliation of their staff and the union will make clear whether there is any goodwill left between the business and the people operating it on the ground.

Is this leadership? Allowing negotiations to drag on for weeks, getting well beyond the point of no return, with the unions being the immovable object to your opposition’s unstoppable force? BA’s injunction makes their people the enemy – how does this help the business? “There was never any need for a strike and we hope that Unite will take this opportunity to reflect before deciding on its next steps,” BA said. Reflect? It is well beyond the pondering stage. BA and its people are at war with each other - but at what cost?