Today I saw the news that Ryanair rejected investor’s pressure to not elect the long-serving chairman David Bonderman which made me think about the current situation of Ryanair and mainly it’s leadership and problems with recent strikes.
I have not invested in Ryanair and I am not planning to any time soon mainly due to the treatment of employees and the style of leadership. Ryanair has faced pressure from unions, strikes and the list goes on. I understand that Ryanair is built on the idea of cheap air travel but for me personally, the basic idea of a company leadership taking care of its employees is so important. It is not rocket sciences because when the leaders take care of the empleeys, they would be happy to work for the company and that would be seen by the treatment customers get. When the customers are happy then I am more than sure that shareholders are going to be happy.
I don’t see a lot of hope for Ryanair unless its culture and leadership wakes up. I wanted to ask what you guys think about the current situation of Ryanair?
Great post! I’ve been looking at this for a while and pondering it, it’s a great example of short-term profitability vs long-term sustainability.
I personally won’t touch Ryanair as I think they offer a very poor service even compared to other budget carriers (EasyJet), largely due to cost cutting. I understand the drive is for profitability, which is essential for them in a cut-throat budget airline industry, but poor service loses customers and loses revenue as a result.
Interested to hear if anyone can convince me otherwise!
The UK Corporate Governance Code also recommends that in order to ensure independence, a chairman or director should not remain in the post for more than nine years.
I read this in the BBC’s article on this today and found it interesting that their Chairman’s 22 year term is more than twice the max recommended.
Despite the airline’s success to date, I think it may be time for Ryanair to enter chapter 2, take note of their stakeholders’ interests (including unions, shareholders, customers and the board itself) as a whole and get on with releasing succession planning for both the CEO & Chairman.
That is very interesting I love how some companies like shouting that they follow the UK Corporate Governance Code when it works their way. However, why follow it all?
Aha I think the ones you’ve seen shout about it do because of the comply or explain principle.
I think the Code should be followed because it provides minimum standards for best practice and in the case of Ryanair have they really explained why they’ve deviated from 9 year term? They’ve said that their current Chairman holds weight in the airline industry that nobody else could match but is this a good enough explanation?
I love how some companies like shouting that they follow the UK Corporate Governance Code when it works their way. However, why follow it all? 