Why kingfisher is one of the worst airlines and Mr.Mallya one of the worst business leader?

What makes a great airline; hand-picked stewardess by the CEO of an airline company, red hot glamour image and a top-model to make people believe that they will have good time. What makes a great CEO; imitating the flamboyant lifestyle of another flamboyant but successful leader. That is certainly the mantra of kingfisher airlines and its flamboyant CEO. Even a guy who is rejected from the worst MBA School can tell you that this strategy will just not work.

First the airline – Kingfisher (KFA)

KFA was built on the same concept as Virgin Atlantic and they do compare well side by side

·     Virgin provides top quality experience and service to its customer. KFA does the same except dropping “customers” from its precept.

·     Virgin is profitable from its very inception. KFA has no plans to get there since its inception.

·     Virgin’s market share and profitability has zoomed up. KFA’s debt and losses have zoomed up as well.

In a futile attempt to provide luxury and glamour, KFA has lost focus from the very basics of running an airline, even if we drop the word competitive. Punctuality, basic customer services, attentive and quick response is all but missing from KFA mandate.

I wouldn’t say that other Indian airlines have out-rivaled Kingfisher in terms of the service, but they are at least able to function normally, at least pay the salary to their employees.

Expensive labor contracts, skyrocketing fuel prices and passengers used to cheap cross-country fares are some of the handicaps in the Indian aviation industry, but airline companies in other parts of the world run successfully within similar constraints.

The shareholders and creditors of UB group and KFA have certainly paid the price for vanity management.

Now to the infamous Dr.Vijay Mallya

Mr. Mallya is among the lucky few who are born with a golden spoon, as he inherited the cash-cow from his father, in the form a liquor business, United Breweries - maker of the popular Kingfisher beer.

Mr. Mallya is known to be a person of “high spirits”. Mr. Mallya spends most of his time partying and rubbing shoulders with celebrities and models, cruising around the world in his yachts, burning tyres at F1 races, cheering his cricket team etc.

He has very skillfully made many crap acquisitions, mounted enormous debt and now in the process of annihilating even the healthier business. On one side his airline company is bleeding to death, not able to pay tax dues or even salaries to its staff while on the other side Mr.Mallya is busy picking models for the kingfisher annual calendar.

The guy is a supersonic loss making machine. And he has cloned his super powers in his son as well.

I wish Mr. Mallya had adopted the same principle as Sir Richard Branson of putting a one year limit to succeed in his new ventures or exit the market. In that case he would have had lot lesser things to manage except his father’s inheritance.

Mr.Mallya should also get his biography published like Richard Branson’s “Loosing my virginity”, except his book will be titled “Loosing my sanity”. 

This blog is published by an anonymous author who is not flying good times tomorrow on Kingfisher Airlines.