Emotional Quotient.

A Qantas friend asked for my opinion on the latest disruptions, mud slinging and emotional turmoil encountered over the last month with the national carrier. I thought about what it meant to be Qantas staff, disrupted travellers and the general public accosted by a media frenzy. In the end I ended up with one opinion. You cannot run a global business, along normal business lines, including hard line decisions, if your business segment is in travel and tourism. It is without a doubt the most emotionally charged and angst ridden sector within the business community. When was the last time you heard a squeak out of the CPAs, the RTA or the Real Estate Institute? Okay, lame examples but if you did, would it amount to the last month of Qantas woes?

No matter what decisions are made by airlines within travel and tourism, the global consequences are far beyond the scope, of business objectives and this brings decision makers into confrontation with the biggest disadvantage the industry has, emotion. No pragmatic decision to cut staff, introduce new procedures and processes, buy equipment, change direction or even tamper with the lunch menu can be made without encountering an emotional wave tossing the decision makers to the beach.

While emotion is often seen as a disadvantage from a decision making process, travel and tourism have always been about passion and emotion, a lifestyle built on service driven by emotion to succeed. So the struggle between getting you from A to B safely, making your holiday memorable and accomplishing corporate travel objectives, all the while working with big entities needing advantages over each other, sees the industry balancing on an emotional fulcrum.

General Motors Holden deciding to cut a line of unprofitable models, Coles not providing the cheapest muesli bar alternative and the local pub not serving your favourite beer are business decisions made by management to increase bottom line and stay in business. None of them cause the consternation and emotional outbursts an airline creates via cuts, changes or challenges to the states quo. Everything about travel, from making initial decisions on a holiday, saving up the required money, to lists of shopping and tours along with who you travel on, are emotionally based decisions that don't have a plan B because that would be too practical and unemotional.

Some see the airlines as emotional cripples, not able to see or care about the people they compromise, disadvantage and generally disrupt. I see airlines trapped in an industry not always ready to make hard decisions because the bottom line is people and lifestyle, not dollars. Perhaps the airlines need to get in touch with their EQ before making decisions? Perhaps airlines should consult more with the industry they service? Or maybe they just need to not change anything and we'd all be happy?

None of that works if you run a business. You being the operative word, not them, not others but you. Welcome to The airline CEO's world. I'm sure sometimes they wished they worked for a widget company, only responsible for a simple product, or providing a service without emotional turmoil attached?