Etihad ‘fix-it man’ Cramer Ball: failure no option at Alitalia
THE AUSTRALIAN12:00AM JUNE 17, 2016
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Damon Kitney
Victorian Business Editor
Melbourne
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Alitalia chief executive Cramer Ball: ‘Failure is not an option.’ . Picture: Lapresse
Cramer Ball has never been one to sit for long in his corner office, which has come as something of a surprise to the staff and customers of the airline he now pilots, the long embattled Italian national carrier Alitalia.
“You cannot run this place sitting in an office,” Ball says in today’s issue of The Deal.
“I am not referring to anyone in the past but many people — our customers, our partners — had not seen an Alitalia CEO. An Alitalia CEO has not walked into their office to talk business, whether it be in an airport in a *region or a key customer’s office.”
Getting out to the coalface, walking around the operations and understanding what makes the business tick has always been the modus operandi for *Aus*tralian-born and bred Ball, who has come to be known as the “fix-it man” of United Arab Emirates carrier Etihad *Airways.
After stints at Ansett and Qantas, he moved offshore and turned around Etihad’s investments in the once stricken Air Seychelles before turning his attention to India’s Jet Airways, which *recently posted its first annual net profit in eight years and its fourth straight quarterly net profit.
Now Alitalia, which is 49 per cent owned by Etihad, looms as his toughest challenge.
The Italian people lost respect in their national carrier long ago as it was sunk by poor product, shoddy service and political meddling. To its worst critics, it has been a laughing-stock on the global aviation stage.
But under the previous chief executive and now Ball, Alitalia is focusing on *operating more long-haul routes, especially to fast-growing Asian countries including China; buying new and more efficient planes; upgrading technology; and making use of Etihad’s international network.
Last month, on what the airline called “Alitalia Day” in Rome, new staff uniforms — the first in two decades — and the first big global ad campaign in seven years were launched.
At the event, a buoyant Ball described it as a “line in the sand”. “Today is a milestone for our business,” he said. “We have an Alitalia that the world can be proud of. There is no option. We believe Alitalia is the first choice. We believe a customer must and will choose Alitalia.”
On the same stage, Etihad Aviation Group chief executive James Hogan, who is also deputy chairman of Alitalia, declared the carrier would be making money by the end of next year, a change to his earlier goal of simply breaking even.
Ball, like us all, has dealt with failure in his life. “Of course, we all have,” he says. “You get up again, you work harder.”
But at Alitalia such an outcome will not be countenanced.
Asked what happens if this turnaround takes longer than 2017, Ball looks at the ground, shakes his head and simply *repeats a single word: “No, no.”
So there is no flexibility? Again the reply is unambiguous: “Failure is not an option.”
Damon Kitney travelled to Rome courtesy of Etihad/Alitalia.
Il fallimento non è una opzione