Long legs, short skirts and blond hair were the chief executives requirements. Admittedly he wasn’t briefing the head hunters for a vacancy on the senior management team but recruiting staff to work in the new restaurant. All part of the £800 million makeover of Gatwick airport by the new American owners. Never the less taken in the context of the rest of this documentary the chief executive’s comments said much about the management culture within the organisation. A management culture all too common in the UK according to a report by management consultants Deloitts. The report found that 20% of companies in the FTSE 100 had no women on their board. Most revealing in terms of the commitment to change is the fact that the proportion of women on boards has only increased from 5% to 9% in ten years.
This throw away comment was captured in the TV documentary Inside Gatwick. The documentary taken with the findings in the Deloitts report shines a light on the state of management in this country. I am not just referring to the treatment of women but the poor quality of people management. The documentary provides plenty of examples like the episode showing the work of the engineers who maintain the conveyor belts that transport passengers luggage around miles of underground networks. The conveyor belt breaks down causing chaos in the departure hall above. As the supervisor struggles to repair the antiquated equipment he is repeatedly interrupted by calls on his mobile phone from managers asking how long it will take to fix, why it is not fixed yet and does he realises the problems this failure to get the conveyor belt working is causing. We then cut to a talk direct to camera where the supervisor refers to the much feared 12 o’clock meetings. “Someone will get shouted at, you just hope it’s not you”. Cut to meeting. A small room is crowded with managers all standing up. There are no chairs because this will be a short meeting and senior managers don’t want people to be comfortable. In front of colleagues the senior manager picks who he thinks is to blame and demands to know what went wrong. Next we see the chief executive addressing a group of senior managers. “Passenger numbers are down we need to do better”. He says” we” but no one is in any doubt he means “you must do better”. Direct to camera individuals speak of five restructurings in six years, low morale and job insecurity.
Next is a presentation on how the South Koreans have developed a management model that improves efficiency, accountability and profitability. This is explained via sixty slides. Next cut to a team meeting with the engineers in which their manager says I need to share with you a presentation that has just been given to me and the other senior managers.” You will be pleased to know I will not be showing all 60 slides I have cut it down to 20”. After the presentation there is a pause for questions. There are no questions. The manager leaves and the engineers who have been stifling yarns and giggling at the management jargon make fun of their manager and confess to have not a clue about the presentation they have just sat through.
Cut to manager in his office who states to camera that he thought that went better than he expected.
Senior management are seen doing a walkabout and saying thing like” we need a big clock in this hall”. All the signage is being changed, new colours, new logo, to reflect the new ownership. This is costing millions of pounds!
The head of marketing has been told that passengers aren’t spending enough money in the airport shops. His strategy is to go up market, more expensive shops. There is a sequence where the blokes who sell raffle tickets for Ferrari and Lamborghini sports cars are told they will in future also be selling tickets for designed handbags. Following the sudden departure of the head of marketing an interim specialist has been drafted in. He introduces himself to the management group by telling them things will have to change there is no room for failure and then proceeds to details their failings to date. He informs the audience that the previous strategy for increasing sales was completely wrong the new strategy is to go mid market not high end. The sales staff have become complacent because they sell more than their other branches outside the airport. The airport doesn’t rent the shop space to the retailers but takes a percentage of the profit so the airport marketing manager seems to think this gives him the right to tell them how to run their stores.
Interestingly when the new head of marketing on walk about asks a passenger what needs improving and what would make the airport experience better the passenger doesn’t immediately say more shops he actually says more comfortable seating and better seating areas.
What I find most incredible about all this is that an organisation would agree to this scathing indictment of their culture being broadcast. Presumable they don’t see a problem.
I can’t swear that I have got all the details correct I am doing this from memory and one viewing but the material here is shockingly familiar, frequent restructuring, a climate of fear and blame, senior managers over concerned with the detail, the use of management speak which only succeeds in confusing staff, major shifts in strategy, asking the customer but failing to listen, senior managers sudden departure and the drafting in interim managers.
Blair McPherson is a former director in a large local authority and author of People management in a harsh financial climate and Equipping managers for an uncertain future both published by www.russellhouse.co.uk