Turning around Malaysian Airlines

In these days of gloom one can get doses of adernaline by reading fascinating stories of big turn arounds. Happen to read one such thing in Mckinsey Quarterly, in which the CEO of Malaysian Airlines, Idris Jala explains how he went about turning around the ailing airline in a span of about 2yrs (from -$363M in 2005 to +$247M in 2007). Idris Jala had based this turn around on the following 6 principles:

• the game of impossible
• anchoring everything on the P & L
• building a winning coalition
• discipline of action
• situational leadership and
• divine intervention

He had to take some tough and emotionally charged decisions (like selling their building in KL downtown, which gave him monies to survive for 20more days) etc., He makes it looks very simple though. But the highlight is the clear execution. Bigger highlight is that Idris Jala had never run an airline, which clearly shows why leaders are important.

You can read the complete interview here (registration (free) needed).