Tony Fernandez
and creation of
AirAsia
“Now
everyone can fly”
Dato Anthony Francis
Fernandez, better known as Tony Fernandez is a Malaysian entrepreneur and
founder of AirAsia. The
story of AirAsia began in September 2001, undoubtedly the worst month in the
history of commercial aviation. It is then Tony Fernandez has decided to create
a low-cost, short haul airline. Everyone thought that Fernandes had gone "crazy",
predicting that the company would fail miserably as September 11,2001 tragedy
has created fear of flying among people, nobody wanted to fly then, many airlines
were experiencing large financial
losses. Yet, Tony Fernandez believed in the success of his ideas. As he
said himself: "It really
was a little bit of stick your finger in the air and hope for the best. But we
were good marketing people from the music business… we just went out there and
felt the market and said if you halve the fare, there's a huge enormous
untapped market." This statement is evidence that a successful
entrepreneur should “feel” the market and have financial or marketing
knowledge.
At
the beginning AirAsia had large debts, but after just one year it started to
grow rapidly and expanded ‘from just two airplanes in 2002 to 86 aircrafts
flying 30 million people around the world.’ In fact the timing of formation of
AirAsia was perfect because the consequences of September 11, 2001, created decline of the
aircraft leasing costs by 40%. Also, airline lay-offs mean experienced staff
were readily available. The learning point for any entrepreneur is that even
worst predictions about company’s future could turn out to be wrong.
Mr
Fernandez believes that the secret of success is to be single-minded. He also
believes that efficiency is the key to profits. As to the managers, Mr
Fernandez advises to get involved in the day-to-day operations in order to gain
a better understanding of procedures. Mr Fernandez himself adopts this strategy
and work as a crew member or during operations on the ground. For any young
entrepreneurs is a good example and advise, as by getting involved in a
company’s daily activities an entrepreneur gains a valuable experience as well
as ideas of expansion or how the service could be improved.
Another
strategy that is believed to retain the success of AirAsia is a strategy when
employees come number one and customers come number two’. In words of Mr
Fernandez:” If you have a happy workforce they'll look after your customers
anyway." It is an interesting strategy as usually service providers try to
convince its customers that customers’ interests are main concern of a company.
However, the strategy of Tony Fernandez has created a loyalty among customers
of AirAsia, thus this strategy is a success and can be implied into other
firms.
In
a conclusion, according to the story of a successful creation of AirAsia, there
are few keys to success. Firstly, you have to have an absolute believe in the
success of your new venture. Secondly, get involved in the everyday processes
of your new company. Lastly, construct a most suitable managerial strategy
taking into consideration a culture, location , workforce and customers’
expectations and other factors.
References:
‘How Air Asia founder Tony Fernandes' dream
came true’, November 2010, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11647205
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