This is not an easy story for me because I’m going to bag someone who I think was one of the country’s best CEOs, who then did an ordinary job as the chairman of Qantas. Under Richard Goyder’s stewardship, the airlines brand was so negatively affected that the New York Times headlined a story that read: “How Qantas Sullied Its Once-Mighty Brand in Australia.”

Not surprisingly, given his quality as a human being and once the CEO of Wesfarmers, the owner of Bunnings — the country’s most highly regarded brand — Richard has admitted to the AFR’s Patrick Durkin that “…he made mistakes.”

Unfortunately, he has decided to maintain that Alan Joyce’s leadership, which he ultimately oversaw, was right for the troubled times of the Coronavirus.

As Durkin put it, Goyder “…argues Joyce’s absolutist management style was appropriate during the pandemic, not least because the pressures on the business required direct and decisive leadership.”

That might be partially right — in desperate times like those of Covid-19, actions taken could be questioned — but the Joyce era made the company profitable, but he trashed the brand, which is likely to hurt profits going forward. And the extent of his questionable behaviour was captured in the decision to reduce the size of his parting pay packet.

That news story of $21.4 million going to the Qantas CEO alone offended any normal-thinking person and shone a light on how out of touch both Joyce and Goyder’s board was with the airline’s loyal customer base.

Sure, Qantas has rivals, but it virtually acts like a monopoly or a price leader in an oligopoly industry of few competitors, and these sorts of businesses are never well-known for treating customers well, and it showed terribly under the Joyce regime.

A review of Joyce’s payout was so scathing that those who re-assessed that golden handshake decided to rule out a $9.2 million bonus, and given the fact that the board was OK with that, was always bad look for Goyder and his board.

The Joyce-Goyder era made big mistakes such as:

1. Sacked 6,000 workers and stood down 30,000 of its staff, and then reported a $2.47 billion profit last year.
2. The High Court found 1,700 workers had been illegally sacked.
3. It kept airfares too high for too long.
4. It faced accusations of selling tickets on flights that it had already cancelled, which led to a $120 million settlement.
5. There was an 83% protest vote against the board’s remuneration report at the annual meeting in November.

The Durkin story leaves you with the unchallenged opinion that Alan Joyce acted to boost profits at the expense of a brand that Australians loved and wanted to do business with, and Richard Goyder was an accessory after the fact.

Chairmen can’t go along for the ride. They must be held responsible when their CEO makes big mistakes and no end of excuses will make it look OK.

As a business commentator, I would argue Joyce was a success as a CEO over his time, share price-wise as the stock price rose over his time at the helm, but he did not leave the company in good shape — brand-wise and that’s critically important to the future profit of Qantas and its share price.

Now the new CEO, Vanessa Hudson is promising to rebuild the brand and my advice to her is to listen to her customers and her staff, and my advice the new chairman John Mullen is don’t be too buddy, buddy with Vanessa.

Qantas was a love brand, and we fell out of love with the flying kangaroo, so the new leadership needs to go back to the company’s roots, which was captured in its old theme song: “I still call Australia home.” Alan Joyce never got it and Richard Goyder and his board should never have forgotten it!