Tony Fernandes free essay sample

Introduction Tan Sri Anthony Franicis Fernandes or knows as Tony Fernandes is a Malaysian entrepreneur in airline business. He is the founder of Tune Air Sdn. Bhd. who introduced the first budget no-frills airline, AirAsia, to Malaysian with the motto of â€Å"Now everyone can fly†. With his innovation, he is successful to turn a failing government-linked, DRB-Hicom commercial airline into a highly successful budget airline public listed company. (Air Asia, 2005) 1. 1 Background Tony was born in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1964 to an Indian Goan father and Malacca Portuguese mother. His father was a communist doctor while his mother is a business women. When he was young he used to follow his mother a business women in selling Tupperware around Malaysia. He was educated at Epsom College from 1997-1983 and graduated from London School of Economics in 1987. (Sen Z. amp; Ng, J. , 2008) Although Tony grew up in a middle-class Malaysian family, Tony’s early thinking was shaped by the British education system. We will write a custom essay sample on Tony Fernandes or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page He was about 12 when his parents sent him to boarding school in England, where he lived and worked well into early adulthood. Boarding school had brought a huge culture shock for him, but he has always been adjustable, so he managed to survive it. Moreover Tony is very good at sports, therefore it makes things easier for him to solve since everyone there was a foreigner and he managed to break the ice between them. He also said that he can be put anywhere in the world, and he will be able to get on with people around. (Sen Z. amp; Ng, J. , 2008) Tony studied accounting but he became an auditor in Virgin Atlantic after graduating from the London School of Economics (LSE) in 1987. However the job was seems to boring for his adventurous spirit and he gave it up after six months working there. Then he started to looked for something more exciting, and set his sights on the music industry since he love music. He is an amateur guitarist and enjoys playing the keyboard and the drums. (Sen Z. amp; Ng, J. , 2008) After resignation of auditing job, he sent his resume to record companies. And finally he got employed as the financial controller for Richard Brandson’s Virgin Records in London from 1987 to 1989. After that, he moved to Warner Music International London and become the senior financial analyst till 1992. Tony transferred to Malaysia as General Manager of Warner Malaysia. Within six months, he was appointed managing director, becoming the youngest candidate in the company’s history to hold the post. In August 1996, he became Regional Managing Director Tony Fernandes free essay sample When Time Warner Inc. merged with America Online Inc. , he quitted andstarts his journey to fulfill his childhood dream. This idea is generated when he was studyingin England and wanted to go home during term break but was rejected by his father becausethe flights tickets are expensive. Later, he started a company under the name of TuneAir Sdn. Bhd to take over AirAsia, Malaysia’s second national carrier with the tagline â€Å"now everyonecan fly†. I like his idea that everyone can fly because not much people afford to go overseaswhen the flight ticket are expensive, especially it happens when only one company dominatethe market. He was awarded a lot of honour such as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) honour, Forbes Asia Businessman 2010, Officer of the Legion d’ Honneur andso on as recognition to his contributions to the community in each country. I think Tony Fernandes possessed good leadership because he is able to react tochallenges and does not give up easily. We will write a custom essay sample on Tony Fernandes or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page From the material I got in the internet, it was a bigchallenge for him to start up because situation at that time was terrible and was widelyassumed that the low-cost model will fail. However, Tony Fernandes predicted that Asiawould face economy downturn and he could take this opportunity. The biggest challenge inhis pathway to succeed in turning AirAsia from a fledging government-link commercialairline to a highly successful public-listed international company is the proposing of the ideaof openskies agreements with Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore in 2003, which our country didn’t have before . He tried to reduce the cost, waste and unnecessary expenses to enable hiscompany to promote more low-cost flights for everyone, with the tagline â€Å"now everyone canfly† which I think it is not easy for any company. He keeps the costs low by utilizing onlineservice to sell tickets, not offering meals for short distance flights, shorten the time betweenlanding and takeoff to have maximum flights per day and last but not least increasing the lifespan of the parts of airplane by good maintenance and pilot’s flying techniques (i. e. tires thatcan last for 180 landings compare to 70 landings previously). As a leader in a company, he isopen-minded and ready to listen to employee’s opinion because staffs are nearer and able todiscover the problems easier. He said: â€Å"My staffs are my greatest asset. I know every one of them by name and we all share the same passion. I pay them well and we are transparent. † The personality on Tony Fernandes that I admire is ambitious. We have the similarsituation that people thought that our dreams are unrealistic but he dares to realize his dreamscompare to me which only dare to dream of my dreams. He dreamt to own an airport when hewas young and everyone thinks that it is stupid and unrealistic. He decided to pursue hisdream when he is in 36 years old when he saw an advertisement of Easy Jet on Television. His motto is â€Å"believe the unbelievable, dream the impossible and never take no for an answer†. With this believe, he bought AirAsia by paying RM1 each for 51. 68 million sharesand the assumption of fifty percents of the net liabilities of AirAsia. In other words, AirAsia is indebt before he bought it and he had spent only one year to clear all the debt and had led AirAsia to become th e world’s best low cost airline and largest in Asia in eight years which isonly $3. 21 per seat kilometre. Besides, I saw Tony Fernandes thinks, look and do things different from others thatmade his life different. Three days after he signed the deal with DBR-Hicom for AirAsia, the world’s airline industry was severely affected by the tragedy happened on 11 th September2001. Everyone thinks that Tony Fernandes will fail miserably because nobody would fly butTony Fernandes think that aircraft leasing cost reduces 40% and layoffs meant that qualified staffs were readily available. He believes by promoting cut-rate flight that save money and time during tight economy can attract Malaysian instead of having luxury services in flights. Tony Fernandes are able to shift his thinking quickly to find and react to opportunities. He isable to look at the world beyond and view something new as it is shown in second half year2008, where he decided to take the advantage of unwind fuel hedges before his competitorsdo so and now AirAsia is getting the full benefit of oil at $40 a barrel which is cheaper thanhis competitors. It can be seen that Tony Fernandes always wear a baseball cap, open neck shirt and jeans because he thinks that everyone is equal and hierarchy should be eliminated,which is seldom seen in Asia. AirAsia employs pilots that started as a baggage handlers andstewards, as well as Tony Fernandes, he spends a day as a baggage handler every months,cabin crew every two months, check-in clerk every three months. I think this will help him to generate more ideas in enhancing the airline services because he is able to observe more problems instead of hiding in the office without approaching the real service line. Whensomeone asked him for the secret of his success, he said: â€Å"I decided that I would run theairline my way, not as others might†. Another characteristic that I wish to learn from Tony Fernandes is being a risk-taker. In his 37, Tony Fernandes drove a company Jaguar, had a $10000 stereo system in the officeand opportunities to fly around the world with artist and entertainment executives but he haddecided to quit his job, mortgaged his home, and used up his savings and brought investorsfrom outside to develop the AirAsia to fulfil his childhood dream. Even before September11 th , the world’s airlines were already in trouble; his move to revived Malaysia’s loss -makingsecond airline is seen to be impossible as the previous owners have failed to save thecompany after spending two years.