Will QAN survive?, page-6498

Robert Gottliebsen writes in 'The Australian' at the conclusion of an article about COL/WOW:

"...Perhaps by coincidence, there is a similarity between the Qantas Woolworths and Coles boards. Each board was almost equally divided between males and females. That’s a good thing, but at least in the case of Qantas and Woolworths, they both created what the community would regard as “Woke boards” with strategies that embraced the directors’ personal views.

A good example was the voice referendum, where the directors imposed their personal views on company strategy. Those views were different to the views of a majority of their customers.

Qantas and Woolworths had directors with overseas airline/retail experience but didn’t have old-fashioned “politically incorrect” Australian transport/retail operators .to warn them about the dangers of the cancellation/ discount product strategies.

The Qantas board was of course dominated by the long serving CEO Alan Joyce. Nevertheless, it is a sobering thought that the $120m outlay Qantas has paid represents more than $10m per director as at the 2023 annual report.

Qantas has only $10m in shareholders funds, so the $120m outlay represents 12 times shareholders funds. The company uses fares paid in advance plus a large Commonwealth Bank line of credit as equity. That’s the next challenge."