Anna Rudzinska from our office in Warsaw spoke with MICHAŁ FIJOŁ, Chief Commercial Officer and Board Member at LOT Polish National Airlines about how to introduce digital transformation and manage a large organisation in times of change.
Basically, I sell tickets! That is how I describe my position outside the industry. Why so? Because airlines are associated with airplanes, captains, cabin crew, airports; it is the usual passenger perspective.
The back-end, of which I am in charge, is very seldom revealed to the public and it includes all the commercial activities of the airline: network planning, airplane allocation, ticket pricing, revenue management, global sales and marketing, product, contact centre and airport customer service and last but not least cargo business. As Chief Commercial Officer I am here, together with my team of over 800 people worldwide, to run a profitable airline business.
LOT is one the oldest airlines, established in 1928. It has its hub in Warsaw, working mostly in hub&spoke model with some point-to-point flights operated from Cracow and Budapest.
I joined LOT in January 2016; the airline was at that time on the verge of bankruptcy. The simple plan of the new board was the profitable growth of LOT. As a result for the following four years, between 2016 and 2019, LOT was the fastest growing airline in Europe, over 25% every year: the number of passengers increased from 4.5 to 10.5 million yearly, the number of destinations from 42 to over 100, the number of our planes was doubled to 80. And in all those years LOT had a significant positive financial result. Then the difficult times of COVID came, which was a disaster for the entire travel sector. Now I am pleased to say: we are back on track.
Firstly, let me say that aviation is an internationally exposed industry which requires extraordinary cooperation. Neither success or a failure is an individual result. The mind-set of the entire management team as well as the efforts of the entire organisation were necessary to get where we are.
This is why a great team is necessary to accommodate the growth and at the same time to charge the company. Sales is based on relations and we invested a lot of time into our network. All the rest are numbers and all our decisions have been backed up with proper analytics.
My special focus was on digital transformation of the processes within the entire company. The team needed to keep in mind the passengers’ perspective in every decision and change we made - passengers’ comfort and convenience. The ultimate goal was to deliver a smooth digital travel experience, which consists of inspiration, promotion, booking and payment process, post-sales activities, check-in, communication with the passenger, in-flight and post-flight services.
I am extremely satisfied with what LOT achieved as currently one of the biggest e-commerce businesses in Poland. The quality that we offer in our own channel on lot.com and through LOT’s apps provides a world-class customer experience which translates into great results and passengers’ satisfaction. The major advantage for an airline is direct communication with the customer – I prefer saying: passenger or guest – better control over the process and lower cost. At the same time we know more about the needs of our passengers so we can better adopt and have a better offer for them.
In parallel, we put a lot of effort in expanding our collaboration with indirect sales agents. I truly believe they will always have an important role as travel managers. An open dialogue, continuous communication, understanding of their needs, beneficial cooperation are the manifestation of this attitude.
Two important aspects need to be mentioned here.
Firstly, the promotion of change: the team knows that we need to increase our business and we need to improve. The consequence is that resources are necessary because our people need time to accommodate the significant growth and also to find space for change implementation. The change means introduction of the most modern IT solutions, new products for our passengers, process optimization, and business development. Growth accommodation means that LOT serves more and more passengers every year, and the change means that we are able to serve even more passengers with the same resources and be more profitable.
Participation in change increases adoption of the new solutions, it is perceived as distinction, and enables a chance to gain new competencies. The change leaders are the ones who I appreciate the most.
Secondly, and here let us come back to the digital transformation, the changes in IT systems designed for aviation are extremely complex. Plus, the airline had a significant IT debt. Introduction of new technologies does not mean just a purchase of an IT solution. This is the entire business process which needs to be improved and adopted to the highest industry standards and the best-of-class practices from all over the world. That is why I have been always able to convince my board colleagues to invest significant amounts into IT implementations accompanied by extensive consultancy services. That is how we managed to achieve high adoption rates and avoid complains from the unsatisfied teams.
This attitude is crucial because an airline–you may not believe it–is truly an IT company. We have over 100 IT systems, extremely complicated, some of them using artificial intelligence and machine learning, including operational systems with worldwide interactions, marketing automation and content management systems. Some of them are built with the best IT companies worldwide like Adobe, Microsoft, or Amadeus. The implementation of high-tech solutions required an extensive cooperation between LOT and those suppliers, which was very exciting for both parties. Certainly, we are not the biggest airline, but we did manage to gain their interest and support with our engagement, ambition and focus on the goal.
Another huge challenge was gaining the right people. Aviation is a quite hermetic industry, because usually there is one, maybe two airlines in a country. There were not too many aviation experts in Poland, and we decided to invite young, talented people to the company. They took an analytical test even before the interview. Fortunately, we were able to sell the magic of the sector - aviation is a sexy, modern business with greatly recognized brands, so we were able to attract ambitious and smart people. My dream was to create a company which was run like the top consulting firms of the world: take the most brilliant people directly from the university and then train them quickly and let them do things, empower them, give them responsibility, so they can grow. Looking now at the commercial staff at LOT I can proudly say this is the case.
Flexibility is extremely important. COVID affected aviation spectacularly, we had to flexibly look for other sources of revenue, protect and motivate our people and use the time in a smart way in order to get stronger in the post-pandemic reality. In aviation geography plays an important role too: unfortunately, after COVID the war in Ukraine started which influenced both our operations and network as well as impacted Poland as a tourism destination thus also our revenue streams. LOT needed to adopt by opening new routes, by fine-tuning the sales market structure.
The leader's flexibility also means noticing a generational change; the new generation requires different communication and approach. My role is to understand, learn, not complain, and try to blend them into my ways. It is also important that the leader has the courage not to turn a blind eye to the weakest employees - a lack of reaction is extremely demotivating for the others, one must not accept negative attitudes and behaviours.
Furthermore, the leader must also be aware of how enormous the impact he/she can have on people through his/her own example. The leader is a role model - how can I expect the punctuality of airplanes if I am not punctual? How can I expect clean planes and a sense of ownership from employees if I do not bend myself to pick up a piece of paper lying in the corridor to throw it into the trash?
Finally, there are a lot of brilliant ideas but what is important it the end is the ability to deliver. And not only once, but repeatedly, task after task, project followed by another project, yearly results, five year plan, etc. That is the environment I am used to working in. And this how my team works.
One accumulates technical skills with great effort, and then it turns out that you simply have to apply the simple rules of life when working with people - smile, kindness, respect, optimism - support in stressful situations. If I regret something, it's how late I started coaching sessions with you. Today I appreciate the importance of developing such subtle soft skills. It is not enough to be just a subject-matter expert, then you work as an individual. When you are super capable, then you work for two, but if you want to achieve something great, you work through an army of people: the entire managerial team, and their subordinates and the subordinates of the subordinates. All of us with the same approach and common goals.
Do you know what I consider my success today? It is the success of my people I have the privilege to work with.
Many talk about it, some countries have tested it, some governments have encouraged it and more and more companies are starting to experiment with it around the world.
We are talking about the 'short' work week, reduced to 4 working days, from Monday to Thursday, with a long weekend of 3 days - and of course, without a reduction in pay.
In the post-pandemic era, several economists and sociologists highlight how important it is for companies to consider not just offering interesting salaries and benefits but, and above all guaranteeing a work-life balance that allows a clear improvement in quality of life.
Among the voices that support the validity of the 4-day work week, is that of Juliet Schor, Economist and Sociologist at Boston College, committed to studying the experiments in progress of the short week around the world. Her research focuses on the intersection of work, society, consumption and climate change. From tests conducted in Great Britain, the United States, Ireland and New Zealand, in the public and private sectors, the results are very clear and all in favour of the short week: workers are less stressed, have a better social life, appreciate more their work and, while it might seem absurd, they are absolutely more productive. In fact, while spending less time at work, people are not working less, because in exchange for a free day to devote to family, hobbies or personal needs, they make better use of their working time by increasing their productivity, without penalizing the quality of results.
Companies that embrace the short week must be convinced that spending less time at work helps workers to find the physical and mental energy needed to be more lucid and focused.. In addition, they can support their employees with a reorganization of work, for example by eliminating or limiting, as much as possible, the less productive and non-essential activities.
Juliet Schor's research then highlights the impact that the reduction of the working week has on the climate crisis. With the four-day week, commuting is obviously reduced, creating a dynamic of long-term decarbonisation. Because when people are stressed by time, they aim to choose faster and more polluting modes of travel and daily activities, while when they have more time they tend to have a lower carbon footprint.
But the biggest reason has to do with the size of the economy. By choosing to work less, countries are choosing not to expand production to the maximum, thus avoiding additional emissions. As evidenced by the carbon-related success stories of Germany and Denmark which have low annual hours. France and the Netherlands also have low carbon emissions and working times.
And in Italy? Taking into account that our country is the second in Europe for the amount of hours worked per week (on average 7 more than those of Germany), the pandemic has led to greater work flexibility - an important development of smart-working and also to the phenomenon of the great resignations.
So in Italy some companies have also started experimenting with the short week. The first were medium-sized companies operating mostly in the digital, marketing and communication sector, but it is news these days that the largest Italian banking group, Intesa San Paolo, is proposing to its employees they reduce the week to four working days, spreading the 36 hours over 4 days, with unchanged salaries.
Negotiations with the trade unions are underway, but it is certain that the work of the 21st century goes in this direction and, as Juliet Schor also points out in her TED speech, it is necessary that governments understand the importance of reducing the working week and take charge of encouraging it, as happens in Spain and Belgium, to go beyond the enlightened companies that already see the virtues of this new work organization.
Our own Diversity & Inclusion gives us a huge and sustainable advantage over our competitors. Gender parity is vital to any workplace - not just because it’s a laudable goal; it simply makes bottom-line business sense.
The event started with some inspiring introductions from our guests:
who shared their thoughts, knowledge, and experiences regarding diversity throughout their own careers and at CXO and Board level.
This led on to a larger group discussion where we debated how Friisberg & Partners must continue to promote increased gender diversity for our clients.
Gender diversity helps us to attract and retain talented women. No company can afford to ignore 50% of the potential workforce and expect to be competitive in the global economy.
We know that only the highest-performing teams, those with different opinions, perspectives, and cultural backgrounds will ultimately succeed in the global marketplace. We encourage different viewpoints, ideas, and market insights, which enables better problem solving, leading to superior performance.
We make sure it enables us to understand the unique needs of our clients and find innovative ways of addressing those needs.
All our teams have a diversity of genders, as well as backgrounds and ethnicities. But we know that hiring women, transgender, or nonbinary people into our workplace isn’t enough. – we empower our teams to not only reach, but exceed their full potential.
Anyone who looks back wistfully and wishes everything was the way it used to be is unsuitable as a leader.
When we fill leadership positions today, it is often in connection with digital transformation. The candidates we are looking for are expected to initiate and support this change process and make it a success - al this at a time when it is impossible to plan for the long term over several years.
The challenges in terms of agility, people management and customer centricity are different than they were 3-5 years ago and require new skills. Most importantly, resilience is needed in this VUCA world. It takes a certain robustness to resist the disruptions that are currently affecting you, to still work in a planned and goal-oriented manner, and also to calmly lead employees through these turbulent times.
You can only be successful if you are prepared to adapt (quickly) to changing conditions – in other words, to learn new things and develop further.
Those who are stuck in the past, looking back wistfully and wishing everything were the way it used to be, don't stand a chance. On the other hand, those who embrace new things and venture into unfamiliar territory can help shape the future.
Of course, digital and technological skills are also necessary in an increasingly digitalized world. These include the ability to successfully use digital working and management methods and a fundamental understanding of digital business models and processes.
In the future, it will be even more important to transform data into insights and make them useful for companies.
In our day-to-day executive search work, we see that people who have a great openness to new things are much faster at building and expanding this expertise. We need people like this in the executive ranks.
Leadership today involves conveying to employees (ideally, of course, by example) that it is their responsibility to continue to develop and that learning on the job is part of the job.
Increasing agility in the market, shortened product life cycles, the onset of recession... – the demands on managers and the associated pressure to adapt one's own management and working methods accordingly are high. In addition, the home office job is ubiquitous. Private balance is more important than ever. Whether in sports, by spending time with the family, in silence/meditation, etc. – everyone needs a place to wind down and recharge their batteries.
You can be paralyzed by change or inspired by it. We need more people to choose the second option. People who make all the nebulous things in this VUCA world tangible and thus make decisions possible. People who develop a vision of how goals can be achieved - despite all adversities.
This week our October conference is being held in Copenhagen and our Danish colleagues are looking forward to welcoming us to their beautiful city.
As ever, our conference will feature a rich programme of keynotes, presentations, workshops and panel discussions which will provide critical content to help our consultants, and the clients they serve, thrive.
Friisberg has a special and constant focus on Diversity and this conference will focus on gender diversity at CXO level.
We have invited several successful leaders to join us and share their opinions on this important topic.
We know that successful organisations must be prepared to adapt and evolve as the world around us changes. However, the impact of social crisis and economic dislocation also calls on us to reflect on how we work, what we believe, and what matters most.
We are looking forward to meeting old friends, making new friends and all being together again.
‘Effective communication’ is not just a buzz phrase, it is one of the most important leadership traits and has a clear and critical impact on every organisation’s bottom line.
It’s been said that employees don’t leave jobs, they leave managers. Whether true or not, it’s undeniable that leaders have a profound influence on employees. Leaders’ actions and attitudes have the power to drive employees to great success – or to drive them out of the door!
Engagement studies show that leaders and managers are accountable for 70% of employee motivation and happiness. Disengaged employees don’t understand how they fit into the culture, how managers view their performance, or where the company is headed. Three in four employees see effective communication as the number one leadership attribute. Yet, less than 30% feel like their leaders communicate efficiently.
70% of the business leaders, reporting not being happy with their employees’ work, feel they need to improve how they communicate with their employees in order to resolve performance issues and improve motivation. Of the group that was happy with their team’s performance, 70% of the managers attributed this to the effective communication.
Engagement was higher among employees who rated conversations with co-workers and managers as great or excellent. Employees who rated conversations with co-workers as bad had a particularly low level of employee engagement.
For many of us the biggest barrier to having high-quality conversations is that we’re afraid to share what we’re really thinking and feeling. We dance around the issues and don’t speak up when there is an opportunity to voice concerns. But a problem exists whether we talk about it or not.
Leaders need to provide opportunities to have meaningful and productive conversations which in turn encourage trust. Giving opportunity to safely share ideas, concerns or questions indicates that leaders truly care about their people. Additionally, when employees understand what is expected of them, feel their opinions matter, receive helpful feedback or recognition, and can talk about their career aspirations, they are more likely to be engaged.
Their words resonate more and have more meaning and, unfortunately, so does their silence. Best leaders excel in communication because they strongly value it - and that’s the critical step and the foundation of success.
Executive hiring has been quite intense in the Bulgarian market over the past few months.
Many companies, across different sectors, who wanted to attract best in class C-suite executives and senior leaders chose FPI Bulgaria as their partner seeking to ensure a significant pool of top-notch candidates.
Although technical expertise and proper managerial experience is what brings many candidates to the short-list, there are certain qualities, traits and characteristics that are strongly considered when it comes to the final choice for the position.
Approaching this with curiosity, we noticed that in these unusual, dynamic, and change-filled times employers are looking for some interesting combinations of timeless leadership qualities and provocative mindsets.
Communication skills, persuasion, decision making and change management are always on the list of preferred leadership characteristics that companies seek, and they are a non-negotiable attribute of successful candidates.
Currently, businesses are not just on the lookout for leaders who can properly and diligently manage transformations, but they are also searching for those who have the mindset to initiate changes, to facilitate new ideas, new ways of working and sometimes even new directions for the business.
Professionals who possess this quality are typically seen as outstanding candidates with great potential.
These skills have almost the same weight in the final selection as the technical skills required for the role. They have become highly desirable requirements for senior leaders.
Although this competence is not always clearly described and defined, many employers see it as the ability to easily learn and/or unlearn concepts, methods and approaches - the capacity to connect the dots and work with complex information.
This is a surprising and relatively new characteristic in high demand was the one described by clients as consisting of the ability to stay firmly behind a bold or unusual idea with the energy and courage to realize it and bring it to fruition - even without the initial support from others. Companies believe that leaders possessing this characteristic will be really a great asset who will not only help the business survive in this dynamic situation, but will also allow it to grow, expand and be more sustainable.
Although these conclusions are mainly based on our systematic observations and numerous interactions with the business related to Executive Search, we can say that there is a move away from the “ideal leadership candidate” template.
Traditional skillsets and managerial abilities are no longer sufficient to be a successful senior leadership candidate. Soft skills and personal characteristics have become more and more important in the selection process, and they deserve thorough investment and consideration from both C-suite candidates and businesses.
With close to 20 years of experience in international board, C-level and leadership team assessment and development, Sabine has worked with senior executives as a trusted coach and advisor. She has partnered with national and global organizations of all sizes, including publicly listed corporations, family-owned businesses and the public sector.
Sabine provides a breadth of insight and advice in talent management, CEO succession planning and executive development, leading advisory projects on cultural or organizational topics, as well as development audits, assessments for mergers, and executive search mandates. By supporting digital transformation processes, Sabine also helps drive comprehensive change initiatives, organizational design, people development and cultural audits.
Sabine was with a leading international executive search firm for five years, as a Senior Principal in Germany and Head of Leadership & Talent Consulting for Austria and worked more recently for Russell Reynolds in Germany. She also co-founded her own boutique management firm and has worked for leading multinationals, including Accenture and Aon Hewitt.
She holds a BA in human resource management from the University of Salzburg and a Master’s degree in organizational and economic psychology from the University of Vienna. She has also completed certifications in labour law and executive leadership for global organizations and is a licensed trainer and coach. Sabine speaks fluent English and German.
Zoltan Petho, Chair of Friisberg & Partners International, also extended his welcome, “We were delighted to meet Sabine at our recent conference in Madrid and it is fantastic that she is opening a new Friisberg office in Vienna. Her immense and impressive experience will be a huge asset to Friisberg globally.".
Sabine is thrilled to be joining Friisberg & Partners International in these exciting times and is looking forward to working closely with the firm’s clients across the globe.
With 350 delegates from 50 countries meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland to consider and discuss developments in foreign direct investment, Friisberg was honoured to contribute.
Lorri Lowe, our UK Managing Partner, was invited to moderate the keynote panel discussion of the conference on Workforce Development & Global Competition for Talent. Her panel comprised experts from Lockheed Martin, IBM, Silicon Valley and and Auticon, a neurodiversity international social enterprise.
Andrew Guy, another UK Partner, was a panellist on the subject of Healthcare Infrastructure and Health Tech.
It was evident that the overriding consideration for investment promotion agencies throughout the world is the location availability and access to talent. Friisberg's representatives fielded numerous questions from the forum which was a cross section of the FDI community responsible for over $1.56trillion of cross border investment worldwide every year.
With over 45 years of as one of the preeminent international search firms, Friisberg is ideally placed to inform and support major investment with clients ranging from Fortune 500s to innovative tech start ups and scale ups.
In addition to mapping the personal, managerial and professional characteristics of candidates throughout the Search process, we can often be asked:
Recent scientific studies suggest that leadership is 30% genetic and 70% learned. These findings propose that leaders are made, not born. The conclusion of such studies is that both hold true: a person can be born with natural leadership abilities, and someone can learn how to be a good leader at work.
Are theory and practice the same? In reality, they are not. So why is it important, how does it work, which roles require which type of leadership and what is the added value in assessing an existing management team?
Driving a RV bus on a F1 circuit is as inefficient as going on a 3 week-long camping road trip with your family in a v16 GT Roadster. Choosing the right vehicle is essential and can determine your result in the race. The analogy applies when choosing between natural or learned leadership.
As I discussed the replacement of the CEO with one of my clients, the owner stated, “You know us, our values, our business. We simply want the best from the market. We want a Natural Born Leader.”.
I know my client well enough to have a clear picture of his autocratic view of leadership and weariness of critical questions about the role.
I’ve seen so many owners and C level managers make disastrous decisions - and all of them because there was not a single person on their team that dared question their strategy.
In my view, we must build the kind of relationship with our clients where we can have the courage to oppugn and articulate our opinion.
We must never be afraid to challenge our clients honestly and openly.
Bence Berkó
Senior Consultant, Budapest
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