Roads to Resilience

that was lacking in the past was that we had nice airport Clubhouses, aircraft that reflected the Virgin brand, and crew in red uniforms, but this [headquarters] building could have been an insurance company’s building. Now the building feels like Virgin Atlantic ” (Chief Operating Officer). A comment by Virgin Atlantic’s Head of Internal Audit, a secondee from one of the Big Four professional services firms specialising in audit, tax and corporate finance, confirms this style of leadership: “ … the nature of the organisation is that there is an executive team who do not really have egos. They are quite happy for you to go and have an honest conversation with them. Equally, they are quite happy to listen when you give them honest recommendations. I do not find that I sit at a table with a director here and spend an hour discussing the language of the report and whether I can make it sound better. I sit there and we discuss what we are going to do about risks, and I think that is the right approach. ” In addition to the above sessions, the senior leadership team frequently meets formally to discuss the airline’s performance, risks and actions for improvement: “ On a weekly basis we have an executive operational meeting. All of the heads of the divisions will come together, and we will look at what has happened from a sales, commercial performance, marketing, operations, and aircraft reliability perspective, etc. Then, on a monthly basis we have a management board meeting, and we go through the performance of the business, key business products, and we look at how key projects are performing. We also look at what is happening in the external world, particularly from a regulation and governance perspective because that really influences our business. As I mentioned before, we have a Safety and Security Board that meets every six weeks ” (Chief Operating Officer). In the case of Virgin Atlantic, a focus on safety and reducing risks is shaped by the nature of the airline industry. However, the entrepreneurial spirit of its founder, Sir Richard Branson, has led to a culture that achieves resilience through the efforts of its people. Regulatory standards are perceived as essential but the company aims to go further in its management of risk. Much of this drive is based on a brand proposition that is inspiring both to staff and customers. This has led to a passion throughout Virgin Atlantic to focus more strongly on the customer than the competition, and a desire to be extraordinary at everything the company does. Leadership plays a key role in this, in that senior managers are constantly involved with the company’s operations. Thus, at Virgin Atlantic, resilience is achieved through the people and culture, the organisational structure, roles, processes, relationships and management practices. It is reinforced by a safe and secure culture. Collectively, this engenders a mindset that is forward looking and geared towards providing peace of mind in all aspects of management and service delivery. Summary

152

Appendix A Case study: Virgin Atlantic