Governance 101
Basic common sense
A basic perusal of this article clearly put out by the PR of Tatas essentially supersedes Campbell Wilson. And the person superseding him knows almost nothing about aviation or insurance claims management or aviation safety. He has no relevant education, is not an engineer and has spent most of his life in a services /labour business where no planes were involved.
If you were Campbell Wilson, what would you feel and do. If you had no self respect and few career options, you would welcome the move. If you had options and an iota of self respect, you would resign and let the generalist fly the plane – since he is now in the cockpit.
The very basics of managing a promoterless group is a three way separation between shareholders, board and management. Shareholders have economic interest. Boards need to be independent and oversee the management, esp in areas like compliances and adherence to core values. Management is salaried executives who run the company.
In a proprietorial organisation, the proprietor and his family are the primary shareholders, they control the board and are themselves the management. Rest is adhering to the letter of the law. So you find some mutually dependent group of independent directors who are completely controllable. And the management has to take the permission of the proprietor to use the washroom. They don’t matter and have zero empowerment. They are usually hired like consultants and typically last for a year or two. They hang around till they get a better job. And the proprietor keeps them till he finds a better person. The employer pays just about enough so he stays for a while. And the employee works just about enough to keep his pay cheque coming. These proprietorial cos can be listed or private. They can be Ltd or Pvt Ltd. Doesn’t matter – that is just compliance.
Now it remains to be seen if Campbell Wilson remains or resigns. It is going to be a function of how much self respect and how many options.
Even a Adani or Ambani doesn’t supersede his CEO. They assist him. They provide whatever help is required. They bring in experts as required.
What they don’t do is supersede the CEO. If management is not authorised, they cannot be held responsible.
I don’t think a statesman like Noel Tata would have ever approved of such a move. Authority and accountability go together.
I am not surprised that Tata cannot attract any talent. Only those without jobs or self respect would work in such a company. The rest will prefer to work in a true board run company like L&T or Infosys. Or in a global multinational which is professionally managed board run. Or in the government where empowerment is real, job security is high and there is no outsider who enters the cockpit to take over controls.
What is the message to the helpless CEO ? You are good enough to handle check-ins and handle ground staff recruitment. But not anything else.