Tony Fernandes: Communication Style

Communication style:

Tony Fernandes has a mega huge corporation just like any other airline companies.However, there's one thing that set him apart from them, that is the communication style he had inculcated in Air Asia. Instead of having just upward communication, Fernandes has effectively communicated downward and lateral towards his staff and throughout the no-frill airline company:

Tony Fernandes' open-concept office

• "I do not have a corner office and five dragon ladies protecting me and keeping off everybody else. I am in an open office, any body can just walk up," said Fernandes. 
• This shows effective downward communication as Fernandes maintain an open-door policy, and literally let every of his employees know they can come to him with problems

• In order to help him to understand some of the problems and issues his departments are having, Fernandes will work for a few days every month on the ground or in the cabin crew. He says he's learned a lot from working on the airline himself. 
• This effective lateral communication allow him to easily see the "big" picture that can help him continuously improve the organisation.

This is definitely an eye-opening learning experience from Tony Fernandes who dare to show that he can succeed without going book by book. He defies gravity or MBA theory! Just like what we learnt about leaders vs managers in school: Management is doing things right; leadership (Fernandes) is doing the right thing.

Fernandes's Leadership Styles and Traits

 What’s his leadership style?

Fernandes is a blend of both charismatic and people-oriented leader.

Tony and the Allstars at his birthday

Being a charismatic leader, the airline chief leads his team of “Allstars” by infusing positive energy and eagerness in them. 

• Evidently, before his interview with entrepreneur site Wamda.com, Fernandes was seen walking around his company greeting and joking with anyone that passed him. 
• He constantly carries a vibe full of passion and charisma such that he can “infect” his team members and have them carry the same attitude to their fellow colleagues and eventually the customers.
• Whenever he is stopped by clients at the passenger terminal, he will be more than happy to carry their bags, chat with them and even walk them to the plane. Who else can be a better role model in executing excellent customer service to his own employees?

Fernandes says that to him “employees come number one, customers come number two. If you have a happy workforce, they’ll look after your customers anyway.” This earned him the title of a people-oriented leader. Such simple formula but often overlook by managers and bosses who are too task- or profit-focused. 

• Believing that hierarchy does not work in his company, Fernandes has his office right smack in the middle of the company, with no walls and doors.
• He mentioned that “everybody has my contact number so people from errand boys to the senior management will just call, SMS, and email me directly, and they get problems solved very quickly. You do not need to go through layers of bureaucracy.” 
• This breaks down barriers between him and his team members where everyone can see him and approach him anytime. He is the manager, but he is also part of the team. 
• This one-of-a-kind corporate culture is the reason this company is so successful with low turnover rates.

With all being said, Fernandes is definitely also a transformational leader from the four leadership theories. He communicates a vision: “Dream the impossible, believe the unbelievable, and never take no for an answer” which inspires and motivates people to achieve something extraordinary.  As an effective transformational leader, he has the ability to align people and systems with his vision.

Tony Fernandes

What are his traits?
The corporate culture Fernandes created reflects his personality.

Focus – He knows where he is going and has a strong stated mission to lead people on. He puts the turnaround of the airline down to ‘culture, focus and discipline’.

Supportive – He gave encouragement and genuine support to his crews who are passionate to pursue their dreams. One great example is when one of his cabin crew became his pilot.

Passionate – Passionate about his company, his employees and the culture he creates

Collaborative – He so solicit input and feedback from his team members so that they feel being part of the process.

Biography of Tony Fernandes, Founder & CEO of AirAsia

“In AirAsia we consider ourselves basically a dream factory…We deliberately decided that we wanted a company where people can pursue their passion and we wanted to make use of all the talent that we have in-house.  The culture that we have stems from the fact that we want openness and we want people to be creative and passionate about what they do. In order to do that, we’ve got to inspire them.”

Tony Fernandes
CEO and Founder
AirAsia

Credit: Chris Forrest Harvey

About:
Anthony Francis Fernandes, better known as Tony Fernandes, is the perfect fit as the “ultimate dreamer and adventurer in business”.

In October 2001, Fernandes mortgaged his home and used up his personal savings to acquire a heavily-indebted Malaysian government-owned airline called AirAsia.  Even after knowing that he was buying two ageing Boeing 737 jets, 200 employees and $11 million debt, Fernandes went ahead with his “purchase” as he was a risk-taker and a believer of making the impossible possible.  Fortunately, despite his inexperience in airline operation, the former managing director of Warner Music Malaysia was able to reform AirAsia into one of the most successful low fare carriers in the world.

The secret to the success of AirAsia lies in the recipe of great management style and unique culture which Fernandes has passionately concocted.  He works hard and finds creative ways to create an environment for his “Allstars” (what AirAsia call its employees) to continuously improve, learn and most desirably, achieve their dream.