NICHOLAS IONIDES IN TAIPEI
Christine Tsung had been accused of using her political connections to get her position and criticised for her lack of airline experience. However, since she became head of China Airlines a year ago, morale and revenue have reached all-time highs and she is beginning to win over her critics
The average airline chief executive's office tends to be a masculine place, adorned with model aircraft, a "power" desk and conference table, plus the odd family photograph to show a human side.
China Airlines (CAL) chief Christine Tsung prefers the feminine touch, and a visitor to her spacious office in central Taipei could be excused for wondering if Valentine's Day has arrived early. Flowers, teddy bears, chocolates, a flattering portrait of herself and scores of personal photographs fill her office. The few aircraft models seem out of place.
Tsung, 53, is not the average airline executive, particularly in Asia where men dominate corporate boardrooms and senior management offices. And she does not deny that fact. She is proud to be different - wearing clothes that match the airline's corporate colours - and, as the only female airline head in Asia, she says she might as well use that to her advantage.
"It's fine to be in a male-dominated industry, but there are so many things in this business a female can do just as well. This is a people business, very sensitive. You have to have that sensitivity, and that warmth, to go forward. I think people accept me pretty well now. Actually, if we go into a joint meeting I get more cameras and focus on me than they [other executives] do, and I get free promotion for China Airlines. Why not?" she says with a mischievous laugh.
"I grew up with men. In graduate school there were 50 in the class and I was the only female. I do not treat them as just male - I treat them as human beings. The difference is not sex, it's character - personality."
Tsung clearly enjoys being the centre of attention at CAL, happy to be photographed and commanding an audience wherever she goes. At the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines annual assembly of presidents in New Zealand last November, for example, newcomer Tsung stole the show. Dressed in an elegant evening gown at a closing-ceremony dinner, some of the male chiefs in their dark suits were visibly falling over themselves to win her attention.
She has had her difficulties, however, overcoming criticism that her political connections got her the job (a large picture of Taiwanese president Chen Shui-bian is prominently displayed in her office) and accusations that she is taking credit for work done by her predecessor, Sandy Liu. He was abruptly dismissed in July last year, two months after a new government - the first new administration in more than 50 years - took charge in Taiwan.
CAL is 71%-owned by Taiwan's state-controlled China Aviation Development Foundation (CADF) and was one of many state-linked companies to feel the change in power in mid-2000, which saw Chen's Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) taking over from the ruling Kuomintang party.
Tsung and her husband have long been supporters of the DPP, and her appointment came after the new powers carried out a sweeping shake-up of the boards of both the airline and the CADF. President Chen is a staunch advocate of women's rights, and Tsung, with her loyalty to the party and solid international background in finance, was a natural choice to take the carrier's reins.
A Taiwanese national who spent 30 years in the USA including 13 as finance director for Poway, a medium-sized city in California's San Diego County, Tsung had no airline experience when appointed. In the early days at CAL she suffered: staff protested publicly and Tsung was the butt of many jokes among industry executives in the Asia-Pacific region. "When I first joined, a lot of competitors - I don't want to mention their names - said, 'This is funny - I'm going to love to watch this.' But they don't think it's funny any more," she says with American-style confidence.
"At the beginning I said, 'Why do I need this?' It was tough. But then I realised that people were looking at me, where they were not looking at me before. Their energy is gearing toward me now, and so I've got more energy to show them, so I turn this negative into a positive - I can promote China Airlines without having to put out $200 million in advertising. I can get half an hour free on CNN anytime. So why not?"
Tsung has also proven wrong many of her critics, who had expected her to last only a few months in the job. Fresh from reporting impressive profits for 2000 and a strong first-quarter 2001, and with staff morale on the up at CAL, many of her critics are now some of her biggest supporters. "I have my admirers," she says with a sly smile and flirtatious laugh, pointing out numerous gifts in her office. "You'd be surprised - people are not as hostile as you think they are."
Tsung is still learning the industry, however, and has her troubles with aircraft types. But being a "plane spotter" does not necessarily make for a good airline head, and Tsung says that, as a top manager, what is important is to be able to delegate to the right people. "This is a little more sophisticated than other industries. It's not the most sophisticated though. It's a combination of the flight operations, the service, the marketing - you name it, it has it, from the ground to the air," she says.
Using experience
"If you spend your whole life studying management, it's not that hard. Basically, it's buying the right aeroplane [and] putting it in the right place. What is not that hard to learn is that you have experience around you. Lots of people in China Airlines have been here a very long time. They spend their whole life specialising, and it's up to you to use them. I'm good at using them, and they're happy," she says.
Tsung's hard work and energetic attitude since taking the top job have hushed many of her critics. However, a looming economic downturn will be the real performance test. She says she is looking to swap firm orders for Boeing 747-400 freighters into those for Boeing 777-300 passenger aircraft as the cargo market is suffering, hitting Taiwan - heavily dependent on IT exports - particularly hard. Tsung also plans to rationalise the carrier's cargo route network while studying a wide-ranging freight alliance with Northwest Airlines.
In addition, she is also looking for new investments and is negotiating a deal to acquire 25% of China Cargo Airlines from Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines. It is a bold move, given that mainland Chinese authorities consider Taiwan a renegade province and direct flights across the Taiwan Strait are banned.
Tsung feels her focus as chief executive should not just be about money, as she believes airlines have important social and democratic responsibilities - particularly for Taiwan which is torn between moving closer economically to mainland China and declaring outright independence. She also says she is proud that, in the twilight of the flag carrier as an institution, CAL remains a government-owned airline, adding that it should be used to spread the "message of democratic Taiwan" around the world.
"To me the airline industry is not just about money, it's a social responsibility - moving merchandise and people around the world to increase the living standard of human beings," she says, adding: "If you look just for the sake of money, you lose all that. If you can feel how people feel instead of moving them around like cargo, they tell you and they give you a lot and buy your tickets. That's my philosophy. I am proud to be a national carrier. I love to carry on the heritage of China Airlines' mission."
Tsung says that CAL puts its money where its mouth is. "Not many people are willing to take the money being made and give it back to the society. But China Airlines will, and is. We made over NT$3 billion ($87 million) last year. What we did is develop the flying school and other things like that. If everybody does that the human beings will be enhanced, and our history will be re-written. If people make the money, give to their stockholders and then they spend it on whatever, to me there is no good feeling.
One big family
"When they count money as their only thing, they will get that back. When you make money, and your pilots don't feel you're sharing, they go on strike. It goes both ways. For better for worse, for richer for poorer, we're a big family. When you make money, you have high profit sharing. People feel like they are part of you, and you feel for them. They don't feel as cold, as if they're just a dollar sign. We are trying to make human beings' lives better. Then the money comes in as a reward. Which one is the egg and which one is the chicken? You decide."
Tsung is proud to be a woman and while she says she can be a tough negotiator, she is a "softie" at heart. She feels able to say no while making those at the receiving end still feel good. "Being educated in the USA, to be experienced in business management, and yet to have that woman's consideration, and sensitivity and love, is a benefit. When I deal with pilots I can feel more for them because I know how they feel deep down. That carries a long way," she says, adding that there is also flexibility. "Women use their whole brains, men use the left side. So when I come from the outside world, I see the whole world, and it's a different picture."
"This is a people business - you have to be able to motivate people, to make them happy. I'm a people person. And if you do not have that touch, pretty soon no matter how much money you have, you're going to fall through the cracks because the cohesiveness doesn't exist. That's why China Airlines went through so much and still survived. We have that cohesiveness. I feel with my open heart and open arms and they are reacting very well, and mobilising too."
Tsung insists she is tough but fair, joking about a March incident at Cathay Pacific Airways in which chief executive David Turnbull had peanuts thrown at him by a pilot. Turnbull, not known for his sense of humour, promptly had the pilot sacked. What would Tsung have done? "I wouldn't have fired him. I would have thrown the peanuts right back at him."
Source: Airline Business
