Barely had the dust settled on the Kingfisher saga that reports surfaced of the Jet Airways crash, with IndiGo now following suit.
Larger than life promoters building airline brands is a global phenomenon. Richard Branson of Virgin Atlantic and Vijay Mallya were quite successful as brand ambassadors of their own airlines. Aviation, after all, is not just another business. It signifies a gravity-defying flight of human ambition, not to mention conquering potent natural forces of lightning and turbulence. In comparison, corporate turbulence seems like a cakewalk.
Both Jet Airways and Kingfisher were led by single promoters who took all major decisions and steered their airlines initially towards the sky and then down, eventually crashing with no evident signs of recovery. Corporate governance in both these cases appears to have been a casualty of the ambition and authority of the promoters. Were these cases of Icarus’ wings steering the flight beyond its limits only to suffer a meltdown?
Is the Icarus syndrome an affliction of any business where an individual or a set of individuals become larger than life and corporate governance is diluted?
This story is from the September 2019 edition of Legal Era.
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This story is from the September 2019 edition of Legal Era.
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