Qantas is relying on Saudi Arabian murderer Mohammed bin Salman’s top reputation launderer to rehabilitate itself in the eyes of Australians.
According to The Australian Financial Review, Qantas, roiled by its exposure not merely as one of Australia’s worst gouging profiteers but for selling tickets to fake flights, has hired Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to improve its reputation with customers.
And BCG has extensive experience in laundering the reputations of some of the world’s most evil people.
Its relationship with bin Salman is particularly close, and survived his murder of critic Jamal Khashoggi in Türkiye in 2018, when the journalist was killed and his body disposed of with a meat grinder in the Saudi embassy. BCG’s work for Salman includes:
- A lucrative defence procurement systems contract when the prince became defence minister in 2015;
- Helped, with rivals McKinsey, prepare the document central to bin Salman’s reputation-laundering program, Vision 2030;
- Chief adviser to bin Salman’s personal youth foundation Misk;
- Pitching absurd ideas for bin Salman’s dystopian “Neom” future city, a project that led to the murder of a local land activist.
BCG is also closely involved with bin Salman’s bid for what would be his biggest reputation-laundering coup yet — hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2030.
The Saudi dictator and murderer isn’t BCG’s only marquee despot client. The Luanda Leaks documents exposed BCG’s extensive and high-level involvement in the multibillion-dollar theft of wealth from Angola by kleptocrat José Eduardo dos Santos and his daughter Isabel. BCG is still under active investigation for its role in the crimes of the dos Santos family (the company isn’t above a bit of nepotism itself either).
Qantas’ willingness to employ a company that eagerly works for some of the most evil and corrupt people in the world suggests that the ethical standards of the Alan Joyce era — which embraced the illegal sacking of workers during the pandemic, acceptance of hundreds of millions in taxpayer handouts, anti-competitive conduct, bullying of regional airport operators, profit gouging and sales of tickets for fake flights — remain in place.
Perhaps BCG can recommend Qantas bid to sponsor a world cup, or build its own airport, or launch a youth foundation to distract people from its misconduct. But the Fin’s Joe Aston might want to avoid going into any Qantas offices lest he never come out.
As the old saying has it, you’ll be known by the company you keep; so will BCG’s reputation survive linking up with Qantas?
More seriously, what does it say about Qantas that it is trying to rescue its public image by paying for a smoke-&-mirrors operation which will, very professionally, obscure the facts of Qantas’s decline and fall by deceiving and distracting the public? The obvious conclusion is that Qantas prefers to spend its resources on tricks and illusions instead of restoring the sort of quality service its passengers want.
QANTAS, like Oz, is just a blip on BCG’s global and client radar….
“But the Fin’s Joe Aston might want to avoid going into any Qantas offices lest he never come out.”………….
Brilliant.
This confirmation of the likely failure of Hudson to clean up Qantas came much sooner than I expected. Having been shown to be guilty of unethical and possibly illegal behaviour the response is to hire a crooked mouthpiece to try to convince us otherwise instead of getting on with the job of rebuilding the airline.
The necessary rebuilding is a mammoth job. Frankly I think it is beyond the resources of a private company. Wasting money on BCG not only makes the job harder but will amplify cynicism on the part of the flying public.
So the Board made a careful decision who to appoint a new CEO with the vision and long-term strategy to run the business, including intimate knowledge of how it works, and the first thing she does is … hire a consultant to tell her what to do. How many of the Board are asking, “Didn’t we just hire you to make those decisions? Why are we blowing a few more million on an outside firm?”
Yet another reason to never fly with Qantas.