I don’t agree that having an accountant in charge means disregarding morale and customer service.
Those two concepts are fundamental to success, surely?
You have to look at the training accountants receive. Part of their job when they are articled, is to conduct audits. To do that, they need to be able to grasp exactly how a company works and how ir operates. It is useful if they have the experience to compare that to other companies in the same industry – which they often do. One of my first jobs a while back (when I was a junior) was to attend a stock count at a warehouse. That was it – observe and make sure the management were doing it properly. My limited experience was sufficient that I was competent to do that, and if you then take a qualified and experienced accountant, that can be done to nearly any area of business – accountants develop expertise in designing and testing systems and procedures and in making efficiencies as a result.
Part of my own job is checking and trying to find fault with my boss’s work. I love it!!
Therefore, in terms of looking for someone who knows a helluva lot about running a business, the profession that companies often look at these days is…accountancy.
I can’t back this up, but if you look at the CEO’s of most of the FTSE 250, accountants form a bigger proportion of them than lawyers or bankers et al.
I think to be fair to O’Leary, a lot of the issues at Ryanair involve middle management and not MOL himself.
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