The New CEO

CHAPTER 10Shaping the Culture

“Your culture can never be good enough.”

—Doug Mack, former CEO, Fanatics

Remember Stephanie Tully, who appears in other chapters of this book. She joined Jetstar at perhaps the most challenging time in the budget airline's 20-year history. It was November 2022, just nine months after Australia had officially reopened its borders following the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. Like many industries the world over, Australia's airline sector was slowly coming out of hibernation—having lost $19 billion in revenues between 2018 and 2019/20.¹

At the time, Jetstar had earned the unenviable title of the country's most unreliable airline, as operational headaches and supply chain issues led to delays and cancellations that drew the wrath of both customers and the media. “We were on the front page of newspapers most days and it became a bit of a joke for the country to be honest,” she told me. “There was a real focus from the board and management team for me to hurry up and fix it.”

When I met with Stephanie, she was heading toward her first-year anniversary as Jetstar's CEO. She'd spent much of her early transition working with the team to move fast to reboot Jetstar's operational performance, while also trying to get to grips with improving the airline's culture and customer experience—something she cared and knew deeply about, having previously been Chief Customer Officer at Qantas, Jetstar's more premium parent airline.

One of the first things that ...