Republic CEO says undercover stint opened his eyes

[Old School 737]

http://www.smartbrief.com/news/ata/...3B44BBF89&brief=ata&sb_code=rss&&campaign=rss

Republic CEO says undercover stint opened his eyes
While taping for this Sunday's episode of the CBS show "Undercover Boss," Republic Airways CEO Bryan Bedford says his biggest eye-opener "was just the disconnect and (poor) communication between the management team and frontline employees." Bedford assumed an alias -- and a hairpiece -- to work unrecognized alongside flight attendants, ticket agents and other employees. Bedford admits to "a lot of embarrassing moments," but says there were plenty of lessons, as well. For instance, working as a flight attendant taught him not to overlook leisure travelers "who may have saved a whole year" for their vacation.

 

[CesnaCaptn]

Let me guess. A front line employee with some hardships at home is going to get to go on a much needed vacation. Also, an ambitious, overlooked employee is going to get management training, a promotion, and a 25 cent per hour raise.

 

[GuppyWN]

I've watched this series. It's fairly upbeat and does in fact usually highlight some employee that just hasn't had the breaks in life.

I expect it to be a positive portrail of Denver's hometown airline.

Gup

 

[AirMorgan]

Love that show. I like that the CEO's get a chance to experience life "on the line" so to speak. I always thought David Neeleman of JBLU was a cut above the rest for doing this so often.

 

[Max Powers]

What a crock this show doesn't even skim the surface when it comes to how employees are treated. They pick the hardest working most dedicated 20 year employee and then kiss his arse to show him what a great guy he is for doing his crap job for crap pay for the last 20 years.

 

[dispatchguy]

Bedford is still a ****************************** right?

Then no changes....

 

[ePilot22]

I expect it to be a positive portrail of Indianapolis' hometown airline.

Gup

Fixed.





eP.

 

[DH106]

I think Brian Bedbug has real nerve... to furlough the Midwest people, shove paycuts down the employee groups' throats, misrepresent the creation of jobs, all while taking home $1.5 million in pay last year? And, he's going to go on some show that barely scratches the surface, to act like he cares or act like he's a leader? The guy is just another corporate opportunist lining his own pockets. A leader, not.

 

[Gorditas]

What a crock this show doesn't even skim the surface when it comes to how employees are treated. They pick the hardest working most dedicated 20 year employee and then kiss his arse to show him what a great guy he is for doing his crap job for crap pay for the last 20 years.

Have you watched it? Several episodes have run into substandard employees that often "leave the company" at the end of the show. I think it does a pretty good job of doing more than skimming the surface. If nothing else, I really like the idea of the people at the top being put in the situation of doing jobs that previously were items on a report. Compared to most of the other, less edifying garbage on TV, I think this is a great show.

As for Bedford, I'm cautiously interested to see this episode. When we saw the preview at the conclusion of last weeks episode, I found it interesting that it seemed to focus on Frontier instead of the Republic behemoth. The producers probably thought (correctly, in my opinion) that it would be too confusing as to which company was doing what. While I am not a fan of his company or some of the outcomes of his purchases, from the outside, he would appear to be successful thus far. There are often winners and losers in business, our industry is just harder on those who end up on the "losing" side in my opinion. In other words, if you are a Frontier or MidEx guy, you probably have a more acute perspective than I, and I have no intent of minimizing that in any way.

The real question to me about Republic is this: How did we get to a place where a regional airline is purchasing other airlines? What happens when the parent company operates it's own flights that compete with another company that it is subcontracting for?

 

[Popeye0537]

It's called FREE Advertising. Not many people outside of Denver even know that there is a Frontier Airline.