We are talking with Dee Cooper, Product & Service Director of Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., about possibility for a leader to be arrogant and about her personal values which she shares in business and life.
1. Can a modern leader in a current situation be arrogant?
In some cases arrogance can also be strength, because you can be very clear with where you're trying to go, but the fact is that you do have to react to a changing market and have a common touch. You have to understand more what your workers or your customers want. You need different types of personalities ultimately to mix everything up and create the right team.
2. But, of course, there are different types of arrogance...
I suppose, ultimately, especially with the banks, they have so much fat in the system to protect them, so they were able to be arrogant because they have millions and millions to cushion them. In other industries, for example in the car industry or aviation industry or even in pharmatheutical industry where making money is very competitive, you don't have that luxury because if you make a mistake, your competitors are there. The car industry and the aviation industry don't make any money, the return on sales is very-very tiny, so you have to be smart and you have to be more flexible because you can't afford not to be because you won't exist. Within the aviation you certainly won't exist because it doesn't make the money.
3. What are the most important values for you?
The ones I share with Virgin are challenge and it can be better, you can make it better for customers, you can make it better for staff. You can argue I'm optimistic, but I believe I can do it better, I believe the future whatever we invent or however we develop processes, I believe we can make it better for the customers. So I believe in the future and I believe in change, I believe in innovation and that's very core Virgin believes.
4. What else is important to you?
I think it's very important to be honest and fair with people. For example, when we don't like the cushion design and when you're saying to the designer that you don't like that, you don't have to shout at them, you don't have to make them feel small, but you do have to say that you don't like something and why you don't like it. For me personally being honest and fair and treating human beings aknowledging that they've put huge work and effort into it, but explaining why you don't like it or saying no or whatever it is. So there are two things that are important to me: one is the challenge and the second is looking after the human beings, looking after the person who's actually doing that job. These are the two things that I care about. The other thing is that I love traveling - personally I love traveling and I work for the airline as well. I've just been to Africa for Christmas and New Year, and I love the fact that you learn so much from going to these countries and it's so interesting and so exciting and there's so much adventure in it.
5. Describe the business model of your company so it could be understood by a 7-year-old child.
We try to make so you want to fly us, you choose to fly us, we are the airline of choice. We are not the biggest airline, if we talk about American Airlines or British Airlines or Singapore Airlines - they are the biggest. We are not the airline who has the most powerful frequent flyer program. What we do is we compete on product and service.
6. What does it mean?
We throw things at you. If you're in business class which we call Upper Class, you get a complimentary limousine, you can get driven as close as we can get you to the security point, you have even exclusive security point, you go to the lounge which is more like a five star hotel, nobody else has the lounge like that in the world, with waiter service, in our lounge at Heathrow we have Jacuzzi, there's a pool table, an outside area where you can stand outside and watch the airplanes, there's a full-service restaurant. Then when you go onboard you have the biggest flattest bed to sit on, you've got a great crew who give you great service, they also talk to you informally, you've got bar onboard. We give you a great value because it's the part of your ticket, you buy it and that's why people choose to fly us. That's what Virgin Atlantic is about. The business model is product and service differentiation, a 7-year-old child wouldn't understand that term, but they do understand: "Oh, I want it because it's more fun!". That's what it's about.
7. What is the main idea of it?
There's a 10-year-old in all of us and in our attitude it doesn't matter if you're on business or on leisure. If you want to sit with your laptop and work - yes, do that but have a nice drink of vine while you're doing it. Relax and enjoy it, you're not in an office, you're at an airplane and we can make sure that you're enjoying yourself. We have one of our corporates, he says that when he flies Virgin Atlantic, it's almost like a touch of coolness, a touch of fun, a touch of being part of that all. And he would describe himself as a geek. He's very straight and sensible businessman but when he flies us, he gets the touch of the Virgin glamour which he enjoys.
