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| Law Kian Yan |
BRAND APPEAL
John Slosar has been drawing on the lessons he learnt selling Coca-Cola soft drinks to the region and putting them to use as Cathay Pacific’s chief executive.
In a presentation to company management soon after his appointment, he made three key points.The first was that the most powerful form of brand-building came from the actual use of the products and not from advertising.
“It is about people using the product and saying that it was great. We have to make sure that Cathay stays the same way.
”Next, worry less about competition and more about your customers.
“Every second you think about how you can bring more value to customers is time well spent,” he said.
Finally, execution matters more than ideas. He said: “Making sure we deliver day in, day out in first class, in business class, in premium economy, in economy, in the lounges, in the airport. “Getting that sense of execution to a higher and higher level is very important. And our team has really responded to that over the last couple of years.
”From the outset Slosar has said that marketing the brand, along with Chinese growth, the recruitment and retention of talented staff and growing the Hong Kong hub were his priorities as chief executive.
“We need to build up the Cathay team, identify the future management, inspire them to grow the business,” he adds.
This will “ensure Cathay remains at the forefront of the airline industry”, he says.