Please forgive me for not updating for a long while. It has been a
very busy time for me so far this year. I certainly have not finished this blog
as I still have much to say. The blog remains popular, with 33,406 visits to
date. I am grateful for all your prompts and supporting messages, but saddened
to hear that nothing has improved and yet more time and money has been wasted on
trying to fix EG-IT‘s woes. It defies belief that the only people who do not
understand what the problem is are the ones in charge.
Recently there seems to
have been a deluge of corporate failures reported where leaders have
demonstrably failed. It does not seem to matter what the problem was;
manipulating interest rates, hacking into individuals’ voicemails, systematic
doping in sport, altering police witness statements, etc., there is always one
thing in common - the person at the top knew absolutely nothing about it! One
would have thought that these highly visible examples of failures would prompt
leaders to pay a bit more interest in day to day matters and thus avoid the
inevitable embarrassment and negative impact on bottom lines. Theses incidents
prompted me to wonder, yet again, how much the Chairman of the Emirates Group
knows of the problems and practices in EG-IT. I was always aware that Patrick
Naef had carefully controlled the information available to Gary Chapman, but it
is unlikely that Gary is not now fully aware of what has happened and therefore
condones practices which would not be tolerated elsewhere. On the assumption
that the knowledge has gone no further, I have therefore again written to the
Group Chairman. I had earlier promised that I would do so (in response to
requests from colleagues) so I felt that now would be an appropriate, and I hope
helpful, time.
Patrick Naef has now been CIO of the Emirates Group for seven
years and five months. Many reading this will wonder how on earth he has managed
to survive for so long. Individuals in EG-IT who have been victims of his
bullying over the years will probably say ‘I thought it was much longer than
that’. Initially, by systematically mis-informing people and organisations via
press releases and industry cohorts, he painted a very positive, but very false,
picture of himself and his achievements. But the truth is now out and no-one is
taken in anymore. But he is still effective at one thing - censorship. He has
not been able to stop colleagues reading this blog but he has made it difficult
for me to get emails into the company at times. But I will ensure my email to
the Chairman does get delivered, though it may take a few attempts. Publishing
such communications on here will always be a last resort.
Many have asked for my
views on the recent damaging changes within EG-IT. As I have stated before, I
can only cover matters about which I have full facts. But, based on my knowledge
of how Patrick Naef works, I assume that he would have employed his standard
modus operandi. This would have led him to take what would appear to be an arm's
length approach, using others (and therefore apparently independent) people to
deliver the results he wants. His prime objective would be to remove people on
his black list from their jobs and I marvel at how he manages to transmit the
list to his agents, without actually spelling it out. I am not sure whether this
is done by body language, or even by osmosis, but it works every time.
Then he
has to fill the vacancies and, for this exercise, he uses his other list. Again,
he claims to be totally impartial, leaving others to do the work of selection.
Only when they do not come up with the right (i.e. his) answer does he
intervene. But of course recruitment is only an initial step in the continuous
Patrick Naef cycle of dealing with people. I call it the Patrick NAIF cycle.
Nominate. Appoint. Intimidate. Fire.
