Tan Sri Tony Fernandes was born on 30 April 1964 was a founder of Tune Air Sdn Bhd. He graduated Epsom College and London School of Economics in 1987, then worked as an auditor with Virgin Atlantic. He was promoted to financial controller for Richard Branson’s Virgin Records in London in 1989. After receiving an Associate Member of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) in 1991 and became a Fellow Member in 1996, he returned to Malaysia and became a managing director at Warner Music. At that time, he was the youngest Managing Director and the result of the excellent performance he became South East Asian regional vice-president for Warner Music Group around 1992-2001. He later resigned to pursue his ambition to conduct business in the aviation industry.
Open risk taker
Tony Fernandes has an attitude of an open risk taker, which is used in the development of the airline. First, after tony spends his studies, he decided to open the cheapest airlines, but he failed to get a license. Then, he took a risk by buying an airline owned by DRB-Hicom who was nearly bankrupt and heavily indebted. However, tony Fernandes was not afraid of that debt and he still wants to manage the airline business, although he had no experience in airline management. Then, he decided to take the opportunity to venture into the field of aviation in despite there are many airlines that exist quickly. When he wanted to start this business, many people have said that he will fail in running the business, but he still took the risk of whether the business is successful or not, as he thinks that ‘anything can happen’. So, he started a business with his pledge and his savings to build this airline. Finally, tony managed to prove to everyone that if an entrepreneur wants to succeed then he should dare to take risks in business, he has now become the leading airlines. (Shanin, 2014)
Visionary
Tony Fernandes also can be known as a visionary leader and he achieves an award like “Visionary and Leadership Series” award for his outstanding work in Air Asia. He also makes a statement regarding his visionary, that is “Dream the impossible, believe the unbelievable, and never say no for any answer”. When he still a child, he had some big dreams like running an airline, owning a Formula One racing team and owning an English football club. He also willing to take the high risks and optimistic in achieving his dreams. Visionary lets Tony Fernandes become meticulous towards what will happen in the business environment, so it makes Tony and his working partners will take the actions rapidly to prevent its happen and become more serious. As a conclusion, visionary is characteristics to enable him to become a young and successful entrepreneur. (Fernandes, 2014)
Failure is an option
On 28 December 2014, Malaysia shocked by the news when one of AirAsia plane QZ8501 had an accident and crashed on the island of Borneo in Indonesia. This incident has killed all the passengers on the plane which is 162 passengers from various countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, south Korea and others. People blame AirAsia because of this incident and look down on this company. It has created a bad perception of AirAsia. However, tony Fernandes did not consider this as a permanent failure but he attempted to find a solution and face this test with an open heart. AirAsia Indonesia had offers initial compensation amounting to 302,692,174 rupiah (RM85,295) for each of a passenger plane that killed. After the incident, he has been improving and seeking the safety of passengers and aircraft with direct subsidiaries to check all aircraft. (Chua, 2012)
Oriented team
A local Malaysian entrepreneur who is the founder of tune air Sdn. Bhd is identified as an entrepreneur who is from outcome oriented. Tony Fernandes has built businesses that have one thing in common. They grow fast. Starting locally and growing to compete internationally, he brought to life AirAsia’s tagline “Now Everyone Can Fly” (global transformation forum, 2015). Since then, the airline has won many awards as one of the world’s leading low-cost carriers. AirAsia, which started with two planes when Fernandes bought it, now operates a fleet of more than 160 airbus A320 aircraft, according to the company. In Thailand and Indonesia, AirAsia holds a minority stake in the respective local companies. In 2007, Fernandes started a hotel chain, tune hotels, which also based on the no-frills concept. With its promise of “Now Everyone Can Fly” it has extended the operations to 20 countries around the Asia. (Milligan, 2011)
Proactive
Proactive attitude can be seen inside Tony Fernandes when he had opened the second hub in 2003 at the Senai Airport, Johor Bahru which located near Changi Airport in Singapore after making the Kuala Lumpur International Airport as an operations center (hub). Air Asia is forging ahead with paving the way international flights to Thailand and then established airline called Thai AirAsia, collaboration with Shin Corporation. During the five months up to June 30, 2004, Thai AirAsia has carried around 380,400 passengers, 86.7 percent of passenger routes in the region. He has also made organizational restructuring Air Asia with a new image and concept has brought great changes and gain in a short period of time. AirAsia shares offering (IPO) in November 2004 has accepted the request by 130 percent. He also acted proactively when Tan Sri Tony Fernandes also runs other businesses that operate under Tune Group of Tune Hotels, Tune Money, Tune Talk, Tune Sports, Tune Studio and Kuala Lumpur Education City (KLEC). Airlines Air Asia are under Business Tune Air. In addition, Tan Sri Tony Fernandes also invested over Manchester United, referee, Formula 1, LA Rangers and so on. (Slocum, 2009)
After 9 years, the company is worth nearly £ 4 billion, a profit of RM549 million, has over 85 Airbus A320 aircraft, and flew straight through over 130 routes to 70 destinations around the world and flown over 20 million passengers.
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