John Slosar recently replaced Tony Tyler as Cathay Pacific's chief executive. A native of the US, Slosar joined the Swire group in Hong Kong in 1980 and has worked in various divisions from aircraft engineering to the beverages unit, and served as the airline's chief operating officer until March.
He believes that in a big company like Cathay Pacific - which has more than 22,000 employees spread over about 90 offices worldwide - the key to managing it all is teamwork.
'The most important thing is [employees] feel they are part of a winning team. We want them to feel they are respected as part of that team, because teamwork is absolutely crucial.'
Cathay, founded in Hong Kong in 1946, has had its share of labour disputes with management at loggerheads with pilots and cabin crew over pay and benefits. Slosar, 54, talked to the Post about how he plans to strengthen communication with his staff - in particular the younger set - and how he intends to tackle obstacles the airline faces in its expansion, including a potential shortage of pilots in the Asia-Pacific region.
You've been in your new position for about two months now, how does it differ from your previous one?
It's not a huge change. Tony and I ran the business kind of virtually between us, we stayed very close. But the biggest difference for me is Cathay has 20,000-plus people. They need to hear from the leadership of the airline what is going on. Are things OK? What do we have to do to be successful? In my old job, that was Tony's problem, and now it is mine.