The behind-the-scenes man who brought Jet to the fore

Naresh Goyal’s decision to step down from the board of Jet Airways could not have been an easy one for him.

Rumours had been rife for a while that Goyal would step down soon. However, there were an equal number which maintained that he would not do it in a hurry and would try all that he could before he took this final decision.

It seems now Goyal did try everything to stay at the helm of Jet, but his efforts did not succeed.

Goyal was always seen as a behind-the-scenes negotiator who first managed to get the Centre to change its policy to allow foreign airlines to pick a stake in Indian carriers (something which benefited Jet Airways, as Gulf Air and Kuwait Airways initially had a stake in the firm).

Sharp negotiator

He then managed to convince the government to revise its policy (which saw Goyal buy back the shares held by the foreign airlines). And change it again just as soon as another rival went down looking for funding for survival.

His influence came into play in other ways as well. Goyal is said to have attended most of the International Air Transport Authority (IATA) AGMs, and is said to be on a first-name basis with the CEOs of most global airlines.

Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, Goyal’s clout started waning and he also took decisions which seemed sound then but later came back to bite him.

Fear of competition

However, insiders believe that it was also fear of competition that proved to be Goyal’s undoing. Industry watchers and those who have previously worked with Jet Airways give the example of how fear that a rival airline in India could buy out an ailing Air Sahara saw Goyal make what was to be the first of the many mistakes that he made. Jet paid over ₹1,700 crore for the acquisition, which was way above the asking price.

Then came the decision to shift the airline’s hub from a busy and comparatively hassle-free Brussels to Amsterdam.

Goyal did hire expat CEOs and even those with great credentials but the airline is even today not known by what these professionals did. Instead, Jet is synonymous with Goyal and his working style. One reason for this perhaps was that Goyal did not change with the changing times.

At a micro level, there are others who accuse Goyal of being too involved in the nitty gritty of the running the airline. .

Then came the threat from low-cost airlines. By the time the airline launched Jet Konnect, it was too late. Its tie-up with Etihad also back fired as the latter refused to bail out Jet during it current crisis.

But has the last chapter of the Jet tale been written with Goyal’s resignation? Those who know him say there may well be a twist in the tale. After all he still has a 25 per cent stake in the company he created and maybe he can get back to what he was best at — being a behind-a-scenes negotiator.

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