An Evening with Tony Fernandes - Part 2

Disclaimer: Picture is copyright of Air Asia Berhad and is only used here for illustrative purposes.

Clad in light-coloured pants and a dark coat over an open-necked shirt, Tony looked every inch the charismatic CEO that we are used to seeing on the television and print media. He spoke with a slight British twang that surfaced every now and then, presumably due to the years he had spent in the UK, where he met and became good friends with the even more flamboyant Sir Richard Branson of the Virgin Group.

That aside, Tony was very much an Anak Malaysia, the way he waxed lyrical about dangdut, Datuk S.M. Salim and nasyid group Raihan; getting mistaken for a ‘Bangla’ worker at the Low Cost Carrier Terminal when he went to work in casual attire; and offering roti jala on their flights (more on this roti jala story later).

Totally at ease in the limelight, he had the audience hanging on to his every word as he matter-of-factly related the Air Asia story – with a good dose of natural humour, tongue-in-cheek remarks and hilarious swipes at his competitors and detractors.

He made us laugh real hard and he fanned the fire in our bellies. Beneath every awe-inspiring, rib-tickling and casual statement, lied the humble passion and daring vision that so drew the masses to the Air Asia spirit.

Even those haughty ‘oh I will never fly Air Asia’ ones had to concede to the Air Asia charm that flowed from this man to the brand. Throughout the talk that lasted more than an hour, the one theme that ran throughout was “nothing is impossible as long as we have the courage to try”.


Coming from the former music executive with zero experience in the airline industry, but had enough courage and passion to acquire Air Asia from HICOM DRB complete with its RM 40 million debt, that message he carried was conviction rather than cliché.

Tony remortgaged his house to raise funds to get the company running, and in 7 years’ time Air Asia had grown from ‘no brand to global brand’; 200 staff to 6, 500 strong; and a company widely criticized to one hugely emulated and recognized. What is his secret?

“We are often our worst enemies. We often say something cannot be done before we even try it.”

There was thick silence as the audience took in the simple and yet profoundly true statement from the one who had been there and done it. And then, in the same breath, he continued: “I have said this many times before all over the world, but I have never had the pleasure of saying it in front of a Chief Minister.”

The Grand Ballroom erupted!

That’s Tony Fernandes for you. That was the first dose of verbal humour from him that evening, and there would be more to come as he took us through a learn and laugh, learn and laugh journey that ended in a fully-maximised Q and A question from so many who wanted a peek into his mind on various issues.

Among the most wonderful ‘transits’ along the whole learn and laugh journey that evening:

On building a genuine ASEAN brand:
We learned, from Tony, that problems are opportunities in disguise. The Air Asia brand, one can say, has been built through many hard times.
The SARS outbreak:
“During the SARS outbreak, we tripled our advertising because that was when our competitors were not doing so and this helped people to remember the Air Asia brand better.”

The Bali bombing:
“We felt we had to do something to help the place as they depended so heavily on tourism. Other airlines were cutting their flights to Bali, but we felt we should do something to help the island, so we gave away 10, 000 free seats which were snapped up in 3 hours. And 10, 000 people came back and told their friends how wonderful Bali still was.”

“So, the moral behind this is, Malaysians are not afraid of bombs, they’re not afraid of SARS - all they need is just free tickets!”
Back to the serious, inspiring note:
“You can always find a way out of problems, you can always market yourself out of a problem.” And that came from the CEO of the airline which is now the 5th largest in Asia, who later cheekily asked,

"And look who’s number 7 and number 8?”

He walked animatedly to the giant screen, pointed to Singapore Airlines and MAS on the chart on display, looked at the laughing audience and flashed his trademark grin.
“And these guys are like 40 years old. We’re only 7.”
Phew, weren’t we having fun!

On using technology and innovation:
“When we started selling tickets on the Internet, everyone said we were crazy, and that it wouldn’t work.”
Well, everyone knows what happened to booking flight tickets on the Internet.
“And we also came up with innovative services like selling hot meals.”
As well as direct flights to destinations that no other airlines ever thought of, such as Bandung and Macau.

On monetizing the brand:
“Once you’ve built a strong brand, then you’d want to start monetizing it. This is what we’ve done by coming up with our Citibank-Air Asia credit card, our insurance for travelers, in-flight magazine for the advertising revenue, as well as our Go Holiday packages”

“We also decided to market our long haul international flights under the brand name Air Asia X to retain the uniformity in branding.”

On attitude:
“Attitude is 50% of the game,” the Dato’ philosophized.
Air Asia definitely has a lot of it, especially when taking on their competitors and detractors.

Malaysia Airlines, with their World’s Best Cabin Crew?
“We advertise our ‘World’s Best Engineers’, and that got MAS hopping mad because most of our engineers were trained by them!”

Singapore Airlines, with their famous Singapore Girls?
An Air Asia ad in Singapore goes like this:
“There’s a new girl in town. She’s twice the fun, and half the price.” Well, smacks a little bit of sexism, but you can’t deny the humour – and for Tony’s charm Salt n’ Light’s feminists agreed to let this one go! So, no, we will not write to the Women’s Aid Organisation.

Tiger Airways, with the SGD1 fare?

Air Asia ran an ad featuring a tiger subdued by tranquilizers, flanked by two Air Asia hostesses and a caption that reads:“Air Asia tames even the wildest tiger with low fares” – on top of their SGD 0.49 offer!

By then the Grand Ballroom was roaring with laughter, and then he took a swipe at MAS’s Tony-bashing CEO, Datuk Idris Jala.
“MAS has Idris Jala, so we decided to sell roti jala on our flights.”

Hahaha, now that’s a winner!

And they were daring enough to take on the Singapore government. When Air Asia coaches were banned from entering Singapore across the Causeway, the cheeky airline ran an ad that read:

“No chewing gum. No smoking. No AirAsia coaches. Thank God low-fare flights are still legal.”

Boy, oh boy. Who says it is tough for Malaysian brands to do well in Singapore? You just need to have the spirit and chutzpah a la Tony Fernandes.

He reiterated, “You can always market and brand yourself out of a problem, be it SARS, bombs or the Singapore government.”


“Never take ‘no’ for an answer. To every problem, there is always a solution.”

Now Air Asia is working on getting the Penang-Singapore route, and we can almost bank on their never-say-die spirit to see this materialize!

Dato’ Seri Tony Fernandes’ talk on “Branding: Jazzing Up Your Business” turned out a huge success with the participants going home entertained, informed and inspired.

In a nutshell, we learned that when you have a dream, even if it is as lofty as starting a low-cost airline, you should not ever let any of the following stop you from pursuing it:

· Lack of experience
· Lack of connections (political ones, especially!)
· Lack of capital
Tony remortgaged his house, remember?
· Doubt, usually from others
Our dear Dato’ shared that when he told his wife of his high-flying plan, she took a while to stop laughing and then said, “Why don’t you start a roti canai stall?’
· Fear of failure
“I only had one fear : When we first started, my greatest fear was letting the 254 staff down. The fear would be there somehow, but ultimately, you don’t want to sit there when you’re 65 and say, “I should have done this.”

Wow. We couldn’t agree more. This may sound clichéd’ coming from a lesser person —but when Tony said it, the conviction was so real, it simply reached out and grabbed us by our hearts. Could it be that when Air Asia came up with their tagline “Now, Everyone Can Fly”, they were talking about more than just boarding an airplane?
Thank you, Dato’ Seri, and to our readers and ourselves: Just go for it!

An Evening with the Guy who made sure that ‘Now, Everyone Can Fly!’

On the 30th July 2008, the Dato’ with the red cap was in Penang to deliver a talk on branding as a way of jazzing up your business. Salt n’ Light Communications happily registered with InvestPenang, the talk organizer, and made our way to the Equatorial Hotel in Penang’s Bukit Jambul area.

When we got there about 10 minutes before the event was scheduled to start, the crowd of almost 1000 was mingling at the area outside the Grand Ballroom, chatting and networking away over coffee and refreshments provided by the organizer.

When we first contacted InvestPenang to register, they told us that the talk was reserved only for the first 150 people who confirmed their attendance with payment! Well, we should have guessed that when you have a personality like the flamboyant and charismatic AirAsia CEO, 150 people had to be a gross underestimation.

We made a beeline to the registration tables and then managed to grab some tea. There was not much time to network. With a few pleasantries, eye contacts, handshakes and name cards exchanged, it was soon time to get our seats in the ballroom, for the VIPs had arrived.

Everyone politely walked in organized lines into the Grand Ballroom – very much like passengers queuing up to board their Air Asia flights! Among the crowd, there was also a group of good looking people dressed conspicuously in red, and no, they were not celebrating an early Chinese New Year. It was the AirAsia crew!

Looks like the flamboyant Dato’ really does make it a point to be seen in all public functions with his people in tow.

Smart branding! And, ah, shall we add, good employee relations, too.

Most of the people there were formally dressed with suits over open-necked shirts, while the press members were there in their usual casual attire. We were glad that with our dark jeans and black quarter-sleeved tops we didn’t look too out of place. There were also some people who turned up in their company uniforms.

All in all, we felt that everyone looked pretty good that day. Guess it all had something to do with the topic for that evening – it’s branding, and branding is about perception, and your image is the very first thing that people perceive! ( And yes, of course, it was also the 5-star hotel venue, and the fact that the Chief Minister was going to be there to deliver his keynote address).

The grand ballroom was almost 100% filled up, and when the Emcee announced the arrival of the VIPs, guess what?
We Penangites were civilized enough to lift our butts off our comfortable chairs to give them a standing ovation! WOW. It must be the new government.

The smiling Dato’ and the Rt Hon Chief Minister Mr Lim Guan Eng entered the room with their entourage which also included the famous blogger-politician, Jeff Ooi, chairman of the InvestPenang executive committee, Datuk Lee Kah Choon, and some key directors from Air Asia.

Hhmm.. there’s just something about these two leaders that we admire here at Salt n’ Light Communications. Maybe it’s their smiles that seemed to say “ Hi, there you are” rather than the “Behold, here I am!” often expected of successful people in high positions.

Well, if you are a jaded, overworked member of the human race, you can go ahead and accuse us of an overdose of positive, Utopian thinking, or naiveté even, but we honestly could feel the warmth that they exuded across the huge Grand Ballroom. We rummaged our bags frantically in search of a thermometer to confirm the rising temperature, but alas, found none.

They shook hands and exchanged name cards with the people seated at the front rows, were seated for a while and then it was time for our honorable Chief Minister to deliver his keynote speech.

Mr Lim introduced Dato’ Seri Tony Fernandes as a “towering Malaysian, although he is not very tall physically”, drawing laughter from the audience and the Dato’ himself while cameras clicked and flashed away. Ah, we love people who can laugh at themselves.

Next, Jeff Ooi, the event moderator, took us a through a brief biodata on the AirAsia CEO, revealing some bits on him as a ‘humble man who makes the effort to return SMSes promptly despite his busy schedule’ and ‘a family man who can often be found in London, helping out with his kids’ assignments!’ – in addition to the other already well-known facts such as his early career with Virgin and Warner Music, as well as the credit that he holds for being the person who popularized the Dangdut and Nasyid music genres in Malaysia.

From dangdut to a low-cost airline? From Datuk S.M. Salim (a veteran dangdut singer, for those of you who call yourselves Malaysians but can’t be bothered with Malaysian music!) to beautiful women in figure-hugging red hot uniforms?

A very interesting person indeed. For the interesting anecdotes and jokes that kept us laughing, entertained and all ears, we were glad to be there. For the reaffirmation that ‘you can do the impossible…. except running a low-cost airline!’ (oh Tony, you’re so funny!), we came away inspired and grateful.

From the moment the good Dato’ took to the stage, his charisma was unmistakable. When Jeff Ooi announced, before his talk began, that it was time for the Chief Minister to present him with a souvenir on behalf of InvestPenang, he quickly, much to the audience’s delight, grabbed and put on his trademark red AirAsia baseball cap!

The two leaders flashed their smiles for the cameras and then Tony removed his cap and playfully tried to put it on the Chief Minister. They slapped each other on their backs and Guan Eng left the stage as Tony began to take on the microphone.

And then the fun began.

Stay tuned as we fill you in next on the tips shared by Dato’ Sri Tony Fernandes on how to brand your business and take the bull (i.e. competitors) by its horn.