Saturday, August 30, 2014

Can SpiceJet's COO Sanjiv Kapoor turn around the cash-strapped airline?

On June 25, four men associated with low-cost airline SpiceJet came by Rajiv Gandhi Bhawan, which houses the aviation ministry, in central Delhi for a closed meeting with the new minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju Pusapati.

The group had the ceremony of a high-level delegation, but would wait for nearly an hour because the minister was being interviewed — rather profusely — by a television journalist.

Three members of the group, senior executives of SpiceJet, settled on a beige sofa in a cramped room and killed time by attending to their phones. Their easy mien showed they were used to waiting at the ministry.

The fourth, SL Narayanan, chief financial officer of SpiceJet's parent company, Sun Group, the media conglomerate based in Chennai, clearly wasn't. He seemed antsy, occasionally throwing a glance at his watch.
When the interview finally ended, the group almost barged into Pusapati's office carrying a large bouquet of what looked like white lilies, a big box wrapped in glossy paper and copies of in-flight magazines. Pusapati was set for another long meeting and for sometime it appeared that the TV journalist who still hung around would feel cheated.
30/08/14 Binoy Prabhakar/Economic Times
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