TORONTO (Digital Journal) — If an entrepreneur wanted to find three mentors to idolize, he needn’t look further than the raised podium at today’s book launch inside Indigo Books & Music at Toronto’s Eaton Centre.
Indigo CEO Heather Reisman, her husband and Onex CEO Gerald Schwartz and Air Canada CEO Robert Milton shared the stage to celebrate the launch of Milton’s autobiography Straight from the Top: The Truth About Air Canada (Greystone Books). Tinged with many self-congratulatory moments, the event allowed Milton to clear the air (pun intended) about his airline’s troubles, while also giving the packed audience a chance to see the face behind the press releases.
Strangely, no noticeable tension existed between Milton and Schwartz, even though the Onex CEO tried to take over the beleaguered airline two weeks after Milton took the helm in 1999. Schwartz even joked about his attempted coup when he introduced Milton, saying, “I’m here today to announce Onex’s acquisition of Air . . .no, I’ve done that one before.”
Schwartz went on to chronicle young Milton’s plane-spotting obsession. “At 10 years old, he could identify every commercial flight available. But his life changed when he saw his first 747, and he said then ‘I want to run an airline when I grow up.’” Milton acted on his prophesy, having run Canada’s premier airline for the past five years and led the restructuring plan in the past year. He started as a consultant in 1992 and dabbled in cargo operations, scheduling, product design and marketing.
Speaking from the lectern in a deep baritone voice, Milton echoed Schwartz’s introduction by quoting his mother: “She told me the first word out of my mouth was ‘airplane.’ I don’t believe her, that’s why I didn’t put it in the book, but I’m telling you this now.” After a brief bio outline, Milton recalled the days of regulatory airlines and mentioned how today’s industry is a “cost commodity game.” He patted himself on the back for overcoming takeover battles, the bursting hi-tech bubble, 9/11 and low-cost carrier competition. “I realized, after awhile, that I had enough material to write a book,” he said, smiling.
Air Canada’s story is not all wine and roses, though. Recently, labour relations strife entered stage right when a brief but crippling wildcat strike by Air Canada’s Toronto ground crew stalled flights and angered flyers. At the book launch, Milton quickly glossed over the work stoppage by saying “The event on Tuesday night does not represent Air Canada. Volunteering for tsunami relief, that kind of thing represents what we do.”
But Milton was not in damage control the whole hour he visited Indigo; he mentioned his book several times, remarking how his leadership could be a valuable lesson for Canadian CEOs. The more interesting moments occurred during the Q&A period, where one young man asked what Milton thought about the Liberal government’s poor support for Canadian airlines post-9/11. Ever tactful, Milton answered, “The previous minister of transportation didn’t give us government support but this minister [Jean Lapierre] is terrific. We can’t look back on the past, we have to look to the future.”
On that note, Reisman thanked Milton and Schwartz for their participation, adding an aside: “Those TV shows that depict CEOs in a bizarre manner, screaming ‘You’re fired!’, that just doesn’t happen. To see two great business leaders on the same platform reflects what TV and the press don’t get — two great business leaders trying to better this country, and there’s more of that in Canada that we don’t generally see.”
She ended with a cliché that could work as Milton’s latest book-cover blurb: “Thank you for dreaming your dream.”
