“Our culture is our strength. There is a sort of unspoken routine; we think alike, and we all know what needs to be done. Competitors may offer the same hardware – the same entertainment systems or new aircraft – but the software is hard to imitate or emulate. The company culture is very important. It feeds upon itself, reinforces itself. It is a sort of a virtuous circle, much like reputation. It has a halo effect. Our culture is, “we care for our customers,” and we all sense that we have a certain type of reputation to keep up. As long as we do it consistently and don’t do anything stupid, that reputation will grow and reinforce itself. I’ve always said there is no point passing along our manual for cabin service to other airlines because it is not going to help them very much. It’s our culture.

If we see a dip comparting ourselves with our past performance, a lot of things happen. A lot of people are concerned from myself down, and a lot of questions are asked. We are always discussing ways of improving our service. For example, are our people being too intrusive? Are they trying too hard to be helpful? Nuances like that are discussed all the time. It’s not just a cabin crew. If our puctuality takes a dip, again a lot of questions are asked. I don’t know whether other airlines do it in the same way and with the same kind of intensity….We have made an effort in recent years to bring in people from outside the company, even from other airlines at a fairly senior level, to challenge us on some of our old sacred cows.

–      Dr. Cheong Choong Kong , Former CEO, Singapore Airlines