Tony Fernandes: Too Many Companies Rely on Gov't Spoonfeeding  

It isn't just talk when Tony Fernandes says he loves being in Indonesia: the Malaysian entrepreneur moved the low-cost airline's regional headquarters from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta earlier this year. "It's a fantastic time to be in Indonesia," he said. "So much is changing and so much can be changed." On the sidelines of the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Bali last week, Fernandes chatted with journalists about Indonesia's pilot shortage, what he looks for in a colleague, the Apprentice Asia program and more. Philip Jacobson reports:

What's the latest on the AirAsia Indonesia IPO plan?

It's definitely not this year. Yesterday we had our board meeting. But we're very keen. One thing that's slowing us down is that earnings are growing. AirAsia Indonesia is becoming very profitable. If we sold now, we're selling at maybe a little bit cheap. We do want an IPO, but it's finding the right time.

Indonesia announced recently they would build runways off the coast of Jakarta to increase airline capacity. What's your view on that?

I think it's way overdue. I can add as many planes and as many pilots as you talk about it, but if we don't have runways to land them on, we're screwed. I appeal, not just to the Indonesian government but to many governments, that airport building should be privatized, just like roads and trains have, because there's a dire need of it in Indonesia. I would also say one more thing to the government: it's not just about the runways, it's about making the air traffic system more efficient: increasing the number of landings per hour, updating the airspace planning, updating the radar system. So it's also about increasing productivity within the existing systems.

Indonesia has a pilot shortage. What can the country do to overcome this and what will happen if it does not?

That's a great question, and I'll answer it in a different way. Indonesia has a pilot shortage not because of the government. I think too many companies here rely on the government's spoonfeeding. How Indonesia can have a shortage of pilots when you have a population of hundreds of millions is a failure of the industry: not to have built academies, not to have planned well enough. There are enough bright people in Indonesia to have people who want to be pilots.

At AirAsia we haven't had an issue. We knew there was going to be a pilot shortage. I built an academy when we only had seven planes. We are right now training 200 Indonesian pilots, and we're hiring all the time. Pilots don't grow on trees. You've got to invest in building them.

Why are you doing the Apprentice Asia? Wouldn't you be inviting comparisons of yourself with Donald Trump?

Ah, right. Well, I've got a better hairstyle than him. That would be one comparison I know I'd win. I did it for two reasons. One was purely business: the opportunity to promote AirAsia. But secondly, I love kids, I love meeting new people, I love having the platform to hopefully inspire others to go out and do whatever they want to do. The show was revolutionary to me because I never imagined to see 12 Asians I know there was one French boy in there competing as they competed, dog eat dog. It's not a very Asian thing to do to give up your job to go onto a TV show. It's not very Asian to slag off your fellow contestants. So that was really inspirational for me. I've hired many of those kids into my companies.

How do you pick people to work with you?

I look for drive. I find it very fast. I don't interview a long time. The Apprentice was the longest ever. But I tell you, from the moment I met Jonathan I knew he would be the winner. Or the French guy. The two of them struck me very quickly. Andrea came later, to be honest; I didn't notice it straight away. But I can find out very quickly why you want the job. The most important thing about wanting the job is ambition, and it's passion and great communication skills. You can be the most ambitious, the most passionate person, but if you can't communicate, that's the end. Too many companies have people who can't communicate. And I look for people who are bored in their jobs, who want to prove something. Because that's very similar to me. I always want to prove something and do something more. Many people say to me, "Why do you want to keep doing things? Why don't you just stop?" But you have one life, you might as well go for it, right?

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A complete version of this interview is available in this week's edition of Tempo Magazine.