With a proven track record in driving profitable growth, creating positive cultures and transforming companies to reach their full potential, Hiranjan Aloysius has grown modest enterprises into market-leading behemoths with yearly revenues in excess of $800mn on catering revenues plus over $100mn in retail revenue under management in Australia. He presently serves as the Chief Executive Officer of dnata after participating in a number of transformative C-suite/Board level leadership roles.
He is responsible for ensuring that dnata catering Australia, a varied catering and retail company, creates a strategy and then delivers the greatest value to all of its stakeholders as CEO. This encompasses the company’s employees, customers, the environment, the communities in which it works, and its stockholders.
Below are highlights of the interview:
Tell us about yourself and your story before starting dnata catering and what was your reason for joining the company?
I’m blessed to have had a diverse career. I started my working life as an auditor at Ernst and Young, and then worked in the telecom and the garment industry, before starting my journey in the aviation industry in 2002, working with the UK-based Alpha Airports Group PLC as the Regional Commercial Director for Asia and Board Representative for Asian joint ventures focused on driving airport retail across Asian airports. It was these roles that really kickstarted my passion for the aviation industry and gave me great insight into airport operations and dealing with the various stakeholders that influence aviation.
In 2005, I relocated to Australia on a mission from the shareholders to drive the growth and profitability of Alpha’s latest acquisition, an Australian inflight catering company, Alpha Flight Services, now known as dnata catering. With four inflight caterers in the country at the time, this business was very much the minnow when compared with the largest-Qantas’ catering business, Q Catering.
Sixteen years on, and dnata catering is now by far Australia’s largest and most admired inflight catering and retail partner. While I have worked with multiple shareholders over the years, we have been part of dnata since 2007. Since acquiring Alpha, dnata has very much encouraged us with investments and supported us to achieve the exponential growth seen.
Once I started with dnata, I knew I had found the right industry for me. The challenges working in aviation presents motivate me to be the best version of myself and to push the boundaries. Aviation is continually evolving, and has challenged and encouraged new learning for me, from initially driving huge growth, to dealing with the devastation COVID wreaked on our industry, and to once again, huge growth as global aviation returns.
Tell us more about dnata.
Founded in 1959, dnata has grown from a team of five people in the United Arab Emirates to more than 39,000 people across 37 countries and six continents. We’re proud to be leaders across the full spectrum of air services and travel—from consumer and corporate travel services to airport operations, inflight catering and retail, cargo, and logistics management.
While we are a business that continues to grow, we’re more focused on our vision to be the most admired air and travel services provider. We prioritize providing an admirable, consistent, and high-quality service over attempting to be the largest in anything we do.
Growth will come if we focus on the right things within our business, and across our customers and those we do business with.
How do you ensure that your organization has a culture of integrity and innovation?
Organisational culture starts from the top down, and it is an expectation that our management team lead by example. As leaders, we must ensure our words are congruent with our deeds.
When it comes to integrity, we are guided by our corporate governance guidelines, and ensure our policies, processes, and procedures are clear. This is our starting point that lays a solid foundation. With these in place, we educate our people and ensure they possess the tools and support they need to perform their roles, whilst also empowering them to take accountability and ownership of their roles and responsibilities.
When it comes to fostering innovation, we strongly encourage ideas and feedback from all levels of our business. It isn’t always the people in the big offices that have the best ideas—these can come from those on the frontline as well.
What has been the best recognition that you received for your work.
I have received awards and recognition throughout my career. But the best awards and recognition, are those that our business has received in recognition of the excellence of our people, our service, our product, and our contribution to Australian society.
What have you failed at and how do you overcome challenges?
I have had my fair share of failures in both my personal and professional life. I believe that failures are the pillars of success, and you must reflect on your failures and learn from them, so that next time, you know what to do differently – because repeating the same process over and over again, will not lead to a different outcome.
Kindly describe how you will specifically know what success looks like for you.
Following on from the significant impact that COVID-19 had on the aviation industry, success currently looks a little different to me than it did back in 2019. Success in 2019 was about opportunities, investment, and growth, coupled with a happy and engaged workforce who loved to come to work every day.
Now, whilst the latter is still very true and always will be, my goal is to reignite the passion for aviation in Australia and to build a vibrant and sustainable business to allow us to reunite our 4,000 strong work force once again. To do this, we will need to work cohesively with our people, unions, airports, and, of course, our airline customers. Helping rebuild a thriving and sustainable aviation ecosystem in Australia is what success looks like to me in 2022.
What advice would you give to the next generation of business leaders?
If you are a disruptor at heart, there are always areas that are ripe for further innovation, and gaps for great ideas. Focusing on understanding your industry and its unique ecosystem, building unique products, focusing on safety, and building and leveraging relationships with key stakeholders, will help build success. But above all else, be passionate about your business, your people, and your customers. When you focus on these elements, success is sure to follow.
What are your future plans to sustain the company’s and your success?
Aviation is back and we have set very clear goals and actions that will drive us towards having our best year ever in 2024. We have clear and measurable plans that will take us from managing the biggest ramp up in global aviation history all the way through to improving our operational excellence through process innovation. We are collectively working to create a better world, with a focus on the environment, the communities in which we operate, and the wellbeing of our people.
With the exponential growth of aviation, coupled with our ability to scale up while maintaining our high standards of safety and quality, whilst keeping costs under control, will be tested like never before. But, I am confident we have the team to do it.
