I wonder what would happen at Thai Airways International if Kiatisak "Zico" Senamuang was appointed the "head coach"? Zico, one of thailand's greatest players and now national team coach, and THAI president Charamporn Jotikasthira rose to the top of their respective organisations under similar circumstances. The Thai national football team before the former striker took the helm was going through a crisis of confidence and despairing fans could only watch as the War Elephants went up and then dramatically down through a major trophy drought. At the airline, Mr Charamporn, the former Stock Exchange of Thailand president, stepped in to take the presidency amid myriad troubles and plunging prestige.
Zico gave Thailand its first Asean championship in 12 years in December last year after the players rallied from three goals down to score two against host Malaysia. That 3-2 loss in Kuala Lumpur was enough for them to lift the Suzuki Cup on a 4-3 aggregate.
The Thai team is now lone leader of Group F in World Cup qualifiers, ahead of Iraq which has a game in hand. In their match against Taiwan on Thursday, the War Elephants again showed their ability to come from behind, sealing the game with a 4-2 victory.
The best performance of Zico's team came on Sept 8 when he guided them through a two-goal deficit to draw 2-2 with Iraq, one of the top teams in Asia which was tipped to be the group winner.
THAI, on the other hand, is struggling to get out of the red. The airline is burdened with 18.1 billion baht in losses after three quarters of the financial year, and looks on course to break the loss-making record of 21.3 billion baht set in 2008 over the next painful three months. The president's cost-cutting plan is far from achieving the target, so more planes will be dumped to get cash, while the government seems likely to lose patience with seeing the airline continually bogged down in debt.
Zico's magic formula for turning around the Thai national football team is simple. The coach brought in new players who were hungry for success and were willing to sacrifice their individual talents for teamwork, while ignoring players who had lost the desire to be champions and could not adapt to their teammates on the pitch.
Kiatisak and the staff he hand-picked trained them to play in a style best fitted for players with patience. One win after another under his guidance has given the players confidence, as he never projects a target beyond their reach. Zico rarely talks about taking the Thai team to the World Cup. He just tries to execute one game at a time and sets an achievable aim for the War Elephants to go to the next round by bagging 12 points in Group F. That could be enough to give the team the chance to continue in the contest.
Zico could take this very same philosophy to THAI and make it work should he ever be given the chance to take charge of the airline -- by bringing in a handpicked team to help him. It is exactly the same position as the football team before he took it over. The national carrier has fallen far behind other airlines and he would have to emphasise to all staff members that they need to get back to reality, and stop thinking about being a premium airline until the bleeding stops.
Teamwork is key to bringing the airline back to life, and that is possible only with all members of the organisation working as one; those unwilling to follow this principle would not be included in the THAI national carrier team. Zico has proved his motivational skills on the pitch when the footballers were behind in a game; the same approach should work with the airline to get it back into the game.
Zico also knows how to put the right player in the right position in the Thai national soccer team, and that could be applied to all men and women working for the airline.
The size of the national football team cannot match the airline, of course. But the way Kiatisak has built his team into a successful one again might work with bigger organisations like THAI.
The carrier has fallen behind its Southeast Asian rivals and wants to climb up from financial trouble to regain its champion status. Zico would say that that is possible. The Thai national football team has done it.
Saritdet Marukatat is digital media news editor, Bangkok Post.