Qantas CEO Presentation Without The Fokkers

When you need to give a company results presentation you’ll spend plenty of time working through your material, planning your speech, editing and rehearsing. It’s the editing that’s especially vital. Because it gives you the chance to test words and phrases for their meaning. And, of course, their second meaning. And this Qantas CEO presentation is no exception.

Because it’s a familiar scenario for Alan Joyce the Chief Executive Officer of Qantas. Today, 17th February, he gave a presentation on the Qantas company results and the plan to buy more aircraft for the fleet.

Qantas CEO Presentation Overcomes Pronunciation Challenge

For anyone who isn’t Dutch or German pronouncing Fokker could be a challenge. And that meant that his announcement of the purchase of 10 Fokker 100 aeroplanes would be a pronunciation challenge. He’s mindful of his pronunciation when presenting. Not least because of some unfair reporting of his Rolls Royce engine presentation last year. Very unfair.

But on this occasion he rose to the challenge as a presenter. Throughout his presentation he referred to the “F100” instead of the “Fokker 100“. The accompanying notes to his CEO’s presentation spelled out the details for everyone.

Now, can anyone still recall the notorious story about WWII fighter ace Douglas Bader recounting his Fokker anecdote at the British girls school…?