Failure to implement a turnaround strategy at South African Airways: Reflections from strategic players

Abstract

For a number of years now, the South African Airways limped from one turnaround strategy to another, with little or no success. While there is a body of knowledge on turnaround strategies, little is known about the implementation of turnaround strategies in developing economies such as South Africa and of state-owned enterprises at that. The aim of this article was to explore some constraints experienced by SAA in the implementation of its Long-Term Turnaround Strategy. Purposive sampling was used to select participants to be interviewed for this study. Data were collected primarily through semi-structured interviews from 37 participants. Using thematic analysis, the following six themes emerged from the data analysis: shareholder’s slow decision making, undercapitalisation of the airline, unstable political leadership, unhealthy board dynamics, leadership instability, and lack of management skills.