Michael O’Leary (Chief Executive of Ryanair) - Entrepreneur Profile October 24

Filed under Entrepreneur Hotlist by Seriously Business | 2 comments

Name: Michael O’Learymichael O'Leary photo

Date of Birth: 1961

Mini CV:

- Pre-1991: Tax consultant for KPMG
- 1991 - 1994: Deputy chief executive, Ryanair
- 1994 - present: Chief executive, Ryanair

How did Michael O’Leary muster the wits and wherewithal to transform a struggling regional airline - whose annual passenger numbers barely broke six figures at the turn of the 1990s - into the most profitable carrier on the continent? Any man who pays £4,000 for a taxi licence so that he could bypass congestion between his home and Ryanair’s headquarters is likely to push forward his business projects with a similar emphasis on velocity - and O’Leary’s pugnacious, aggressive style has served him well ever since he left his job as a tax consultant before leaving to work for one-time Ryanair boss Tony Ryan.

O’Leary’s education was a privileged one at the famed Clongowes Wood school, where he met Tony Ryan’s sons and thus forged the alliance that would come to define his life. He moved on to the equally well-regarded Trinity College for his higher education - and his masterstroke when Ryan recruited him to save his ailing airline was his decision to do away with its business class section, opting for a cheaper and more homogenised approach.

He has been quoted before as saying that he will leave his current post in 2008, but his current bid to take over long-time rival Aer Lingus looks likely to keep him in situ for at least another four years if his controversial �1 billion plan comes to fruition. The proposed takeover would not entail the absorption of the regional carrier into Ryanair’s operation - rather, O’Leary sees it as a project which can yield similarly memorable benefits to his own overhaul of Ryanair, expanding and upgrading all aspects of its operation and separating it from the influence of the country’s government. As such, he views it as an investment which can yield much for him while lifting Aer Lingus out of what he sees as its current languid state. In his inimitable style, he recently told Ireland’s Sunday Business Post: “It’s just a rolling plan to leave in about two or three years’ time - don�t get too hung up about it.You can be bloody sure I�ll be here for the four years. I’ll be hanging around until the job [i.e. the Aer Lingus business plan] s done. If we acquired Aer Lingus, I would go in there and help them clean it up.”

O’Leary has some way to go before his efforts to acquire Aer Lingus come off - and his plans to cut jobs at the object of his desire while bolstering Ryanair’s ranks has caused much debate. The longer-term prospects of what would be a very politically-charged move are uncertain, but Ryanair itself continues to look a sound investment prospect, with flights to Fez and Marrakech about to add to its ever-increasing portfolio of low-cost European destinations.

The man who once called his aeroplanes “buses with wings” has not always won himself friends - even among his own staff, with his fanatical cost-cutting meaning that they have to pay for most of their training and equipment. But what Michael O’Leary’s success to date suggests is that single-mindedness can and will reap rewards. His ‘less is more’ approach was a visionary one for his industry, and one which has - while prompting the distaste of environmental groups among others � opened up a wealth of new possibilities for the travellers and businesspeople of the 21st century. It is true that his early friendship with the Ryan family sowed the seeds of his later success - but O’Leary has proved a dazzlingly successful opportunist, and in many ways has made his own luck. What can he teach the budding entrepreneur? Perhaps most crucially that, through hard work and pure guts, no cause is lost. He is an inspiration to anybody who is taking on the running of a relatively small concern and seeks to hit the big time through innovation and application.

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2 comments

  1. Dave Oct 26

    I’d argue the point of whether O’Leary is an entrepreneur - he’s never been anything other than an employee of someone else, hasn’t he? And getting your break because you were friends with someone from school is hardly an achievement compared to plenty of others.

    And then there is the matter of his business practices. I doubt if many other reputable businessmen would espouse the sort of profit-at-all-costs attitude that O’Leary represents.

  2. Nowings Nov 6

    If success can be only acieved by treating emplyee the way MOL does than shame on all of us who allowed our society to go so low.
    I hope other business man have enough decence and dignity not to follow his example.

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