Meet our people: Neil Thompson

At On Point Loyalty, our people are the key driver behind everything we do. Coming from diverse backgrounds, but all with a shared passion for loyalty strategy, our teams work around the world to deliver world-class solutions for our clients. This second episode features Neil Thompson, who talks about his expansive experience, pros and cons of living in Sydney and how he became fluent in Mandarin by chance...

Neil - you have worked both on the client side as well as the consultancy side - how do they both compare?

The most interesting thing is having done both, and drawing on client experience when consulting, and vice versa. From a client perspective, having the ability to implement is very rewarding . One of the limitations of being client side is balancing the pressures to operate in the “here and now” with the challenge of being able to step back from the business and look at it objectively. That’s where the working relationship between client and consultant can become most productive. 

Increasingly, I find a big focus of the consulting side of my work is helping clients identify the right questions to ask. An opening conversation around “how can I best build a loyalty program” often quickly evolves into a more strategic discussion around corporate strategy and the role within that of a customer strategy that may or may not incorporate a loyalty component which, in turn, may or may not require a loyalty program.

In addition to the traditional value adds of strategic frameworks, benchmarking and best practice analysis, an external consultant can play an important role in creating the environment to keep the “big questions” alive in a business. Managers are typically consumed with the day to day pressure of delivering short term results and too often sacrifice the time needed to look over the horizon. While there can be a temptation to outsource that task to external consultants, in my experience the greatest value can be created when we are able to work alongside management via workshops, focussed conversations or simply good listening to create the space for more strategic and creative thinking.

You have had various roles across airlines in Australia – what were some of the standout achievements that you look back on?  

One of the great aspects of the airline industry is how multi-faceted it is. An airline incorporates every discipline from sales & distribution to marketing, operations, safety, customer service, international relations, government affairs, industrial relations, IT, digital, data-analytics, strategy and finance - all in a global environment and with a diverse workforce, a large proportion of whom work remotely. The best airlines recognise this and develop their managerial talent by consciously rotating people across multiple disciplines.  I have been fortunate enough in my career to work across many of them, not only in Australia, but also internationally, including extended postings in Asia and Europe,

Two areas I found particularly rewarding were new market development, and loyalty. At Qantas, I was heavily involved in planning and negotiations to open new routes to, and markets in, Taiwan, China, Korea, Vietnam, India, Cambodia and Myanmar. That enabled me to draw on my experience in sales and marketing, as well as a prior career in cross-cultural business development and consulting in Asia.  I was also fortunate to have run both the Qantas and Virgin Australia loyalty programs at times of very rapid growth where the most rewarding experience was turning them into profitable stand-alone business units.

These days, my favourite type of project involves a combination of strategic consulting and mentoring. I enjoy working alongside executives to help them identify the right questions to be asking, and sharing experience in implementation to help them build and lead high performing teams.  I have always had a particular interest in customer behaviour and customer data as a driver of value. Anything that involves closely listening to customers and helping translate those insights into customer experience or program design is very rewarding. 

From a finance point of view, I believe it’s absolutely critical that any manager/client or team member of a business understand how the business makes money. Airlines, and especially loyalty programs, are a good example of complex, multi-faceted business with many value levers where it’s very easy for individual team members to become disconnected from how their role feeds into financial value creation for the overall business. I enjoy helping business join those dots and create a narrative that all team members can engage around.

You are fluent in Mandarin – can you tell us how that all started?

To be frank, it was completely accidental. I grew up in Melbourne and, on the day I started high school (many many years ago), discovered to my surprise that Mandarin had just become a compulsory language for all students in the school (replacing French and Latin). Everyone studied for a minimum of four years, and then had the option to continue to HSC level. I discovered that I enjoyed languages, and had a good aptitude for them (I also studied German). I kept it through to final year, and then enrolled at Melbourne University where I majored in Chinese language and Asian Studies for my BA. From there, I was awarded an Australian Government scholarship to study in Beijing, so spent time at Beijing University studying economics but, more importantly, immersing myself in the China of the (very) early 1980’s. Before I joined the airline industry, I spent several years as a consultant splitting my time between Canberra and Beijing, advising Australian companies on setting up joint venture projects in China, and using Mandarin a lot in that role.  While with Qantas, I was fortunate enough to spend a total of four years based in Beijing and Taipei, as Qantas station manager in each of those cities.  These days I use Mandarin less, although did get the opportunity while at Virgin, as we had two major Chinese shareholders. I also stay connected with the worlds of Chinese academia and politics through my role on the Advisory Board of the Australian National University’s Centre on China in the World. 

You are based in Sydney. Some people may say: Australia is at the end of the world – or is that just perception? Is it a disadvantage to be located in Australia when doing global projects?  

Well, some might argue we’re fortunate at this particular moment to be so isolated. I guess spending so much time in the airline industry has given me a distorted view of the “globe” as I’ve always travelled a lot of work and have spent close to half my career outside Australia. I do think one of the post-COVID legacies may actually be a more relaxed attitude to engaging with clients/consultants across the globe via virtual platforms which could create new opportunities. 

Sydney is a truly beautiful city. I love the proximity to water (whether the Harbour or beaches) and the relatively relaxed pace of life (I spent several years living in New York and remember my first impression on returning to Sydney was how slowly people walked on the footpaths !!) Despite the distances (and putting 2020 aside), we’re generally well served by air links. Downsides - the cost of housing is ridiculous !

What do you think is the biggest misconception about Australians?

That we’re lazy and spend all our time on the beach! I find Australians, particularly in corporate life, work hard, and work pretty long hours, but with a healthy ability to switch off outside work and appreciate friends and family.

You are a non-executive director at Smiling Mind – can you explain a bit what this is about?

Smiling Mind is a Melbourne-based not-for-profit that was founded to bring the mental health benefits of mindfulness-based meditation to a broad audience via a free app-based platform. We have a particular focus on young people via our schools-based programs that feature a combination of in-person and app-supported training to help young people develop skills and tools around self-awareness and resilience. We also offer workplace-based programs to corporate clients including the likes of Microsoft.  I’ve had a long-standing personal interest in yoga and meditation and came to mindfulness via that route. Over time, I’ve come to really appreciate the benefits it can bring not only as a proactive mental wellness tool, but also as a valuable way to cultivate skills such as perspective in the face of ambiguity that have a real application in corporate life. Self awareness is also a key component of EQ, which is increasingly recognised as one of the most critical attributes of high performing leaders. 

What advice would you give to (young) people wanting to pursue a career in management consulting?

I never set out to become a management consultant, so my advice is only in hindsight. In my own experience, having had hands-on managerial and operational experience in a business is probably the most valuable thing I draw on when consulting now. And key to that has been breadth of experience. My advice would be to balance the consulting skill-set with some hands-on experience in a business and to try to make sure that corporate experience is as broad as you can possibly make it. I’ve come across so many young people in corporate life recently who are keen that every move they make be a promotion. That can lead not only to very narrow specialisation, but also to frustration when they reach a ceiling and further promotion isn’t happening. When I look back on my own career, and on the consulting, advisory and mentoring work I do now, the thing I’m most appreciative of is that I had many opportunities for lateral moves that exposed me to different parts of the business and gave me an appreciation for how the business functioned both operationally and commercially. That’s been enormously valuable in helping others focus on the larger strategic issues businesses face.