KOTA KINABALU, March 5 ― Dubbed “The Terminator” for taking on arguably the aviation industry’s toughest challenge, Christoph Mueller is bringing his tough corporate restructuring approach to revive the ailing and tragedy-stricken Malaysia Airlines.

A report by AP’s business columnist said that the “battle-hardened” Christoph Mueller had his work cut out for him, but his military approach to management and varied experience show that he is up for the task.

“The first year of a restructuring is really like a war situation,” Mueller, 52, said in an interview with Cambridge University's business school last year.

The report said he stressed the importance of town hall meetings with frontline workers and hinted that he usually ends up making sweeping changes to senior management because those responsible for existing problems tend to avoid taking responsibility.

“My experience is it's very difficult to create a winning team from existing management. There's nowhere more obfuscation than in the boardroom at the beginning of a turnaround,” he was quoted as saying.

Mueller further expanded on his war analogy, saying that staff attrition may be high because workers are not used to the urgent tempo of typical turnarounds waged around the clock.

“Managers may need, for example, to show up on Sunday morning at 4 o'clock at the baggage room, and really talk to people what their concerns are all about.”

Mueller’s previous post was CEO of Dublin-based Aer Lingus Group Plc.

John Strickland of JLS Consulting said that Mueller's status as an outsider will give him an edge in shaking up the company, which is among the”toughest jobs in the industry”

Strickland said that his experience in numerous other state-owned organisations and airlines showed that he’s dealt with diverse problems and can deal with the political pressure.

Khazanah Nasional privatised MAS after the loss-making airline struggled financially following the twin air disasters that struck the carrier last year.

The national carrier was delisted in August after Khazanah offered to buy out its minority share for a total of RM1.38 billion to restructure MAS, announcing a 12-point turnaround plan for the national carrier, titled “Rebuilding A National Icon — The MAS Recovery Plan”, also includes transferring all MAS assets to a new entity tentatively known as “MAS Baru” or “new MAS”.

The total takeover is to cost Khazanah some RM6 billion.

In December, Khazanah announced the appointment of Mueller as the chief executive officer-designate to lead the restructuring process.