Customers can exert a powerful influence on the level of competition and the power of the customers depend on the following factors:

• When the industry has only a few customers, the influence each customer has or impact on the industry is substantial.
• There are a few customers whose purchasing power in term of quantities, may have a substantial effect on the industry.
• Customers who have a wide ranges of sources for a standard product, will be in a position of power to call the prices from suppliers.
• Customer has access to the industry's costs and level of demand
• Big customer has the resources to take over the suppliers if they want to.
• Customer can switch from one supplier to another easily without much difficulty.

All of the above factors will give the customer the ability to exert great influence on the industry in terms of pricing and product development and to the overall industry's competitive nature.

It is important for leaders to be aware of emotional intelligence. Those who have them tends to be better change managers and leaders. The ability to project oneself in another person’s shoes is a skill to be acquired. That is called emotional intelligence. Goleman has written many books on emotional intelligence. They are very good books to read if you want an in depth appreciation of emotional intelligence.

Geoff Dixon however, did demonstrated emotional intelligence. In this case, Geoff Dixon demonstrated emotional intelligence on the side of the stakeholders. Who are the stakeholders? The stakeholders in this case, are the shareholders of Qantas and the Board of Management. Geoff did put himself in the shoes of these stakeholders by the fact that he feels for the concern of the management, the concern for rising costs and lost of competitiveness in the global competition of the air industry.

However Geoff could have done better by imaging himself in the role of the employees, the flight attendants, the pilots, the baggage boys. If Geoff have put himself at the receiving end of the change, how would he feel? By doing that, he would be in a better position to devise a better proper message to put across, perhaps something that is more acceptable.

To get the institutions such as the Unions to be more co-operative with Geoff, Geoff should have used emotional intelligence to create a situation where everyone will come in to participate in the change program willingly.

Suggested methods could be creating a crisis and making the employee realised that if they do not participate by contributing to the survival of the company, everyone will lose out in the end. If ideas of change are suggested by the Union leaders and union members, there will not be any objections from their part. After all, it is their ideas and suggestions. Nobody will kill their own baby. This is emotional intelligence at work.