On this Poya morning,this is a repostof an article I wrote in November , 2010 for the ‘Daily
Financial Times, Sri Lanka’ on some home truths like Deborah Westphal,
Managing Partner of Toffler Associates (TA) said “…the
future requires whole new baselines” relating them to the business of tourism.
When teaching the first lessons in conventional marketing and sales, the
story of the two salespersons sent to Africa was always told. The boss of a
multinational shoe company sent two sales persons to several countries on the
African continent to assess the potential for selling shoes there. One returned
to report;”not many wore shoes there and there is no market potential for us” while
the other reported “not many wear shoes there and the potential for us is
immense”.
Now, there are other stories told to illustrate the same half-full, half-empty
views of opportunity seekers and many concepts have emerged on how to ‘exploit’
markets. Yet, most conventional marketers are trained to look at where market
potential exists. And market potential is defined as, where there is purchasing
power. The idea is to ‘milk’ these markets, often called ‘sacred cows’, where
higher yields and higher volume sales are both thought, to exist.
The feelings of guilt, such market exploitation has brought about and
the awakening of a new social conscience among consumers, as a result of the realities
of denudation of natural resources and the limits to growth placed therein, have
now brought about the fringe concept of social responsibility (CSR) into the
corporate world. In the context of tourism, this will mean a stronger emphasis
on more responsible community-based activities, where benefits to people as
stakeholders will be emphasised.
I recollect how, early last year, I engaged a professor at a branch of
leading European business school located in Singapore. He was questioning the
wisdom of the Harvard Oath, where each of the Harvard Business School graduates
had to, among other things pledge that it was their responsibility, as future corporate
leaders, to think of the well-being of society at large. The Professor at the
rival school was arguing that corporate leaders should not have responsibility
to society at large and that they only had to be responsible to their owners
and shareholders. In response, I argued that, since business is conducted in a
natural and a socio-cultural environment, no one can call oneself a corporate
leader or will have the moral or ethical right to be in business, unless they
had a deep concern for the well-being of that environment.
All these reflected in my mind, when I read a recent interview published
in the travel journal ETN with
Deborah Westphal, Managing Partner of Toffler Associates (TA). TA is an organization
researching future trends affecting humankind founded as take-off, of the work
of futurist Alvin Toffler. Westphal and TA are touted as being an outfit that
‘gets it right’ more often than not. Dr. Elinor Garely, who interviewed
Westphal at the recently concluded World Travel Market in London, had this to
say of the current mood of the global travel and tourism industry.
“Optimists crowded the recent London trade show, while
buyers and sellers convinced each other that the worst was over and consumers
were tired of couch-sitting and ready to be x-rayed and body-scanned at
airports, enjoy sardine-like comfort in mini-sized airline seats while enjoying
the slightly salty taste of nuked cuisine that is priced only slightly higher
than a gourmet land-based restaurant”.
She added “assurances include promises that civil unrest
has been negotiated away, terrorists have found new hobbies, bed-bugs have been
corralled and happily breeding in a remote undisclosed location and that in
spite of slips on unpaved roads, and falls from faulty hotel balcony railings,
regardless of the fact that the number of unemployed almost exceeds the US
national debt, the world weather conditions (from volcanoes and hurricane to
earth quakes and cyclones) are under the control of the scientists, global
diseases (including the spread of cholera from Haiti and bird flu from Asia)
are cured with injections of various chemicals, and the decline of the dollar
and the yen is purely an economic phenomenon and not worth sleepless nights, the
truth may be that the world is itching to explore new horizons and eagerly
heading for every destination that has an airport, taxi, hotel, restaurant,
spa, and swimming pool”.
She quoted Westphal as saying that “Change is hard” and
that current decisions are based on rules and assumption models that are
historical while, “…the future requires whole new baselines” that cannot be
found in textbooks. According to Westphal the “early adopters” are developing
and/or using products/services that are not currently available for public
consumption. This same group has determined that the old ways are not working
and are actively “…opening apertures that encourage cognitively different
thinking,” that enables a new way to connect the dots.
According to her, the future travel executive will need
to possess multi-skills and “will come with experience in anthropology,
geography, and multinational businesses if they are to understand the industry;
the dots they are connecting will not be in the same format as before. These
executives will have to look beyond trends, if they are to be useful to their
organizations. For example, Richard Branson’s’ focus on space travel and the
convergence of hospitality, healthcare and food industries with links between
western businesses and eastern medicine” will form the palettes of their
planning tools.
For
us in Sri Lanka, when we take on a new era and fresh initiatives in tourism,
there is much food for thought here. We could very well take on tourism
development models that engulf the changes envisaged of the future now, so we
could be ahead of the pack and be leading the way for a different and desirable
future.
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