Human Resources

The cornerstones of success

"Success is natural, for everyone. It may be buried beneath several layers of bad habits and false assumptions or clouded by disbelief and self-sabotage. " - Nolan Burris

Have you ever noticed two travel companies in the same market where one succeeds and the other fails? Why is that some people seem to be 'naturally' successful? What is the secret ingredient that makes some prosper where others struggle?

Nolan Burris states, in business and in life, success is not just an event. It is a systematic process; a process that is driven by vision, fuelled by passion, and sustained by integrity.

By creating balanced attention to the four cornerstones of Vision, Strategies, Tactics, and Ethics a state of sustained integrity arises. From integrity, success is the logical and natural result. Sounds complicated? It's easier than you might think.

No single approach is right for everyone in every circumstance. This method is easy to learn, easy to remember and easy to apply. It also doesn't require you to turn your life or your business upside down. Rather, it helps you see it in a clearer way and gives you a system for bringing it into alignment.

It's not likely that you will discover anything revolutionary or completely new in this article. You may even be surprised at its simplicity. What you will find is a method that may help you discover or rediscover the contentment and happiness that comes from creation.

Before we move on, take a moment to think about something you would like to achieve. It may be a business goal, a personal dream, a marketing idea, learning to paint - the choice is yours. As they say, for a goal to be realised, it must be realistic and attainable in the first place. Well, there is some truth in that thinking, but be careful not to discount or disqualify a goal just because it seems far-reaching. Until you get used to creating success over and over, even the smallest victory could seem out of reach. Why not reach for the stars?

Success is a process…..

Sundar Vasudaven Principal Consultant TRS Consulting

Wouldn't success be a wonderful natural state in which to live? Ah, but this could bring up a curiously difficult subject for us mere mortals: Change.

There is an old country expression that says it all…"If you keep doing what you're doing, you'll keep getting what you're getting." Even moving on to a newer, better way, means leaving behind some of the old comfortable ways. Change is one of the most significant obstacles to success. Not actually the change, but our fear of it, our resistance to it, our attachment to the way things have been.

All agree that constant change is a part of this travel industry and merely working harder is not the answer. However, it may seem a bit overwhelming as you contemplate how to move forward with changes even when you are pretty certain it needs to happen.

Before we explore implementing the ideas we've covered in this series, let's look at some fundamental concepts that can have a powerful impact on success.

If the entire universe is one big swirling mass of change, it gives us a fairly good idea as to what success is not. It is not an event. Once you have achieved success, it can fade away slowly, snap out of existence, or last for years. In other words, it is a state that must be sustained. Sustaining a state of success requires maintenance.

A process, a sustained state of being, maintenance, integrity; these may sound like some lofty and complicated issues. Nothing could be further from the truth. It all comes down to a few very basic elements that the most complex life forms on earth are made from the same basic stuff found in the simplest and easiest to understand.

Integrity is an ongoing, ever-changing state resulting from the four cornerstones of success: Vision, Strategies, Tactics and Ethics.

Vision

In nearly every case, great leaders, compassionate spiritual teachers, profound artists and more all have a few things in common. The most obvious of them is probably vision. They see their goal not with their eyes or even with their mind, but with their heart.

Passion is powerful. A passionate vision is even more so. But if these great people had solely relied on their vision alone, not much would have happened. The Reverend Martin Luther King had a very famous, publicly declared vision, "…I have a dream" he said. But he also had a plan. You could say he had a strategy to fulfill the vision.

Did he stop there? Of course not! A strategy left unexecuted would have been nothing more than a good idea. Putting a plan into action, taking detailed steps to fulfill the strategy is often referred to as tactics.

But even tactics are not enough. Something has to guide you when the unexpected arises. Something has to create the signposts that steer a tactic this way or that. Something must become the litmus test for each strategy you invent to ensure agreement with your vision. We are speaking of ethics.

These four simple elements can guide you toward achieving success as well.

Strategies

Logic and planning still play a critical role in creating a sustained state of success. Strategies for these purposes represent the "big picture" concepts and ideas that can bring your vision to life. As they say, "don't let the details get in the way." Strategies are not the "how's" but the "why's and why-not's."

They are the directions to take, but not the specific roads or paths. They involve research, fact-finding, resource gathering, and sometimes-even experimentation. It is often the management team that is responsible for creating the strategies. The purpose of the strategies they create should be designed to fulfill and sustain the stated vision. Strategies must be flexible in response to changes, but ever focused on keeping the vision alive.

• Are your current "big picture" plans in alignment with your vision?
• Have your strategies changed in response to changes in this industry?
• Are you strategies still focused on the singular purpose of manifesting the vision?

Look at just a few changes in circumstances within the travel industry that likely had a dramatic impact on your strategies.

• Commission cuts and finally 0% commission for air

For some, this has meant a shift away from booking air or abandoning corporate travel. For others, the charging of fees to corporate clients has kept this a profitable business model. In, corporate travel is now more profitable than ever before, but corporate "services" are quite different than in the past. Strategic changes dictated changes in tactics. Even leisure travel had to change. Now customers primarily seek advice from agencies. They want true consulting - they want to be wowed!

• Impact and aftermath of 9/11

The idea of safety when traveling, an awareness of inherent risks, has had an impact over the past years. Travellers can and do monitor world affairs and health concerns as they contemplate leaving home.

• The internet

It's emergence and now rocketing acceptance as the way to research and, increasingly, book travel. Currently, in matured markets, nearly half of all travel is booked online and 56 per cent of travellers begin their vacation research on a search engine like Google! Are they searching for prices? No. Experiences and opinions.

• How have these events impacted your business?
• How have they impacted your personal vision or strategies?
• How have you responded?
• What is your vision for the future?.

Strategies must be flexible and responsive to change, but ALWAYS in alignment with the vision. Always 'tested' and monitored for this alignment. When strategies go out of alignment, success moves farther and farther away.

Tactics

Far too often, tactics become reactive where they should be almost exclusively pro-active. To illustrate this point, think back when the airlines implemented commission capping. This was done without notice, with no input from travel agencies and little time to strategise. In an almost completely reactive manner, most travel agencies quickly changed their tactics.

Some decided to boycott various airlines entirely. A few decided to begin charging ticketing fees and 'blamed' them on the airlines. Still others simply threw in the towel and called it quits for good. These tactical decisions were often made with little consideration for the original vision or the strategies designed to support it. The result? Chaos.

Those who refused to sell airline tickets to loyal customers only succeeded in irritating the very same customers. The tactic had no effect on airline policy. Those that implemented ticketing fees and blamed the airlines without delivering any noticeably better service often alienated and confused their customers. It may sound cliché, but hindsight is 20/20. Look back, and learn.

A few revelations

In the midst of the panic, a few agencies revisited their original vision. In some cases they changed their vision. Others simply reaffirmed it. Strategic plans obviously needed examination and adjustment. Only then did new, well thought-out tactics emerge. But these tactics were now specifically designed to support strategies that were specifically designed to make a new or rediscovered dream come true.

• Are your tactics changing without regard to your vision or strategies?
• Are you monitoring your tactics to ensure they are still in alignment?
• Are you monitoring your strategies to ensure they are still in alignment?

Don't leave it up to your employees to change the direction of your business (tactics). It's not their job. Always ask their help in forming strategies for success. They are the ones who will make it happen and bring your vision to life. They could also bring everything to a grinding halt.

Ethics

Ethics serve as the guiding principles for you and or your organisation. How can employees be truly empowered to help you create success if they don't know the parameters within which to operate? Ethics in this case is what you, or your company stands for, what you are known for, your dedication to doing what is 'right'. All of this in relationship to the vision you have for your travel company.

Have you given your vision the power of ethics to guide and shape it into reality?

• Are your strategies in alignment with your ethics and your vision?
• Are your tactics in alignment?
• Is your entire team aware of what is "right" or "wrong" for your organisation?
• Have you empowered your staff to make their own decisions? What are their own guiding principles? They may be wonderful, but are they in alignment with yours?

When your ethics are made known, you will attract and retain employees who share your ethics or at least have some ideas in common. Employing staff that disagree with your company's ethics is a recipe for disaster. Seeking out and encouraging those that embrace your company's ethics is to move closer to success. Their personal ethics need not be identical, but they should mesh together and not form obvious conflicts of interest.

When your vision, strategies, tactics and ethics are all in alignment, you will have achieved a state of integrity….. Every strategy, every tactic, every detail is 'integral' to the stated vision.

The author is principal consultant with TRS Consulting. He can be contacted at trs@bc.kv.ae