Next pata chief will start with ‘Clean slate’

Heavy-duty restructuring is under way at the Pacific Asia Travel Association (Pata) as it prepares to “start off with a clean slate” before the announcement of a new CEO at the annual Pata Travel Mart in New Delhi next week.

Three of its regional directors in Europe and North America will not have their contracts renewed as of October, two staff in the Strategic Intelligence Centre have been “restructured” as of last month, and five staff moved to the newly established marketing and membership services unit.

Two of Pata’s key membership-service functions _ research/intelligence and events _ are to be outsourced as of October to two companies to be set up by the two people who currently head these units within Pata itself, respectively John Koldowski and Sheila Leong.

Pata is finalising 15-month contracts with the two companies which will continue to provide the same services to Pata, except as part of an external arrangement that, according to Interim CEO Bill Calderwood, will be “much more flexible” for both Pata as well as the two outgoing staffers.

The shake-up comes just a month after two new directors, Stu Lloyd and Reid Ridgway, took up positions to run respectively the marketing/membership unit and the Asia division. Both are responsible for generating products and services designed to retain existing members and recruit new ones by helping them “build the business” _ the over-arching theme of Mr Calderwood’s future strategy.

Asked if these key decisions should have been left to the incoming CEO, Pata chairman Hiran Cooray of Jetwing Hotels in Sri Lanka said the association wanted to have the new CEO “start off with a clean slate” and get stuck immediately into implementing the strategy rather than getting bogged down with housekeeping.

He said the house-cleaning was part of the mandate assigned to Mr Calderwood when he took office in February, initially for six months but now extended by two months until November to facilitate a smooth handover to the new CEO.

Asked if too much change was being made too quickly in too many critical areas, Mr Cooray said, “We had no other choice.”

In an interview last week, Mr Calderwood acknowledged that among the most important issues now was to retain the confidence and membership of the major airlines, national tourism organisations and hotel chains, the “big boys” that comprise 20% of Pata’s membership but pay 80% of its dues.

Many of these institutions, with their global networks and massive data-gathering and analysis divisions, say they now believe Pata needs them more than they need Pata, and are trying to figure out precisely what they get for their thousands of dollars in membership dues.

The upcoming Pata Travel Mart, board meetings and other associated events to begin this week in New Delhi, will probably be a last chance for these groups to evaluate the situation before Pata’s membership renewal requests hit their desks by the end of this year.

To nudge the evaluation in the right direction, Mr Calderwood said, a number of strategic workshops are being organised in Delhi to offer insights into global and regional travel flows, industry trends and future issues that will drive consumer behaviour, including the impact of technology.

He said Pata has recently surveyed its members to identify and prioritise the key issues they felt to be of future importance to their businesses. These issues will be discussed in detail at one of the workshops with a view to helping Pata formulate future advocacy positions and “go to bat on the members’ behalf”.

However, these insights will probably help Pata’s small and medium-sized members far more than the “big boys”, many of whom will also be evaluating their future participation in the Travel Mart against its rapidly-rising competitor ITB Asia, to be held in October in Singapore.

Mr Calderwood said he was confident PTM would be able to hold its ground. This year’s event is being attended by 530 sellers from 295 organisations and 38 destinations, including 122 first-timers. The buyers’ tally is 303 people from 269 organisations and 53 source markets, including 94 first-timers.

He said the PTM’s unique selling proposition is that it is not fixed in one place at one time, like ITB Asia, but rather rotates around the region, giving both the regional destinations and their smaller players a chance to market themselves and improve the familiarisation of buyers with different destinations.

Mr Calderwood claims full confidence that Pata’s new business model will set in place the processes that will deliver the right value-for-money output for members, which is what he says Pata eventually be judged by.

He says that the new CEO has been chosen specifically for his ability to “motivate the troops” and deliver on the strategy but will be free to change it, with approval from the executive board.

The rapid changes have caused some internal consternation, especially among the Thai staff who have had to suddenly deal with new people, new systems and structures, while fearing for their own jobs. But Mr Calderwood said this would no longer be an issue once the staff fully understand what is being done and why.

Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/business/economics/255016/next-pata-chief-will-start-with-clean-slate