meet

meet

the

MD

This week: Mark Olszowski, Meon Travel

Age: 38

TRAVEL has been an everyday part of my life since 1976 when my father bought Meon Villas.

Conversations at the dinner table revolved, inevitably, around travel and there are no prizes for guessing what form my vacation jobs took.

After leaving university it would have been easy to take the next step and join the family business but I decided not to do so.

It was during a gap year that another temporary spell at Meon pointed the way for my first career move. ABTA wanted to encourage computer literacy in the industry and was part-sponsoring students to go on information technology courses. It was my first real exposure to computers and I was hooked.

As a result I got a job with IBM and spent almost nine years with the company. I joined as a systems analyst but after three years moved into the technical marketing team as I could see the value in rounding off my technical IT knowledge with more commercial experience.

Towards the end of this period Meon decided to invest in developing its IT expertise and the time seemed right for me to join the team. It was quite a challenge as I was given the dual role of IT manager and financial controller.

Every business goes through a rough patch and staff morale was pretty low at the time.

As a specialist niche tour operator with Longshot Golf Holidays, as well as our flagship Meon Villas programme, the defining characteristic of the company has always been our staff and their product knowledge.

The challenge when I started out with Meon was to harness those talents. The operation had been successful up to that point because we had a strong gut feeling about what would work well in both the villas and golf holiday markets.

I found out quickly that success in travel relies on that gut instinct and the ability to react fast to maximise benefit or minimise damage.

I found balancing a day-to-day instinct with a cooler statistical approach was the key to developing a sound operation that enabled us to identify opportunities and to act on them.

It took five long years to achieve and involved the introduction of a completely new computer system. At the end of that time, Meon was both profitable and geared up to meet the demands of a fast-changing industry.

In the mid-1990s, after running the company for 20 years, my father asked me to take the reins as managing director.

As a family we have always had honest discussions and the talks we had about this change were both full and frank. I certainly did not underestimate the task and was well aware that I was a relative new boy in an industry that thrives on knowledge and intuition.

When I took over as managing director in 1996, I had the benefit of a highly experienced team behind me, operating across all parts of the business.It has been a fantastic learning curve ever since.

Within a small company like Meon there is an unbeatable opportunity to get involved in every aspect of the business and to get a handle on what works and what fails.

Last year, when First Choice bought Meon, one of the biggest challenges was to reassure our staff that there would be little change in the day-to-day running of the company and that what changes there were – such as securing flight allocations and improving training – would be beneficial.

Loyalty needs rewarding and our first objective was to keep the communication channels open so that people knew what was happening. The proof of the pudding was that the vast majority of staff are still with Meon and the opportunities we outlined have nearly all come about.

The day-to-day running may not have changed much but my role has – dramatically! Being part of a plc involves working to stricter timetables and more formal reporting procedures, generally imposed by external forces. It also allows you to focus clearly on long term business strategies and to see where there are opportunities to develop your brand.

It’s a challenge for which I’m ready.

CURRICULUM VITAE

1983: left Trinity Hall Cambridge and began year long assignment at Meon Travel. Took IT course (part sponsored by ABTA).

1984: joined IBM as systems analyst.

1987: moved to technical marketing at IBM to gain more commercial experience.

1992: joined Meon Travel in dual role as IT manager and financial controller. Challenges included harnessing the talents of the team to maximise the company’s success.

1996: became managing director. This included involvement in all aspects of the business.

1999: continued as managing director under new First Choice ownership. New challenges included keeping staff morale high and adjusting to the challenge of working as part of a plc.

MY TOP TIPS

&#8226 Getting the right balance between flair and control is an absolute business prerequisite.

&#8226 Expect the unexpected. Travel is a business where things change and there is always something different to consider.

&#8226 Keep your door open and listen to what everyone has to say.

&#8226 Respect other people’s views.

&#8226 Try to involve your staff in planning and ensure they understand your strategy.