| Journal: TWUK | Section: |
| Title: | Issue Date: 08/05/00 |
| Author: | Page Number: 94 |
| Copyright: Other |
How sweeping changes can reap rich rewards
If ever proof were needed that being popular is not the most important thing in business, then it was provided by the Airtours group this week.Going Places managing director Terry Fisher has been promoted toUKLG managing director retail after a controversial seven-month reign which has included numerous redundancies and hugely unpopular cost-cutting measures like sacking shop cleaners and getting staff to clean branches themselves.
I know Terry quite well and I find him great fun and good company.
But I don’t have to work for him and there’s no doubt his policies have upset a huge number of travel agents.
We’ve been inundated with letters, many of them painstakingly hand-written, from branch staff angry at the changes that have been made at the retailer.
Going Places probably thinks we’ve printed most of them but I can assure you we would have had to produce a separate supplement to accommodate all the views.
We’ve never had so much reaction to an issue since our columnist Noel Josephides wrote a piece a few years ago making some controversial remarks about maternity leave.
But the Airtours group has one aim – to maximise returns for shareholders.
And to that end, Terry was brought into Going Places to make the cuts that will improve profitability at the retailer.
He has done exactly what he was asked to do, which is why he has been promoted.
Airtours now realises it has to give something back to Going Places’ staff in order to improve morale and keep bookings up during the vital lates period.
After all the cuts he has made, Terry would probably find it pretty difficult to get the staff onside. Hence the arrival of Travelworld managing director Trevor Davis as the new friendly sales director of the enlarged group.
Cleaning up: Going Places staff now have to do the vacuuming