Conference booklet

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Highlights of the
Lotus Convention 2018
in Bali
CONTENTS
CEO’s Speech… pages 2 - 3
Indonesia… pages 4 - 5
Malaysia and Singapore… pages 6 - 7
Myanmar… pages 8 - 9
Mice & Groups… pages 10 - 11
The Team… pages 12 - 13
Sales and Marketing… pages 14 - 15
Travelife… pages 16 - 17
Administration… pages 18 - 19
Finance… pages 20 - 21
The Lotus Chart 2018… pages 22 - 23

CEO’s speech
Dear Colleagues, Friends,
Brothers and Sisters in arms,
welcome to the first Lotus
Asia Tours Convention.
It is a moment of joy and contentment for me and I hope for
many of you as well.
It has been quite a challenging time since initiating the
process of changes, at the beginning of 2017. Today, a lot has
been accomplished and we have completed the first phase of
our project.
During this phase we have successfully implemented the consolidation and integration of all our operations
into one single system allowing the simplification and streamlining of our work, reducing thus
repetitions, duplications and human error. By so doing, the cost has been rationalised and efficiency
enhanced by creating a common back office for all agencies: administration, human resources, IT
resources, accounting, marketing, product development, quality control. New standards and procedures
have been put in place, new teams have been installed, and new data management software has
been deployed, changing the way we work.
In terms of product development and marketing we have aligned the quality, quantity and pricing of our
offers with those of our most aggressive competitors by adding additional perks. We steadfastly
pursue our product strategy by developing and perfecting our MICE team and organisational skills. We
have refreshed and updated our form of communicating and advertising our brand to the markets
audiences sought after; a brand-new product and MICE presentations, corporate website and video,
revisiting of social medias accounts and contents are all in place now. Shortly a new professional figure
will join our team; he is a brand development specialist and will bring in his expertise to further
enhance our market penetration by rendering ever more effective our communications. He will be
posted in KL where our corporate office sits.
We are on the lookout for talents with specific sets of skills to enhance that value added needed to
progress in a knowledgeable and competitive market place.
We have initiated the long, difficult cross border process of integrating all our units into one single
ultimate holding in Singapore. It is hard to predict exactly when this process will be fully completed; we
are looking at the end of 2018 and beginning of 2019. By creating a solid single group of companies
with top down management and optimisation of resources we will strengthen our position, generating
thus more value for the business.
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All these costs are a fatigue to us all!!
Although the difficulties and pain that the changes and new challenges bring on cannot be averted, the
entire team is embracing them with great enthusiasm and readiness.
We are all contributing to the Lotus project!
And for this I wish to thank you all, without your effort, adjustments and participation, we couldn’t
possibly be here today! We are on the right track towards our goal of seeing the creation of a modern
DMC, made of one young, creative, skilled and multiracial team, opening new horizons and possibilities
for the business and for us all.
During this convention you will have the opportunity to get to know the part of the Lotus family you
have not met yet; to go into details of areas not yet clear to you. Presentations will be made; departmental
and cross departmental and cross units meetings will be held. Use them to the maximum, pay
attention to what is being said, pose questions, turn FB and IG off for a while, take a leave from them;
today we are talking about real life, our life of today and tomorrow.
We will also have some recreational time, to enjoy and be merry, to bond together and to realise that
we are all part of one team spanning few countries, nationalities, cultures and languages bound by
common desires, sharing the same working ethics, standards and platform.
I will close my speech with a little yet important announcement: we have finalised the Top Performers
programme. Later your managers and head of department will provide you with all the details of this
scheme. I just would like to tell you that it will be done twice a year and that the first top performers
will be selected by June this year. Accessing the programme is obtained through a point system; a
minimum score is required. The points are accumulated and recorded through weekly evaluations and
monthly appraisals. A panel composed by rotating representatives from each department will select
the winners among all candidates basing their judgment on the points scored which take into consideration
the overall work attitude and performance of the candidates. There will be a maximum of one
top performer per department at a time. Top Performers will be entitled to several goodie goodies
including: guaranteed pay rises and bonuses, participation at working exchange schemes among the
Lotus offices in the region and participation at yearly incentive travels. This is not only a system of
rewarding, but also a scheme to enhance cooperation between teams and managers who have the duty
to accomplish their appraisals and reporting and ensure the smooth implementation of this
programme.
Let our convention commence!
Thank you
Fabio Delisi
Group CEO of Lotus Asia Tours
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Indonesia
The first day of the
Convention was
interesting for the
fact that “finally”
we all got to meet,
face to face.
We listened to the presentations from
the different offices, in particular from
Myanmar, where we learnt that the
conditions they faced were far more
challenging than those in our other
offices.
Since season 2017 we have been
embarking on a “new Lotus Bali”, following
the new procedures and alignments
as directed by our corporate office in Kuala Lumpur, which have resulted in a very successful year for
us. These improvements are currently on going and will continue until fully completed, namely for the
presentations of the quotations/confirmations that use the same standard. Starting from season 2018
we saw an impressive implementation of these, following the discussion during the Convention a daily
briefing check list was born, that now controls every quotation and confirmation.
Although we did not use the reservations log many times during the last season, starting this year, we
will be implementing it on a daily basis at the opening and closing of the day. Also this year, as a direct
result of the Convention we will be implementing a daily GIT log too.
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Additionally, after the presentation of our weekly and monthly report, we discussed how to improve
our communications with our 3 representatives based in Europe, Cristina, Chiara and Bleri, so as to
keep them constantly updated, yet without sending them any reservation logs.
During another meeting, the Bali team discussed many issues with Robert from Lotus Asia Tours
corporate office. Initially they were apprehensive, due to their reserved nature, but later discussions
proved proactive. The main topic addressed was for the combined files Kuala Lumpur + Bali or
Singapore + Bali etc. in order to avoid the net to net amount in Tourplan.
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Malaysia & Singapore
The convention
proved a great
platform to share
new ideas and air
the challenges we
each faced.
The feeling of one united team came across strongly as the
two full days, of meetings in Bali, unfolded. It was an excellent
opportunity for all of us to meet our overseas colleagues,
from the various departments across the different destinations
where Lotus Asia Tours is present. Being also a
relatively new team, it evolved into being an indispensable
exercise – for many of us it was the first time we had met –
and we greatly look forward to the next one.
With regards to Malaysia and Singapore, we discussed what
we had been working within the year and highlighted the challenges we faced such as how to manage
the combo bookings. It has always been a complex issue to decide who would take possession of the
master file, as the revenue would result in being be lower. It happened with APPNA Group and it will
happen again. How this should be handled, in the future, is the main question? On our side we require
more information from the Finance department, and we should work more closely with the different
offices to find a good compromise.
Another challenge, that we highlighted, is the flow of information from the office to the Sales team.
This is a frequent point raised by Cristina, Chiara and Blerjana. They regularly complain about the
insufficient information regarding new products, hotels, and activities. A solution put forward was the
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potential for a weekly collection, of the required information from our suppliers, followed up by a
detailed report to them.
New trails: we feel that tourism is a matter of imagination as well. What our usual customers require
are different tours, something as yet unexplored and unexpected. This does not mean that these tours
have to be in uncivilised places, but simply an unusual trail, perhaps with a different combination of
destination and a different agenda as well as the actual tour itself. Food, arts, architecture, trekking,
history…we have already collected many ideas and we will try to work on these trails for the next
confidential tariff, but we really need the contribution of everybody for these ideas to mterialise.
It would be great to have a meeting with the team once a week to hear their ideas on the subject. This
would have a double effect: on the one hand, it would let them feel like protagonists of the company
and, on the other hand, it would channel the information from the bottom up to the management.
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Myanmar
Myanmar Tourism is
the one of the
most important
sectors, having potential
and comparative
advantage.
Tourism is an extremely sensitive sector of Myanmar’s macro economy hence political stability and safety
are paramount; vistors to Myanmar need to be extra cautious due to the recent humanitarian issues
involving the Rakhine State.
Tourist Arrival
67.94% of tourist arrivals are Asians (mainly Thailand, China, Japan, Korea etc) European arrivals are
18.7% (mainly France, UK, Germany) and Italians account for 1.41%.
The government has opened more routes to visitors: Taunggyi-Kyaing Tong, Chin State and Kayah State.
Challenges
OTAs in Myanmar are mushrooming, with legal establishment and Hoteliers favouring more OTAs due
to a higher volume of production, which have resulted in a pricing war. More international and regional
DMCs are now well established. Online apps attract and produce more individual travellers and
Thailand and Vietnam are major competitors among neighbouring destinations.
Strength & Potentials
Infrastructures are favouring tour operators and visitors have more choices of hotels in Yangon, Bagan,
Mandalay and Naypyi Daw.
There have been investments in new tourist buses and trends amongst local investors are in tourism
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infrastructure. Domestic tourism is booming in terms of inland and outbound travels.
Advice for Future
We need to concentrate more on marketing. It will tighten up existing agents and business partners.
We need to differentiate products in the market (tariffs/products are our competitors edge).
It is advisable to initiate Combo products with Myanmar, attaching other destinations tour area.
Sustainable Tourism
Thaung Myo Latt has passed Travelife Sustainable Manager exam, first in the organization as an essential
stage of the project. He is actively participating MSTON (Myanmar Sustainable Tour Operator
Network) and with the support of industrial friends, we will get fast and effective practices. We expect
to be a certified agent within 1 year.
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MICE & Groups
Requests for
Leisure, Incentive
and MICE groups
have increased
lately for Lotus
departments.
Singapore and Indonesia are still Lotus’ most requested destinations for groups in terms of quotations
and materialisations, with a mix of Incentives and Leisure. The biggest issue faced, since the implementation
of the Group’s new SOPs at all the various international offices last April 2017, is mainly due to
a lack of communication. And in certain cases, also on the difficulty to understand and accept the
intention from the management and the sales team, to standardise all Lotus proposals via the Group’s
SOP, which in turn was created to convey an improved image of the company to the market.
In several cases it happened that the proposals sent to the clients, were not completed with all the
necessary information and details for the agents to have all the tools to bring the final confirmation to
the client. Numerous are the reasons for this: lack of precision and concentration on the job, very
short deadlines given and so very limited time to prepare and complete proposals, convergence of
several requests within the same period, not enough MICE & Groups staff to face the number of
requests or without enough experience/knowledge of the destination or not used to working with the
newly introduced Lotus SOPs. Undoubtedly there would be much to say regarding agents of whom are
often too demanding, too lazy and unprofessional but we are responsible for ourselves and not others
hence we first have to concentrate our efforts on improving our own jobs.
Another quite important matter is the Group Product that we offer: in comparison with some
competitors’ offers, it looks to be too simple, very similar to the FIT products and without special
activities which can be qualified as Incentives (that famous WOW factor).
Indisputably the budget of the client is sometimes too low for our destinations and the risk of offering
low quality - with very low margins - is to waste a lot of time preparing a simple proposal which can
be easily discarded in preference of other cheaper destinations or other competitors. If, on the
contrary, the budget at disposal is very high with high expectations we are often not able to offer
products of this level nor to be detailed as requested by the client.
Moreover, for Operations of Incentive groups in multiple Lotus destinations, it looks a complicated
practice which involves the entire office in certain cases, also people without particular experience or
a correct predisposition for a group arrangement.
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In terms of rates, Lotus proposals generally seem to be slightly higher than competitor proposals,
maybe due to different exchange rates or margins utilised, considering that for groups the purpose is
to match a minimum profit of 18%.
Hence, checking the list of groups quoted and the list of the materialised ones it is too restrictive to
find one problem only and one solution only to all the above reasons. Undeniably each office must put
a bit of effort in arranging the internal job in a better way, looking for people which might have the
experience, the knowledge and the predisposition to work in a Group Department, because all Group
department staff can quote even FIT products but not all FIT department staff can quote groups or
moreover if incentives.
The communication between the Sales Team with the agent, being in the same time zone, is very
important to catch additional information regarding the client’s expectations. The communication
between the sales team and the General Manager of the requested destination must be smooth and
clear, passing all the information received. The communication between the
General Manager and the person in charge of the quotation must be very
detailed, giving clear directions on what to do. The communication between the
person in charge and the suppliers must be firm, in order to obtain rates and
services as requested yet at the same time kind and friendly in order to build
relationships with them so as to get additional suggestions and tips if pertaining
to the request or maybe future requests. All of this cannot be done via “cold”
emails only (which undeniably are important for the “black and white”), it must be
supported by phone calls / skype calls or in certain cases talking directly to one
another. And the manner of communicating is important too, in helping the client
comprehend all the important details in order to confirm a group. Nothing can
ever be taken for granted when dealing with different cultures. Deadlines must be respected. Everybody
is responsible of his/her own job but General Managers are responsible of their entire office.
During the operations of groups, it is important to pay attention to every single detail, trying to
anticipate problems, anticipating the group’s arrival in every sense, discussing and collaborating with
guides and all persons in charge and referring to the Seniors/Managers if something goes wrong. In
general reporting to the sales team after the group departure in order to make them aware of any
detail. So again, it is the flow of communication.
In terms of product update, each team member should dedicate a moment at least once a week to
look for new products via newsletters, meeting people and talking to them during events arranged by
hotels/suppliers and whatever can be considered a new product must be reported to the sales team
with simple pictures and few lines of report.
Quality (memorable work and making a name for ourselves in the market) vs quantity (we have to sell
somehow). Sharing knowledge (training, chitchatting, involving people in the process) vs productivity
(stay in front of a pc and working).
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L O T U S G R O U P
Bali

C O N V E N T I O N
2018

Sales & Marketing
In the past two
years Lotus has
been through a
series of changes
from the management.
New team members, re-organisation of the company, a detailed set of standard operation procedures
(SOP) have all been determined to improve daily workflow, teamwork and performance overall.
The implementation stage was challenging for various departments and has taken some time to
smoothen. The Bali convention was a good opportunity for every department to voice their problems
and to discuss on how to find solutions together.
During the meeting, between Sales Department (Sales), Reservation, Operation and General Managers,
the following matters were discussed:
1. Timing of replies – Sales informed that replies must be preferably within 24 hours from receipt of
emails. Each office does a daily briefing to control quotations and confirmations and distribute the
workload. The daily log will be monitored by the Manager or Asst. Manager consistently for FIT and
GIT.
2. Confirmation – Sales pointed out the importance of standardisation confirmations between
different offices. Confirmations must be sent with an invoice in attachment. The GM and Asst. GM will
monitor the team until standardisation is complete.
3. Public Holidays – Sales proposed to add a note in email signatures one week before holidays to
inform clients about the closure of offices. No one has been selected to supervise or monitor this matter.
4. Quotation – Sales insisted on the importance of standardising quotations between different offices.
Examples of the SOP format for FIT & GIT were illustrated to the reservation team. The General
manager or Asst. GM must supervise colleagues.
5. Complaints - In the event of complaints, Sales must be informed quickly and moreover have all the
details of what transpired. Sales should then reply to agents with all the information at hand.
Person in charge = Reservation staff in charge of the file must inform the sales staff involved.
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6. Ad Hoc programming – Sales prepared special programmes (ad hoc) for agents and sent them
directly to Anton, Ikhwan and Thaung who will save them correctly in the server for everyone's’ access.
7. Email - When Sales is copied in on an email, reservations should continue replying by keeping them
copied in. The person who is replying must include Sales. This has not been followed through fully
because of the management’s decision to not involve Sales in daily operational work.
8. Product needs - Sales to give product input (following each market’s needs) in time for programming.
Person in charge - GM /Asst. GM are in charge of developing the requests and elaborate prices. This
practice has been followed during the preparation of the new catalogue for 2018/2019.
9. Updating on product - Sales need to be informed about new products for each destination.
Felisiana, Ikhwan and Thaung were chosen to distribute and share updates with Sales. This practice is
still not happening consistently.
10. Report inspection trip – Inspection trips must be followed up by a written report to be shared
with Sales. The report must include all personal considerations, both positive and negative feedback.
11. Promos – Sales must be informed about promo rates. Felisiana, Thaung and Ikhwan have been
selected to send Cristina all the promos, who will then decide if worth distributing and pass on to Farida.
12. Newsletter - Newsletters need to be prepared monthly. Farida will prepare the them but she needs
information updates about destinations. All teams must contribute and source relevant information.
13. Prices for catalogue - Sales will send a list of products to quote for the new catalogue. Anton,
Felisiana, Thaung, Gabriele and Ester will do the contracting with suppliers and prepare the packages.
14. Confidential format & distribution – A new catalogue format was decided on during the convention.
Cristina has already designed the new format. Each office assistant is to prepare the packages following
this new design. Once the new catalogue has been completed Cristina and Bleri will send on to agents.
Meeting with Accounts department
1. Request of credit - When agents request a credit limit, Sales will decide and propose a direction
to take. The CEO will then decide if the credit will be extended, to the selected agent, or not.
2. Client’s payment - In the event of delays on payments from clients, the Accounts department must
inform Sales. They will contact the clients and follow up until the payment is received.
3. Cancellation of services – In the event the payment is not received and Accounts decides to
cancel the services, they must inform Sales before taking any actions. Sales will try to clarify the
situation with the agents and decide together with the Account department and CEO on the actions
to be taken.
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Travellife
A training, management
and certification
initiative for
tourism companies
committed to
reach sustainability.
Travelife works with tourism companies around the world to help them improve their social, economic
and environmental impacts. The only certification body active in Asia with Tour Operators and Travel
Agents, it integrates several international sustainability and CSR standards.
Lotus Asia Tours as a destination management company plays a central role between tourists and
tourism businesses, as we can influence the choice of consumers, the practices of suppliers and the
development of destinations. This unique position enables Lotus Asia Tours to make an important
contribution to sustainable development and the protection of the environmental and cultural
resources of tourist destinations.
CERTIFICATION STAGES
Stage 1: Travelife Engaged – An appointed sustainability coordinator will go through the Travelife
training and examination and have the access to the Travelife best practices and tools.
Stage 2: Travelife Partner – Based on a sustainability report and compliance with basic requirements
assessed by Travelife, Lotus Asia Tours will reach the Travelife Partner status.
Stage 3: Travelife Certificate – Evaluation by an independent auditor based on an on-site assessment.
STEPS TOWARDS CERTIFICATION
1. Appointment of Sustainability Coordinator
The appointed sustainability coordinators are:
Indonesia Ms. Natalie Giusti (Group coordinator)
Malaysia Ms. Faridatul Hasnah
Singapore Mr. Gabriele Di Terlizzi
Myanmar Mr. Thaung Myo Latt
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The sustainability coordinators have successfully gone through the Travelife Training and examination
and received the personal Travelife certificate.
2. Conduct baseline assessment
Every 2 weeks, sustainability coordinators will conduct skype meetings to perform a baseline assessment
and go through a total of 233 criteria from 10 different themes:
- Sustainability management and legal compliance - Social policy & human rights
- Environment & community relations - Partner agencies
- Transport - Accommodation
- Excursions - Tour leaders, local reps. & guides
- Destinations - Customer Communication & protection
During this phase, the sustainability coordinators will have to answer and report all mandatory criteria
in order to satisfy the Travelife Partner stage. Our target is to finish the reporting by September 2018.
3. Create sustainability policies
During the baseline assessment, the sustainability coordinators will determine which policies to be
created in order to achieve sustainability.
4. Challenges and Action Plan
This step will require participation from the Group’s staff and related tourism companies such as the
transportation companies and hotels. During this implementation, there will be challenges faced in
order to achieve sustainability:
- Active participation from the company’s staff to follow the sustainability policy such as using less
printing paper or using more recycled paper. Action plan: to reset the printing default to select tray
containing recycle paper only
- Suppliers do not have a sustainability program, but Lotus Asia Tours have no alternative but to work
with them due to competitive rates. Action plan: To communicate with the suppliers regarding the
benefits of having a sustainability program
- To create awareness among clients in selecting certified sustainable hotels. Action plan: to highlight
the certified sustainable hotels in Lotus Asia Tours Confidential Tariff Sustainability coordinators will
regularly assess whether the action plan is done and if the targets and objectives are achieved by using
the travelife action plan and reporting tool.
5. Travelife Certified
In the third stage, the Group’s compliance with the international Travelife Certified standard for travel
companies will be evaluated, by an independent auditor, based on an on-site assessment.
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Administration
For the past two
years, the management
has carried
out a lot of changes
to improve control
and efficiency...
...and to enhance our organisation’s prospects.
The management approved and implement the first set of
comprehensive standard operating procedures (SOP) which
consist of workflow for various division such as sales and
marketing, operations and reservations, finance, administration
and human resources, etc for all employees. During the
implementation stage, various departments voiced their
difficulties in complying with this new SOPs mainly due to
existing practises. As such the management will continue to
update and improve the SOPs regularly to fit the company’s purpose.
Implementation of the new enterprise resource planning (ERP), Tourplan along with the SOP has been
a great challenge for the organisation due to employees being slow at adapting the new workflow with
the new system. Tourplan captures all business activity transactions, both estimate and actual, and has
challenges in accuracy and updated info.
Finance has been putting in a lot of effort to educate both reservations and finance teams to capture
and close the service line properly in order to deliver a fair financial result.
More effort needs to be carried out by finance to check and ensure it is happening.
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The management opted to use the Platform as a tool to provide a better rate and variety of choices
for accommodations, transfers and tours to the agent. Selling of hotels in the platform solely rely on
the XML supplier such as MG Holiday, WNH, Luxury Tours and Hotel beds. The advantage is, it saves a
lot of hassle to contract and upload into the platform. The risk is, what if any XML supplier has system
outage?
During this period, the Group CEO has initiate a lot of PR exercises:
- to engage a professional photographer and videographer for a new corporate video.
- to redesign the corporate website to have more informative and interactive content.
- to maintain and control several social media platforms that update the Group’s activities and
information to the public
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Finance
Number of licenses
is a recurring issue,
where it is commonly
known that
all departments are
queuing for login.
Usage/ License of Tourplan
The said has been cited as a reason that Tourplan is not utilised to its full potential with files not
updated on time, data is not inserted correctly, and even bookings are not uploaded when pro formas
are sent out. Also, there are instances where some users have an unreasonably lengthy login time.
• Existing control and implementation
Bali previously had a rotation system that currently redeployed to ease the traffic it was facing.
Malaysia and Singapore, members only log on for immediate working conditions and the log out when
idle, to give space to others on a more urgent basis.
• Proposal
A stricter monitor is to be in place, to cut off idle login time, by either the team leader or the
administrators/ managers.
Understanding/ Training of Tourplan
Over the past months, Tourplan has been deployed to be a new tool of the business. However,
weaknesses of the data has exposed some of the old practices that have left the information in Tourp-
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lan, either overloaded or miscalculated.
• Existing control and implementation
Since the convention, there are increased monitor and review activities.
• Proposal
Managers and team leaders of all levels need to up skill to Tourplan, in order to improve and focus on
the review processes. Also as noted, the team leaders are responsible for the development or training
of members; providing training and ensuring that the team have at the least, understood the difference
between the result in Tourplan and the manual reports they may have.
Understanding of SOP
We have been going through the closing of accounts since the implementation of Tourplan. During the
finalisation, we have come across vouchers that are not closed, that are extra and not presented.
• Exercising and implementation of Tourplan
Coupled with the convention, meetings and discussions have been setup to understand the deficiencies
and shortcomings.
• Proposal
Training, discussions and meetings with actual users, to ensure the process can be standardised, and
enable managers to give effective reviews.
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The Lotus Chart 2018
Interaction: all parties, departments, units and divisions have
resolved to strive to uphold the principle of active and
consistent interaction ensuring thus the constant vertical
and horizontal flowing of essential information.
In particular between sales team and operations, product
development and contracting.
Coordination: acting in a coordinated manner has been
identified as a very desirable target in order to improve and
facilitate the work among the parties and the communications
with the external world.
Three days of
works, during our
first convention,
have resulted in the
following chart of
directions.
ERP: a better understanding of the resources planning and management is not only required to improve
the efficiency of the database utilised but also for a clearer comprehension of all the components of
our firm that work together. All managers resolved to engage in a more active and constructive utilisation
of the system by all personnel. Regular auditing, on the usage of our ERP, will be regularly
conducted.
Reservations: while all in all, the company may be satisfied by the quality of its reservations responsiveness,
there is much room for improvement both on the speed of response (Bali) and on the knowledge
/quality delivered (all units). All heads of units resolved to work hard in this area to improve, focusing
in developing more skilled and knowledgeable reservation teams. Regular audits will be conducted and
appraisals passed on of progresses made.
Product development: by the year end one product development team, to work at the group level, will
be in place. Such team will give specific directions to the various units on the typology of product
sought after and guidelines for the contracting.
Contracting: it has surfaced that the contracting exercise is not satisfactorily conducted, neither in
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quality nor in quantity. This fact impacts the profit margin. A more skilled and dynamic negotiating
approached is of the essence. Heads of units resolved to engage more actively in this area as well as
to cooperate with the new product development team.
Sales & Marketing: the team of three have made presentations to the whole Lotus staff on the market
conditions they operate within, the various market segments, clientele and MICE tickets sought after.
The S&M team have resolved to better engage in all PR and press activity, and to always elevate their
market knowledge and understanding, to better serve the company requirements.
Finance: finance and accounting are mostly in order and nearing to progressing on time. The major
issues that emerged were related to the capturing of cost into our ERP system. Inaccuracies and lack
of appropriate documentation slow down the process and at times impede a final confirmation of
actual cost. Shared bookings between units also present problems of accounts reporting leading to
duplication of revenues at the consolidation level. Both areas are being tackled by the finance manager
and the heads of units.
Top performers: a new scheme to reward performing personnel is being implemented effective of the
1st of July 2018.
Brand and communications: a new director of branding and communication has been hired to manage
all branding, corporate image, identity and communication matters. Lotus is looking at new phase of
projecting itself in manner consistent with its values, skills and vision.
The team resolved to hold a biannual convention to facilitate the bonding of all staff and confront and
tackle all issues at group and unit level. The team also resolved to organise a yearly incentive-cumwork
travel for all managers and top performers.
This chart serves as a base of discussion during the incentive travel of 2019 and convention 2020.
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U
See you on the next one!
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