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14 MARCH 2016 FOGHORN I love the exchange of ideas and ca- maraderie of PVA. Given our rela- tively small industry we need all operations to be strong as our collec- tive reputation can drive our individual success. Long ago we had made a substan- tial investment unveiling a ship in a new city. A year and a half later we turned to focus groups of users and non-users to see what our customers really thought. The user group was a veritable love fest they loved the sleek new ship the service was fantastic food wonderful and events all seemed to be special. Wow what a glow Then the moderator queried the last partici- pant who had his arms crossed and wore a scowl on his face. He blurted out that the boat was dirty the crew inattentive at best the food bad and the whole experience a rip-off. You could see the energy leaving the room as everyone was stunned by the con- flicting viewpoint and his vehemence. Meekly the moderator asked when he had cruised. It turned out to be five or six years earlier and he hadnt cruised on our ship but on the competitors This revelation was a big deal as we found in the next group the non-users that the competitors poor efforts had essentially poisoned the industrys image. But Ive done this to myself too. One city that we opened could have wonderful cruises but in reality product quality was inconsistent for the first three years. This is univer- sally fatal to shore-side restaurants but fortunately we had high-quality com- petitors so we rode on their reputation coattails. It took us about four years of stellar cruising before our individual reputation rebounded. Our competi- tion gave us a second chance. Hence we need to invest time to make our industry even better. With PVA a rising tide lifts all boats. I love that our marine crews universally work well together and will support competi- tors at the drop of a hat. Once we were locked in a tough sales and marketing battle and had our city leadership team working hard all afternoon really drilling into how to win more market share from Brand X. Imagine my surprise an hour later when I went to a waterfront watering hole and a merry happy hour was well underway with my marine crew and Brand Xs They told me they could fight out sales and marketing stuff but they need to cover each others backs. And they were right. Ive seen my food and beverage teams work closely to help competi- A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats By Bob Shaw Industry Consultant BUSINESSMATTERS