Blue sky thinking
By Debbie Carter (August 2006 Issue)
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First Choice Holidays employs over 14,000 staff, and in 2005 had a turnover of £2.6bn. And with operations in 16 countries, it is a major player in the travel industry. It sells its packages through its First Choice and Holiday Hypermarkets retail travel outlets, as well as through call centres, online and through third-party travel agents.
However, in June 2004 it was decided that an initiative had to be introduced, because First Choice\'s sales-conversion rates had been static for two years. This was despite the company\'s efforts to put in place what it considered an effective management structure, as well as a coaching programme, measures and targets, a competency framework, and a bonus and incentive scheme.
Blue Sky Consulting entered the picture in July 2004. Blue Sky specialises in performance improvement in sales and customer service operations and has 20 full-time employees and 80 associates working with them. When Blue Sky started the project, First Choice has a clear primary objective to increase revenue by 10 per cent year-on-year. Senior management also wanted to merge the \'First Choice Direct\' and \'Eclipse Direct\' brands into the core business. To achieve this, Blue Sky set secondary objectives of developing a broad strategy that supported the Direct and Eclipse team objectives; a unifying of company culture and brand values; and establishing measures to ensure the performance improvement was maintained. ...
However, in June 2004 it was decided that an initiative had to be introduced, because First Choice\'s sales-conversion rates had been static for two years. This was despite the company\'s efforts to put in place what it considered an effective management structure, as well as a coaching programme, measures and targets, a competency framework, and a bonus and incentive scheme.
Blue Sky Consulting entered the picture in July 2004. Blue Sky specialises in performance improvement in sales and customer service operations and has 20 full-time employees and 80 associates working with them. When Blue Sky started the project, First Choice has a clear primary objective to increase revenue by 10 per cent year-on-year. Senior management also wanted to merge the \'First Choice Direct\' and \'Eclipse Direct\' brands into the core business. To achieve this, Blue Sky set secondary objectives of developing a broad strategy that supported the Direct and Eclipse team objectives; a unifying of company culture and brand values; and establishing measures to ensure the performance improvement was maintained. ...
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