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the third party planner
Roger Helms It's all about creating value ROGER HELMS is Founder and CEO of the Scottsdale, AZ-based company HelmsBriscoe. Founded in 1992, HelmsBriscoe provides site selection and meeting management services for over 8,000 corporate, association and government clients.
MPG We are nearing 1,000 associates and we have increased the distribution of our associates globally. We have seen great advancements all over Europe, India and now have our first associates in Japan and China. Has HelmsBriscoe 2009 changed from your initial vision? What’s amazing to me is that despite our tremendous growth our culture has remained the same. We’ve enhanced our associate base thus increasing the value proposition that we have for the hotel community and the customer. We started as a very small boutique company and have been fortunate to maintain this great culture and sense of communication and community as we grew the organization to nearly 1,000 associates. The dedication and passion of our associates as well as our enabling technology have made this possible. We’ve maintained this boutique culture, yet here we are able to communicate globally and expose our brand to places we have never been before. We can instantly communicate to our associates the value propositions that we have been driving for 16 years. That has got to be the biggest change from 1992 - how technology has armed and supported our company and benefited our clients. What trends do you believe are most important to observe and discuss? From a macro standpoint, we are in “the fittest will survive” mode. The question is, “Who has the strongest foundation, who adds the most value, and who is financed correctly to survive this type of recession, however deep it might be?” I believe that the hotel community has gone back to a “heads in beds” syndrome. When you get into major cutbacks, the trend you see is that the meetings industry is much more driven by the small to mid-sized accounts rather than the large “A” accounts. These smaller groups provide very short-term, very vital meetings business for the hotels. Something else to watch is how air lift is affecting the industry. In some situations it is hindering the growth because airlines have cut back the lift into some major markets. It used to be that you booked your hotel rooms first and then worked on your air. Buying patterns have changed and customers are now selecting the destination by the air cost and then finding the hotel space. It’s all about saving money, saving time and buying more efficiently. I believe a future trend will be more demand or spot buying rather than corporate rate programs. Organizations are currently cutting staff and controlling spending. When the economy begins to recover, they will not be able to support the demand for meetings internally so I think that will go into more of an outsourcing mentality. Economic challenges force people to change their habits. When they finally make the change, they realize it is a more effective and efficient way of doing business. How do you define “success?” If you can create something that everyone it touches wins then to me, that is the Holy Grail. It’s all about creating value. That is a simple way of defining success. When someone says, “My life is a better because you are around,” that’s success. Some people don’t define their own success. They never hit their own sweet spot because they’re defined by someone else’s vision of success - not their own. Know yourself, craft your own vision of success and then constantly strive to achieve it. At what point are we on our current business cycle and what do you think we are learning? What should we do to prepare for the next business cycle? I’d like to say that we’re in the middle of this cycle but I believe that 2009 will be a very tough year. Recovery will take time. Governments will throw everything they have at the problem and then all that’s left is time. I believe that we all have to work through this and be very honest within our own business environment and learn what we can do today to be prudent, savvy and continually add value in these difficult markets. The value proposition can change market to market. You have to be nimble enough in today’s environment to drive a new, innovative value proposition. Now’s the time to roll it out and enhance your existing proposition and being nimble enough to do that is a real advantage. I’m an optimist. I believe that our current recession should be seen as a gift because it forces people to dig deeper than ever before. They have to push hard to make sure that they are creating value. Tough times can motivate and re-energize a company. When I look at our own company, most of our associates are energized. They get up earlier, they drive harder, and they are more appreciative of everything that they have in their business. Sometimes a purging of the system can be healthy. Too many companies are currently bogged down in being reactive to what’s in front of them and they are making knee-jerk decisions. They are spending more time digging a bunker than they are trying to climb up above the tree line. I think any company that can see above the treetops wins. What do you see in your crystal ball? As is always the case with the future, the only constant is change. As our economy gets better, some people will remember the hard lessons that they learned during these challenging times and carry them forward regardless of how good the market becomes. Some people will fail to learn from this opportunity and return to business as usual. The difference between a good company and a great company is that some companies will learn nothing and some will learn a great deal and become better and stronger. I’m proud to say that I believe HelmsBriscoe fits into this latter category. |
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