Advantage announces radical restructure

Advantage Travel Centres Conference 2004 Special: Advantage has lifted the lid on the radical legal and organisational changes it is proposing, and it has met with mixed reaction from members.

Advantage’s interim leader, Geoff Blagg was given the job of outlining the proposed changes to Advantage members and partners in a presentation at last week’s conference in Kuala Lumpur. He began by saying: “Some of what I am going to say will make uncomfortable listening.”

Mr Blagg described how the organisation was changing from its current quasi charity status to a fully-fledge company where the members will be stake-holders. He said that each member would get 100 shares plus an additional 25 shares per outlet. “To make sure no one group dominates”, he said.

He leads the company while it looks for a managing director. He said: “I will be leading the organisation through one of the most important parts of its history.”

Mr Blagg has been given the unenviable task of overseeing the changes including dealing with redundancies. The eleven staff members who have lost jobs were named by a travel trade paper as: marketing manager, Ray Dickinson, and; Linda Owens, Richard Fox, Gillian Bray, Lesley Hatton, Angela Hall, John Tindale, Anne Harridine, Adrian Sime, Debbie Weston, and Kate Wooldridge; who was due to make a presentation on the first day of the conference, but was replaced at the last minute.

During his presentation, Mr Blagg said of the SDMs: “We completed a redundancy programme through analysis of every executive job function. We found that less than 30% of SDM time was spent talking to members, and a large number of members got no SDM visit in a six month period.”

He added: “This is no criticism of individuals.”

The SDMs will be replaced by a membership team of six people, said Mr Blagg, who help to drive sales, promote preferred suppliers and offer better communication with members and partners. They will have 140 members to manage each and will contact every member two or three times a week, but cut down on travel unless a visit is requested by a member.

One Advantage member, who wishes to remain anonymous told TravelMole during the conference: “Many members, particularly smaller agents liked the SDMs because they want face-to-face contact – they want to deal with a person they know well.

“I think many members feels that the SDMs haven’t been replaced by anything tangible. It could have been handled a lot better.”

Mr Blagg said face to face contact would not be lost because there would continue to be an annual conference, and there are plans to improve regional conferences and training. He also said members would be divided into three groups, according to number of outlets, and meet at separate EGMs.

The EGMs will take place in about six week’s time, according to Mr Blagg, which is when Advantage hopes to get approval from a judge for its proposed legal changes.

Advantage president, Roger Smith, encouraged members to attend the EGMs and vote in favour of the proposed changes to the organisation’s constitution, something he said would allow it to get stronger.

He said: “If members vote to change the constitution when the chance arises, I will be able to leave knowing that I have accomplished most of what I set out to do when I joined years ago.”

In closing his speech, Mr Blagg said: “A vote in favour of change in constitution is a vote in favour of a future for the independent travel agent.”

It is Mr Smith’s last year as Advantage president after ten years in the role. He started his last welcoming speech by mentioning the members of staff who have recently been made redundant. He said: “The decisions that have been made were very hard.” He said: “In making these changes there have been casualties.”

Mr Smith’s new role was also announced – he will become director of insurance services, something Mr Blagg said was a “major potential revenue stream”.

A very different Advantage could be hosting next year’s conference, which will be held in Sorrento in southern Italy.

Report by Ginny McGrath

Related News Stories: