As we speak this month, I reflect on our environment, on what is taking place around us, and how it impacts our business. The key message is that the global economic forum has changed forever. It has become evident that prudency in all we do has come to the fore and is now a key business imperative more than it has ever been.

In order to preserve value for the business, for ourselves and attain sustainable growth, we will have to become mavericks at what we do and in all areas of operation while maintaining our values. Although I use the term maverick, very much tongue in cheek, I must emphasize that we must realize that we will have to do more with less.

Income streams from our existing and potential clients are largely rationalized thereby resulting in a ripple effect to the service industry. This means that our guests are more likely to be price sensitive and at the same time demanding better service standards and delivery from us. This expectation has a direct bearing on our staffing and the requisite levels and caliber of personnel handling our guests.

I recently presented a paper at the Institute of People Management of Zimbabwe (IPMZ) conference held in Victoria Falls and my talk touched on these key issues of what is expected of our people to enable them to deliver to internationally acceptable standards, yet at the same time managing head count as any efficient business should. The issue of multi-skilling with the right candidates is a real one which should be the backbone of any organization. In order to effectively deliver at all times, we need to identify talent, nurture it, and this will eventually ensure our competitiveness not only on the African platform but on a global scale as well.

This forces me to revisit our staff skills competitiveness globally. What comes to mind is that we have pockets of excellence, but in order to change the perception of current skills level for Africa, our current training and development model has to be revamped in order to fit and meet modern challenges. The framework of the past will not work, therefore I leave you with this food for thought, what part can you play in your organization to ensure that your team remains relevant for today's world and beyond?

Our hotels in West Africa continue to impress and last month, two of our group properties, Amber Tinapa and Nike Lake Resort successfully hosted teams for the just ended FIFA under 17 World Cup tournament. The tournament started on the 24th of October with the last match held on Sunday the 15th of November 2009. The teams hosted by the two hotels included home team Nigeria, Iran, Korea, Uruguay, Turkey, Netherlands, New Zealand, Gambia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Burkina Faso and the UAE.

    

The hotels did a great job of hosting the teams and the staff worked tirelessly to make sure everything was in order. One could see there was a lot of excitement from the hotel staff to be a part of the World Cup in their own special way! Some of the star-struck and football-lovers amongst us were lucky enough to go away with some football jerseys as souvenirs.

The teams made full use of the hotel facilities and New Zealand decided not to leave Nike Lake Resort for their training sessions and instead used the grounds at the hotel. Iran on the other hand enjoyed the hospitality so much that they stayed for 13 nights and the hotel staff branded them the “Home Team.”

    

All in all, we were very proud of our team as they did a splendid job looking after our guests and we are glad to have made relationships that will outlive memories of the tournament. Our list of high profile guests continues to grow. First we have Obama, then we have FIFA selecting our hotels in Southern and Western Africa for their events... who’s next?

African Sun Limited owned Elephant Hills Resort was awarded with the prestigious ISO9001:2000 certification on Tuesday 03 November 2009. The journey towards certification began on 21 September 2006 followed by an initial audit on 10 December 2007 which culminated with the final audit on 16 March 2008. In his keynote address at the glamorous ceremony held at the hotel, the Acting General Manager Mr Nkosi Moyo said, ‘Since its official opening in 1993, the hotel has been working its way up in the ladder to create a sustainable quality brand that has weathered all storms and… the march to this Promised Land may I say hasn’t been a stroll in the park especially in the face of the memorable yester year’s macro-economic challenges and recent global financial crisis which had decreased the number of arrivals to the hotel”.

    

According to the General Manager, ‘ISO Certification was made possible through the hotel’s cooperation with local municipal authority [Victoria Falls Municipality] who have always supplied the hotel with safe, reliable and adequate water drinking water as well as timeous collection of refuse, the national power utility [ZESA] who also have also ensured the hotel electricity at all the times. Some of the distinguished guests present at the function were the Governor for Matabeleland North Province, Thokozile Mathuthu, The Mayor of the Resort Town of Victoria Falls, His Worship Cllr, Nkosilathi Jiyane, as well as t the Operations Manager for African Sun Zimbabwe, Mr Tich Hwingwiri. The hotel’s ISO consultant Mr Maseko and the Director General of Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) Mrs Eve Kadzikwa also graced the occasion.

    

Speaking at the same ceremony, the Standards Association of Zimbabwe (SAZ) Director General Eve Gadzikwa said, ‘The tourism sector has the potential to spur the country’s economy to be
the fastest growing in Africa between 2010 and beyond’. She went on to say that the hotel is now poised to take advantage of the revival of the global economy armed with the ISO 9001:2000 certification given that that the certificate is now firmly established as the globally accepted standard for providing assurance of the quality of goods and services in supplier-customer relations. Mrs Gadzikwa noted that more than a million ISO 901:2000 certificates were issued in 161 countries.

    

By being ISO 9001:2000 Certified, the hotel will need to work tirelessly to maintain the standard and ensure consistency in all its services in terms of food quality, service delivery, cleanliness and functionality of all amenities. With the 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa barely 8 months away, the likelihood of some soccer teams choosing to set up base in Victoria Falls is very high and it is against this background that the certification of this hotel puts the hotel in a very good position in terms of competitiveness and acceptance as a world class facility. The resort town is within the recommended one-and-a-half hours from Johannesburg by plane. The certificate is valid for three years, after which there will be a re-certification audit.

New Zealand decided not to drive out of their Nike Lake Resort abode, settling to train at the Nike Lake make shift pitch at the hotel premises.

Dressed in All Black, the lads loosened up and did some ball work, and ended up at the swimming pool of the Nike Lake Resort.

Coach of the team, Steve Cain was full of optimism after the light training. "I'm optimistic my team will perform well when the tournament starts going by the calibre of players brought here".