DEFYING the notion that the travel agent is dead, Chan Brothers Singapore turns 50 with a roadmap for the future – and an attitude befitting “a 50 years young company”.
Group managing director Anthony Chan, addressing a gala dinner recently at Shangri-La packed with industry supporters, quoted American poet Samuel Ullman: “Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.”
The ideals that brought the agency to where it is today rested on customer focus, excellence, innovation, integrity, passion and teamwork, he said. Founded with just two staff by his late father Chan Liang Choy, Chan Brothers grew to 11 staff and S$7 million (US$4.93 million) in sales revenue 30 years later, and over 400 employees (including contract staff) and a S$200 million sales turnover today.
The company has established a roadmap to take it to the next 50 years and has started to implement some of the initiatives. It has just completed a Customer Centric Initiative Project and has obtained the Business Excellence certification. It has also articulated its new vision, ‘To be a world-class travel icon that delivers magical experiences’, and mission, ‘You dream, we deliver; Everyday is gonna be a holiday’.
As well, it has started to leverage on technology to improve service, increase efficiency, expand market reach and change its business model. It is also embracing today’s innovative ideas such as the concept of the sharing economy.
It is big on CSR and has allocated a budget of S$500,000 for this purpose to help the community and staff welfare.
Chan said companies must search for the ‘2nd curve’, a term coined by influential management thinker Charles Handy.
“Many successful companies last for long time because they were able to create new growth curve or the second curve. So we must look for this second curve to bring us forward to the next 50 years,” he said.
– Seeking the second curve – read the full interview with Anthony Chan in TTG Asia soon
