When a family-run leisure company first opened their flagship holiday centre they were staring at 9 years of preparation and hard work going down the drain. The list of issues was extensive; inexperienced management, ill-thought out and missing facilities and poor communication had all contributed to an underwhelming customer experience. In fact every guest had to be refunded on the opening weekend, a highly embarrassing situation that Johan was tasked with rectifying.
With minimal budget Johan tackled each one of the concerns creatively, realising some quick wins to rectify the situation. For example, he restructured and upskilled the senior management team to build confidence and aid communication, and drove significant improvements in operational processes. He also dealt with the facilities issues, such as ordering bikes that were promised on the brochure and built a much needed onsite supermarket.
Furthermore, the General Manager’s inexperience was preventing further progress so Johan replaced him with a highly effective Operations Manager; within six months the centre was stabilised and highly profitable.
The CEO commented: “Johan successfully opened a multi-million pound business with the right staffing structures to support the organisation moving forward. He left a calm and solid management team in place and engaged with customers extremely well. He’s great with people, he resolves issues and has shaped the strategic future of the business. I would certainly recommend him fir any future turnaround roles in the Leisure industry.”
