A note on current times...

Trying to make sense of the world where we live is one of my ongoing interests. My emphasis is trying to understand the reasons for the current economic (and social) situation. To be able to do this, one needs to take a step back and look at history. I am a firm believer that history repeats itself to a great extent. From time to time I come across certain sentences that are a great help to put things in to perspective. The first one, by Alexander Tyler, a Scottish historian, certainly gives you food for thought. If one accepts his view, which stage are we in? If you answer the question correctly, you know what is coming next... I have made my mind...

"A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse due to loose fiscal policy, which is always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations from the beginning of history has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency, from dependency back to bondage."

The second one is by Mahatma Gandhi

.

“The things that will destroy us are, politics without principle, pleasure without conscience, wealth without work, knowledge without character, business without morality, science without humanity, and worship without sacrifice"

.

Ask youself this questions about the western society:

* Do our politics have principles?

* Do we have pleasure with conscience?

* Is our wealth based on work?

* Do our businesses have a high moral standard?

* Is our science based on humanity principles?

MSc Events Management @ BU

The School of Services Management @ Bournemouth University holds the largest Tourist Masters in the UK. We have been at the top for more than a decade and each year we host around 120 students from more than 30 countries. Following the successful launch of the BA (Hons) Events Management in 2005 and the recruitment of a number of staff (including myself) since then, the school launched a MSc in Events Management in 2007. Starting this September I was also made the pathway leader for this Masters.

.

I am pleased to say that the MSc Events Management is already a tremendous success. This year we saw the number of students growing to 40 (from 23 last year and 13 in the first year), which makes it the largest Events Masters in the UK. The 40 students originate from 17 different countries, with half the students coming from Asian countries (mainly China, Thailand and Taiwan) and the other half from Africa (Kenya) and Europe. The group of students is very enthusiastic, which makes teaching them so much more interesting. I am looking forward to continue working with such an engaged and culturally diverse set of students.

III International Congress Leiria and West

Next week I am presenting a paper at the III International Congress Leiria and West (Peniche, Portugal). My paper, co-authored with Nuno Ricardo Dias from the Estoril Higher Institute for Hotel and Tourism Studies (ESHTE), focuses on the satisfaction of golf tourists’ in the Lisbon Promotional Region (Portugal). During my stay in Portugal, I am also delivering a guest lecture at the school where I graduated and later worked for 10 years (ESHTE).

The "Bournemouth Matrix"

The new academic year is under way, in fact we are already half way through the first term! This has been a pretty hectic term and I cannot complaint of lack of work... I am unit tutor for three undergraduate units:

• Leisure Innovation (Year one; BA (Hons) Leisure Marketing)
• Event Innovation (Year one; BA (Hons) Events Management)
• Consumer Experience & Behaviour (Year two; BA (Hons) Events Management)

I am also the leader for the Events Principles and Practice unit for the MSc in Events Management.

.

These four units account for 340 undergraduate students and 40 Masters students! Fair enough, I am noyt teaching them alone - that would be impossible. The Event/Leisure Innovation units are co-taught with Pearl Morrison and the EPP unit with Caroline Jackson and Debbie Sadd.

.

The content of the units is pretty much the same as in previous years, however I had to create something new for the LI/EI units. As I have reported in previous entries, in these units students have to develop a new leisure product/event for a real organisation. As part of the process, students need to examine the organisation’s product portfolio. One of the most methods employed to analyse an organisation’s product portfolio is the Boston Matrix. The focus of the Boston Matrix is on the relationship between the product and its market. Yet, sometimes it is not possible to clearly define the market for certain products. Recognising some weaknesses in the Boston Matrix, notably the fact that other variables than market share and market growth may be important means of analysing product portfolios, the General Electric (GE) matrix was developed. This matrix analyses each product based on market attractiveness (a measure of industry attractiveness) and business position (a measure of competitive position).

.

The currently existing product planning matrices were formulated for business with clearly identifiable business units (SBUs). However, some businesses/organisations might not contain a range of clearly identifiable SBUs. In many cases, one businesses contains only one SBU – the business itself. Yet, the product offered by that business could be made up of different sub-products, that together contribute to the organisation’s competitiveness.

.

One category where one SBU might consist of a number of products is service-based experiences. Experiential products are different from other types of products in that for a single price the person consumes a range of products (or sub-experiences). For example, visitor attractions are made up of a number of product propositions. These could include one core product (entertainment) and two supporting products (food and retail opportunities). The entertainment product, in turn, is usually made up of several components. If Farmer Palmers, a farm themed attraction for children under 8, is used as an example, its entertainment consists of pedal tractors, milking the cow, forest walk and straw mountain (just to name a few). In a similar vein, a fitness centre is made up of, for example, three products: Gym (core product), Spa/Beauty Centre and Café (Supporting products). The Gym, in turn is made up of several components, including group classes, weights and cardio fitness. Some of these components could even be further divided. For example, the cardio fitness component consist of different sub-components, such as treadmills, exercise bikes and rowing machines.

.

This indicates that often:

• leisure products consist of several components which are consumed at a single price. These individual components do not generate income independently of others (at least objectively) given the pricing structure. Together, they contribute to generate income through the single price charged for the consumption of the core product. Yet, existing matrices focus on a clearly identify business unit, capable of generating income independently of other products. They have not been designed to perform product analyses when it is not possible to establish revenues or units sold.
• no information is available as to the size of the market (entire demand or supply) for each of these products/components. It is virtually impossible to establish the market for pedal tractors, straw mountains, treadmills and rowing machines. It is also difficult (if not impossible) to establish the market size of supporting products (such as retail and food)

.

Thus, product portfolio analyses within the service-based leisure industries should be based on a different anchor that the notion of ‘market’. What I suggest as an alternative is to adopt an experiential ‘anchor’ as the basis for undertaking product portfolio analyses in the service-based leisure industries. The resulting matrix is tentatively called the “Bournemouth Matrix”. The proposed matrix analyses products (or their components) in relation to two areas: consumer appeal and development potential.

· Consumer appeal refers to how much a product (or component) contributes to the overall experience provided by the leisure organisation. Another way of looking at consumer appeal is to examine to what extent the withdrawal of that product (or component) would impact on how appealing the organisation would be to actual or potential consumers. Evidence to plot products (or components) along this axe could include: actual usage and consumer feedback (including consumer surveys).

· Development potential refers to the extent to which a particular product (or component) can be changed to enhance the customer experience (in terms of appealing/satisfying consumers more or satisfying a larger number of consumers). Establishing the development potential of products and components could result from an analysis of factors internal and external to the product or component.

.

A more complete version of the matrix has been developed and an 8 page support document produced. Students are now applying the matrix to their allocated organisation and if the matrix proves to be useful to a wide range of organisations within the leisure industries, then I will ‘formally’ publish it.

.

PS: As this is working in progress, no reference to the Bournemouth Matrix should be made without my previous consent. If you wish to discuss its use, contact me mmoital@bournemouth.ac.uk.