Vince Cable is interested in introducing a plan for employee share-ownership at Royal Mail, when or if it is ever privatised. It's all about instilling a change of culture in the organisation. Cable sees John Lewis as a model. It sounds fair enough, but it isn't as simple as handing over some share certificates.
The John Lewis Partnership can be traced back to 1919. The company's culture of service and participation is that historical and ingrained that it is, in effect, what the company is. To give an example of the challenge at Royal Mail, I heard a radio discussion about the plan in which the courtesy of a John Lewis van driver was compared with the two-fingered snottiness of a Royal Mail driver. The point is that the John Lewis "spirit" penetrates every last bit of the company's operations.
Giving out shares is, in truth, an artificial way of trying to engender a different culture. It's almost like a bribe, a financial incentive to create success without the bedrock of inner strength and values - a bit like Manchester City, without a culture of achievement, looking to usurp Manchester United, which has, with the promise of riches. It shouldn't be necessary. A rotten culture is rarely the fault of staff; the blame nearly always lies at the top.
Not long after he became the head of the Fomento del Turismo (aka the Mallorca Tourism Board), Pedro Iriondo spoke in "The Bulletin" about bygone days of a personal touch and smiling, happy people greeting tourists. What he also spoke about was that this personal style, this culture, had to start from the top of the tourism trade and cascade downwards. He was not wrong.
Much is sometimes made of indifferent service and attitudes by those in Mallorca's tourism frontline. We can all cite examples of the good or the bad. Just to give one of the former, I happened to go into the Sis Pins hotel in Puerto Pollensa the other day. I was not a guest, but the beaming and charming greeting was enough to convince me that did I wish to be a guest, then I would be so with full confidence. And this was not forced, it was totally natural, suggesting an atmosphere, a culture if you prefer, of Sr. Iriondo's personal touch. There are plenty of other examples, just as good.
But then there is the bad, made worse by a propensity for those suffering the "bad" to rush off to the internet and tell the world. To suggest that poor service or attitude can be totally eliminated is a nonsense, but perhaps Mallorca has indeed, as Sr. Iriondo has suggested, lost some of its personal touch, lost some of a culture of welcoming. Unlike Royal Mail, which starts from base camp, Mallorca is still well up the mountain, just that it needs to get back to the peak.
Part of the problem may well lie with simple terminology. "Tourists". A generic term and a sometimes pejorative one, which implies a breed apart, one that is a part of Mallorca and yet is separate from it, one that is removed from the process of Mallorca and yet which is fundamental to it. "Tourists" cease to be individuals and become resources moving along a production line, causing it to be forgotten that they are holidaymakers, with all this term implies in respect of the "fun" of holiday, and also guests. Forgotten not just by some businesses and their staff but by everyone.
In Alcúdia, there is an annual tourist day. It is a good idea and a successful event, but it is inherently contradictory. Is every day not a tourist day? When Sr. Iriondo referred to the "top", he wasn't completely right, in that - in organisational terms - it is the tourist who should be at the top of the pyramid; everyone else is in a support role, and by everyone I mean everyone. It is the John Lewis culture writ large, even down to courtesy by drivers.
Of course, embracing everyone in such a culture is an impossibility. It could only be achieved were there an authoritarian regime, commanding the populace to smile nicely and hug a tourist. Yet there used to exist something of that type of regime, at a time in the past to which Sr. Iriondo has alluded. Along the way, something got lost, the result of familiarity, routine, a greater politicisation of the tourism issue and increased wealth. It might also be a consequence of tourists themselves, or some of them; those who do not apply their own responsibilities as guests. Patience can be stretched to the limits at times.
Nevertheless, for the majority of visitors, things do need to come down from the top, be it in bars, restaurants, shops, hotels or wherever, or from the tourism ministry and organisations. Perhaps just a bit of the spend that is made on promotion could be diverted to some "internal" marketing to the staff, as in everyone in Mallorca. A reminder that each tourist is a guest and is unique, and deserves a culture in which he or she is made to feel welcome by all. Mallorca is not the Royal Mail, but were it to be John Lewis then whatever shortcomings the island may have compared with its shiny new competitors would be compensated for - through the personal touch.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for September 2010
Art and graffiti - 8 September 2010
Bienestar Activo - 15 September 2010
Books and culture - 22 September 2010
Breast cancer charity concert, Puerto Alcúdia - 26 September 2010
Can Picafort and hotel occupancy - 25 September 2010
Capdepera Christian theme park - 21 September 2010
Carretera Arta works - 9 September 2010
Chopin adoptive son - 10 September 2010
Columbus came from Felanitx - 27 September 2010
Correbou and bullfighting - 2 September 2010, 4 September 2010
Elton John-Andrea Bocelli concert - 3 September 2010
Fiestas, Bunyola and - 19 September 2010
General strike - 29 September 2010
German air tax - 7 September 2010
Golf, GOB and - 10 September 2010
Ironman in Alcúdia - 15 September 2010
Local elections, opinion poll and - 14 September 2010
Palma European City of Culture - 24 September 2010
Playa de Palma re-development - 11 September 2010
Pollensa, its problems, its mayor - 28 September 2010
Port de Sóller promenade development - 16 September 2010
Prostitution - 12 September 2010
Rafael Nadal and tourism promotion - 17 September 2010
Rumours, closure - 23 September
September in Mallorca - 1 September 2010, 6 September 2010
Service and culture in Mallorca - 30 September 2010
Smells and sounds of Mallorca - 18 September 2010
Tourism spend and strategy - 5 September 2010
Travel discounts, Mallorcan residents' - 20 September 2010
Vuelta al cole (back to school) - 13 September 2010
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