THE CON TRÂU TIMES Issue 11 - Nov - 2011
Inspirational Travel 1
THE CON TRÂU TIMES
Inside This Issue 1. Joining the Buffalo Family 2. Staff of the Month 3. The Message from BT - MMBA members on the Graduation Day 4. Buffalo Tours Chiang Mai Trek 5. Leadership Course in Thien Minh MMBA Program 6. Update from Thien Minh Group: Outstanding business awards presented to Mai Chau Lodge 7. Thuy An – a memorial trip organized by the CB Club in BT Hanoi 8. Win Customers by Getting to Know Them 9. Feedback on what members of staff have been doing 10. Birthdays and Anniversaries
Tip of t he mont h “Motivation Spirit: Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were” David Rockefeller
2 Inspirational Travel
Changing Position Ms. Nguyen Thu Huong – Moved from Online Sales Team to become Agent Sales Executive in UK Team
Leaving Buffalo Tours Mr. Nguyen Pham Ha Minh –Operation Executive – SGN Office Ms. Ploytawan Rungtamnan – Operation Team Leader - BT Thailand Mr. Thammasak Busbong - Team Leader FOX – BT Thailand Thank you for your contributions to Buffalo Tours and we wish you success in the future!
THE CON TRÂU TIMES
STAFF OF THE MONTH – october 2011 Outstanding customer service of the month: Ms. Ho Thi Thu Thuy - BTA Sai Gon The Outstanding Customer Service Award of the Month has gone to Thuy. She is a very hard worker, very dedicated and responsible. She strives to deliver on time and is always looking for new responsibilities. Thuy’s hard marketing work enables the Travel Consultants in HCMC to grow their sales volumes. We have noted increased requests arriving online, which indicates clearly in increase of brand awareness and the effectiveness of actions conducted. We have also noted an increase of outbound requests. Thuy is very supportive to the team and understands her role in regards to Sales
Best Staff of the Month Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Van – GR Executive - BT Hanoi Congratulations on winning Best Sales Consultant of the Month, Van!!! Together with FIT team, Van exceeded year to date team budget by 119% thanks to her hard work, swift turnaround time and good customer service. In addition to that, Van sets good example on utilising new BRS features and helping her teammates learn new features quickly.other staff and other sister companies. People are our most valuable resource! Nominate someone you think deserves recognition – someone who truly shines!
Inspirational Travel 3
THE CON TRĂ‚U TIMES
The message from BT-MMBA members on the Graduation Day It is my great honor to share with you some of my thoughts and feeling about the MMBA program which I have been lucky enough to attend since last year. I have learnt a lot of things which are undoubtfully, very helpful for my career from this course. At first I thought that the subjects like accounting or finance must be very boring with just numbers and numbers, however with the very comprehensive explanation from the lecturers, I found them indeed interesting and do not feel afraid of the numbers any more. These two
4 Inspirational Travel
subjects did provide me with the great help in preparing the Budgeting for my team last year. I especially love the Human Resource and Leadership subjects which inspire me a lot on my current work. This gives me the skills how to work well with my staff, how to encourage and motivate them to achieve the mutual goal of the whole team. I now can work on a very detailed and achievable business plan for my team I must say that this course made me become more mature
THE CON TRĂ‚U TIMES
and more confident to do my job way better than I expected. During the course I have chances to learn and have fun with many colleagues within Thien Minh, from BT Cambodia, BT Laos, BT Thailand, Jetwing, Asia Outdoors. Each of them is very lovely in some ways and yes, we did have a lot of fun moments together. Moreover, I did receive the great support from internal tutor and the lectures as well to answer all of my questions help me with the assignment with all of their enthusiasm. I
would love to say a heartfell thank to all of them. To conclude, I would like you to send my best wishes to all members of the 3rd MMBA class. Wish you all enjoy the course and I trust there are a lot of things you can gain from this. If there is anything I could do to help, just please drop me an email and I would be more than happy to help you. Thank you so much. Written by: Ms.Tran Bich Thuy- VET’s Team leader - BT Hanoi
Inspirational Travel 5
THE CON TRÂU TIMES
BT Chiang Mai on trek 18th Sep’11 - We started our day from 08:00 am. Driving up north to Mae Taeng district. We stopped on the way at Mae Malai market to buy local food & beverage, for our lunch. The next morning we began our first Trek, we selected a 2 hour trekking trail and started around 09:30 am. It seems everyone is ready to trek and everyone is smiling, first we start by walking uphill (45-50 degree steep uphill). Ar-Kerh, Akha and our local guide prepared bamboo sticks for our trekking. It was the first time of K.Ning for trekking and a good start was made. The weather was so cool and without rain which was lucky for us. Along the trail we saw beautiful scenery and lots of lovely flowers and wildlife. Instead of 2 hours we took about 4 hrs in the jungle . We finally arrived at Akha village to visit the elderly Akha people. We had a well deserved lunch around 13:45 hrs. After lunch, we headed to Mae Rim district to visit Hmong Mae Sa Mai village. This village is well-known in
6 Inspirational Travel
the past for it’s Royal Project and the history of Hmong people. It’s now one of strongest villages and villagers can combine with Hmong & Thai culture. They conserve their culture, lifestyle and costume (although not everyone wear Hmong costume, another culture still exist.). The Hmong museum and culture tour in the village are very interesting. We had such a warm welcome by Hmong people. We returned safely to Chiang Mai town around 18:00 hrs. Written by: Ms.Porjai Chaiwongyart (Nuk)- Branch ManagerBT Thailand
THE CON TRÂU TIMES
Leadership course
in Thien Minh MMBA Program It was a fun-filled weekend attending our MMBA class and I even managed to squeeze my running routine either before or after classes. Needless to say, I am excited with the MMBA programme which offers in-depth understanding of our businesses and equips us to take on higher management responsibilities. Following the successful completion of the first two programmes, there was no better way than kick-starting our third MMBA with favourite subject on Leadership in the brand new meeting room at 94 Ma May office and recharging our batteries with tea breaks and lunch which were well taken care of by our HR team. What intrigues me about Leadership course is that it is designed for deep self-reflection about what behaviours we choose to use, the consequences of those behaviours, and given choices, how we might be even more productive, discover ourselves and what style we prefer to lead and follow. Professor Mark Bergt and his sidekick Danielle did a wonderful job in warming us up on first day with fun ice-breaker games to get to know our teammates and gently introduced interesting concepts and role playing on Leadership. Day 2 was more full on as we were
busy going through multiple theories, and working in pair and in team and that really helped tease out the essence of being a leader and understanding of ourselves and our leadership style. Besides the great learning opportunities, I must admit that MMBA is a real celebration of diversity as I meet up with colleagues from Victoria Resorts, Intrepid and Buffalo Tour offshore offices and lots of refreshing ideas and perspectives have been exchanged. Actually, I got some good advice on running routine from Hanno, the marathon man, one of our MMBA classmates and I am starting to work on it already. All in all, it was a busy and long weekend but it was so worthwhile. My take home message from Leadership course is to practice my listening skills and to be receptive to new ideas and new ways of doing things. This is a great start and I can’t wait to see where else the MMBA will take me in the next 7 months. Written by: Mr. Tran Gia Bach – BT Deputy Director BTVN
Inspirational Travel 7
THE CON TRÂU TIMES
Outstanding business awards presented to Mai Chau Lodge
M
ai Chau lodge has contributed in numerous ways to the tourism industry in the Hoa Binh Province over the past five years. As part of our on-going commitment to the community, Mai Chau Lodge actively promotes sustainable tourism and is involved in training and educating local youth as well as tourism service providers, offering hospitality and trade skills to the local community, enriching their lives and literacy level as well as purchasing local products.
Doanh Nghiêp Tiêu Biểu của Tỉnh Hoà Bình” (Outstanding Business of Hoa Binh Province”) and the second is - “ Doanh Nghiep Tieu Bieu cua Huyen Mai Chau 2005-2010 (Outstanding Business of Mai Chau for period of 2005-2010). Mai Chau Lodge is the only company that has received these awards in the Hoa Binh province. These awards were based on the lodge’s annual revenue, government budget contribution, number of employees, social activities, along with charitable acts and donations from the lodge.
The lodge always promotes and follows sustainable tourism principles in their operations. These practices are well observed by the government authorities in the Hoa Binh Province and Mai Chau district. In appreciate of the contributions to the tourism sector the government has given two special awards to the Mai Chau Lodge.
Mr. Dung Duc Hoa, operations manager Mai Chau Lodge was present at the ceremony and received the awards from Mr.Vui Van Tinh, Chairman of the Hoa Binh Province and Mr. Van Dua, Chairman,Mai Chau District.
Recently Mai Chau Lodge received two back to back awards from the government. The first award is “
8 Inspirational Travel
Written by: Hijaaz Latheef – General Manager Operations– Jetwing Indochina
n A y u h T
p i r t l a i a memor
THE CON TRÂU TIMES i o n a H ub in BT
l C B C y b d e z i n a g
or
L
ast Sunday we had a wonderful and meaningful trip to Thuy An, Ba Vi district, It is a centre of care for old people and disabled children. This Centre aims at providing shelter and care for old people who have been abandoned by their families or have no relatives to take care of them. It is also a place to care for the disabled children who have been affected by Agent Orange or have life-threatening diseases like Amyotrophic and cerebral palsy. This trip included Buffalo Tours’ staff and some members from their family and friends as well. It lasted from 7am until 6pm on 6th November 2011. The time is not too long but we had great time together. Firstly, we had a good chance to open our mind and know more about the difficulties that the old people and disabled children have to face. It made us have a strong motivation to work and support them. From the parents to children, all were focused on painting iron gates and fences at this Centre. Some little
babies who have never done homework before, but they were so passionate in painting even in the hot weather. When completing painting, we presented some collections such as warm clothes, toothbrush, toys, cakes, books, notebooks, pens for the Centre. And it is a time for lunch, for fun, chatting and relaxing after a long working time. Finishing lunch, on the way back to Hanoi we caught the car to go to Duong Lam Ancient Village. Duong Lam village is the first ancient village recognised as a national relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information. The ancient village has a history of about 1,200 years with many houses dating back up to 400 years. One special thing about the village is that most of the buildings here are made of laterite and mud, two materials that are abundant in the area. This is an attractive destination for our customized tour such as cycling tours. Finishing the tour but all of us is looking forward to joining our next trips. Written by: Ms. Pham Thi Thuy – GR Executive FIT Team – BT Hanoi
Inspirational Travel 9
Win Customers by Getting to Know Them
THE CON TRÂU TIMES
Only by truly understanding your customer can you deliver what they want. Technology makes it possible to get to know your customers more deeply. Here are three ways how: • Acquire customer info. Use every interaction as an opportunity to collect data, and don’t rely on the customer to provide it. Loyalty programs that include automated cards can gather data on spending behavior and preferences. • Slice and dice the data. Don’t use broad segments to create a marketing strategy. Finely parse the data so you can understand customers on a more granular level. • Identify and cater to core customers. Instead of emphasizing how much a customer spends in one transaction, calculate their potential worth over time. This will help you identify core customers whose loyalty it pays to earn. The Havard Business Review
10 Inspirational Travel
N O K C A B D E E F
THE CON TRÂU TIMES
IO NG D N E E B E V A H S R E B M E M F F A T S R U O T A WH “Dear Buffalo Tours
Thank you for organising the Food & Travel magazine trip to Isan. Everything went very well. Mark and I were especially indebted to the intelligence and flexibility of Nang our Guide and Sayan, the driver. They instinctively knew what we were looking for and they made sure we got it. You are very lucky to have such people working with you. I hope you like the feature when it appears. Mark’s pictures are exquisite. Kind regards, Michael
Inspirational Travel 11
&Anniversaries
Birthdays
THE CON TRÂU TIMES
Birthdays: Dang Thuy Linh Nguyen Thi Giang Vu Lan Phuong Le Hong Hanh Tran Danh Hoan Nguyen Thi Thuy Van Tran Nam Trung Nataphac Nakmee Huynh Kim Dung Ngô Thi Thu Trang Huynh Thi Thu Men Trang Kim Tuong
Anniversaries:
Dec 3rd Dec 4th Dec 4th Dec 4th Dec 9th Dec 9th Dec 10th Dec 15th Dec 18th Dec 20th Dec 20th Dec 22th
Senior Finance officer BRS Operations Executive BTA - Travel Consultant HR Supporter GR Executive German Sales Team Leader Operations Executive – BT Thailand Chinese Inbound Sales – Cho lon Tours GR Executive BTA - Travel Consultant Branch Manager
CONGRATULATIONS to Ms. Pham Van Trang – Agent Sale Executive – UK Team BT Hanoi on the birth of your beautiful baby. Her name is Nguyen Bao Thy and her lovely nick name is Cherry.
Phan Thi Kim Ngọc – Accountant - Completing 9 years of service Hoang Thi Trang – Accountant - Completing 1 year of service Mai Huyen Thuong – Finance Officer - Completing 1 year of service Welcome a new little Buffalo Trinh Thi Phuong Huyen – Finance Officer - Completing 1 year of service Tran Hoang Xuan Lam - Finance Officer - Completing 1 year of service Tran Hai Hoc – Project Manager - Completing 1 year of service Tran Danh Hoan – HR Supporter - Completing 3 years of service Tran Xuan Dan – Guide - Completing 1 year of service Le Quang Thuy – Guide - Completing 1 year of service Nguyen Thi Phuong Thao - Corporate Travel Executive – BTA SGN- Completing 3 years of service Nguyen Thi Thanh Truc - Assistant Branch Manager - Completing 3 years of service Truong Thi Huong Lan – Accountant - Completing 1 year of service Thewi Raengkla - Accountant - Completing 2 year of service Thongkeo SOMPHAVANH Guide – Completing 3 years of service
12 Inspirational Travel