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| Hospitality Today | Christmas 2016 / January 2017
Today as a privately-owned business, Amadeus is growing at pace. In 2015 / 16 Amadeus has celebrated another year of significant growth by delivering a 7 % increase in revenue and a growth of 26 % in profit. Amadeus also delivered strong new business growth in the previous financial year including securing £ 20m worth of revenue over two contracts, Belfast Waterfront and Ulster Hall and Delapre Abbey in Northamptonshire, adding to the total of £ 25m of new business secured between 2011 / 12 and 2015 / 16.
As part of his speech Watson described a few refreshing practices that got the nod of approval from the majority of the audience.“ Walk and talk Fridays” encourage colleagues to physically talk to each other rather than sending internal emails; the senior managers do a total‘ back to the floor’ shift in every venue; and, when on holiday, an out of office reply politely informs that a person is away and therefore their inbox will not accept emails, thus removing the daunting number of postholiday emails most people dread.
Amadeus also‘ auditions’ as part of the recruitment process in a bid to find the very best talent possible- looking for people who make eye contact, and can sell. As far as recruitment is concerned, culinary skills are a short to medium concern.
Watson said his management style is based on“ the three Fs: firm, friendly and fair”.“ There is no such thing as a bad mistake- as long as you only make it once.” Despite the growth, mystery shopper scores have also risen from 81 % to 91 %, and team engagement has risen from just 27 % to well over half. Revenue per head has gone from £ 3.55 to £ 6.63.
Some new revenue streams have been developed, such as Christmas parties,