Page 31 - Gondwana Value Creation Report 2020

GROWING OUR VALUE WHERE WE’RE GOING Covid-19 impact We don’t believe in hierarchies. Gondwana is best run when all

Gondwanians have a voice and are given the tools to be self-starters.
The pandemic and travel restrictions drastically reduced our
income during the year. Sadly, we could not put as much money
towards strategic plans as we wanted to, and we needed to cut
We live in a fast-moving and fast-
This is a radical change, and effecting it properly is a large-scale endeavour with many expected and unexpected challenges, but these
all non-essential expenses. However, our dedication to Namibia
are manageable and only serve to grow TLC members into better and more agile leaders. It expects more from employees, and it requires
and Namibians is non-negotiable – we maintained our support,
changing world. Our values and culture
on the TLC membership and structure, refer to page 77.
and community projects.
are non-negotiable, but we remain agile both by refusing to retrench employees and through donations them to take more ownership of initiatives or instructions. The TLC’s full entrenchment will likely stretch into 2022. For more information
Growth
We were able to weather the storm thanks to strong leadership,
employee buy-in and a strong financial position from a history of careful
in terms of our strategy. We can change Strategic profit Strategic profit investment choices. As per our philosophy and policies, travellers’ We grow our business at a careful, measured pace that
deposits were protected, allowing us to avoid challenges faced by other
operators who use these funds to conduct their business.
course and we embrace new ideas. driver driver A new structure, a new team accounts for long-term sustainability. We do not pursue
Product Value chain growth at the expense of our DNA or our people.
Gondwana regularly critiques its strategy and whether it is still fit for integration and We restructured our business
purpose. We consider where we are going and whether we have what diversification
we need to get there. During the year, we shifted from our Exco into a synergies to drive innovation, dismantle Hospitality is a fixed cost, volume-driven business: costs are fixed for 12 months, but lodges are only at capacity for a portion of that time.
flatter TLC structure. hierarchies, ensure seamless Gondwana’s profitability is therefore directly linked to the levers of capacity, occupancy and yield.
We also articulated several key points for our strategy in 2019, which Profit knowledge sharing across the Our fixed cost model is extremely scalable; small improvements in occupancy and yield can make a big difference.
remained relevant in this year: However, in 2020, the Covid-19 travel restrictions prevented us from achieving our occupancy levels while our fixed costs remained high.
Strategic People Strategic business and present Gondwana
○ Four strategic profit drivers: Growth, product diversification, value
chain integration, and synergies and efficiencies profit driver profit driver as a one-stop-shop for customers. Capacity
○ Two strategic enablers: Our brand and digital strategies Growth Planet Efficiencies Capacity is the number of available bed nights across our 7%
○ Two future focus areas: Listing preparedness and regional expansion Historically, Gondwana’s increasing participation in the value chain, accommodation offerings.
such as car rental, raised concerns from our suppliers or partners Drivers: We grow capacity by building or acquiring new
Our philosophy of sustainability is central to our strategy and is based on who operated in those spaces. The 2020 crisis put many players properties, or by adding to existing properties. We also enter growth in capacity in 2020
profit, people and planet (refer to how we make an impact, starting on in the value chain in distress, and they could not honour their into commission-earning marketing agreements where we sell
page 36). Our actions must be aligned to our purpose, which is to make Culture commitments to Gondwana, which led us to realise that we needed additional bed nights at a lower fixed cost. Growing relevant 2019: 12%
sure Gondwana and its positive impact remain for the next 1 000 years. more dependable partnerships. As such, we began to restructure capacity is a continuous focus for us.
Gondwana in the final parts of the year to present a one-stop-shop
Our strategy evolves over time as we adapt our vision to our goals and
circumstances. But our culture and our DNA will remain constant. They Future for customers that could organise their travel bookings, car rentals Occupancy
differentiate the experience we provide our customers and determine Strategic and hospitality, among other things. This serves our customers Occupancy refers to the number of occupied bed nights, divided
our attitude in hiring new talent. focus enabler better by greatly streamlining their planning experience and by the total number of available bed nights. 17%
lowering costs, while earning Gondwana more money.
Our employees and the Gondwana Guidelines allow us to preserve our Listing Drivers: Occupancy rates vary, depending on the type of lodge
culture and DNA. This filters right through to leadership where we seek Brand To be a one-stop-shop, we need to present all our brands or hotel, our location and guest experiences. We grow occupancy occupancy in 2020
out successors that will maintain our ethos. preparedness strategy together as one Gondwana. To this end, we considered how to through direct and indirect sales and targeted sales drives in the 2019: 50%
have all brands operate with the same knowledge and how to
Because we focus on intangible make sure they do not compete with or contradict one another low season.
in terms of, for example, accommodation bookings.
goals such as bettering society and Strategic We restructured the back-end of our business into scalable, Yield
Yield refers to the total net revenue earned per occupied bed
uplifting Namibians, our impact isn’t Future focus enabler brand-agnostic support clusters that are dedicated custodians night. It is calculated as net revenue after commissions and
of business activities across all customer interactions.
discounts, divided by the total amount of guests.
always quantifiable. Therefore, we Regional Digital strategy During the year we considered how to remove bottlenecks and Drivers: Yield is driven by what we call the rack rate, or the N$1 918
refer to proof of our success, rather expansion hierarchies throughout Gondwana with a flatter management advertised price of the bed. This varies across the Gondwana average yield
structure. We replaced our Exco with the 27-member TLC
Collection because of our range of offerings. Yield is reduced by
than performance indicators. comprising 23 team leaders and four executives. TLC members the amount of discount given or commission paid off the rack 2019: N$1 984
are equipped with functional knowledge of on-the-ground
operations, and their opinions and ideas are invaluable to rate. Direct bookings produce a higher yield. Decrease of 3%
executive management and to other TLC members who might
not have considered matters from their perspective.
28 VALUE CREATION REPORT 2020 GONDWANA COLLECTION NAMIBIA 29