Case Studies

#13 Company Reference
Grupo Voramar, Benicassim, Spain, 2017-2018
Hotel & restaurants
180 Staff members
Abstract
Starting Point
The name "Voramar," based in the town of Benicàssim (Castellón), has a recognized reputation in the region (4th generation) in the hospitality industry. The flagship of the group, directed by Rafael Pallarés, is the Hotel Voramar, located in an absolutely privileged location on the seafront. Next to this main business, which includes a cafeteria and a restaurant, is the cafeteria-restaurant El Torreón, located on the same seafront promenade of Benicàssim. The assets described -consolidated reputation and privileged location- together with a constant effort to professionalize management, mean that, at the end of 2016, Grupo Voramar is in a business situation of considerable well-being. However, the managers are aware that more than the current management, based on the business processes, is needed to face future challenges, mainly represented by an increasingly developed competition. Voramar Group managers are also aware that improving competitiveness must be achieved by reinforcing the humanistic approach to management. In this sense, there is a clear awareness that, as a consequence of its deficiencies in this area, there are symptoms of severe internal division that can reduce its competitive capacity. To correct that situation, the managers of Grupo Voramar decided to work intensively on human development, with a particular focus on two areas: integrative leadership and the ability to generate emotional bonds with customers in a systemic way.

First Phase
Voramar's Management Team has decided to deploy a profound culture of prestige based on a complete model of organizational structure totally oriented to customers, where hierarchy gives way to the development of robust leadership and high-performance teams. To this end, the main lines of work will be the development of people's executive skills and coordinating the different areas of activity. In the first phase of work, the management team decided to focus on the business line of El Torreón, a cafeteria-restaurant belonging to the Voramar Group, so that those responsible for the organization could learn about the competitive model proposed by syncplexity (the Expansive Emotional Influence) and, depending on the level of satisfaction and results obtained, decide with more significant criteria its possible expansion to the rest of the group's business lines. The preparatory work sessions (Wednesdays of each week, from 14:00 to 19:00) give way (as of February 2017) to a more elaborate work schedule structure that, maintaining Wednesdays as the main day, is as follows:

  • 09:00 - 11:00 Executiveness Program This program will be focused on developing the influencing skills of managers responsible for the main areas of activity.
  • 11:15 - 13:00 Synchrony; El Torreón Coordination Team These sessions will focus on the daily coordination of all the operational elements necessary for the correct functioning of the business.
  • 13:15 - 16:00 Synchrony; Voramar Group Coordination Team These sessions will be focused on the design and deployment of the corporate strategy to obtain a progressively increasing coherence between the daily activity and the corporate strategy.
  • 16:30 - 18:00 Listening to Influence Program - El Torreón This program will focus on developing the influencing capacity of El Torreón's staff, especially those whose activity is more directly related to customer interaction.

The expected result at El Torreón is "the development of a greater capacity to influence all its employees" so that they can form more and better emotional bonds with customers.

The primary areas of work will be the following:

  • Performance Leadership (phase 1). The first phase of this primary axis of competitiveness must result in the business line's emotional, financial, and operational stability.
  • Interaction based on emotional management (phase 1) The first phase of this primary axis of competitiveness must result in a clear awareness of customer expectations and laying the foundations for a sustainable increase in turnover.
The development of multifaceted value-added elements will be realized as soon as the leader's purpose (Executiveness program) and the first draft of the Perception Map (Listen to Influence program) containing customer expectations are available.

Performance Leadership—The first phase to achieve leadership in performance consists of establishing the elements for developing organizational stability through the three factors on which it is structured: emotional, operational, and financial.
El Torreón's financial stability will be managed by deploying an advanced corporate break-even model (CBe). Emotional stability will be managed by deploying a suitability map -level of attitude-based executiveness- of people concerning jobs. Finally, operational stability will be managed by deploying an integrated flow of activity (FIA), which will gradually disappear a hierarchical structure, giving way to a fully customer-oriented one.
The efficient functioning of both the suitability map and the integrated flow of activity requires a progressive development of the executive skills of the company's personnel, which must begin with the example of its managers - the Executiveness program.

Emotional management-based interaction— The first phase to achieve an interaction based on emotional management is to deploy:

  • The Listen to Influence method, which must allow to increase the influencing capacity of El Torreón employees and, with this, to get to know the customers' expectations.
  • The Perception Map tool will allow adequate managing and analyzing known customer expectations to contribute to the development of multifaceted added value.
By the end of this phase (December 2017,) the following had been achieved:

  • Significantly improve the working atmosphere.
  • Reduce to less than 5% of the endemic staff rotation installed in the establishment, which used to reach 80% in the middle of the summer campaign.


Second Phase

The results achieved in El Torreon encouraged the management team to extend the methodology used to all business lines of the Voramar Group.