Right Direction
Right Direction was created by a group of growth-focussed business owners and managers within the Highlands who want to share the ‘Journey to Excellence’. They see the business opportunities that the imaginative application of the Concepts of Excellence can stimulate. They wish to continue to learn about Excellence and have a burning desire to spread the word to other great businesses so that they also can share this wonderful and ongoing journey to growth and success. They also want to demonstrate that collaboration and collective working between private sector businesses would be to the benefit of both their individual businesses and to the Highlands & Islands tourism industry as a whole.
Right Direction – Vision, Goal and Service Promise
Vision:
“To be renowned for inspiring organisations to deliver an outstanding visitor experience”
Ultimate Goal:
“For the Scotland to be renowned for Delivering an Outstanding Visitor Experience”
Service Promise:
“Openly Sharing Excellence”
Right Direction - Key Objectives
- To create a signposting facility affording a joined up and linked approach to other service quality initiatives
- To create a culture whereby business mentor support can be provided from the skills and experience which already exists.
- To become a central point for the collation of best practices and provide a medium for these to be shared with others.
- To create and deliver an annual calendar of industry led events which promote quality and outstanding visitor experience and inspire others to move forward.
Right Direction – Personnel
| Name | Position | Business |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew Burgess | Director | Macdonald Hotels |
| Lorraine Freel | Partner | Trafford Bank |
| Callum Smith | Terminal Manager | Inverness Airport, HIAL |
| Caroline Gregory | Partner | Lovat Arms Hotel |
| Ian Whitaker | Director | Cairngorm Mountain |
| Marina Huggett | Director | Tourism Excellence Consultancy |
| Industry Advisors to the Board | ||
| Freda Newton | MD | Jacobite Experience |
| Gavin Ellis | MD | Knockomie Hotel Forres |
Some of us…… at Excellence from the East event on 19th June 2008
How We Will Deliver Our Objectives - 2008 – 2011
- Further strengthening of the industry representation on the Board of the Right Direction.
- Development of ‘Area Steering Groups’ thus expanding the Right Direction concept to encompass the whole of the Highlands & Islands. Our network of Hospitality Assured coaches will be the catalyst for this growth given that they are located throughout the region and are ‘Enthusiasts of Excellence’.
- Continuing to initiate and develop events and activities which represent best practice in excellence and deliver our service promise. Our mechanism for delivery of events is through the establishment of sub-groups. These sub-groups enable many additional business leaders and managers to be directly involved in the promotion of excellence through the Right Direction. There is currently a ‘Conference 2009’ sub-group and a B&B sub-group (‘Highland’s Best B&Bs’).
- Continue to research and identify appropriate tools which support the concepts of excellence. This will enable businesses to have access to a choice of products, in addition to Hospitality Assured, through which they can progress on their ‘Journey to Excellence’.
- Development of membership and sponsorship schemes which will enable the group to have a long term, sustainable financial base. This will be through both membership fees and payments by private sector members and sponsors.
- Progress the development of our ‘Tourism Excellence Scotland’ web-site. This will add value to the industry in the Highlands through easy access to business development materials, tools for growth, case studies, outputs from events, best practice information and links to other relevant websites.
- Development of the DOVE (Delivering an Outstanding Visitor Experience) customer feedback system so that we have a process and then factual information on which to base and guide our development activity in the future. This will become the key driver of our action plans for growth both collectively and individually. The involvement of our expanded group of Right Direction businesses and the network of Hospitality Assured businesses, all of whom are practitioners of structured customer feedback, will facilitate the success of this project.
- The establishment of Leadership development and growth programmes based on the concepts of excellence and the experience gained in leadership development through the Hospitality Assured projects. The planned Leadership Mentoring programme will be a cornerstone of this set of activities as will be the more widespread use of our Leadership Feedback tools. We will also establish a structure of staff exchanges amongst the Hospitality Assured businesses. This will enable staff with management and leadership potential to experience excellence in a variety of businesses at an early stage in their careers.
- Communication with all other industry led groups to ensure that Right Direction activities align with, and dovetail into, the good things that are already happening e.g. DMOs, Activity Groups, H&I Tourism awards, Tourism sector groups and associations such as IHA.
- Continue to build links with other relevant bodies including the Chamber of Commerce; local Councils; VisitScotland; H&I Continuous Improvement Group; UHI; Quality Scotland and the British Quality Foundation. Of particular significant will be the relationship with the Institute of Hospitality (the owners of Hospitality Assured). It will be important to build the IoH presence in the Highlands and to ensure that Right Direction is at the forefront of that activity.