…and staying ahead of the competition
Johanna Mukoki, group CEO and co-owner of Travel with Flair (TWF), has become a formidable force in the travel industry. With a philosophy of “work hard and play hard”, Mukoki and her business partners were able to build a multi-million rand travel business.
Character built on rejection
When Mukoki started the company, she says funding was a nightmare. Constantly being rejected by banks and other possible investors, until one of the partners’ parent provided a huge capital injection. The Rhodes University accounting graduate says in spite of the trials and tribulations before acquiring capital, they continued because they were inspired by a great business plan and idea that they knew would change the travel industry. “We have had a long journey. TWF has been in the business for 20 years and over these years we have been blessed with some really amazing accolades from power companies.” The wall of fame is testament to a successful enterprise, with among others: SA Tourism – best travel agency (2007); CEO magazine – SA’s most influential woman in business and government (2008); TOPCO – top young entrepreneur, top woman in business, Africa’s leading business travel agency (2009); WTA Africa – Africa’s leading business travel agency, travel management company and SA’s leading travel management company (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015).
A decorated résumé
Mukoki says these awards serve as encouragement. “When you do something and you do it well and you are passionate about it and you really want to create a positive change, not only for your business but for the country, you will always be blessed”. She became the first African to sit on the Global Tourism Board, the Association of Corporate Travel Executives (ACTE). ACTE has members in 86 countries with an estimated collective buying power of 300 billion US dollars, confirming the magnitude of the travel industry. “Being able to interact at international level, you are able to understand the business and benchmark your position in South Africa in terms of being current with technology and what other people are doing out there in the world.”
Investing in your business
Global exposure provided Mkoki with an understanding of how technology is employed internationally. Re-investing in your business is important to Mukoki. She says it ensures growth and competitiveness. “We continuously reinvest in our business and on the technology front, to ensure that we stay five places ahead of competitors.” Mukoki sees failures as learning. opportunities to overcome adversity and improve. She says overcoming challenges helped them to get the right formula and ensured their business could scale up rapidly.
Managing growth
But rapid scaling up came with new challenges, which required TWF staff to match and exceed their service standards continuously with the competition. To ensure that TWF matched up and was prepared for this, Mukoki followed three basic steps: - establishing their own training academy - ensuring the availability of working capital - “letting go” She says as a start-up entrepreneur, one tends to be everything - from HR to marketing director. “As the business grows and teams become bigger, you can’t be everywhere at the same time. As you grow, you need more staff and managers to handle the bigger body. As an entrepreneur, you need to learn about letting go. But it is difficult to do this and trust other people to get on with the day-to-day running of the business.”
Embracing technology and keeping ahead
Being part of the international Association of Corporate Travel Executives with its headquarters in New York, TWF could share in the experience of the 86 member countries with a collective US$100 billion stake in the travel industry. “Interacting at that international level, you are able to understand and benchmark yourself in South Africa in terms of the latest technology and what other people are doing around the world.” She says travelling might be attractive to some people but for others it is an inconvenience. These customers need a travel agency that is able to make travelling as seamless and stress-free as possible. At TWF they have embraced technology over the years and developed an App with which travellers can keep track of their flights and do their own check-ins. The TWF online booking system has been awarded best online booking tool in South Africa. With a number of corporate clients, Mukoki says applying technology has helped a lot to get some of those blue chip companies on board. “You can only land big corporates and keep them on your book if you are dynamic and continuously re-inventing yourself because technology is life and the Internet can disrupt the playing field. Therefore you must stay focused and on the ball.”
Dealing with failure
Mukoki’s view of failure is to see opportunities, to overcome and do better. “Firstly, of all the challenges we had to overcome, once we managed to get the formula right on our business scale, we scaled very rapidly.” She says some people regard TWF as lucky to have grown to their level of excellence. But she says it is very stressful to reach those heights, to have great capacity in terms of good staff that can continuously match their service. “So we ultimately had to come up with our own training academy where we are organically growing the best staff that we believe should be in this industry. I think the second thing would always be working capital. You are producing quicker than the money coming in, so you need to find a way where you can bridge that. But once a business is running, you are able to have good relationships with the banks and they could come to your rescue when you are sinking. “And thirdly, as an entrepreneur the goals will become bigger. We need more staff, we need managers to handle the bigger body and you are an entrepreneur at heart and it is difficult to let go. I think those are the challenges we have to overcome.”
Pointers for budding entrepreneurs
When advising would-be entrepreneurs, Mukoki says a great idea is essential – also finding a niche in the market. The next step is to find a strong business plan and know that everything revolves around the numbers – especially when start-up capital would be needed and potential investors need to be convinced to support the project.
‘Finally, success does not happen overnight. It is a process that takes many years. It took us nearly three years for the business to take off. You need to put in the long hours, do the hard work and ultimately persevere if you truly believe in your dream.’
