Speaking at the Abta Travel Convention in London, Ailsa Pollard, who will assume responsibility for Gold Medal, Travel Republic, Travelbag, Netflights and Sunmaster on 1 November, said her background in M&A helped bring a different perspective to hew new role. And asked if she would be open to acquiring new businesses, she said: “We’re not ruling out investments but our real focus is on the core.
“We will see which frogs want to be kissed,” she added however. “Watch this space”.
Pollard explained Covid had offered the business “an opportunity to embrace change”.
“It’s made us think – are we really adding value? Or are we doing something because we’ve always done it that way before.”
She said she strongly believed there was a future in retail, but acknowledged “we need to be where the customer wants us to be. For instance, if the customer wants us to be on Whatsapp, we need to be there.”
Pollard added that agents had a “prime opportunity to show customers their value. At Gold Medal we have to earn the respect of our agents,” she said. “How do we help our travel agent partners help their customers?”
Asked about her leadership style, Pollard said her approach was to consider the question: “How do you really give you team the freedom to trade?”
She added “I would only ever want people in my team that I would like to work for if they got promoted above me.”
Pollard also spoke passionately about diversity, pointing out: “This is not just the right thing to do. It’s the right thing to do for business performance”. She also pointed out diversity was more than about just gender. “It’s also about LGBT, ethnicity, age. We shouldn’t just be talking about one aspect of diversity. It should be about every aspect.”
