The common leadership traits of Qatar’s Akbar Al Baker and AirAsia’s Tony Fernandes
I had the pleasure of interviewing His Excellency, Akbar Al Baker, CEO of Qatar Airways, and Tan Sri Dr Tony Fernandes, group CEO, AirAsia on stage in Amsterdam last week at the CAPA Aviation Awards of Excellence 2016 and while you couldn’t find more different personalities, I was struck by what t [...]
Letter from Nikoi: Nine lessons from 12 years of WIT
I am lying on the beach in Nikoi Island, a private island retreat, off Bintan, Indonesia. This island in the Riau Archipelago was developed by former Australian banker Andrew Dixon and his partners into a back-to-nature resort for stressed out urbanites looking to reconnect with nature.
Yesterday [...]
Asia the outlier in a consolidated world: Trends That Matter to be shared at WIT
China, China, China – the three words we’ve been hearing in the US Presidential Debates that’s become the biggest reality TV show both sides of the Pacific and Atlantic. Perhaps they should add India, India, India – because when it comes to online travel, there seems to be the rest of the [...]
Is the tail wagging the dog? Time to flip the world around
I remember the first day I started wearing spectacles. I was 10 and kept failing my Math and the teacher thought there could be something wrong with my eyesight. I was so relieved, I thought I was just bad at numbers and was getting a serious complex.
Anyway, the first day I wore it, not only did [...]
Letter from Hong Kong: What Money Men Talk About At Breakfast
Café Too at Island Shangri-La is buzzing, at 8am. It reminds me that power breakfasts are still very much favoured among the rich and want-to-be-richer people.
I can hardly tie my shoelaces at that time of the morning let alone have an intense business discussion about money but Hong Kong does t [...]
Two years on, here’s why Oracle bought Micros Systems – a new Hospitality Cloud
Two years after Oracle bought Micros Systems in June 2014, the buyer is finally ready to launch what it calls its game-changing Oracle Hospitality suite of solutions, revolving around a new dedicated Oracle Hospitality Cloud, within the Oracle V2 Infrastructure.
It’s clear the integration of MI [...]
Momondo’s Burge on Brexit, emotion, meta and startups
Yeoh Siew Hoon catches up with Hugo Burge, CEO of London-based Momondo Group, to discuss, among other things, the impact of Brexit, the need for emotion and purpose in today's world of travcl, the evolution of meta and the investments he's making through HOWZAT Partners, and why it's a great time to [...]
The 3 pain points startups should solve in corporate travel: Ragge
Amid the disruption happening in corporate travel, HRS, Global Hotel Solutions, has built its own innovation hub in Berlin where it’s acting as accelerator and partner to startups. It’s also of course a way for the German-based family run company to tap into tech talent. (See related story)
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HRS’ Ragge on Asia, corporate travel disruption and family businesses
Looking surprisingly fresh despite having been through five cities in 10 days, CEO of HRS Tobias Ragge is decidedly pumped up about what he calls “the convergence of thunderstorms” that make Asia such an exciting growth story for his second generation family business.
One, compared with Europ [...]
How a techie discovered happiness and became Bhutan’s biggest tourism champion
Nobody who travels to Bhutan leaves unaffected by the magic of this mountain kingdom in the Himalayas and Singapore-based travel executive Joni Herison is no exception.
Herison first heard of Bhutan in 1997 when he was in Nepal on a university trekking trip to Annapurna. “People on the trip wer [...]
