How successfully does tourist industry in the Canaries add value? Essay

How successfully does tourist industry in the Canaries add value? To what extent is Maslow’s hierarchy is applied to motivate staff in Souvenir Palace? Souvenir Palace, a retail outlet company started in the year 1991 by Jose Ignacio. They are specialist sellers in Souvenirs. Apart from that, they have also started to sell cigarettes, tobacco and electronics. This decision was taken a couple of years back when the company was making success in the market by opening their shop no. 5 in the last 12 months. Now, they have more than 200 employees working in the company over different 40 department stores throughout the island of Gran Canaria which is located in Spain. Now in the future they are thinking of selling perfumes as well. One of the retail outlets of the Souvenir Palace company. The key factor behind the company’s success has been the huge amount of tourism industry that is located on the island. This been a huge fact on the success of the record sale of the year that the company made (1.6 million à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ – 250 million pesetas)1 in the year 2000. Not only, tourism has helped the company grow, the motivation strategies applied by Mr. Jose Ignacio has also helped them to gain a major market share than of their competitors. This competitive advantage of years has given them a good brand image because of their excellent service and relationship with customers. A major fact that approves that tourism has helped the company to grow is that before the September 11 attacks, many people used to travel and come to this beautiful island. That was the time when the record sales were made. After the September 11 attacks, sales have fallen dramatically.2 They have had a 40% decrease since then.3 This has really affected them, which has destroyed their future plan of selling perfumes. Now they are thinking of applying other strategies of improving their sales and improving their performance like they had before the September 11 attacks. Tourism was growing from the year 1995 till 2001, suddenly when those attacks occurred and there was a major decline in the tourism industry. This has affected the whole world. However, the company is still doing well, as Mr. Jose Ignacio tries to motivate their employees. Mr. Jose Ignacio believes in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. He thinks that by referring to Maslow’s theory, you can motivate the employees better. First of all, he tries to provide them with the basic needs such as food and shelter. Then, he thinks of the further stages on the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. These are Security needs. He does this by providing them with permanent contracts, giving a good, friendly and healthy working condition. Then he would think of Esteem needs. This is done by team working, as this would help all of the employees become good colleagues having good relationship which could result to both, formal and informal communication within the company. Finally, he would decide to go for the self-actualisation, this means that he gives his employees higher responsibility than they normally have and to praise them for their job well done as they could feel good and also that the company needs them and they are a part of their organisation. However, there are limitations for promoting employees. These limitations are that not many people can be promoted, because the company doesn’t need so many higher levels of staff, so not many people can be promoted. Also, not much responsibility could be given to any employee, because each employee has only a particular task. We can also tell that the company is doing very well by making some simple comparisons between the different companies on the island. Reports show that souvenir Palace has done far better and kept ahead of the game.4 One way to show this is that they have kept expanding their business while others have been the same. Moreover, comparisons of balance sheets have been made by many business analysts on the island who have prepared their reports for the public interest. The other main factor that has been the key for the company has been the motivation strategies that have been applied by the CEO, Mr. Jose Ignacio. In the interview, he told me that, â€Å"It has been five years now that I have been using the democratic leadership style, which has helped me to come close to my employees and to know them better†5 Surely, this would help the employee to enjoy their stay at this company better. Another type of motivation strategy they he applies are giving the employees fringe benefits. These fringe benefits could be discounts on the company’s products, other non-monetary rewards such as small free products that are promoted by other companies for their sales, etc. â€Å"Pay is not the only way to motivate the employees. One of the main ways in order to motivate the employees is just by praising them or by recognizing them for a job well done.†6 This can make any employee feel better. Moreover, he has given his employees a job security by giving them permanent contracts. This means that employees know that they have a secured job. This is very important because short term contracts dominate the employment market on the Canary Isles as the local newspaper says â€Å"Contratos a corto plazo es la causa de desempleo en nuestras islas.†7 Mr. Jose Ignacio believes in the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. This hierarchy tells us that employees don’t get satisfied neither by the basic needs of food and shelter nor by the security needs. They need to reach to their full potential, which is the self-actualisation. To do this one should delegate more responsibilities to their managers. This makes the managers feel that they are a part of the company and the company needs them. They will also feel that Mr. Jose Ignacio believes in them. This good belief in each other could help to build a strong relationship between the staff at the company. In conclusion, I think that the key factors behind the company’s success have been the tourism in the island of Gran Canaria as well as the motivation strategies applied by Mr. Jose Ignacio. However, I think that the motivation factor dominates more than the tourism factor. This has been very noticeable after Mr. Jose Ignacio applied the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.    1 Taken from the company’s balance sheets. 2 Taken from articles of the magazine – â€Å"Newsweek†. 3 Made from the comparisons of the company’s annual balance sheets. 4 Reports from the business analysts on the island. 5 Taken from the interview with Mr. Jose Ignacio. 6 Taken from the interview with Mr. Jose Ignacio. 7 From an article in the local newspaper, â€Å"La Provincia†.