Why success is a team effort.

In this interview Desmond reveals the lessons he has learned and what drives him to take on new challenges throughout his career.

When it comes to launching and starting up new business brand, Desmond O’Connor makes it look easy with his illustrious track record. Desmond’s distinguished style of leadership in Revenue Management and Business Development helped numerous airlines and tourism brands leverage and succeed in an evolving digital landscape.

Now, Desmond is bringing that wealth of knowledge in building greats teams and taking Mango Airlines to new heights.

We caught up with the extrovert Mr. O’Connor recently to talk about his challenges, the importance of teams and his experiences on being a successful Revenue Management entrepreneur.

Location: Cape Town, South Africa.
Recent gigs: Currently, Head of Corporate Business Development at Mango Airlines. Formerly Commercial Director at 1time Airline and Head of RM at Comair & Kalula.com
Apps/ Software you cannot live without: Supersport, Golf Pro, Twitter, Google Maps and my iPhone always come in handy at various parts of the week.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

1. You have 2 ears and 1 mouth…..use them in proportion.

2. Network as much as you can.
I really enjoy networking with customers and other industry professionals. Customers teach you so much about how they make their purchasing decision, and they are also the “early alerts” to trends that affect the industry.

What is the biggest challenge you faced in your career/ work life?

What seemed like challenges at the time, no longer seem like they were challenges.

If I were to call them experiences, then I would say:

Definitely, being the Revenue Management guy from a small airline thrown into the RM department at a large global airline on a 2 year secondment.

Different country, different culture, different processes…but all with the same intention to maximize revenue.

Who knew that you could load a flight for sale 12 months in advance at 4 times the aircrafts capacity, only to have it depart with 4 or 5 open seats?

Lessons learned for life about what different aspects Revenue Management can teach you.

Leaving a secure and relatively safe career to join the start up management team of a new LCC, but what a ride.

There were times you felt you weren’t in control and just hung on, but as with every other challenge it rewarded you with experiences that not everyone has a chance to experience. I was very fortunate!

You would love to see __________ answer these same questions.

Gabriel Moritz.

What’s the biggest challenge facing Revenue Management today?

I would say that the Internet and publicly available price information such as pricing trends is creating the biggest challenge at the moment. However, if you are able to master how you manage these, it will also create the biggest opportunities for you and your company at the same time.

The public are now able to see not only your price, but the price of many many competitors all at once, and in some instances companies that would not have even been previously considered competitors are also appearing alongside you. More than ever, the Revenue Manager needs to be on top of their game, and to ensure they confidently lead the strategy, rather than fall into the trap of “matching” everyone else for the sake of market share, or as a result of not understanding what the real market demand is.

Ignorance is expensive.

Lastly, Revenue Management is considered a science, but many companies like to tweak and amend certain aspects, and often over complicate strategies, especially during bad times. It can take years to recover pricing levels, so you need to be absolutely certain of what you are doing when you start playing around with short term tactical plans, and make sure they dont become the norm.

What qualities do you look for in a successful RM analyst?

I look for confident people that are team players, and have a “Can DO” attitude. They need to be able to balance a variety of issues to maximize revenue, and be able to sell their ideas and plans to teams such as Finance, Sales, Marketing and Operations.

They also need to be profit oriented.

Anybody can fill a plane, train or a hotel, but to fill it profitably is the trick.

A sense of humour and the ability to use controlled gut feel in conjunction with market analysis goes along way.

What excites you most about where this industry (RM) is heading…?

RM has proved so successful in the airline and hotel industries, and it is now being introduced into so many new types of businesses globally. Pricing is just a tool of demand but the Revenue Management aspect brings it all together in the end.

RM is really only about 30 years old, so it has such a long way to develop in the years ahead.

What inspires you to be a better person or do better work?

Surrounding yourself with great team members and industry professionals helps me stay ahead in business, and if I’m working with the right people, I can accomplish so much more.

I also love the fact that Revenue Management is so measurable, and when you get it right nothing can beat that feeling that you share personally as well as with the team.

“What sets great leaders apart?” is an interview series brought to you by GapJumpers. We ask the questions so that experts, doers and thought leaders can share their experiences, vision, learnings with you. Every other week we’ll feature a new guest and the tips, and tricks that keep them going in their career.
Have someone you want to see featured, or questions you think we should ask? Email me, Kedar or add your comments alongside. Further more, if you’d like to stay updated on more interview in Revenue Management, follow the collection.

Pic Credit: L’intérieur du Concorde. http://www.flickr.com/photos/claboterphil