The Future of Travel. Since 1906. Annual Report 2007 - Kuoni

One particular focus of Kuoni’s training and development activities
in 2007 was on expanding the Kuoni Corporate University
in collaboration with the UK’s reputed Ashridge Business School.
Having ensured that all its managing directors and senior management
completed the multi-phase Kuoni Strategic Development
Programme at Ashridge the previous year, Kuoni added
two more programmes – Finance for Non-Financial People and
Mastering Change – to the syllabus in 2007. Some 60 middle
management members attended Ashridge programmes in the
course of the year.
The Kuoni Corporate University continues to guarantee that,
even in today’s dynamic business environment, the company’s
management can identify key industry challenges, develop efficient
responses and apply these locally to help continue to
meet the Group’s prescribed strategic objectives. With its wide
range of initial and further training tools and opportunities at
all employee and management levels, Kuoni also ensures that
its personnel can continue to specifically develop their talents
and abilities, and that the company can always draw on a
broad pool of highly-qualified employees.
Fair salaries and numerous fringe benefits
The Kuoni Group is committed to paying fair salaries that reflect
current market conditions and workplace demands. The
Kuoni compensation system is based on fair and objective criteria,
with superior performances subject to additional rewards.
Kuoni also offers its staff a variety of fringe benefits, from concessionary
travel arrangements to discounted cinema and musical
tickets, childcare facilities and in-house fitness centres.
Kuoni maintains an open corporate culture. And that culture is
further enriched by the international working environment and
the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues from a wide
range of personal backgrounds: the Kuoni workforce is drawn
from more than 60 different nations.
As well as an attractive working atmosphere, a healthy balance
between professional and private life is another key contributor
to workplace satisfaction. In view of this, Kuoni supports a
wide range of workhours models wherever these can be reasonably
applied.
HR processes standardised groupwide
ersonnel
With its highly-qualified, well-motivated and fairly-remunerated
personnel and its appealing working environment, the Kuoni
Group has laid a firm foundation for further business success.
And it was to ensure that this basis is maintained in HR units
groupwide that an international team of 16 specialists devised
a new “Future HR” organisation in the course of 2007. The
new entity includes programmes that address key issues such
as raising profitability, customer focus and alignment, leadership,
recruiting and retaining staff and value-adding within HR
processes.
Future HR puts a clear focus on standardising personnel processes
throughout the Kuoni Group. At the same time, all its work
is conducted in close collaboration with the Group’s decentralised
business units, to ensure that due and full regard is paid to
local market conditions and business needs.
Transformation process
A transformation process was initiated for the entire Kuoni
Group at the end of June 2007. Under this process, which is
being supported by Human Resources, Kuoni is gradually transforming
the region- and country-based structure that it had
maintained for several years into a new organisation centred
on three strategic business divisions, each of which will focus
on its particular business segment and strive for market leadership
therein using the family of brands assigned to its custody
and care.
The transformation should interlink the various elements of
the Kuoni Group even more closely than before, with similar
activities – be it purchasing hotel allotments, paper or printed
matter – more extensively coordinated to exploit synergic potential.
The new structure should also enhance overall efficiency
and effectiveness, and should further refine and raise
the value of the Kuoni product within each segment. The transformation
process is proceeding according to plan, and should
be completed by summer 2008.
KUONI Annual Report 2007
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