Problem Solving Workshop #1

Workshop on solving problems No. 1.

SA Adventures Unlimited was founded four years ago by Michael and Jill Rodriguez. Michael is a geologist and Jill has a master´s degree in Spanish. They are avid travelers, they were crazy about crossing the Andes to Chile. After graduating from university, they seized on the idea of starting their own specialized travel business, which would organize and conduct "high-end" adventure travel in South America. Their first journey was through Ecuador and Peru. He enjoyed a resounding success and the Rodrigues believed that they could make decent money doing what they were interested in.
A year later, Adventures Unlimited began to gradually expand and increase the scale of activities. The Rodriguez strategy was simple enough. They recruited experienced, reliable workers who, like the Rodrigues, were in love with South America and travel. Rodrigues helped their employees organize unique trips and advertise them through the Internet and travel magazines.
Adventures Unlimited expanded from four trips a year to sixteen different trips, including Central America. They now had three employees to help with their administrative work, and a fairly stable group of five tour guides who planned and then conducted the trips, whom they hired for each trip on a contract basis. Traveling on many routes was carried out repeatedly, and when organizing new trips, the wishes of customers were taken into account.
And although the Rodriguez were pleased with the success of their enterprise, they began to face problems that threatened them with complications in the future. Several tours went over budget due to unaccounted for costs, which wiped out annual profits. In another case, they had to return 30% of the cost of the trip to customers, as the group, having missed the train, was stuck in Blanco Puento for 5 days. It also became increasingly difficult for them to maintain the high level of customer service that was the norm for them. Customers began to complain about the quality of accommodation and the cost of tours. As a result, the Rodrigues were exhausted trying to find sources of costs for tours, and usually did not know how much profit they would receive before taxes. This made it difficult to plan new tours.
One day at a family dinner, the Rodrigues shared their difficulties. Among the others present at the table was Michael´s younger brother, Mario, a student at the local university. After dinner, Mario suggested to Michael and Jill that they take an interest in so-called project management. He was briefly familiar with project management by studying business operations and believed that project management could be applied to the tourism business as well.
Case questions:
1. To what extent does the concept of project marketing apply to Adventures Unlimited?
2. What kind of marketing and project management training should the Rodrigues, their administrative staff and tour guides receive to improve Adventures Unlimited? Try to identify the main points or skills that you need to pay attention to.