To heck with best practices | Travel Research Online

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To heck with best practices

Our world is cluttered with clichés and phrases… most of which are meaningless. “The mission of XYZ Travel is to provide wonderful experiences. We make memories. We think out of the box. We have applied a paradigm shift to the travel industry and turned it on end, blah, blah, blah.” And my personal favorite—best practices. I say to heck with best practices.

To heck with clichés and to heck with best practices. The successful agency will steer clear from the obvious. Everyone has a similar mission and utilizes best practices. I suggest you don’t.

Best practices are really just a fancy way of saying “We play it safe.” By assuming best practices, you forego most of the risk. Failure is uncommon. Conflict is rare. Best practices are all about policies and rules set by someone else and tested by others to be safe. Best practices are about policies and rules; and we all know when policies and rules come into play, bureaucracy is never far behind with enforcers and punishments.

As you grow your travel business, ask yourself if you want to be modeled after someone else? Or do you prefer to make your own cast? You have a choice here—the safe way, or the one fraught with risks… and rewards. But there is one clichéd saying I do like:

A ship in harbor is safe; but, that is not what ships are built for.

Sure I could be a follower, but I chose not to participate. What about you?

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