Ambitious operations for Crystal

Thomas Mazloum goes back a long way with Crystal Cruises, having served onboard its ships before beginning his steady climb through the ranks of management. He now faces the biggest operational challenges of his career as the brand enters an era of unprecedented growth and expansion into new areas of business (including yacht cruises, river cruising and air travel) under the auspices of new owner, Genting Hong Kong (Genting).

“Genting have been exceptional in their desire and support for building and developing the Crystal brand. They have been focusing on keeping everything that is great about Crystal in terms of staff, crew and management, making sure that there is consistency,” says Mazloum.

He is currently working hard at developing the new business activities in the yacht, river and air spaces, along with the three new ocean ships. This has involved extensive research into customer aspirations: “We did a lot of talking to people who have never taken a Crystal cruise but are affluent, and asked them about their future plans. At the same time we looked at years’ worth of data from our customers that already know us. This combination gave us a strategy on how to move forward to become a preferred luxury provider and create a portfolio of luxury experiences.”

The expansion has also allowed him to develop in-house talent to take care of some tasks that were previously his responsibility. “I’m going to have to focus a lot more on the development of the new products from an operational point of view to ensure that execution is there.”

Mazloum has strong views on how to keep it all in balance. “It comes down to two things: internal communication (to ensure that sales, marketing and operations communicate really effectively) and quality control, making sure that these new experiences are created with the Crystal culture, mindset and people in mind.”

When it comes to recruitment from outside the Crystal ranks, Mazloum confesses: “Much to the dislike of my recruitment department, I have implemented a series of recruitment process conditions that are even higher than they were in the past. I’ve read a lot of books about how companies have expanded and when the need was for human resources, they started to lower the standards because of the numbers. I wanted to make sure we never give in to that temptation.

“I’ve implemented a process whereby I not only have my own recruitment department interviewing people, but also an outside organisation that is focused on in-depth interviews, more like personality assessments.” Where the third-party report on a candidate fits with that of the internal recruiters, he knows he has found a good match. “Of course it’s a bit more painful but I have an additional level of confidence that the new human resources that we are attracting have really been carefully selected. We’ve almost doubled the average time it takes for us now to find, recruit and have the person in place – which is counter-intuitive but it’s the price we were willing to pay to ensure that as we expand, we don’t dilute the service, the culture, or the people aspects.”

Equally, it is important to him to have structures in place “to make sure we don’t take the eye off our existing customers.” He is keen to ensure that the new ventures work for guests’ actual needs. “Whatever the experience is, we want to ensure that it is going to be relevant for the customer whom we’re speaking to.” Throughout all of this runs a common thread: “You have to ask yourself what makes it Crystal, so the customer feels: I’m in a very different environment but I’m still with Crystal.” This awareness arises from how the customer is being treated, says Mazloum. “It’s the service, how you’re being welcomed and how you’re being catered to. So whether you fly, or are on a yacht or on a large cruise ship, you should feel the sense of welcome. We must develop the guest programming that’s relevant for the location and environment and for what the customer is looking for.”

Mazloum says of the three new oceangoing ships: “Where they won’t differ from our existing ships is that they won’t have more customers onboard. The customers have told us that space is very important to them – so the ships will have the highest space-to-guest ratio in the industry, by a distance. Our rooms are 40% larger than the largest ones out there, over 60% larger than average. We took bold, courageous but massive steps forward.

“Service is also important to them. Part of service is still the human interaction, so we’re going to have the highest crew ratio in the industry, a one-to-one ratio.”

Other guest-led innovations will include visits to more remote destinations and a greater expeditions focus, featuring the first purpose-built polar ice class cruise ships.

On the air side of the business, he is excited by the potential of Crystal Luxury Air’s Dreamliner aircraft, which will offer 28-day world itineraries. “When we looked at some companies that already have private jets we noticed that the best anyone did was a 757. One reason the 787 attracted us was that it has the ability to go to a lot more airports. It is also environmentally extremely friendly, with lower noise and a smoother ride, and it has a special air filtration system so the oxygen in the air doesn’t make you so tired.”

The new yacht experience on Crystal Esprit has come together remarkably quickly, to be launched with a Christmas/New Year cruise this December. “We had always looked at that space but now there was suddenly the opportunity to do it fast and to do it well,” says Mazloum. “Again, we realised, no one does it this way. All the toys we are going to have on there; the size of the rooms – you’d be hard pressed to find this size on any yacht, but we put the necessary resources behind it, both financially and from a human resource point of view.”

The choice of the Seychelles to introduce Crystal Esprit was serendipitous too. “We realised that for a variety of reasons, there’s not much competition down there. We have the most beautiful yacht and we can just drift from one island to the other.” And although the yacht business is starting small with one 60-passenger craft, he is quick to point out: “We are extremely confident in what we are doing. We certainly are not going into this business to stay with one ship.”

Given owner Genting’s expertise in the global property sector, might this be a next piece of the puzzle? “It may or may not,” says Mazloum. “We’ll certainly look at every space eventually but we want to do it in an organised and focused manner.”

Part of his sanguine approach is based on his recognition of how the business is changing. “For the last 25 years we were a cruise company. I think in the next 25 years Crystal is going to be a lifestyle company. We are in the business of providing memories. We see from our customers that buying items is the luxury of yesterday. Getting experiences is the new luxury. We are going to be a lifestyle brand, providing memories that last a lifetime.”

He values the support Genting has promised Crystal in the race to get well ahead of the competition as it grows its offering. “We said, let’s take steps far enough that we’re not going to be copied for the next 6-8 years, so we really enjoy the first-mover’s advantage for a very long time. We’ve built years of competitive advantage into our future products.”