Yeoh Siew Hoon catches up with Ric Leutwyler, chief marketing officer, to find out more about the latest reorganization and how the company intends to ride out the tough times.

Ask Ric Leutwyler (right) what's keeping chief executives like him preoccupied these days and he says it's trying to figure out where is the bottom, how do you profit from the bottom and how do you change direction within to gain new revenue share and bigger share of the wallet.

Speaking to WIT at ITB Berlin, Leutwyler had just emerged from a reorganisation at Pegasus Solutions where he holds the dual titles of chief marketing officer, Pegasus Solutions and president of Utell. The reorganization saw layoffs in its global network although he wouldn't say how many and involved a realignment of resources.

"We are trying to make sure our resources are aligned," he said. "The organisation was structured by separate business units in the past but now we have a CMO looking after all product lines."

He said that while the marketing function has been consolidated from a functional view, the products within the company remained unique and separate.

"We had to ask questions such as which part of the business was moving well and which part had to change. The economy forces you to look at things that maybe you needed to anyway but it gives you the impetus."

The reorganization also saw Joseph "Bill" Nicholson joining Pegasus Solutions as chief operating officer and president of reservation and distribution services. Nicholson, who was the second employee hired during Pegasus' start-up phase 20 years ago, is a former president at SynXis.

Said Leutwyler, "The idea is to align our product strategy with our customer needs. Bill will be focued on technology and delivering it on time, efficiently and effectively while my role will be looking after customers."

With this reorganization, he said Pegasus Solutions now has the right structure going forward. It's focused on the customers and gets the organization out of the "silo mentality", he said.

"Now a customer need only talk to one person as opposed to three or four different people. We also have to make sure we deliver a high level of customer care even in a more streamlined environment.

In difficult times such as these, the critical thing is to focus on the customers, work smarter, not harder and continue innovating, said Mr Leutwyler.

Last month, Utell and Milestone Internet Marketing entered into a five-year renewable partnership to augment Utell's representation support with Milestone's online marketing services.

The partnership was forged to relieve the burden on hotels to achieve visibility in a crowded marketplace suffering from dwindling demand, said Leutwyler.

With online bookings the one segment that's expected to increase, Leutwyler said it was important Utell helped its customers gain access to Milestone's "award-winning search marketing strategy to our members so they can break through the online noise."

Milestone, which offers Internet marketing services including website design, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, social media optimization and email marketing, was honored with 11 awards in 2008, including three Adrian Awards for its best practices in Internet marketing.

One of the tools Leutwyler highlighted was e-concierge which he said had created a new stream of ancillary revenues for hotels. "It helps hotels to upsell and even though their room revenues are down, they tell us they've found a new revenue stream."

He said that while these were difficult times, they were also exciting. "It fores you to be even more aggressive in looking for ways to improve business."

He said Asia looked to be the hardest hit at the moment in terms of bookings decline.

A crisis also opened people's minds to new ideas and Utell had also seen a greater interest in its roadshows. "What I am seeing is more demand from our customers for the opportunities to bring business in."

He noted that as painful as job cuts are, companies have to make sure resources are aligned to get the organisation through the downturn.

"It is always the most difficult part of a job – reorganising that costs jobs. And if it ever stops becoming a terrible thing to do, something is wrong with me. You have to do it with as much professionalism and empathy as possible.

"It's about doing the right thing for the customers, organization and its people."

www.webintravel.com - October 20-23, 2009 Suntec Convention Centre, Singapore