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Inspirational Travel 1

THE CON TRÂU TIMESIssue 11 - Nov - 2011

2 Inspirational Travel

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1. Joining the Buffalo Family

2. Staff of the Month

3. The Message from BT - MMBA members on the Graduation Day

4. Buffalo Tours Chiang Mai Trek

5. Leadership Course in Thien Minh MMBA Program

6. Update from Thien Minh Group:

Outstanding business awards presented to Mai Chau Lodge

7. Thuy An – a memorial trip organized by the CB Club in BT Hanoi

8. Win Customers by Getting to Know Them

9. Feedback on what members of staff have been doing

10. Birthdays and Anniversaries

Ms. Nguyen Thu Huong – Moved from Online Sales Team to become Agent Sales Executive in UK Team

Mr. Nguyen Pham Ha Minh –Operation Executive – SGN OfficeMs. Ploytawan Rungtamnan – Operation Team Leader - BT ThailandMr. Thammasak Busbong - Team Leader FOX – BT Thailand

Thank you for your contributions to Buffalo Tours and we wish you success in the future!

Changing Position

Leaving Buffalo Tours

Inside This Issue

Tip of the month

“Motivation Spirit: Success in business requires training and discipline and hard work. But if you’re not frightened by these things, the opportunities are just as great today as they ever were”

David Rockefeller


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STAFF OF THE MONTH – october 2011 Ms. Ho THi THu THuy - BTA sAi GoN

The Outstanding Customer Service Award of the Month has gone to Thuy. She is a very hard worker, very dedicated and responsible. She strives to deliver on time and is always looking for new responsibilities. Thuy’s hard market-

ing work enables the Travel Consultants in HCMC to grow their sales volumes. We have noted increased requests arriving online, which indicates clearly in increase of brand awareness and the effectiveness of actions conducted. We

have also noted an increase of outbound requests. Thuy is very supportive to the team and understands her role in regards to Sales

Ms. NGuyeN THi THuy VAN – GR execuTiVe - BT HANoiCongratulations on winning Best Sales Consultant of the Month, Van!!! Togeth-

er with FIT team, Van exceeded year to date team budget by 119% thanks to her hard work, swift turnaround time and good customer service. In addition to that, Van sets good example on utilising new BRS features and helping her teammates learn new features quickly.other staff and other sister companies.

OUTSTAnDInG CUSTOMer ServICe OF THe MOnTH:

BeST STAFF OF THe MOnTH

People are our most valuable resource!Nominate someone you think deserves recognition – someone who truly shines!


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It is my great honor to share with you some of my thoughts and feeling about the MMBA program which I have been lucky enough to attend since last year.

I have learnt a lot of things which are undoubtfully, very helpful for my career from this course. At first I thought that the subjects like accounting or finance must be very boring with just numbers and numbers, however with the very comprehensive explanation from the lecturers, I found them indeed interesting and do not feel afraid of the numbers any more. These two

subjects did provide me with the great help in preparing the Budgeting for my team last year.

I especially love the Human Resource and Leadership subjects which inspire me a lot on my current work. This gives me the skills how to work well with my staff, how to encourage and motivate them to achieve the mutual goal of the whole team. I now can work on a very detailed and achievable business plan for my team

I must say that this course made me become more mature

The message from BT-MMBA members on the Graduation Day


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and more confident to do my job way better than I expected.

During the course I have chances to learn and have fun with many colleagues within Thien Minh, from BT Cam-bodia, BT Laos, BT Thailand, Jetwing, Asia Outdoors. Each of them is very lovely in some ways and yes, we did have a lot of fun moments together. Moreover, I did receive the great support from internal tutor and the lectures as well to answer all of my questions help me with the assignment with all of their enthusiasm. I

would love to say a heartfell thank to all of them.

To conclude, I would like you to send my best wishes to all members of the 3rd MMBA class. Wish you all enjoy the course and I trust there are a lot of things you can gain from this. If there is anything I could do to help, just please drop me an email and I would be more than happy to help you.

Thank you so much.

Written by: Ms.Tran Bich Thuy- VET’s Team leader - BT Hanoi


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18th Sep’11 - We started our day from 08:00 am. Driv-ing up north to Mae Taeng district. We stopped on the way at Mae Malai market to buy local food & beverage, for our lunch. The next morning we began our first Trek, we selected a 2 hour trekking trail and started around 09:30 am. It seems everyone is ready to trek and everyone is smiling, first we start by walking uphill (45-50 degree steep uphill). Ar-Kerh, Akha and our local guide prepared bamboo sticks for our trekking. It was the first time of K.Ning for trekking and a good start was made. The weather was so cool and without rain which was lucky for us. Along the trail we saw beautiful scenery and lots of lovely flowers and wildlife. Instead of 2 hours we took about 4 hrs in the jungle .

We finally arrived at Akha village to visit the elderly Akha people. We had a well deserved lunch around 13:45 hrs.

After lunch, we headed to Mae Rim district to visit Hmong Mae Sa Mai village. This village is well-known in

the past for it’s Royal Project and the history of Hmong people. It’s now one of strongest villages and villagers can combine with Hmong & Thai culture. They conserve their culture, lifestyle and costume (although not everyone wear Hmong costume, another culture still exist.). The Hmong museum and culture tour in the village are very interesting. We had such a warm welcome by Hmong people.

We returned safely to Chiang Mai town around 18:00 hrs.

Written by: Ms.Porjai Chaiwongyart (Nuk)- Branch Manager- BT Thailand

BT Chiang Mai on trek


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It was a fun-filled weekend attending our MMBA class and I even managed to squeeze my running routine either before or after classes. needless to say, I am excited with the MMBA programme which offers in-depth understanding of our businesses and equips us to take on higher management responsibilities. Following the successful completion of the first two programmes, there was no better way than kick-starting our third MMBA with favourite subject on Leadership in the brand new meet-ing room at 94 Ma May office and recharging our batter-ies with tea breaks and lunch which were well taken care of by our Hr team.

What intrigues me about Leadership course is that it is designed for deep self-reflection about what behaviours we choose to use, the consequences of those behaviours, and given choices, how we might be even more produc-tive, discover ourselves and what style we prefer to lead and follow. Professor Mark Bergt and his sidekick Danielle did a wonderful job in warming us up on first day with fun ice-breaker games to get to know our teammates and gently introduced interesting concepts and role playing on Leadership. Day 2 was more full on as we were

busy going through multiple theories, and working in pair and in team and that really helped tease out the essence of being a leader and understanding of ourselves and our leadership style.

Besides the great learning opportunities, I must admit that MMBA is a real celebration of diversity as I meet up with colleagues from victoria resorts, Intrepid and Buf-falo Tour offshore offices and lots of refreshing ideas and perspectives have been exchanged. Actually, I got some good advice on running routine from Hanno, the mara-thon man, one of our MMBA classmates and I am starting to work on it already.

All in all, it was a busy and long weekend but it was so worthwhile. My take home message from Leadership course is to practice my listening skills and to be receptive to new ideas and new ways of doing things. This is a great start and I can’t wait to see where else the MMBA will take me in the next 7 months.

Written by: Mr. Tran Gia Bach – BT Deputy Director BTVN

Leadership course in Thien Minh MMBA Program


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Mai Chau lodge has contributed in numer-ous ways to the tourism industry in the Hoa Binh Province over the past five years. As

part of our on-going commitment to the community, Mai Chau Lodge actively promotes sustainable tour-ism and is involved in training and educating local youth as well as tourism service providers, offering hospitality and trade skills to the local community, enriching their lives and literacy level as well as pur-chasing local products.

The lodge always promotes and follows sustainable tourism principles in their operations. These practic-es are well observed by the government authorities in the Hoa Binh Province and Mai Chau district. In appreciate of the contributions to the tourism sector the government has given two special awards to the Mai Chau Lodge.

Recently Mai Chau Lodge received two back to back awards from the government. The first award is “

Doanh Nghiêp Tiêu Biểu của Tỉnh Hoà Bình” (Out-standing Business of Hoa Binh Province”) and the second is - “ Doanh Nghiep Tieu Bieu cua Huyen Mai Chau 2005-2010 (Outstanding Business of Mai Chau for period of 2005-2010). Mai Chau Lodge is the only company that has received these awards in the Hoa Binh province. These awards were based on the lodge’s annual revenue, government budget contri-bution, number of employees, social activities, along with charitable acts and donations from the lodge.

Mr. Dung Duc Hoa, operations manager Mai Chau Lodge was present at the ceremony and received the awards from Mr.Vui Van Tinh, Chairman of the Hoa Binh Province and Mr. Van Dua, Chairman,Mai Chau District.

Written by: Hijaaz Latheef – General Manager Opera-tions– Jetwing Indochina

Outstanding business awards presented to Mai Chau Lodge


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Last Sunday we had a wonderful and meaningful trip to Thuy An, Ba Vi district, It is a centre of care for old people and disabled children. This Centre aims at

providing shelter and care for old people who have been abandoned by their families or have no relatives to take care of them. It is also a place to care for the disabled children who have been affected by Agent Orange or have life-threatening diseases like Amyotrophic and cere-bral palsy.

This trip included Buffalo Tours’ staff and some members from their family and friends as well. It lasted from 7am until 6pm on 6th November 2011. The time is not too long but we had great time together.

Firstly, we had a good chance to open our mind and know more about the difficulties that the old people and disabled children have to face.

It made us have a strong motivation to work and support them. From the parents to children, all were focused on painting iron gates and fences at this Centre. Some little

babies who have never done homework before, but they were so passionate in painting even in the hot weather.When completing painting, we presented some col-lections such as warm clothes, toothbrush, toys, cakes, books, notebooks, pens for the Centre. And it is a time for lunch, for fun, chatting and relaxing after a long working time.

Finishing lunch, on the way back to Hanoi we caught the car to go to Duong Lam Ancient Village. Duong Lam village is the first ancient village recognised as a national relic by the Ministry of Culture and Information. The an-cient village has a history of about 1,200 years with many houses dating back up to 400 years. One special thing about the village is that most of the buildings here are made of laterite and mud, two materials that are abun-dant in the area. This is an attractive destination for our customized tour such as cycling tours.

Finishing the tour but all of us is looking forward to join-ing our next trips.

Written by: Ms. Pham Thi Thuy – GR Executive FIT Team – BT Hanoi

Thuy An- a memorial trip

organized by CB Club in BT Hanoi


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by Getting to Know ThemWin Customers

Only by truly understanding your customer can you deliver what they want. Technology makes it possible to get to know your customers more deeply. Here are three ways how:

• Acquire customer info. Use every interaction as an opportunity to collect data, and don’t rely on the customer to provide it. Loyalty programs that include automated cards can gather data on spending behavior and prefer-ences.

• Slice and dice the data. Don’t use broad segments to create a marketing strategy. Finely parse the data so you can understand customers on a more granular level.

• Identify and cater to core customers. Instead of emphasizing how much a customer spends in one transaction, calculate their potential worth over time. This will help you identify core customers whose loyalty it pays to earn.

The Havard Business Review


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FEEDBACK O

N

WHAT OUR STAF

F MEMBERS HAVE

BEEN DOING

“Dear Buffalo Tours Thank you for organising the Food & Travel maga-zine trip to Isan. Everything went very well. Mark and I were especially indebted to the intelligence and flexibility of Nang our Guide and Sayan, the driver. They instinctively knew what we were look-ing for and they made sure we got it. You are very lucky to have such people working with you. I hope you like the feature when it appears. Mark’s pictures are exquisite. Kind regards, Michael


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Dang Thuy LinhNguyen Thi GiangVu Lan Phuong Le Hong Hanh Tran Danh HoanNguyen Thi Thuy Van Tran Nam Trung Nataphac NakmeeHuynh Kim DungNgô Thi Thu TrangHuynh Thi Thu MenTrang Kim Tuong

Dec 3rd Dec 4th Dec 4th Dec 4th Dec 9thDec 9th Dec 10th Dec 15th Dec 18thDec 20thDec 20thDec 22th

Senior Finance officerBRSOperations ExecutiveBTA - Travel ConsultantHR SupporterGR ExecutiveGerman Sales Team LeaderOperations Executive – BT ThailandChinese Inbound Sales – Cho lon ToursGR ExecutiveBTA - Travel Consultant Branch Manager

Birthdays:

Anniversaries:

Birthdays Anniversaries&

Phan Thi Kim Ngọc – Accountant - Completing 9 years of service Hoang Thi Trang – Accountant - Completing 1 year of service Mai Huyen Thuong – Finance Officer - Completing 1 year of serviceTrinh Thi Phuong Huyen – Finance Officer - Completing 1 year of serviceTran Hoang xuan Lam - Finance Officer - Completing 1 year of serviceTran Hai Hoc – Project Manager - Completing 1 year of serviceTran Danh Hoan – HR Supporter - Completing 3 years of serviceTran xuan Dan – Guide - Completing 1 year of serviceLe Quang Thuy – Guide - Completing 1 year of serviceNguyen Thi Phuong Thao - Corporate Travel Executive – BTA SGN- Completing 3 years of serviceNguyen Thi Thanh Truc - Assistant Branch Manager - Completing 3 years of serviceTruong Thi Huong Lan – Accountant - Completing 1 year of serviceThewi Raengkla - Accountant - Completing 2 year of serviceThongkeo soMPHAVANH Guide – Completing 3 years of service

CONGRATULATIONS to Ms. Pham Van Trang – Agent Sale Executive – UK Team BT Hanoi on the birth of your beautiful baby. Her name is Nguyen Bao Thy and her lovely nick name is Cherry.

Welcome a new little Buffalo

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