You either have a template which they have, or you do it by bringing people together. Their template is an interesting one, which I’m now starting to understand, having visited Houston Zoo and seeing the template in action. And also, I went to see sharks in New York Aquarium, which… Read More
Can you talk about creativity and you have?… Read More
What did you mean by judgment had to be suspended and the imagination allowed free play?… Read More
And then obviously zoologists and horticulturists and stuff. So then put this group together and they’re kind of like gonna brainstorm and they brainstorm. Each of them in a group and then randomly would go and discuss and these different projects. And then basically get them to come up with… Read More
I mean, he’s got a opinion about everything, which is sometimes highly irritating, but it’s like he just comes out, they just come up with great little gems of ideas. And so we normally never changed anything totally, radically, but we added onto it. And now that I’ve kind of… Read More
I would think so. I would think so. I’ve had quite a lot of feedback. Some of them would say it was a bit too much. Is management by exception your phrasing or is that- No, it was given to me by a management consultant who I explained my style… Read More
Do you think you could have been as creative if you hadn’t worked in a zoo within a major tourist city?… Read More
No, I don’t, but I think it takes money to be creative or the way I work because I’m not a particularly creative person myself. What I’m very good at doing is facilitating creative people. And so what I would do is about twice a year, I would bring in… Read More
Don’t have to like each other, but just work with each other in the most amicable way possible. Read More
And if I was gonna talk to your staff and ask them, would they say the same thing about your management style?… Read More
And if you can, then that’s to me much more important than your actual knowledge of the job because that you obviously has your basic training. So basically, once you hired the guy, then I said, “Just go and do your thing. I mean, and really don’t come and see… Read More
Talk to visitors, do you like it?… Read More
And just get that feedback from the ground. Have a weekly staff meeting where everybody presents briefly what’s going on. And obviously, that’s the time where if there’s conflict, then to sort it out. And then have a management retreat once a year with the staff for about two, three… Read More
Well, I think it’s my management style, whereas Dr. Ong’s management style is very autocratic and very gruff. And he liked to have a lot of people around and he liked to go on his… And I have the story now for Dr. Ong. He likes to go on his… Read More
And then I’d go on around by myself maybe with just a couple of key people, curators, or whoever or whatever I wanted to look at. So I had a kind of a philosophy where when I hired somebody, I mean a director, I’d say we spent a lot of… Read More
Can the guy work as a team player?… Read More
So you are have these various people from these various entities working on Night Safari and other things. Some people have said that you ran the zoo like an extended family. Read More
What do you think that meant?… Read More
We had good restaurants try to space them out, convinced them to eat first. Sometime we had sunset where we actually didn’t like taking people in sunset, but we had Japanese who were making a flight at 11 o’clock at night to go to Tokyo, and they had to come… Read More
I mean, so it’s as the designers say, cut it. But as the operators who are your ground staff, they’re saying your marketing people, they say, God, you gotta let them in early, otherwise you’re gonna lose the business. And it’s like these animal lanterns you get in these zoos… Read More