The French connection

Having begun his professional life with the French military, Arnaud Palu, now Chief Operating Officer for Majid Al Futtaim (MAF) Leisure, exudes an obvious leadership quality. He has almost 20 years business experience working for not only Disney but also The Millennium Dome and Dreamworks. Having earned a reputation for resurrecting struggling businesses, he chats to Mike Byrne about the ideologies that keep him on track.

Foundations for success

“Everything started as a matter of opportunities more than anything else, more than a calculated path that I decided to choose. I started my professional life in the military in France and while I was there I was given a contact number to work in the US. From there I learned that I was to work in Disney as a cultural representative, within the French pavilion.

“After a year I was trained for the opening of Euro-Disney. The timing was ideal- Euro Disney were looking to recruit Europeans to had a Disney experience, who had experienced the American perspective of how Disney should be run on a day to day basis. And so they were very eager to secure these people, as there were not many. So in 1992 I went to Paris for the launch of Euro Disney.

“It was there that I learned my trade in management. I worked almost four years in operations, working as a guide on the floor. Going through the grinder and the education was quite intense but it prepared me for my future in business and leisure and for me was an essential hardship. My mentor, Bill Sullivan, a legend of Disney, who had been trained by Walt Disney himself, was one of the last big dinosaurs in running operations. He himself had started on the floor and so passed on the basics and fundamentals to me, hammering home the procedures of what to do and what not to do.

“Without this vital American experience, through Bill Sullivan and Disney, then I think I would have tended to view my professional life the way I was raised, with higher key counts and who you are dictates what you are worth. I would have concentrated more on procedures and processes than on people- after all business is about the people and good business grows on good relationships.”

Bringing it back to basics

“Bill Sullivan used to tell me to look at things in a trivial way, a very basic way and bring things back to basics. In the end I learned that there are two groups to take care of – the customers and the employees- all the rest is just literature. The customers pay the cheques and the people on the floor take care of the customers. This exchange is very delicate and management is just a commodity to make sure the employees are taken care of. Whenever a business seems lost they should go back to the beginning – back on the ground to find out where they took a wrong turn. Processes, structures, procedures, protocols and policies are the tools to make it happen-but they shouldn’t ever impose the rhythm on the business.

“I think that in recent times with the harsher economic climate, there is a danger that companies are so confused as to what to do that they fall into the trap of talking their problems to death. Committees are established and then sub-committees and so on to understand for example, who the customers are, where they are coming from and how to attract them. This can lead to over-complication and wasting of time and resources. A business needs to know when to stop talking about the customer and when to begin to talk to the customer. Once again going back to basics, back to where it all began.

“Companies tend to rely very much on structures- it brings some kind of peace of mind. There is an assurance that things are being taken care of – policies, procedures, surveys, market analysis all in place for this safety net. When the voice of the floor is raised it is perceived as not factual enough and very much emotional and therefore not reliable.

“Someone has to hoist the flag of remembering where it all began. Corporate organisations tend to feel much more secure analysing documents and spreadsheets. There is this paradox, this dichotomy that is happening. It is becoming increasingly difficult to preserve the simple structures in an environment that is talking in spreadsheet terms. I have developed this mentality over the years, to be a serious person who doesn’t take himself too seriously. It has been the best safeguard to prevent me from falling into the same old traps.”

A matter of cycles

“It’s all a matter of cycles. We tend to judge things based on what we did and it’s very difficult to project ourselves and we sometimes miss these cycles. It is very easy to judge things in a vacuum, that it was better before and that the world is more complicated now.

“I believe there are different cycles and changes happening and it’s more a case of accepting the cycles and adapting and being part of it. Don’t stay stagnant in the past and be more with the now. Always be looking ahead and not behind. Whether it was easier before is irrelevant – rules are changing but the fundamentals remain the same.”

Communication

“It is too easy to go to a new company and just judge and consequently make decisions based on what is not working. By ignoring what is working right, to ignore the hard work that is in place and to over-haul is counter-productive. I always try to understand the environment and then to put the focus where it matters. Where there isn’t proper control, where what is being done isn’t effective and where direction and focus is lost, then naturally some change is needed.

“I acquired a lesson of life, when I was an officer in the army that has stayed with me through my business career. My captain and commanding officer told me that I can ask whatever I want from my guys, so long as I tell them why! I have been applying this concept every day since. For example when I worked for the Millennium Dome in London, which was on the brink of bankruptcy, by sharing everything with the people I was working with, from the lower level staff right up to the top, telling them why we were doing what we were doing, informing and updating, then everyone started to buy into the direction that I wanted to take the Dome.”

Keep fighting

“No matter what it is, it is all a matter of cycles. So whether one of those cycles is considered a crisis or not, it is not the first one and certainly will not be the last. It is all a matter of understanding that our lives are dictated by cycles and we just have to be ready to adapt, in good times and in bad.

“We all have to be ready to optimise whatever possible, even in the good times and not to rest on laurels. There has to be a never enough mentality. What we accomplish on one day should not be enough for the next day. Positively or negatively, crisis or no crisis, it is about keeping up the fight and keep moving. You can stay in the shadows, waiting for the stone to pass or you can get up and fight. There has to be the motivation to get the gloves off, no matter what it is. With all this said, the ultimate priority should remain intact- the preservation of the employees and the customers should always be of paramount importance.

“If a wave comes and sweeps you up, you have to be ready to ride with the wave and float with it. Actions always have to be taken and there should not be too much analysis of potential fallout- there is too much analysis and talk of slowdowns. More focus on the core intent of the business should take precedence over paranoia of another dip in the markets. Life is still going on- people are still spending. Spending behaviours may change but again it is a matter of adapting to these changes. Stop retreating and waiting for the double dip and just take a deep breath and push forward.”