This reminds me of an experience I witnessed at the turn of the century, with a Vail Valley company in the property management business, that went into a shopping spree, only to sell off most of its portfolio of businesses around 2005, probably losing money on the whole.
Giving a fat checkbook to some salaried executives and assigning them to buy anything in sight is dumb, as strategy, priorities and due diligence take a back seat to an out-of-control shopping frenzy. The focus is no longer what makes sound business sense, but how can we spend the allocated resources?
At the start of 2018 Alterra Mountain Company, challenged Vail Resorts by launching its Ikon Pass, covering 23 ski resorts across nine US states and three Canadian provinces. Since that time, the company has added 12 resorts to the Pass, taking the total available to 35, including Australia and Japan.
With now 100 montain resorts in their two portfolios, and under the ominous threat of global warming, both entities are likely to discover very soon how this multi-destination business model will play out and if it will work out, or fail.
Time will tell, but be prepared to see many unexpected moves and adjustments as their collective experience of competing resort networks unfolds.
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