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an opportunity for Amadeus to assess both where the business was going right , and where it was going wrong .
“ The Olympic contract hurt us ” Watson reflected ruefully , saying Amadeus lost between £ 6 million and £ 7 million in 27 days ; “ three months after the games , I removed the whole senior team ”.
“ Our plan was growth ” said Watson . With a new handpicked senior team that was motivated by Watson ’ s vision and style , Amadeus embarked on its strategy to realise its target of becoming a £ 50m business . The strategy involved two core criteria that employees could identify with and contribute to : firstly , to achieve more transactions , and secondly , to increase spend per transaction .
used to be from NEC venues , but this is now 79 %, with 21 % of revenues now coming from outside events .
Watson explained how he stepped into his role as Managing Director following Amadeus ’ contract catering for the London 2012 Olympic Games . Although well known that the contract was lossmaking for Amadeus , the business remains extremely proud of the role it played delivering catering for the Games . The experience also provided
The ‘ Service that Sells ’ training programme was implemented and launched to support the strategy , with all employees revisiting the training annually to ensure the ethos remains at the heart of the business .
To date , £ 4.3m has been successfully spent in key areas to achieve the ambitious growth target . This includes the development of Amadeus ’ people , updating to an EPOS till system , progressive software to enable seamless communication with casual staff and technology to enhance the customer experience , such as the QJacker app for pre-placing orders .