HOT | Interview
My lowest score outside of tournament
play is 61 at the Lyford Cay Club in the
Bahamas.
[HI] You mention sports and your family. Your father was rather accomplished
as well. What is some of his sport background?
[CF] My father, Francis Francis played
golf for England and won many international amateur events. One of many golfing achievements, he had finished 1 shot
ahead of the infamous Bobby Jones in the
1936 Masters. As an amateur, he twice
led or was tied for the lead of the British
open after two rounds. On one occasion
he and a fellow amateur played an exhibition match against Ben Hogan and Sam
Sneed at their peak and lost in a very close
contest: 2 & 1.
His other sporting achievements included: Fencing for England and was the Army
Champion. Running the 440 and 880 for
England and was also the Army champion.
He was considered one of the country’s
top athletes.
[HI] In your years of golf, you have
played with quite a quite a few famous
golfers.
[CF] A few I played with include Nick
Price, Sam Sneed, Ian Baker-Finch, Seve
Ballesteros, Sam Torrance, Al Geiberger
and many more. I also had the good
fortune of knowing Sam Sneed, Gene
Sarazen, Ken Venturi, Dow Finsterwall
and others as good friends of the family. Our conversations and shared experiences provided a wonderful fount of golf
knowledge. There were also a considerable number of infamous sports figures
and Hollywood personalities who played
into the mix, on and off the golf course.
[HI] Bringing this back to business, what
experience had you accumulated prior to
starting Quasar?
[CF] Upon completing school at Le Rosey
I was involved with our family’s global
investments. I n the 1970s – 1980s I
ran a successful shipping company in the
Caribbean, which we named Caribbean
Shipping.
www.hotelier-indonesia.com
I was also partner in IGI Golf Investments
and Cosmos International.
With IGI Golf Investments, we were
involved in golf club management, golf
course design and international golf travel. In our club endeavors at IGI, we saw
a need to bring in a technology solution
capable of addressing the diverse management needs of golf managers around
the world. That is where Cosmos came
in, and we were assisting golfers in areas
far-apart as Kenya to Japan to Guam, etc.
[HI] Stepping back to your family’s
investments, their success in business
seems to match well with their success
in sports. What business background
did you grow up with?
[CF] Though my father comes from the
Bostwick family (Standard Oil) through
his mother, he honorably fulfilled his
duty to country as a pilot during World
War II after graduating from the famous
Sandhurst Military Academy.
He founded and financed the MartinBaker Aircraft Company, which is very
well known for developing new aircraft.
Martin-Baker also developed the Aircraft
Ejection Seat which he tested himself. He
also owned and chaired on the board of
many international companies.
On a lighter note, my grandfathers were
amongst other things, businessmen,
authors and fishermen. The fisherman was known to take trout into New
Zealand.
[HI] It appears your newest venture
with Quasar Group brings together
your considerable history in golf, clubs
and international business.
[CF] In recent years, we have had a significant number of industry contacts looking for something new terms of club &
villa management. These requests have
ranged from a need for enhanced membership systems tied to social media, to
multinational management groups needing a similar system in diverse countries,
to multi-lingual systems that must appear
to be created in each club’s home country.
Many of these incoming system requests
originate in China and East Asia.
They’ve seen the strength of western systems developed through many years of
golf and club experience. But at the same
time, they’ve seen the same systems that
have failed to adapt to their local needs.
These Asia-based clubs have experienced
western systems translated into local languages, only to see it partially successful.
They attribute this to: a) a system being
older technology not capable of full translation due to record incompatibility, b) a
system structure that doesn’t provide for
multiple languages, and/or c) a firm unwilling to make the investment in enhancing
code or adding features to meet the local
needs of a club.
[HI] Aside from these requests from
Asia, what else has come into consideration?
[CF] We have had a significant level of
contact from both end users and partners
throughout Asia Pacific and into Europe,
Africa and the Middle East. We have
seen the difficulties many western golf,
club and leisure software developers have
when entering Asia. Because of this,
Quasar has based its development in Asia.
Here we have resources experienced in
developing multi-lingual, multi-national
systems.
We also see that the world’s strongest
growth markets for hospitality, golf & leisure are in China and throughout Asia.
Following China are strong markets in
Vietnam, India, Indonesia and Myanmar.
We feel we are making the proper moves
in development and distribution.
Hotelier Indonesia would like to thank
Craig Francis for his time, and for his
insight into the hospitality, golf club and
leisure technology markets. ***
HOTELIER INDONESIA | SEPTEMBER 2013 • 71