Thursday, May 13, 2010

Urgent Travel - A day in the life of a Richman’s Member


It’s 11.00 am on a warm Tuesday in Houston, Texas. You turned 58 last week but don’t feel a day over 35. You’ve been CEO of Southern Mines Inc. for the last five years and during that time seen the company grow from strength to strength. You’ve been the key behind expansion of the company’s footprint and assets into new rich sources of minerals and metals from Australia to Mongolia. The board respects you and shareholders love you.


You need to travel urgently to Lagos, Nigeria. You needed to meet with a senior member of Government over some issues relating to Southern’s business in Nigeria. Some weeks ago you had asked your people to try and set up a meeting but after getting the usual runaround you decided to ask Richman’s if they could help.


Through members in Nigeria, a meeting was quickly set up with a deputy minister of the resources ministry at a party in Lagos. The meeting was to be on Thursday evening and was confirmed just two days ago.


You had asked May, your secretary, to get the company’s travel agents to book first class return tickets to Lagos and a five star hotel accommodation for three nights. In view of the short notice, the best she was able to do was get you on a waiting list for a flight going through Dubai –where you would have to wait eight hours in transit. May explained that the hotel booking was okay but only a standard room in the old wing was available.


You asked May what use it was to have a crappy hotel room when flights were not confirmed. What the hell was a waiting list anyway? You either were on a flight or not. And you were not. Frustrated, you dialed the Richman’s 24 hours Global Concierge Service number and punched your special code number. You were greeted by a pleasant female voice.

“Hi there. I’m Rebecca. How can I assist you today?” You explained what you wanted. You said you had to be in Lagos by Thursday and return early the following week.


Rebecca had said that your needs were perfectly clear and that you would have confirmation of your flight and hotel bookings by the close of business in Houston that same day. As promised you received voice and email confirmation that you would be flying from Houston at 10.00pm on Wednesday by private jet, and be in Lagos well in time for the meeting.


Ah! the joys of private jet travel. You recall that Southern had owned a jet once but had to sell it off at a loss during the Senate hearings on bank and auto bailouts. Few corporations these days wanted to be seen owning corporate jets or yachts.


As you relax and decide to finish some paperwork, you remember Rebecca asking if you may need any additional arrangements like bodyguards, personal secretaries or companions while in Lagos.


About: The Richman’s I M Club is the world’s first truly international private membership club whose principal mission is to proactively expand and protect the business and commercial interests of its members.




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