Mark Lucky from Stuba talks about serving travel agents and customers with technical excellence. He started working at 12, worked flights directly, and now leads development as CIO. Stuba's goal: hassle-free transactions and better experiences through real technical leadership, not hope.
Stuba, please welcome Mark Lucky. If you want to know what it's like to feel alive, bring the wrong set of notes up with you. Last year in Hawaii, we spoke about success. And just a recap for you about success. It doesn't come from loving grindr. It comes from finding a grinder that you love, loving your work and not giving as many. That goes beyond bad suits and crazy hair. And it doesn't mean that I don't care. It simply means ignoring the noise and focusing on what matters. Because in a service industry like travel, customers matter. So when I think customers, I think customer service. I started working when I was 12, six days a week, 5:30am, delivering newspapers. And I've served many more since then. When I was 14, I was delivering drugs all over. Ow to everyone in the NPO. That doesn't mean I can hook a brother up later on. It means I was getting prescription meds to the local retirees. Since then was a bit of time of Treasureway Myers family business. And these were all examples of a very simple customer service model. But think about today. Who do you serve? Who do you answer to? Who are your customers in life? Because it gets a bit more complex as we get older. So Stuba and myself serve you travel agents, but to get to you, we've got to service the Michaels, the Tenus, the Sandras and the Joes of the world. Earlier this year, I even found myself directly serving one of your customers during an international flight. Hi there. I'm the supplier, Mark, or Satan, whatever your travel manager is calling me at the moment. She was entirely not at fault. And we've upgraded you to a property not being run by Basil Fawlty. But earlier this year, my customer service matrix, if you like, got even more complex when I was appointed as CIO of Stuba. See, when I was managing director, I could complain about the website. As cio, it's my job to fix it. In doing so, fulfilling the strategic aims as part of a senior management team and leading a development team of 15 people on three different continents across four different time zones. If I step back from work for a moment, some of you might be familiar with this one. Dad, can you. I need to get to. I wanna. Oh, my God, are you gonna wear that suit? You're such an embarrassment. It raises the question, are our kids our customers or are we their servants? And as the eldest of three, I serve in the role of perfect son number one. Now, if my mum was here, she'd be all a bit like, I'll tell them about that pigsty of a room you had. How about that girl I caught you with? And where are you going to get a bloody haircut? And of course I service my wife. The length of that pause I gave you then was very important. Because if I get that wrong at home, I end up on the couch. If I get it wrong here, I end up in the hallway. Yes, indeed. But the biggest challenge of taking on this role is continuing to convince you guys of a very simple truth. And the simple truth is that Stuble wants what you want. We want hassle free transactions underpinned by good interactions that we can make a buck from. And it's an authentic truth because I know you've got the choice to go and use a competitor. Now, why you would, I don't know. We've got awesome prices, amazing customer service, brilliant product range, the funkiest of suits, a lot more hair, and we're a bit more fun to deal with. And as far as I remember, there is still meant to be room for fun in travel. My role as cio, it's very techo, very data driven. And my take on all those numbers, the code and the analysis and the data, whilst fulfilling those strategic ambitions and whilst serving through leadership as a cio, it's my job to wrap that all together and form a very bright shining light that illuminates a better customer experience. The tough part though is at times I find myself forcefully shoving that bright light in the face of agents to remind them of those simple truths. And I can tell you, my beloved customers, if it's your name illuminating my device at 4am Mrs. Lucky has been known to be very descriptive on where I can shove that very bright light. And apparently the sun doesn't shine there. The truth is that at Stuba, we work hard every day to make your choice us, but we don't hope you choose us. Let me explain. So, one of my favourite authors, Mark Manson, who wrote the Orange book, the Subtle Art of Not Giving up, wrote a green book this year which is called Everything Isn't A Book About Hope. And in that, what he says is that hope in itself achieves nothing. Achievement comes from loving Grindr or finding a grind that you love. Love your work. And I think we've got to combine that with remembering that to serve is another honour. Because in a service industry like travel, if you've got customers to serve, you've probably got a viable business. So at Stuba, we don't hope for better tomorrows. We're working hard today to be a bit better. Than we were yesterday. And it's working. You guys are coming back in record numbers. You're referring. And for that, on behalf of everyone at Stuba, I say a big thanks. It's been a fantastic journey so far. But before I finish up, I do have the one hope. I hope that Mrs. Lucky has maintained her sense of humour and that I don't find myself out in the hallway later on this evening. And should I do Michael, Tanu, Jose, hook a brother up. Thank you all very much for having us here.
