JOHANNESBURG - A small team of Cape Town entrepreneurs who invested R22 000 in 2006 to start up a fledgling business recently saw a phenomenal return on their founding capital when they sold their business to US based organisation Ecolab - a major global provider of technologies and services to the water, food, energy, healthcare, industrial and hospitality markets.
Together they came up with the idea of providing personalised and customised training to the hospitality staff in order to maximise the guest experience. Following this, demand saw their product evolving to become mobile friendly and online based. “This was our break into the global space,” says Malherbe. “From there it was an upward trajectory and the business has grown to service over 1 million learners in more than 130 countries. The Lobster Ink training focuses on the five most important key elements in hospitality performance: the guest experience, increased sales, decreased costs, maximised talent and seat time.
Malherbe adds that it is not just about foundation skills for initial employment but also about up-skilling and remaining relevant in the face of constant changes within that particular industry. “Just look at the food industry for example – future trends point toward more and more meat being made in laboratories.