In Conversation with … Professor Robert Chia

Posted by Janet Sayers

Friday 11 November 2011Massey University Albany Campus. Conversation with Staff and Students of the School of Management (Albany). Organised by Associate Professor Wendelin Kupers. 

Professor Robert Chia, Currently at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow.

About Professor Chia 

Robert is an elected Fellow (by invitation) of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufacturing and Commerce, (FRSA) United Kingdom as well as an invited member of the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS), UK.

Robert has published extensively in top international management and organization journals. He is the author/editor of five books including, Strategy without Design: The Silent Efficacy of Indirect Action (with Robin Holt). His current research interests revolve around a variety of the issues including: process organization studies; strategy practice, sensemaking and emergence; scenarios, foresight and peripheral awareness; the educational role of university business schools; knowledge and practical wisdom; and the significance of contrasting East-West mentalities and their implications for business practice.

Prior to entering academia, Robert worked for 16 years in aircraft maintenance engineering, manufacturing management and human resource management for a large multinational corporation based in the Asia Pacific. Robert has consulted extensively with well-known international organizations and institutions. More about Robert can be found here.

Some of his publications, found using Google scholar are here

Robert in Conversation

The following is a summary of my understanding of Robert’s talk. Some of what I mention below is what I have followed up since he spoke, because I was captivated by his various metaphorical allusions (to writer and drawer Rushkin, poet TS Elliot, painter Rene Magriette, Zen philosophy, and Japanese management) as well as his ability to connect these ideas to his practical experience as a manager of a tin can plant producing millions and millions of units per day, and his other work experiences, and his management education philosophies.

My notes below are idiosyncratic, and if you want to add your thoughts as an attendee or just out of interest, add them below in the comments section …

Robert began by stating that managers (and us all) must comprehend the large concepts and the little tiniest details. It is the tiny little things that matter, as well as the big picture. Robert impressed upon us all the need to attend to the minute-est details in all practice, and for PhD students, especially in their writing. Many academics in the audience nodded sagely and in agreement with this advice :o).  

At another point Robert related this need to understand detail to the work of John Rushkin. John Rushkin illustrated his observations of the natural world with beautiful drawings and also wrote some inspiring text about how learning to draw can help people observe. If you want to start learning to draw, go to Project Gutenberg and download Ruskin’s book The elements of drawing, for free. I recently read Alain de Botton’s The Art of Travel and recommend it for an engaging introduction to Rushkin.

What is the university for? Education - not skills training. Training skills is not what universities should be for, and this applied to business education also. Universities should be places where people can learn to think differently, or learn how to think counter-intuitively. Go to a consultant if you want a solution. Come to the university if you want space and time to think and learn to do this critically.

In other words, Robert serenely suggests that business schools should not be about learning instrumental approaches to business problems, but to think counter-intuitively about practices. That is, we should not be helping students to rote learn copious amounts of management texts/information about how to do things, or manipulate financial data, but to reflect ‘differently’ and critically on how things are done. Then when we each return into our ‘normal’ roles in life we can look at what we do and who we are in relation to our fields of practice differently. In explaining this Robert used the analogy of travelling. When you are in your own country it is very hard to see your own culture. Paradoxically, it is not until you are outside your own culture that you can reflect upon it, see it clearly, and think about it critically. This does not mean emotionally distancing oneself from it either – people that live overseas are often the ones that defend their country of origin the most passionately. But it does involve critical distancing in terms of thinking. Robert quotes TS Eliot:

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Robert suggests that when managers come into the classroom (and he is talking about experienced manager training here) they should be told categorically to leave their management problems behind. Tell them, Robert advises, “we are not here to give you the solutions to your problems, but to help you learn to reflect on them differently”.

One strong theme to come across to me during the talk was the old chestnut about space and place. Robert is interested in sense-making and the phenomenological experience (along with colleague Wendelin Kupers who arranged Robert’s visit). A theme that came across to me in Robert’s talk was the tensions between place and space in management thinking and this being the source of almost all management problems. What is meant by this?

Robert related the following example from his own experience. At one point when he was working manufacturing cans, a customer rang complaining that a % of the cans Robert was supplying were leaking. The customer’s order was for millions of cans. The customer insisted that Robert do a 100% quality check of all cans before they left the factory or he would take his order somewhere else. Robert was somewhat stumped by this as they did quality checks already of course, but not of all cans. Robert talked with some of the workers on the factory floor about the problem and they came up with the solution. They could already predict a fault by the sound it made if it was struck by another piece of metal. Apparently they often amused themselves by banging the metal sheets and the cans. From this bit of information, which could only be understood by people actually working with the materials and by their sound sense, a simple ‘bang test’ process was introduced as the new 100% quality check of cans.

Relating this incident helped Robert illustrate several points he has learnt. The first was the attention to detail that he stressed from the start. The second point was the central and continuing importance of the simple and effective principle of management by wandering around (MBWA), a principle first popularised by Tom Peters. See below for Tom Peters himself relating the incident when he realized  this principle, and why it is still resonant for him (and others).

Tom Peters talking about MBWA

The third point relates to a sculpture by Rene Magritte, called ‘The White Race’. Magritte was a Belgian surrealist artist. You can find out more about him and his work here.  One rendition of this famous work is below.

 Rene Magritte - The White Race

The painting represents a hierarchy of senses with the eye, or the optical or vision sense, at the epitome, with the nose at the bottom, of the pyramid but as you can see doubled and at the base. With relation to power and especially the power of visual culture this image represents what Western senses are based on. That is, the visual sense is very much related to fields of power relations.

In relation to the importance of space and place, we talked about the recent ‘occupations’ of Wall Street around the world and including in NZ, and the implications of these types of protests in the contexts of technology and opposition to aspects of globalisation that citizens find troublesome. Robert mentioned the Gutenberg Press as an invention that changed the world and caused revolutionary movements also, and drew parallels with the development of the internet and its potential also to enlighten but also radically change the world. 

I was interested to ask if there is such a thing as a wise business leader? Robert’s take on this was that the title of ‘wise’ is conferred on you by others in retrospect and is not a resource that can be developed as a tool in the business sense. He referred to Zen philosophy and to a Japanese leader who argued that the best businesses are always those that arise from serving others, not from reasons like just making money. Businesses should be driven in their actions to create through something deep, personal and presumably un-selfish. I personally see something problematic in management technologies of wisdom that are currently evolving and so it was welcoming to see this key point about wisdom so clearly and simply stated.   

Robert suggested that naivety is the type of paradoxical state of mind that we should aim for in business education; the emptying out of the mind that one seeks in Zen so that one innocently sees the world anew in each moment. I exited from the session with Robert feeling very serene and calm; like I had just been enlightened by someone who is intelligent, kind, sensible, open and practical. I can see why his services are much in demand with senior business leaders.  

Auckland: City of Volcanoes Part 3 – Place, identity and memory

Written and Posted by Janet Sayers - please acknowledge

“The spirit of a place is a strange thing. Our mechanical age tries to override it. But it does not succeed. In the end, the strange sinister spirit of place, so diverse and adverse in differing places, will smash our mechanical oneness into smithereens, and all that we think the real thing will go off with a pop, and we shall be left staring” (D.H. Lawrence, 1956)

Rangitoto from East Auckland - On Wikimedia

This entry, the third so far, introduces some theory about place and its relationship to identity in the context of the city.

Part 1: Visual Representations of Auckland to 1987 (Historical Maps and other Images)

Part 2:  Visual representations of Auckland  - Now 

Part 3:  Place, identity and memory 

This entry is the most theoretically dense to date, but its purpose is to argue that the history and landscape of Auckland is centrally important to its collective sense of itself. In further posts I will link this argument  to Auckland’s business development, Auckland City’s volcanic landscape art, and to tangata whenua.

City identity and place

Modern cities have been argued to encompass characteristics of liquid modernity (Bauman, 2000; Connerton, 2009). Connerton uses the work of Frances Yates (1966) who views memory as being dependent on stability (also see Halbwachs, 1950). Contemporary city life is characterised by change and movement and so Connerton concludes that 'forgetting' is characteristic of modern cities. Five factors contribute to this forgetting, all of which relate to cities’ time and spatial characteristics. 

Forgetting in cities occurs because of:

1. the speed at which people live their lives (Jacoby, 1975);
2. the enormous size of cities which make them incomprehensible and literally un-memorable, so that is impossible now, as it was in medieval times, to ascend a tall building (a city cathedral, or a local mount) and see the entire city from one vantage point;
3. consumerism which is disconnected from the labour process, making production all but invisible, and making cities primarily commodity-exchange cultures with no memory;
4. the short life-span of urban architecture which makes forgetting easier;
5. social relationships are less clearly defined as they are in smaller slower communities, which can be cemented more firmly in place by the stability of place and architecture.

These factors, according to Connerton, erode the foundations on which modern city subjects can build and share memories and creates a conundrum for cities in building and sustaining a sense of identity.

Matukutureia or McLaughlin Hill - On Wikipedia Commons

Although this argument resonates, it is contestable and others have argued that actually city dwellers do weave identity and memory through their everyday place-practices. Citizens create their individual identities in their everyday embodied memory practices through their being-in-the-city. Human life is always inextricably interwoven with place because place is related to culture, especially in the way we symbolise it through stories and art for example “Memory needs a place, a context.  Its place, if it finds one that lives beyond a single generation, is to be found in the stories we tell” (Kenny, 1999, p. 421). Kenny describes this phenomenon as the ‘metaphorical landscape of memory’. Extraordinary events create firmer bonds due to the greater clarity that destructive forces can wend, a point that is particularly salient and poignant considering the recent series of earthquakes in Christchurch (Halbwachs, 1950).  

Tim Ingold has written extensively about place practices and how they relate to identity and suggests that people perceive their environment, not in static frames, but through constant movement (1993, 2010). Connerton echoes these sentiments:

A sense of place depends upon a complex interplay of visual, auditory and olfactory memories ... These are acoustic, visual and other sensory experiences; familiar places are appropriated by my lived body that does not give us a position in objective space, but a sense of emplacement through their incorporation into the corporeal life of my habitual movements … (p. 32-33)

The most obvious ‘sense’ used in these placement activities is the visual. People orient themselves in relation to ‘seen’ objects within space. This argument about the relationship of memory to image will be developed soon as it is vital to attempts to visually symbolise Auckland. Place is used to remember as orientation to spatial features is essential in memorising practices; this practice creates strong empathetic emotional connections to place. The use of place to cement memory is an art-form, and is explained here as the ‘Method of loci’.

Place and Politics

So far I have introduced several ideas about the relationship of city identity to place and memory practices.  I live in NZ so I’ll be plain about the next point: place is political. Place is not and never has been neutral.

Nature is always interpreted through human culture and so place is fundamentally ideological. Culture is not static but constantly being created. Consequently culture is connected to action; what happens in a place is active and purposeful (Carter, 1987). Recent work by anthropologists shows that it is a peculiar notion of Western culture/s to see nature as passive, and relates to the modernist and colonial frame of reference for seeing. For many cultures, and this is especially obvious in Australian Aborigine culture,  visual representations of landscape are at one and the same time “a topographical map, a cosmological exegesis, a ‘clan-scape’, a ritual and a political landscape” (Bender, 2002). In other places, the lived experience of a place can be so overlaid with ideas about them, e.g. Jerusalem, that the actual place is almost completely obscured (Said, 2000).

These questions of the relationship between people, identity and place are recognised in wider geographical and post-colonial literary theory.  Osborne notes that a self-aware ‘geography of identity’ presupposes an ‘a-where-ness’ that “nation states occupy imaged terrains that serve as mnemonic devices” (Osborne, 2001).  Said has also been influential is raising the spectre of memory and imagery in relation to national identity building. He commented:

 “Memory and its representations touch very significantly upon questions of identity, of nationalism, of power and authority. Far from being a neutral exercise in facts and basic truths, the study of history, which of course is the underpinning of memory, both its schools and university, is to some considerable extent a nationalist effort premised on the need to construct a desirable loyalty to and insider’s understanding of one’s country, tradition and faith” (Said, 2000, p. 176)

Even further, Said argues that memory is not only a social, political and historical exercise, but a matter of ‘invention’. Rulers ‘invent’ memories of the past as a way of creating a new sense of identity for ruler and ruled: “The invention of tradition is a method for using collective memory selectively by manipulating certain bits of the national past, suppressing others, elevating still others in an entirely functional way” (p. 179).  Some memories are banished, especially those that the dominant hegemony feels the need to suppress.

In the post-colonial world, memory and identity is always ideologically related to colonialism; and with regard to landscapes with the way they are framed as ‘territories’ through mapping practices. Imperialists in history have shown a strong attachment to the visual, to maps, landscape art, and repeatable facts, which help the emplacement of person to memory-culture in certain ways.

Landscape features, city-scape skylines, maps, and brands are significant to citizen orientation as they are static elements of the seen environment and consequently people from diverse backgrounds can share their iconography. Landscape and environment provide the common shared tropes through which multiple subjects from diverse backgrounds can form memories and identities. In further posts I will link this argument back to Auckland’s business development, Auckland City’s volcanic landscape art, and to tangata whenua.

References

Bauman, Z. (2000). Liquid modernity. Cambridge: Polity.

Bender, B. (2002). Landscape, Encyclopaedia of Social and Cultural Anthropology (pp. 4): Taylor and Francis.

Carter, P. (1987). The road to Botany Bay: An exploration of landscape and history London: University of Minnesota Press.

Connerton, P. (2009). How modernity forgets. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Halbwachs, M. (1950). The collective memory (L. Coser, Trans.). Chicago: University of Chicago.

Harley, J. B. (1988). Maps, knowledge and power. In D. Cosgrave & S. Daniels (Eds.), The iconography of landscape: Essays on the symbolic representation, design and use of past environments (pp. 277—312). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ingold, T. (1993). The temporality of the landscape. World Archaeology, 25(2), 152—174.

Ingold, T. (2010). The textility of making. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 34 (1), 91—102.

Jacoby, R. (1975). Social amnesia: A critique of conformist psychology from Adler to Laing Boston: Beacon Press.

Kenny, M. (1999). The place for memory: The interface between individual and collective history. Comparative Studies In Society And History, 41(3), 420—437.

Lawrence, D. H. (1956). Sea and Sardinia. London: William Heinemann.

Osborne, B. S. (2001). Landscapes, memory, monuments, and commemoration: Putting identity in its place Canadian Ethnic Studies, XXXIII(3), 39—77.

Said, E. W. (2000). Invention, memory and place. Critical Inquiry, 26(2), 175—192.

Yates, F. (1966). The art of memory. London: Routledge Paul

To reference this work:

Sayers, J. (2011). Auckland: City of Volcanoes Part 3 – Place, identity and memory. On Managing Services Blogspot, at http://managingservicesblogspot.blogspot.com/2011/10/auckland-city-of-volcanoes-part-3-place.html, Downloaded xx/xx/xxx.

Managing Services Blog by Janet Sayers is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at managingservicesblogspot.blogspot.com.

Auckland - City of Volcanoes - Part 1: Visual Representations of Auckland to 1987 (Historical Maps and Other Images)

Written and Posted by Janet Sayers


The main point of this series (ongoing)  is to argue there would be real benefit to Auckland and New Zealand for Auckland to embrace itself as a ‘City of Volcanoes'. As this series develops I will elaborate upon this argument.


Part 1: Visual Representations of Auckland to 1987 (Historical Maps and other Images) 

Part 2:  Visual Representations of Auckland  - Now 

Part 3:  Place and Identity: The Theory


In Part 1 I provide an eclectic historical tour through some images of Auckland and relate them to Auckland’s significance as a developing global city.  I provide a series of images of Auckland, with some commentary to provide some historical context on how Auckland has been symbolized and mapped since the early 1800s.


The first image below of Auckland in 2002 is a satellite map. The impact of the city on the volcanic landscape is remarkable, especially when you compare this image with the Fernindad von Hochstetter’s 1859 map of the Auckland isthmus below it.

  

Landsat image of Auckland (2002)  http://landsat.gsfc.nasa.gov/images/archive/c0012.html

The next map is by early cartographer Von Hochstetler and is an evocative reference point for understanding Auckland’s volcanic landscape in 1859. The nascent CBD of Auckland can be seen clinging to its coastal port. 

Fernindad von Hochstetter’s 1859 map of the Auckland isthmus

See http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/dbtw-wpd/virt-exhib/hochstetter/auckland.html

The image in settlers’ minds of Auckland in this period was of a little England. 

The greater part of the land on this isthmus, which divides the two harbours, is now in a high state of cultivation. Solid stone walls and quickset hedges are generally taking the place of temporary wooden fences of posts and rails. At Epsom, and in the Tamaki district, there are grass and clover paddocks, as large, as rich, as well laid down, and as substantially fenced, as any grass land in England. There is a good macadamized road across the isthmus from Auckland to Onehunga, on the Manukau Harbour; and the country around is studded with picturesque farms, cottages, and wayside houses. (Angas, 1866, p. 107)

Another useful interesting historical  map of Auckland is provided on the Auckland City Council's website; The 1908 City of Auckland Map. It is described  thus: 

"The  1908 map is a significant and unique record of Auckland City's history and early infrastructure. The map portrays an exciting period in the city's development and documents the progress of a growing city. As such, it is one of Auckland City Council archives' most treasured and valuable assets; it is referred to regularly by family and property researchers, local historians, students, archaeologists and contractors working for council."

Other interesting visual representations of Auckland are 'advertising images' and images designed to communicate the essence of Auckland to visitors to the city, and thus to ourselves. Auckland’s first major visual identity was conferred by Great Britain.  The Coat of Arms, given below on 23 October 1911 symbolized the characteristics and traditions of the region in New Zealand where the city is situated. It is made up of a number of heraldic elements which suggest progress built upon Auckland’s natural features:  the port and a ship;  a shovel and a pick as a reminder of early mining activities; arms placed inside the shield with cornucopia representing Auckland as a cup of plenty with agricultural and natural richness; native flax in flower; and two rampant kiwi as the primary symbols of New Zealand; all textually anchored by the word ‘Advance’ ("The Auckland city coat of arms," 2011).  This first official visual representation was therefore a conferred one by the colonial power, which saw Auckland as a seat of colonial administration, and as a resource-base whose primary identity was commercial. This identity was seen from the outside as being closely tied to its natural environment, and its commercial exploitation as a primary resource.

Auckland's Coat of Arms  - 1911

Other early representations of Auckland were focused outwards in an attempt to attract settlers, investors and visitors to the region to stimulate economic growth. The free 1934 ‘The gateway official guide to Auckland’ (see below) features strong Māori figuration with its representation of two Māori, a man and a woman, in ‘traditional costume’ framed by green whakairo (carving). The green probably represents valuable pouanamu (jade) for which there was a vigorous early trade. Whakairo represent ancestors, and this symbology is directly related to natural features of the land through the cultural practice of whakapapa. The gateway symbol refers to traditional Māori welcoming practices, where visitors are formally welcomed on to a marae (meeting house) through the tomokanga (gateway) (Te Ahukaramū, 2011).

The Gateway Official Guide to Auckland 1934

This booklet was published to promote Auckland by a conglomerate of civil and business authorities. Māori symbols were yoked to lever advantage for Auckland settlers with little cultural understanding of the irony in their use of ‘displaced’ Māori in this fashion. 

Auckland began to develop its civic structures, and with the advent of the motor vehicle, arterial roads and motorways became the defining feature of the urban landscape. Auckland grew rapidly and spread out. The uptake of the car led to further massive expansion that has resulted in the growth of associated urban areas like the North Shore, especially after the construction of the Auckland Harbour Bridge finished in 1959.  Advertisements during this period reinforced Auckland as a thriving city full of opportunities for the visitor and emphasised it still as a gateway to New Zealand. As time has progressed representations have become more abstract; in the image below Auckland is like a framed painting, with the city fore-grounded. The harbour is depicted as a busy port, and the volcanic cones of Rangitoto and North-head are in the background.

1930 Auckland The Gateway to New Zealand

The next image below is from the period after the harbour bridge was built, and is entirely abstract in its representation, probably following stylistic fashions of the time. This image has dominated the city collective imaginary as the ‘City of Sails’ until now.  The image symbols are framed by a port-hole like circle emphasising an insider-outsider spilt characteristic of the 'imperial gaze' (see part 3 of this series). The four icons within are: the harbour, the bridge, Rangitoto and two sails.  The sails dominate the harbour, overpowering nature. The harbour bridge overarches all of nature, symbolically representing technology and flow. This symbol was used for the Auckland City Council for a number of years.

Auckland Visitors Guide 1986/87

In the next part of this article Part 2: 'Visual Representations of Auckland - Now' I'll discuss Auckland's current visual identity. In Part  3 I provide a rationale for Auckland being the 'City of volcanoes' based on some pointy-headed theory about place, identity and memory. In further postings I hope to explore  Auckland in visual art (and a little bit of literature) and why this should all matter to businesses in Auckland.


References 


Angas, G. F. (1866). Polynesia. A popular description of the physical features, inhabitants, natural history, and productions of the islands of the Pacific. With an account of their discovery, and the progress of civilisation and Christianity amongst them. Retrieved 3 July 2010, from http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/tei-AngPoly-t1-body-d5.html

The Auckland city coat of arms. (2011).   Retrieved 1 May 2011, 2011, from http://www.aucklandcity.govt.nz/auckland/introduction/coatarms/default.asp

Maling, P. (Cartographer). (1999). Historic charts and maps of NZ 1642-1875. Reed: Wellington. .

Te Ahukaramū, C. R. (2011, 1 March 2009). Te Waonui a Tāne – forest mythology. Rituals of the marae. Te Ara - the Encyclopaedia of New Zealand   Retrieved 6 June, 2011, from http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/te-waonui-a-tane-forest-mythology/2

Managing Services Blog by Janet Sayers is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at managingservicesblogspot.blogspot.com.

Spookers Haunted House Attraction - Part 1

This post is about Spookers, a haunted house attraction in Auckland. 

About Spookers (Auckland)

Spookers is a ‘Haunted House Attraction’ located in Kingseat, near Papakura, Auckland, in the North Island of New Zealand. Spookers is also involved in several other attractions around New Zealand such as franchised Amazing Maze ‘n Maize attractions in The Bay of Plenty and Hastings. Attractions at Spookers (Auckland) vary according to the season, are aimed at children and at adults, and are regularly refreshed. Main attractions are:

Adult and R16 attractions:

• Spookers Haunted House, populated by 34 live and very scary actors, with sound and lighting effects
• The Freaky Forest of Fear, featuring 18 live actors. The Freaky Forest of Fear is a shadowy enclave surrounding the Haunted House, in a live forest (entry to Spookers Haunted House and Freaky Forest of Fear is restricted to people aged 16 years and older - these attractions are open Thursday (seasonal), Friday and Saturday nights from 8pm, with the last entry at 10.30pm)

• CornEvil - features 25 live actors, in a huge and dark cornfield, where you can be both lost and stalked (seasonal)
• The 3D Manic Maze with Vortex Tunnel – a maze/labyrinth in 3D.

Children’s attractions:

• The Amazing Maze n’ Maize - no age restriction (seasonal)
• Creepers Haunted House (R8) - open on the first and third Thursday every month http://www.creepers.co.nz/ 
• Shiver and Shake Experience (R8) – a lights on tour around the Spookers Haunted House, with no live actors (spook free)

As well as scary experiences, Spookers (Auckland) offers a range of other services, including corporate functions, restaurant services, a café, and children’s parties. The 3D Vortex, The Amazing Maze ‘n Maize, a Haunted Woolshed (Shearer’s Revenge), and other experiences are available in sites in other NZ locations as well.

How Spookers Started

Eight years ago Beth Watson owned a Plant, Fruit and Vegetable shop near Marton, a small rural town in the lower part of the North Island. She had recently completed a Post-Graduate Diploma in Tourism through Massey University and was looking for a new challenge that suited her lifestyle. An email from a friend in the USA arrived, asking her if she had seen the Maize Maze in the US. Beth, intrigued, responded by creating a maze in their back paddock, advertised it, and was delighted when over twelve thousand people went through the maze from December to April. The maze was essentially a personal ‘hobby’ maze, but local people got involved as well, ‘scaring’ visitors. From this initial ‘toe-dip’ into the world of Haunted House Attractions, Beth realised that Haunted Attractions were popular, and that there was no other similar attractions in NZ. In the eight years since then Beth has developed, with the help and support of her family and many enthusiastic and able staff, a business that employs over 200 people and is located in the Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay and Marton, as well as the main site in Kingseat. 

Narrative about Haunted House Attraction, R 16 experience, downloaded on 29 June 2007.

In 1998 the Government purchased all the land surrounding their top secret research station known only as “Compound K”. The government scientists had been conducting secret experiments to find an antidote to counter any possible nuclear contamination. Coincidentally a group of extreme anti nuclear activists known only as the “Rainbow Warriors” had been working close by on a method to stop the use of nuclear power to replace oil and thereby turn New Zealand into a nuclear society. In the laboratory of “Compound K” something went tragically wrong, resulting in an uncontrollable chain reaction. The top-secret anti-nuclear gas, still at the experimental stage leaked into the building leaving the staff and visitors mutated and had horrifying effects on their minds and bodies. As the gas was absorbed through their pores, each workers most recent nightmare became their reality. These nightmarish thoughts involving insane clowns, dark dank holes, giant mutating creatures, and many more began tormenting them along with a frenzy of pulsating sound and hideous chaos.

The Government wanted everyone to believe that nothing had gone wrong, and “Compound K” was locked down. Secret Service Forces were called in to take down the band of out of control freaks and destroy the thousands of mutated vermin that appeared overnight but they were overcome themselves, and now they also walk among the living dead.

With the situation spiralling out of control and the possibility of an escape into the wider Auckland area the Government had no option but to send a team of health workers into “Compound K” to administer an experimental anti nuclear vaccine. Fascinated with the mutations caused by the toxic gases, a group of renegade doctors began a series of unauthorized investigative operations to explain the changes.

The “Rainbow Warriors” unaware of these rebel doctors, and believing the situation was under control, started to celebrate the end of the disaster. In the ballroom they began their frenzy of wild dancing and celebration, ignorant of the many mutated staff members evading the health workers and finding their way into the surrounding forest.

Be prepared to confront toxic mutated zombies around every corner, as you meet the green fog of the nuclear antidote gas head on. Your only escape route will be through a series of seemingly endless pitch black hallways of tragedy and horror. As you feel your way along the walls, which sometimes close claustrophobically together, you feel helpless in the complete darkness. What lies ahead? There is no telling what is lurking in the dark corners, as you manoeuvre through by touch alone. Your plan to infiltrate this toxic nightmare, experience proof of the giant government cover up and discover what unspeakable secrets are locked deep inside “Compound K” is suddenly looking like a really bad idea. Finally as you stagger towards the end you are faced with one further challenge. You are forced to declare your nuclear beliefs. Are you with the “Rainbow Warriors” or with the secret Government agents? An odious judge demands a choice, will it be acquittal and a fast and furious trip to hell or a guilty verdict and an even worse slow descent to government anarchy?

Thanks to Julia Watson, Manager of Spookers (Auckland), for generously giving her time to be interviewed for this case study. The case has been written up by Janet Sayers.

Please reference this entry as:

Sayers, J. (2019). Spookers Case Study Part 1: Description of Spookers and its origins.  Downloaded from www.blogger/service-thlinking/ on day/month/year.  First published 2007 and last updated 4/09/2019.

Spookers Case Part 2 - Service Management Issues at Spookers

  

Introduction

This article is in three parts as follows:

Part 1: Description of Spookers  and its origins

Part 2: Service Management Issues at Spookers

Part 3: Service Theory: Managing People (coming soon)

  

Facilities

When the two main maize/maze experiences, Corn Evil and Amazing Maze n’ Maize first opened in Te Kauwhata in 2004, 16 000 people from Auckland travelled to try out the experience, many of them making return visits with friends and family. Beth saw an opportunity, and along with her daughter Julia Watson (now the Manager of the main facility), began searching for a suitable location closer to Auckland, the largest metropolitan city in New Zealand and home to over one million people. At least twenty acres of land was needed for the maize mazes, and a suitable building was also required. Julia was a sales representative in Auckland at the time, and travelled extensively through the southern parts of Auckland for her job. Almost by chance, she noticed that a large site had come up for lease in South Auckland. The site once housed the Kingseat Psychiatric Hospital, was currently owned by the Kingseat Foundation, consisted of 120 acres of land, and a conglomerate of multiple buildings, many of which were derelict.

The buildings had been derelict for fifteen years when the Watsons took over the lease, and they have completely updated the facility where it counts, in its interior. The buildings had to be completely rewired and re-plumbed. The facility look was designed and constructed by Ian Ruxton and his team of freelance technicians with the support of Weta Workshops. Special effects (sound and lighting) have been enhanced by Oceania (http://www.oceania-audio.co.nz/), and the 3D Manic Maze and vortex tunnel was painted by the team from Disruptiv (http://www.disruptiv.com/). There has also been a brand ‘makeover’ by avant-garde Auckland designers Illicit, also responsible for the highly successful 'Misery' brand.

What is the experience like?

The main R16 experience in the Spookers Haunted House is very scary. The scare involves a narrative, or story, involving an environmental catastrophe, a lot of contamination, and a whole heap of genetically mutated zombies.  Frightening actors, terrifying noise, smells and other techniques for heightening the visitor’s senses, are all part of the experience.  Once entering the Haunted House, the visitor is scared witless for 25-minutes as blood curdling demons, zombies and a maniacal dentist with a penchant for pain run amuck. As a visitor you make your way through a blood-spattered two-level building. During this time you are harassed, and even poked at, by an army of monsters wielding lethal props and deadly stares.  These evil inhabitants show no mercy. However, despite their crazed demeanour, a simple hand signal is all it takes to fend off the beasts.

Other experiences are also so scary children are not allowed, particularly CornEvil, which is a Maize Maze also haunted by frightening ghouls and freaks. Scary days like Friday 13^th are celebrated with especially themed days, and new horror movie releases (such as 28 Weeks Later) are sometimes synchronised with outdoor showings in the summer months.

There is stuff for the children and the easily frightened to do as well. Less frightening experiences (with no actors) are available during the day (with lights on). There is also a children’s attraction with actors themed on slightly scary renditions of fairy tale characters. Children and families can use the Maize Maze in the evenings and during the days also for freak-free events, and also just to experience the maze itself. Visitors, schools, and other children’s groups such as scouts, are encouraged to use the maze for educational purposes, and educational material is provided on the Amazing Maze n’ Maize website http://www.maze.co.nz/. Corporate team building days (Terror Tactics) aimed at the business sector are also held at Spookers. Other facilities outside of Auckland have special attractions such as Grimmer Scary Tales (Bay of Plenty), and Shearer’s Revenge (a R10 attraction in Marton).

As well as the frightening activities and the outdoor activities using the maze, visitors can use other services such as the restaurant and cafes. Food is themed, with banquets for example offering Witches Basket and Potions (breads and dips).  Themed children’s parties are also held.

 Staffing

Currently (in 2007) Spookers employs over 200 staff, and many of these are part-time workers. Six staff work full-time on the business. Most of the part-time, casual staff are hired as actors, restaurant staff, security staff, and building maintenance staff.

Actors are not specifically recruited from acting schools as Spookers prefer to use monsters from their local neighbourhood. Using mainly letterbox flyers, local newspapers, and advertisements on their website, an assortment of local characters are recruited and work in the evenings. Many of these actors have full-time jobs in the area: people recruited in the past have included police officers, firemen, and teachers at local schools. In addition mothers, fathers, students, farmers and others in the local community work at Spookers. The oldest actor is a 67year old male, and there are many younger actors predominantly in the early twenties age bracket. Julia Watson reports that actors ‘love’ their job, and that one of the often cited reasons for working at Spookers is ‘stress-relief’. In this job people are able to scream and yell, and express their inner-most demons (safely). Actors are encouraged to develop their own characters, and characters become locally famous, and feature in Spookers branding, like Nanny, who makes patrons dip their finger into a baby’s brain. Characters also draw on iconic horror characters from popular culture like Freddie Kruger, Leatherface and Jason. Movies like The Grudge, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Blair Witch Project, and The Ring are referred to, as is the gamut of zombie movies like The Dawn of the Dead, with many Zombie-like characters such as Horror Hillbillies.  Some characters are truly iconic, and some are picked up and then dropped as they come in and out of fashion. Horror often features comedy but horror/comedy characters like the ghoul from the ‘Scream’ franchise are not allowed at Spookers. 

Go to the Spookers website to see pictures of actors in costume, and actors scaring victims.

Quality

Julia Watson describes the process of developing the business as ‘making it up as we go along’ which might seem ad hoc, but actually there has been a detailed attention to quality which can be seen in the development of the facility experience. The best expertise in NZ design has been sought out and used. Both Julia and Beth have taken yearly study tours to look at the well-developed Maze and Haunted House industries in the United States of America and have tried to take the best of what they have seen there and adopted and adapted international practice here in NZ. They have made and kept crucial relationships in the industry, including becoming members of the International Association of Haunted Attractions (IAHA), http://www.iahaweb.com/, which is the professional body that advises haunted attractions on issues specific to their industry (like flame-proofing walls; and keeping staff safe). Spookers also belongs to the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions http://www.iaapa.org/aboutus/index.asp.

Spookers was also recently awarded a Qualmark in January 2007, as an endorsed tourism activity, meaning that they are recognised as professional and trustworthy (see http://www.qualmark.co.nz/).

To Spookers quality means visitors having a truly frightening experience, with which they are ultimately satisfied, but also offering quality customer service during other aspects of the customer visit (for example, at the café, and during wait periods).  Visitor safety is a high priority. This is particularly a priority when actors are used to accentuate the experience. Actors have an induction process where they learn the rules of the facility to ensure the best customer experience, and their own safety.  As well, at the beginning of each evening’s performance, actors are briefed, and then they are also regularly de-briefed at the end of each evening’s entertainment in a ‘Ghost-buster’ process. This ‘Ghost-buster’ process is a type of performance management system, where actors receive feedback on relevant aspects of their show.

Visitors are meant to be scared, but not upset. If visitors stop enjoying themselves, then the experience parameters have been breached. Staff are taught to read body language and visitors are briefed on a simple hand signal to give monsters if they feel uncomfortable. Actors are drilled to immediately ‘go out of character’, speak normally, and the visitor is then passed on to other non-scary staff.  Visitors are surveyed regularly to get feedback on quality issues. Endorsements and positive feedback are featured on the Spookers website.

Capacity and Demand

Several challenges arise regarding capacity and demand for Spookers, and the company has derived ways of dealing with the issues. The first main challenge is that the main attraction at Spookers – the Haunted House - is only open after 8pm in the evening, and so visitors tend to arrive all at the same time to the facility.  The second related challenge is that bottlenecks may occur as people flow through the attractions, both in them, and between them. Other than demand exceeding capacity in the evening, potentially creating queuing and bottleneck issues, the third associated issue is that capacity can exceed demand. The facility is most well used at night, and so uses of it must be found during the day. Fourth, the mazes can only operate when the maize itself has grown, and before it needs to be cut down and re-sown for the next season. Some of the techniques that Spookers use to deal with these challenges are outlined below.

The facility generally uses a FCFS (First come first served) queuing system, with a single queue. Sometimes a queue to enter the attractions can be as long as 150 people. On a good night there can be over 500 people at any one time in any of the 4 attractions, and so there is the potential for bottlenecks. Techniques for dealing with queues and bottlenecks include (solving the problem of demand exceeding capacity):

·         Encouraging large group pre-bookings

·         Starting the experience earlier by having actors in costume come out to patrons waiting in the queue.

·         Holding groups back and timing the entrance of each group into the facility so that they are spaced apart

·         A type of fast-pass system has been used at certain times for those not wishing to wait (if you don’t want to wait, you pay a little more).

·         Techniques for speeding up the entrance process to the 4 attractions have included introducing bracelets (to more easily discern how many attractions have been paid for), and clip cards.

·         Encouraging people to spread out around all four attractions.

Techniques for using the facility more efficiently include (solving the problem of capacity exceeding demand):

·         corporate experiences like team building,

·         banquets and booking in meals prior to going through the attractions

·         spook free tours for children,

·         children’s parties,

·         movie screenings,

·         educational tours. 

Other Issues - Marketing, Site Choice 

Return visits are necessary in a business such as Spookers, and word of mouth is an essential marketing tool. Spookers intends to shortly introduce a ‘Frequent Freaks’ reward system for regular visitors.

The fact that the potential site used to house psychiatric patients gave the potential leasers pause for thought. The Watsons were aware of possible negative/violent stereotypes of psychiatric patients by the general public, and the sensitivities of ex-patients and ex-staff themselves.  Consequently Spookers have always distanced themselves from using any aspect of psychiatric illness in their branding, and have not promoted the history of the facility in a way that deliberately refers to psychiatric illness. In fact, since the building has opened, some ex-patients and ex-staff have enjoyed the Spookers experience, and some have even held reunions there.

Creepers Haunted House, The Amazing Maze n’ Maize and Spookers each have their own websites that link with each-other, facilitating efficiently of visitor’s searching on the internet. The websites developed for the business have some interactivity and they are all visually attractive and arresting. A game is available on one site, which promotes brand awareness. No sound is currently available, or movie footage. More fully emerging the customer in the pre-experience may be a development soon for Spookers.

Thanks to Julia Watson, Manager of Spookers (Auckland), for generously giving her time to be interviewed for this case study. Case has been written up by Janet Sayers.

Please reference this entry as:

Sayers, J. (2007) Spookers Case Study Part 2: Service Management Issues at Spookers. Managing Services Blogspot. Downloaded from xxxx on day/month/year.   

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