Sodie Osei- Bonsu has dabbled in almost every kind of commercial air carrier business; a startup airline; growing established airline brands and even commissioned to salvage an airline that was folding up. Nevertheless, all those engagements did not sustain her excitement. Osei-Bonsu says she has found what will keep her enthusiasm going.
“I get bored easily and [I] need something that gets me excited. I cannot envisage getting bored here,” she says of her job as the Commercial Director of Wakanow Ghana. Wakanow.com facilitates almost every aspect of a prospective travellers visit, and they entered the Ghanaian market in the first quarter of this year.
Osei-Bonsu has spent a huge chunk of her working life selling airlines. Why is she so fixated with selling air travel which has very razor thin margins? Why not cars?
“I would have [sold cars], but I have no interest in cars; I have no passion for cars. People travel all the time but car sales dip and dive. We are selling an unbelievable experience. How do you feel when I take you from point A to B? Do you want to tell people about that experience? ,” she says of air travel.
So what was the nature of some assignments she was tasked with in her past?
The prominent one was with Virgin Nigeria, where she was the Commercial Manager and Subsequently the Country Manager. She recalls that she was involved with Virgin Nigeria in a when their prospective market was dissatisfied. They had superior equipment (an Airbus A-320 compared with their competition that was using a Boeing 777-300); they also had a greater reliability factor.
“Virgin Nigeria was an easy sell,” she reflects.
She was also involved in the closing chapters of Virgin Atlantic on the Ghanaian route. “I was engaged with [Virgin Atlantic] to wrap up things and see if there was any hope,” she said of her task at Virgin Atlantic.
Prior to her love affair with air travel she had significant stints with hospitality. She was the sales and marketing manager and customer relations for Shangri La hotel. Osei- Bonsu has initially dreamt of a lifelong carrier in the hotel and hospitality business.
“I wanted to own my own hotel chain,” she said.
And she proceeded to study for her dream career at the University of Massachusetts (UMass), where she studied Hotel, Restaurant and Travel Administration. At UMass, she even Co Managed a student run restaurant called Earth Foods.
So what about her dream to own the hotel chain? I have no interest in that at all now.
Then let us explore her interests now; Wakanow. Is her job description engaging enough?
“It is more than an OTA; we are constantly developing new products which makes it very dynamic,” she speaks of her new assignment.
She catalogues some of their ground-breaking products; singling out their flagship product—Pay Small Small; a subscription based installment payment plan where prospective customers make a down payment and spread out the payment over time.
“This is a product that will grow the market and make it more accessible,” she says of Pay Small Small. She lists others such as the SIM travel card and Visas to Dubai, which they process from here (Ghana).
“We are in a good place; we are on the path to achieving our goals. We want to grow the market, if the market grows we benefit. By the end of 2016, we aim to facilitate 40% of the travel market.
What is next on Wakanow’s cards?
“We can’t say but watch this space,” she says.