Great Business, thanks Peter and good luck Alon and Team.

Spectacular Business what more can be said, except that I met the founder Peter Cheales in the early days when his pay off line was something to the effect of You ignored me, You did not answer my call or get back to me like you promised......but don't worry....."I was your customer" I read the pay off line "I was your customer" before the book was published in 1994, probably in a Hotel and Catering style magazine while I was at Hotel School. I met Peter in Kimberley when I was a starry eyed waiter, barman, chef, pot cleaner and at that moment his porter, and carried his bags up to his 'Luxury Suite'. Peter was either a guest speaker being hosted by the Chamber of Business or a similar guild or he may have been flying solo promoting his vision, platform or even his book his iconic book. I remember like yesterday how passionate he was expounding on the idea that one satisfied customer might recommend a product or incredible experience to just one or two friends but one unhappy customer (justified or not) would bad mouth a service or product within minutes to everyone who would care to listen for all eternity. People love to complain and Peter realised its not the customer that calls to complain that is a threat, its the 90% of less than satisfied consumers who just could not be bothered to complain directly to a firm that were (still are) the biggest threat (and opportunity). I remember wanting to abandon my Hotel Management aspirations and to ask Peter for a job because I had a similar passion about people and service and I believed in what he was doing but life had other plans for me right then. I owe Peter a debt to sensitizing me to the power of listening to complaints because a complaint is the biggest opportunity a company has to retain/ reply/ replace/ re-evaluate/ re-imagine/ re-train/repeat and to ultimately remain in business. I call this my R8 model which I expect will be studied at Harvard one day and if not at least I might get scooped up by Alon, its never to late to follow your dream. Well done Peter, for following your dream all the way.