‘It is almost becoming normal to be on uneven ground,’ says Alan Arrigo summing up 2022

Robert Arrigo & Sons Co-CEO Alan Arrigo shares his vision as we move closer towards 2023 and expresses his concern at the thought that over the past year “it has almost become normal [for businesses] to be on uneven ground.”

Speaking to MaltaCEOs.mt about his vision for the future based on trends identified over the past months, Mr Arrigo sustains that since “Malta is an open economy, the reflections that CEOs based overseas will be mirrored locally too.”

Since Malta mostly imports its raw materials and inputs, the inflationary pressure that businesses face is certainly a stress factor for local CEOs, he believes. However, his analysis takes a more optimistic tone, especially when discussing the tourism sector, the CEO’s bread and butter.

Indeed, he stated that “there is increased talk about sustainability amongst tourism business leaders.”

On how several businesses are still struggling through a perfect storm of economic factors, Mr Arrigo affirmed that this has been going on “for quite some time now as we only came out of the pandemic-induced effects in early 2022”, so much so, that the Co-CEO added that “it is almost becoming normal to be on uneven ground.”

“I find that as an entrepreneur it is imperative to invest in ourselves be it from mental health, physical health and to never stop learning and collaborating,” Mr Arrigo stated adding that “this will eventually trickle down to the rest of the organisation as everyone starts seeing the value add of investing in human talent.”

“In essence, the value of perseverance despite the adversities should prevail in all our mindsets,” he insisted.

Looking at his own business, the Co-CEO explained that in the company’s case, their aim is to “keep going on the profitable path [they] undertook in 2022 focusing on the sustainable growth of the business going forward by enhancing [their] investment programme in scaling [themselves] via technology and harvesting human talent in line with identifying tools to deliver a quality experience in the destination.”

On a personal level, Mr Arrigo plans to make the most of his role within The Malta Chamber and to continue to collaborate and network with other business leaders, which, he believes, will help him to continue to expand his knowledge.

The tourism stalwart believes that “every challenge has an opportunity” and this is a valuable lesson that he will take with him moving into 2023. “Given the labour shortage experienced globally, the biggest opportunity is for businesses to look into all processes and optimise them to increase efficiency with the help of their investment in technology,” he stated adding that “2023 can be a year where innovation prevails, both commercially and operationally, as new ideas and ways of doing things start to blossom.”

This coming festive season is going to be a very different one for the Arrigo family, having recently suffered a great loss. “This will be the first time we will not be celebrating our success with our father. Nevertheless, we will do our best to honour his 50-year legacy in tourism,” Mr Arrigo concluded.