`Aggressive marketing' the answer ..HL: ..IN: JI NR.

(From New Straits Times (Malaysia))

AMERICAN food industry professional Lawerance Perreau's mission is not impossible. He wants to help revive Malaysia's hospitality and tourism industry which, along with that of the region, has suffered a setback due to the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic and the threat of terrorism.

Armed with a recent Master of Science post-graduate degree in food industry management and marketing from the University of London, United Kingdom, Perreau was here recently to talk on "Guerrilla Food Management" at the Taylor's College School of Hospitality and Tourism in Petaling Jaya. The college had organised a two-day conference on the industry.

"I am combining my industrial experience in operations and my educational skills to give attending F&B managers and controllers some new ideas on what is being done in the United States and which can be used to market hospitality and tourism in Malaysia," he says.

But why "guerrilla"? "I wanted an operational hands-on idea session and not a textbook lecture. It means giving concepts and skills that can be taken back to a participant's operations," says Perreau.