HINTS & TIPS

Why cutting costs at your zoo or aquarium isn't as hard as you think

Why cutting costs at your zoo or aquarium isn't as hard as you think
In: HINTS & TIPS

Times are tough.

With the world almost stopped dead in its tracks and consumer spending tumbling off a cliff, there is no doubt about it: Times. Are. Tough.

And whether you own a shop or a showroom, a pub or a pawnbroker, business owners the world over are feeling the effects of this pandemic. When they aren't perfecting their downward-facing dog or getting pissed on Zoom, proprietors are stood staring into oblivion with a revenue report in one hand, and a fistful of bills in the other. And amongst the chaos, operators of visitor attractions are feeling it more than most.

Let's say you're in the business of vacuum cleaners. You've got hundreds. Thousands, even. Every brand, every model, every revolutionary design. Until you had to shut the doors, people would travel from across the land to see your collection. "This sucks!" they would shout with glee. But despite the closure, you'll probably come out of this relatively unscathed: sure, your turnstile hasn't felt the press of a thousand sweating bodies in months, but your costs were already minimal, Rishi has your rates and wages covered, and the vacuum cleaners don't mind if you switch the heating off.

Zoos and aquariums, on the other hand, are a different kettle of fish entirely (pun intended, obviously). The lack of a queue outside doesn't change the fact that animals have needs. Penguins pretty much only do two things: they eat, and they poo. Someone has to feed them, someone has to clean their poo, and someone has to pay the wages!

These facts don't change just because the doors are closed — nothing will make a penguin poo less (technically speaking, they would poo less if they ate less, but animals have rights so we'll just assume that's off the table). The bottom line is that, in contrast to most other attractions, the fixed costs of animal care exist independently of visitor numbers.

Despite their similarities to other visitor attractions, zoos and aquariums are highly variable in the way they operate. That variability exists within the industry, too, and even those that form part of a brand or a multi-site business are entirely different from each other when it comes to their husbandry operations. All of this means that there is not, nor can there ever be, a "one-size-fits-all" instruction manual for cost-saving at a zoo. But thankfully, there are a set of core principles that can be applied to help optimise your husbandry operation and save you a tonne of cash in the process. The best part? It actually works.

And I know it sounds like it but, don't worry, I'm not trying to sell you anything: no scams, no eBooks, no miracle cures — just some sensible advice.

Why do we need zoos & aquariums, anyway?

Visitor attractions provide an opportunity for escapism. A portal to a place where you can forget about the impending dissertation deadline, de-stress after the week from hell, or put that fight with your partner on pause. But zoos and aquariums go further: they provide an escape from this world and a doorway to another, into an environment that many can only dream about; there are children in city centres that have never seen a sheep or a cow, let alone a lion or a shark.

These zoos and aquariums have an undeniable duty to educate us on the fragility of our pale blue dot, to promote a love of plants, animals, and the environment, and to inspire the environmental change that we so desperately need.

Sanctuaries, charities, businesses, and safari parks do much more than we give them credit for — and if we thought they were important before, they're going to be a hell of a lot more important when this is over.

But right now, every single one of them is at risk.

Right, and what's this advice then?

Well you're trying to operate at a profit, yes? At its simplest, business is just a balanced equation, and there are only two ways to make more profit: you either increase revenue, or decrease cost. It's now mid-June in 2020 and most visitor attractions won't be open for another month at least, so we're going to concentrate on the latter. And this is where the magic of operational efficiency comes in.

Being ruthlessly efficient eliminates your unnecessary cost by removing waste and optimising the resources you have available so that you can get the most out of them. But the majority of zoo owners steer well clear of making meaningful cuts within the husbandry department for fear of impacting animal welfare. And as curators or animal keepers, we tend to stay quiet. We don't want our budgets cut! But the truth is that this has kept husbandry departments largely unchanged for years, and many are inherently wasteful as a result. The truth is, this is precisely where attraction operators should be looking.

"Most attraction operators steer well clear of making meaningful cuts within the husbandry department — the truth is, this is precisely where they should be looking"

At its core, operational efficiency is the idea of cutting away all the fat and using only what you need to get the job done. If the exhibit lights only need to be on for ten hours a day, why are they on for 12? If it only takes one person to feed the penguins, why use two? If you can keep your water clean with three filter backwashes a week, why backwash every day? These are questions not often asked by owners, who rely instead on the expertise of their curators.

The conversation usually goes something like this:

Owner: As you know, we're struggling at the moment, and I've been working really hard to save money across the attraction. What can we do in your department?

Curator: Hm, that's a hard one. We're already understaffed, and our budget is really tight.

Owner: Can we save money in the food budget?

Curator: Animals gotta eat?

Owner: That's true. We use a lot of electricity, and a lot of water - any savings here?

Curator: We need power for the pumps, and water for the tanks. Sorry!

...and so on, and so on.

This fictional exchange isn't a dig at managers, curators, keepers, or anyone else for that matter. I've been on both ends of the conversation, and I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt that each person is only doing what they think is best: managers are respecting the expertise of their curators, and curators are safeguarding the welfare of their animals. But there is another way...

Over the next few weeks, I'll be writing a short series of LinkedIn articles to demonstrate how maximum efficiency and world-class animal welfare are not mutually exclusive. I'll describe my tried and tested process for identifying and removing operational waste from zoological departments; I'll give practical, useful advice; and I'll share some simple ideas that you can implement straight away to optimise your zoological operation and save, I promise you, literally thousands of pounds.

And to be clear, operational efficiency doesn't mean compromising animal welfare — that part is, and always will be, non-negotiable. An efficient zoo or aquarium is one that continues to provide faultless animal welfare and deliver unforgettable visitor experiences, but doing so while creating the least possible waste.

And shouldn't we all strive for that?

ℹ️
First posted on LinkedIn, 7 June 2020
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