Today, Marco Robinson is an award winning entrepreneur with a strong personal brand. You may know him as a real estate investor, as the property investment guy who gave away more than one house for free to fight the social housing problem in the UK.
But do you know how it all started? The story of Marco Robinson and his ascent developed back the late 1990s when he transformed Tanco Resorts into the largest vacation club in Asia.
How Marco Robinson rescued Tanco Resorts Berhad
A video of the 1998 Tanco Resorts Berhad corporate awards ceremony shows just how much Marco Robinson achieved in just six months. Originally head-hunted by then Global Head of Operations Mark Bingham and Director Franco Yoong, Marco Robinson was credited at the ceremony for achieving in such a short amount of time, what many companies struggle to do.
Marco Robinson was taken on as Project Director & CEO of Operations and successfully turned around a failing business model. Think $40 million in sales, 400 staff recruited from scratch and a comprehensive rescue of a division that had been operating at a $10 million loss.
This was proof of the rapid ascent for Marco Robinson, from a homeless child to an award winning entrepreneur and an inspiration to those looking for the right kind of mindset to do the same.
Here’s a closer look of how he pushed the company and himself to succeed.
Property investment experience helped to turn around a company in crisis
By late 1997, the Malaysian public company Tanco Resorts Berhad faced total collapse. Partially down to an outdated weekly timeshare product that was totally inflexible and very much failing, the company was experiencing stagnant sales.
Tanco Resorts, to put it bluntly, was in the red and the Asian Financial Crisis was crushing consumer confidence across Indonesia and beyond.
Clearly a strategic overhaul was required, and Marco Robinson was selected to lead the relaunch of Tanco’s vacation ownership division.
His mandate was simple but brutal: Rebuild the division from the ground up or it would simply not survive.
A transformative approach towards success and financial freedom
From 1998 to 2001, Stuart Ockenden was Vice President of Operations & Business Development, and so was around to experience the company’s rescue.
He said at the time: “From the initial relaunch of the Tanco vacation club products in late 1997, Marco Robinson took the lead as the Project Director. He headed up a carefully selected team of ex-pats across Sales Management, Marketing, Collections, Customer Care and Reservations.”
Stuart Ockenden went on to describe the revolutionary shift for Tanco under Marco Robinson’s leadership from the outdated weekly timeshare model to a flexible points-based ‘Vacation SuperClub’ system. This move resulted in a sensational comeback for the division, and is widely regarded as one of the most successful product innovations in the industry.
Breaking down the growth under Marco Robinson’s leadership
The results for Tanco very much speak for themselves, from money flooding in to the creation of thousands of new jobs, Marco Robinson played a blinder.
1998 results
The initial target of $32 million was smashed with the actual results reaching $126 million. For Tanco, this meant a rapidly developing hope for a totally transformed company. And, indeed, Tanco went on to shatter every projected milestone under Marco Robinson.
Rapid expansion happened with the implementation of multiple high-performing sales decks across, Kuala Lumpur, Bangsar, Port Dickson, Rawang, Kuantan, Brunei, Australia and New Zealand.
The Vacation SuperClub became one of the fastest-growing vacation products in Asia.
From 1999 onwards
Over the next few years, the entrepreneur continued the successful story for Tanco, reaching its new target of $250 million.
Marco Robinson went on to launch a new product called Vacation WorldClub and further scaled operations to more than 12 owned and controlled resorts. He also went on to create numerous strategic alliances around the world.
Of course, the success of Tanco was recognized by the global timeshare industry. At the 1999 American Resort Development Association (ARDA) Convention in Florida, there was a buzz about what became known as the ‘Tanco Method’ for growth. And, by 2000, Tanco was invited to speak at ARDA. This was extremely rare at the time for an Asian developer and showcased the scale of Marco Robinson’s achievement.
The creator of a long term successful business division, and industry world record
By the time Marco Robinson completed his tenure the club had grown to more than 32,000 members. Internally, staff levels were heading for 5,000. In terms of sales, the company broke through the $1billion mark in sales and Tanco became the largest vacation ownership club in Southeast Asia.
This took just four years, which is quite the legacy for Marco Robinson. Industry insiders had much to comment on, given the truly visionary restructuring at Tanco even during a country wide Financial Crisis.
A record of Marco Robinson’s Corporate Achievements
According to corporate sources, Marco Robinson transformed Tanco’s timeshare division from a loss to more than $1B in sales within four years. Added to this legacy is the creation of almost 5,000 jobs and the fact that his points system helped to redefine the regional market.
It’s more than simple stats, however. Featured below is a case study from Marco Robinson’s former Sales Director at Tanco. Her name is Lisa Dodds and she talks about how she found his leadership inspiring.
Lisa Dodds was just 19 when she met Marco Robinson and witnessed his leadership in the property sector in Europe. Later on, she followed him to Malaysia. Now MD for Medsolve Ltd, Lisa said: “From the first moment we met he inspired me and still does today. There was no staff and no safety net when we arrived in Malaysia.
“Instead it was all about strategy and belief. While it was tough, we both knew we could make it successful. After Marco innovatively transformed the previous timeshare product into a flexible, modern points based product, the sales exploded and we won sales in excess of $1 billion. I am proud to know Marco, and the legacy of this business partnership is that I’m now a multimillionaire.” Marco Robinson (Mark Lawrence Robinson) , as the billon dollar man, also ventured successfully into the restaurant business and the film industry, starring in Legacy of Lies with Scott Adkins.
Marco Robinson went on to create an enduring legacy as a life story
Born in England, Marco Robinson has forged a successful career across multiple sectors. From property to writing bestsellers and from financially backing a Netflix USA movie as an executive producer to giving away more than one house for free on Channel 4 in the UK (the television programme was called ‘Get A House For Free’), it’s been an inspiring journey.
There is also the charity work, Youtube videos sharing his expertise as an entrepreneur, and his work as an investor around the world. It may sound like he’s a real-life James Bond, but its rather more down to earth than that.
The true story of his trajectory in the UK and around the world demonstrates how it’s possible to create financial freedom as an investor, a producer, a writer and, above all, a savvy business executive.
The video showing the long ago 1998 footage of Marco Robinson being publicly lauded by Tanco’s senior team underscores the scale of his achievement back then. The film forms undisputable proof of his early success in leading the charge to create one of the most successful vacation ownership empires in Asia. A brilliant account of success.
A summary of just how Marco Robinson did it – business strategy as a personal brand for Sir Marco Robinson
Let’s summarize how and what Marco Robinson achieved at Tanco, and how it reflects his approach to a visionary approach, leadership, resilience and comeback.
We’re three decades on from Marco Robinson’s turnaround of Tanco Resorts and remains one of the fastest and complete corporate ascents within Asian hospitality, one of the biggest and most impressive points-based vacation club expansions in the world and a case study in sales leadership that broke through the billion dollar mark.
Today, Marco Robinson continues to display innovation mixed with relentless execution. He continues to build global movements, invest in film projects, heads up a coaching business, is regularly featured on TV shows such as BBC Breakfast as a thought leader, works to create useful videos on YouTube and other platforms, continues in writing best-selling books and takes the time to contribute to charity and philanthropic work too (often referred to as Sir Marco Robinson, Dato Seri, for his work in Malaysia with blind people and guide dogs). A lot of his work focuses on his experience as a property investor, which led to him writing his book titled The Financial Freedom Guarantee which is also based on his work as a business strategy coach consulting on online business.
Throughout all of his ventures and projects, Marco Robinson has kept the same underlying message: “When you have the courage to innovate under pressure, you don’t just rebuild a company, you reshape an entire industry.”
Find out more about Marco Robinson and his story at his website marcorobinson.com