AXIS Hospitality International

SEEKING ONLY THE BEST

LOOKING FOR TALENT...........THE LAZY WAY OUT!

In a recent interview for a well respected hospitality educational institution, I was asked to provide my opinion on the strategic need to find the most talented people for further educational development. It is apparent that the future is brighter if they could only find talented individuals and then work with the cream, regardless of their financial ability.

After careful thought and a lifetime in the industry, it occurred to me that this is certainly the best and easiest way to produce talented management material but obviously is the easiest route. That is ....start with the most talented raw material and then claim full credit for their brilliance on graduation.

However, it occurred to me that as clever as I am at spotting future winners after a lifetime in the industry, this approach greatly handicaps those whose talents are not so obvious from the start and perhaps even overlooks those who might remain in the industry longer and subsequently develop their skills more effectively.

Taking that thought even further, I realised that in fact we are all surrounded by latent talent. Even in the most modest of corners, one will find a person whose talents are just longing to erupt, a person whose command of the language may at first be limited, or whose knowledge of a work process or the mission is non-existent. A person who, with the right guidance and motivation, will demonstrate extraordinary capabilities putting the most naturally talented individual to shame. There is no shortage of talent, only the ability to recognise it, nurture it and enhance it. Our patience gets in the way because we want it now, we want it easy and we do not find time for the development process.

The time has come I believe to recognise this fact. The time has come to step up to the plate. The time is ripe to recognise that virtually all individuals on earth have the talent necessary to help us excell, to take our business and our industry to the next stage, one where exceeding expectations is a fact of everyday life, not only for our guests and owners but for our fellow workers and students.

One in which management at all levels inspires, thrills, leads and develops the talent that surrounds us. Because this is a 'pyramid scheme'. One in which the franchise for further development of talent is passed on to others who pass it on to yet others.

And while I would like to think that I am wholly and totally responsible for the successes that I have enjoyed in my professional career, I must admit that the only people responsible for any successes that I have had are those that inspired, led, taught and guided me. They excited me with their ideas, their language, their passion and their commitment. My talent is a product of their work and commitment.

More or less 50% of all graduates of hospitality educational institutions go into other industries. I believe that it is time to review our approach to the recognition and development of talent and to focus more strategically on those that we rely on for this development.

Comments are welcome on this blog or to [email protected]

INTER-RACIAL TEAMWORK

RELIGIOUS, RACIAL AND CULTURAL TOLERANCE

Having successfully opened and operated a hotel in the Ultra Orthodox Muslim city of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and then on the strength of that been contracted to open and operate an Ultra Orthodox Jewish hotel in Jerusalem, I feel that I and my colleagues throughout the industry have something positive to contribute on the debate on 'tolerance'.

As the only white man on an all black cricket and soccer team in Jamaica, I also feel that I can contribute to the debate on racial tolerance or to be more specific, colour blindness.

As one of only 8 Christians in a muslim workforce of 500, I observed 26 nationalities pull as if they were one, fight like family and play as a team.

Having lived in 12 countries in my work as a hotelier and done business in another 12, I have observed the total lack of intolerance in hospitality..............and also sport.

Tourism promotes tolerance as few other industries can.

Can we perhaps see the day when the racial, religious and cultural homogeny of hospitality becomes an epidemic. As time passes, we are contaminating the world with our tolerance and colour blindness.

Now that is sustainability!

To comment on this or any other opinion expressed here, contact [email protected]

DEVELOPMENT MYTHS

MCMILLAN'S TOP TEN DEVELOPMENT MYTHS

1. Hotel Companies invest in their hotels.
2. Busy hotels make great financial returns wherever they are.
3. Magnificent beaches are guarantees for successful hotels.
4. It's easy, add a $5.00 amenity and add $5.00 to the rate.
5. Hotel companies support new development.
6. My ideas and my friend the architect is the right combination.
7. My wife's ideas and a local interior designer is what this project needs.
8. Size matters.
9. The project needs an international brand.
10. Venture capital is easy to find.

For more cynical information on new development in the industry, contact [email protected]

FEASIBILITY STUDIES

I CAN NOT BELIEVE THAT NO-ONE HAS FIGURED THIS OUT BEFORE.

A Feasibility Study is a 'Fees Ability Study' in disguise.

Developers be warned and consultants watch out! I have let our secret out of the box.

A Feasibility Study is designed to determine if a given project is feasible. For this the developer will pay a consultant fees. He either wants to know if the project will work or not OR he has decided he wants the project and needs a positive report to provide credibility for the bankers.

Here is a word or two of advice!

Consultants.  If the project will not work, you are being paid fees to advise your client it is not feasible. If it will work, emphasize the conditions that are critical to its success.

Developers. If the consultant tells you the project will not work, that is the advice that you paid him to provide. Listen carefully to his reasoning.

Cynics. Consultants get paid to tell developers that their ideas work so that they can get paid fees. By the time the project fails, the consultant will have a real job and the developer can blame the chain or manager.

For assistance on interpreting or sanity-checking a Feasibility Study, contact [email protected]

DESTINATION MARKETING

DESTINATIONS SEASONAL OUTLOOK

As I struggled to understand the rationale for the weather map and the media's complete disconnect with the tourism industry, I realised that it really is our fault.

Allow me to give you one example. Canada enjoys a healthy tourism industry driven by what I describe as a few 'white hot' world class destinations which include Whistler, Banff, Niagara Falls, Mont Tremblant and PEI all of which rely to a certain extent on brand awareness, the weather, the seasons and international travellers.

Is it not interesting to note that not one of these world class tourism destinations appear on the International or National weather maps ? And Canada is not alone.

I then started to think about the opportunities we have as an industry to flatten out our industry's seasonal peaks by highlighting the low seasons........be they months or days of the week or valleys following peaks. Admitedly this is just yield management but played on the global stage.

Why would I, either as an individual traveller or a convention planner not be able to Google search the world's Destinations "High Value" periods and make my choices for mid-November between Mont Tremblant, Machu Picchu or Moscow and turn to CNN or the BBC for my destinations weather update.

November may not be the best golfing or skiing month in Whistler but the shopping, the spas, the back country trails and the restaurants are still red hot and the pricing is very competitive.

A CRITICAL HUMAN RESOUCES ISSUE

DOES THE INDUSTRY FACE A LABOUR CATASTROPHE?

Have previous generations had to deal with the acute labour shortages that hospitality faces now and over the years to come? Are there precedents to the drought of labour that the hospitality industry faces over the next 10-15 years?

Tourism has grown exponentially with the birth of mass air travel to the point where there is no place on earth where tourism is not an opportunity and is not potential for some form of travel or another.

Our industry now employs approximately 100 million people.

Add to that the fact that space hotels will be developed and additional hospitality employees will need to train as astronauts within the next 20 years and one can easily see that the quantity that the industry will lack in 10-15 years could easily reach 15 million.

Supply and demand will push wage rates up exponentially.

Now let's be clear, we are not short of workers, they are just in the wrong places and can not get to where the work is. Does this sound familiar to the days when labour was needed for agriculture (sugar and cotton), construction (roads and railways) and hospitality (maids and butlers).

It was over 10 million then and we predict 10 million tomorrow. We have learned our lesson and will never repeat the tragedies of the Slave Trade but what will be different in the 21st Century from the 18th century? What has changed that will allow us to move 10 million workers again to where there is work and where everyone benefits?

1. Travel will be voluntary.
2. Air transport allows comfortable travel everywhere at relatively low cost.
3. Workers can be moved to where the work is for brief periods of the high season and then return home enriched financially and experiencially.
4. Employers will pay full rate or union local wages plus transportation costs both ways.
5. Workers can repatriate some of their wages to their families at home.
6. Employers will act as trainers.
7. Workers return home within a year with worldly experience.
8. Developing countries create employment while preparing their people for tourism.
9. Workers are repatriated after each contract and are not emigrating.
10. International Organisations collaborate on working conditions, identity checks, travel documents and perhaps hi-tech ID cards.
11. Receiving countries enjoy increased income tax revenues.
12. Seasonal layoffs are turned into a working travel experience and industry turnover is reduced as workers realise this is a full time professional career.
13. Technology permits rapid communication of supply and demand.
14. Workers will not need to stowaway on rickety ships, airline undercarriages or climb border walls.
15. Employers will welcome these travelling ambassadors as precious contributors to their bottom line.
16. Workers will move on with an enhanced CV, new skills and family savings.
17. Walls of intolerance will crumble and cultures will blend.

The machinery is in place already. A consortium has been formed between ILO, IOE, IUF (see below) and the international industry association and the only pieces that are missing are,

1. Chain support. Most CEOs deny, ignore or delegate the impending catastrophe.
2. Financing. The consortium needs legs.
3. Political will. Receiving and sending countries need to put the pieces in place through the UN. The World Tourism Organisation is probably the most appropriate.

For more information, contact [email protected]

ILO    International Labour Organisation

IOE    International Organisation of Employers

IUF    International Trade Union Federation.

HOW TO REACH ME

David I. McMillan,

Website        http://www.axishotelsandresorts.com

 

EMail:           [email protected]