Our Hospitality Leaders : 2013

Friday, 5 July 2013

How Conrad Revolutionize The Hotel Industry

At 4:00, it is evident that Conrad Hilton planted his personal sense of hospitality.

He said, " It isn't just the building that makes a good hotel. It isn't fancy chrome trimming in the bathrooms, or delicate crystal on the dinning room table. It isn't even service alone. It is the warmth, deep, more human thing than any of these. It's in sincerity, and hospitality - the glowing, living thing that people feel the minute they cross the threshold."

Conrad Hilton strong implementation of true hospitality has been communicated through all his hotel, such that every of his hotel have motivated staff and provide great value for the guests. Conrad Hilton has changed the new meaning of hotel since his times, that has been an important and great learning model for all the hotels or even the hospitality industry today.

Thursday, 4 July 2013

Tony Fernandes: Communication Style

Communication style:

Tony Fernandes has a mega huge corporation just like any other airline companies.However, there's one thing that set him apart from them, that is the communication style he had inculcated in Air Asia. Instead of having just upward communication, Fernandes has effectively communicated downward and lateral towards his staff and throughout the no-frill airline company:

Tony Fernandes' open-concept office

"I do not have a corner office and five dragon ladies protecting me and keeping off everybody else. I am in an open office, any body can just walk up," said Fernandes.
This shows effective downward communication as Fernandes maintain an open-door policy, and literally let every of his employees know they can come to him with problems

In order to help him to understand some of the problems and issues his departments are having, Fernandes will work for a few days every month on the ground or in the cabin crew. He says he's learned a lot from working on the airline himself.
This effective lateral communication allow him to easily see the "big" picture that can help him continuously improve the organisation.

This is definitely an eye-opening learning experience from Tony Fernandes who dare to show that he can succeed without going book by book. He defies gravity or MBA theory! Just like what we learnt about leaders vs managers in school: Management is doing things right; leadership (Fernandes) is doing the right thing.

Ho Kwon Ping: Diversity in Banyan Tree

Diversity of Workforce:

Diverse workforce in Banyan Tree

As a growing global organization, Banyan Tree has grown from a single boutique resort into a multi-business operator. As a result, the workforce gets more diversified as it expanded internationally.

However, Ho Kwon Ping (K.P.) did not treat differently or despise his staff members of different race, culture and background. This is evident in the following:

"We are a rainbow company where everybody, regardless of background, can feel a future in them, " said K.P.
Whenever Banyan Tree open a new hotel, K.P. will put together a task force of young people from different backgrounds and hotels so they can help new hotel acquire the management culture. But in working together, they develop a bond.

It is the pure ingenuity of K.P. to address diversity by forming an experienced "diversed" team to carry on the similar culture in a new hotel , whereby with this method, it is effective to integrate high performance teams in the new hotel. Moreover, in terms of the stages of team development, the new team development can cut short of the process such as the "Storming" stage as the new team's goals and values are aligned with the company.

Wednesday, 3 July 2013

Hilton: A true Leader

Relating Conrad Hilton with what we have learned about a good leader,

Hilton has motivate his people to continue to do their best, taking on a coaching role by often talking to them and finding what is wrong or right that they are doing.

He also exploit opportunities that comes his way, by continuing to buy over hotels relentlessly to expand his business.

Being in the hospitality industry or any other industry, it is inevitable that there would be no changes at all.

Conrad was always ready to anticipate changes that would be coming.
He was a smart leader who focuses on achieving the best result through motivating his people and continuous improvement in service for the customers

Empowering workers also involves disciplining and correcting wrong behaviours. This would therefore lead the organization toward its objectives, which is being good at what they do.

Conrad Hilton's Leadership Styles & Traits

Hilton is a transformational leader who provide stimulation and individual examination. His key traits were determination, visionary, risk taker, tenaciousness, dedication, energetic, caring, conscientiousness, motivation, persistent, and ambitious.

Conrad's business faced troubles at first, incurring losses and running into debt. But with determination, he trusted on his ability, started over again and bought his first hotel outside Texas in San Francisco. He then set a goal to build a hotel every year.

Hilton's management style is that he believes that anyone in the organization can be a manager one day, therefore he employs the laissez-faire management style. He hired capable managers and allowed them to make important decisions regarding hotel policies. He also encourages and supports his staff to achieve the goals of the hotel, which is to give excellent service for the guests staying in the hotel. He is a people-oriented leader, who would personally ask his employees for their opinions about their work and the company. This lets his people know that they are actually valued, appreciated, and not unseen.

His way of treating people fairly inspired others to follow suit, as they knew what kind of leader he was. Hilton also empowered them to make the right decision for the hotel.

In regards to visionary and conscientiousness, he used good quality building materials that didn’t require repair and maintenance, so as to build a good quality building and save a lot of future expenses on maintenance.

Conrad Hilton was an innovator, first applying practices now used industry-wide in hotel management. For example, he was one of the first hoteliers to use an inter-hotel reservation system and set the standard for the mass-purchase of soap, matches and all hotel room items.

Steve Wynn Donation: He is the “Anonymous” United Way Donor

Even though Steve Wynn is a billionaire, he still care about other people who is unfortunate. Each individual human being possesses a unique, highly developed, and sensitive perception of variety. Thus, Wynn is endowed with a natural capability for implementing mental and external physical selectivity.

A half-year mystery for 4,000 families in southern Nevada was at last solved when casino mogul, Steve Wynn, made it known that he’s made the anonymous donation of $2 million to the United Way of Southern Nevada.

The first round of families received $500 bank gift cards before Christmas 2011 and another 2,000 families received the donations Saturday in Las Vegas. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the second highest among the 49 metropolitan areas with a 2000 census population of 1 million or more, the unemployment rate for the Las Vegas area was 11.6 percent in April.

The metro area of Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif., had the highest, at 11.7 percent. Wynn has put a small portion of that money back into this community of struggling blue-collar workers. Many of the families who received the $500 gift earned roughly $16,000 or less last year. Las Vegas business leaders said the donation wasn’t unusual. They pointed to this desert city’s many charitable and wealthy residents.

It is shown through Wynn action that he is a true leader. Besides material success, he has proven the human element in him is more than just that and displayed great social responsibility. With this, he has indirectly cultivated this value in his employees and definitely a good role model for them.

Tuesday, 2 July 2013

Biography of Conrad Hilton, Founder of Hilton Worldwide

History:

Conrad Hilton was born in San Antonio, New Mexico. He was a American with a German descent. He grew up with 8 siblings.

He is the founder of Hilton Hotel and it started from because he could not buy a bank in texas, therefore he decided to buy a hotel instead. The business was really good that he change dining rooms into rooms for guests. Business was good and well until the economic downfall, he was nearly forced to being bankruptcy but was kept to being a manager instead. He later got back at the hotels that he nearly lost and continued buying more.

His company is now doing well that currently the organization has 3,897 hotels with over 642,000 rooms in 91 countries.

Hilton Worldwide

Monday, 1 July 2013

Ho Kwon Ping's Leadership Styles & Traits

What's his leadership's style?

Ho Kwon Ping (K.P) is a democratic leader as he adopt an inclusive management style which means his employees are involved in decision making process, but he still holds the final decision. This style allows mutual benefits. The following shows why he fits in this leadership style:

He focuses on building commitment and generating new ideas
He invites employees to develop directions for themselves and the company. There are usually many meetings to listen to employees’ views.
He also strive a balance between a micro - or macro- manager. At some area, he will supervise closely and drill down to details. While at some time, he will provide broad guidance and vision, like a mix between a general, a guru and a cheerleader.
"This started as a family business, but if it’s going to continue beyond us, it has to be a culture where our closest associates from the lowest to the highest feel a sense of ownership of Banyan Tree. Family is whoever is trusted to be part of the decision-making process. The business has to be led to grow in its own right," said Mr Ho.

Similar to Tony Fernandes, K.P. also fit the style of an transformational leader. He has the ability to align his employees and systems with his vision. As an effective transformational leader:

He pay attention to the concerns and developmental needs of his staff members
He then help them to look at problems in new ways.
For instance, K.P. said about his employees in developing countries, "When I interact with them, I realize they have fears and aspirations, daily concerns, work stress and concerns about livelihoods. The way I can be a leader to them is to transform such concerns into a vision for the company they work for , so they come to work with interest in their hearts rather than just doing their job to get by."

What are his traits?

Resilience - Many consultants he hired does not agree with his originality and quit. He went ahead with his concept and successful Banyan Tree was born. He mentioned that if Banyan Tree were to fail, he will start over again and always be open to new ideas.

Supportive - He treats all his staff members like family, thus calling it a family business. He show his support by dealing with their concerns and provide them guidance.

Innovative - He always look at problems in a different perspectives compared to others. This is how he get innovative. For example, although a resort is not considered beach resort without a beach front, he did not give up and innovate to remove the focus away from not having a beach front by creating his resort into 100% pool villa concept with tropical garden.

Ho Kwon Ping innovate the 100% pool villa

Biography of Ho Kwon Ping, Founder & Executive Chairman of Banyan Tree Holdings

“ Adversity is not a bad thing. That's how Banyan Tree was born - because we had no beach front.”

Ho Kwon Ping
Founder and Executive Chairman
Banyan Tree Holdings

About:

Ho Kwon Ping, referred to as "K.P.", founded luxury chain Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts in 1984. Banyan Tree Holdings is a Singapore-based leisure business group , which owns both listed and private companies engaged in the development, ownership and operation of exclusive luxury hotels, resorts, spa, residential homes and retail galleries based in Asia.

In his early life, K.P. worked as a journalist for the Far Eastern Economic review where he was detained for two months in the result of writing incendiary pro-Communist articles.

After being tired of his writing job, K.P. took after his father's business called Wah Chang Group. When he first joined, he made a detrimental business decision in his first project, which nearly bankrupted the company. His father did not allow him to quit, but instead urge him to face the crisis and help recoup the losses. It was from here, K.P. grew stronger in business and rose to become one of Asia's most successful businessman.

Now, Banyan Tree has grown to more than 30 hotels and resorts and close to 150 spas and retail galleries, not forgetting three golf courses. Banyan Tree will open 16 new properties by 2015 as part of the ambitious expansion plan in China.

Ho Kwon Ping

Banyan Tree Hotel & Resort Group

Fernandes's Leadership Styles and Traits

What’s his leadership style?

Fernandes is a blend of both charismatic and people-oriented leader.

Tony and the Allstars at his birthday

Being a charismatic leader, the airline chief leads his team of “Allstars” by infusing positive energy and eagerness in them.

Evidently, before his interview with entrepreneur site Wamda.com, Fernandes was seen walking around his company greeting and joking with anyone that passed him.
He constantly carries a vibe full of passion and charisma such that he can “infect” his team members and have them carry the same attitude to their fellow colleagues and eventually the customers.
Whenever he is stopped by clients at the passenger terminal, he will be more than happy to carry their bags, chat with them and even walk them to the plane. Who else can be a better role model in executing excellent customer service to his own employees?

Fernandes says that to him “employees come number one, customers come number two. If you have a happy workforce, they’ll look after your customers anyway.” This earned him the title of a people-oriented leader. Such simple formula but often overlook by managers and bosses who are too task- or profit-focused.

Believing that hierarchy does not work in his company, Fernandes has his office right smack in the middle of the company, with no walls and doors.
He mentioned that “everybody has my contact number so people from errand boys to the senior management will just call, SMS, and email me directly, and they get problems solved very quickly. You do not need to go through layers of bureaucracy.”
This breaks down barriers between him and his team members where everyone can see him and approach him anytime. He is the manager, but he is also part of the team.
This one-of-a-kind corporate culture is the reason this company is so successful with low turnover rates.

With all being said, Fernandes is definitely also a transformational leader from the four leadership theories. He communicates a vision: “Dream the impossible, believe the unbelievable, and never take no for an answer” which inspires and motivates people to achieve something extraordinary. As an effective transformational leader, he has the ability to align people and systems with his vision.

Tony Fernandes

What are his traits?
The corporate culture Fernandes created reflects his personality.

Focus – He knows where he is going and has a strong stated mission to lead people on. He puts the turnaround of the airline down to ‘culture, focus and discipline’.

Supportive – He gave encouragement and genuine support to his crews who are passionate to pursue their dreams. One great example is when one of his cabin crew became his pilot.

Passionate – Passionate about his company, his employees and the culture he creates

Collaborative – He so solicit input and feedback from his team members so that they feel being part of the process.

Howard Schultz's Leadership & Important Contributions

He is a people-oriented leader who personally coaches his employees and is very open towards them. Upon taking the post, Schultz invited people to email him directly -- and soon received 5,000 emails. He also made personal phone calls to stores across the nation to see how things were going.

Schultz embraces change and reacts to external forcesof change. In view of technology advancements, he appointed a chief technology officer, Chris Bruzzo from Amazon.com to update Starbucks' website and improved its overall social media presence. Under Schultz's directive, the company also replaced all of its outdated cash registers and computers. The company estimates the new system is saving 700,000 wait-in-line hours. In response to external competition, Schultz studied other corporate turnarounds in order to pull off his own. Also for the first time ever, Starbucks invested in a major national advertising campaign, in response to changing market forces.

He also made use of internal forces of change, in the form of reinvention and reengineering. For the first time in company history, Schultz looked to outside consultants for ideas on how to revive the company. In 2008, Schultz also completely reorganized supply chain operations -- getting products to stores more efficiently and improving inventory. As a result, 9 out of 10 orders were delivered perfectly to stores, up from 3 out of 10 before. Finally, heeding advice that losing customers in a down economy is much more expensive than investing in them, Schultz created a customer rewards card to keep customers loyal. All these internal changes made greatly helped Starbucks to keep afloat back then, and going on to make it successful.

Howard Schultz: Quotes Showing Leadership Styles & Personality

In a 2009 interview with CBS, Schultz said of Starbucks' mission, "We're not in the business of filling bellies, we're in the business of filling souls."

(On inculcating culture)

“Whether you are the CEO or a lower level employee, the single most important thing you do at work each day is communicate your values to others”.

(creating the Starbucks culture)

“There is a word that comes to my mind when I think about our company and our people. That word is ‘love’. I love Starbucks because everything we’ve tried to do is steeped in humanity”

(actively and purposely creating a brand and company narrative that he felt would attract customers)

“We take something ordinary and infuse it with emotion and meaning, and then we tell its story over and over and over again, often without saying a word”

(Early on, making Starbucks' mission his own.)

"I saw something. Not only the romance of coffee, but ... a sense of community. And the connection that people had to coffee—the place and one another. And after a week in Italy, I was so convinced with such unbridled enthusiasm that I couldn't wait to get back to Seattle to talk about the fact that I had seen the future."

The above quotes by Schultz all point towards him having loads of enthusiasm, as well as a charismatic leadership style, where he infuses eagerness into all his employees to work. This might also be used as a Power tactic of inspirational appeal, bring up employees' commitment through stirring enthusiasm. He also emphasises the importance of having consistent behaviour with company values and culture.

(describing the feeling of “the Starbucks Experience ")

“the Starbucks Experience [based on] personal connection – is an affordable necessity. We are all hungry for community". The importance is built around connecting with others and reconnecting with oneself

Here, Schultz displays a people-oriented side of him, and believing in the importance of developing esprit de corps.

(In response to a shareholder complained that Starbucks had lost sales due its support for gay marriage)

"Not every decision is an economic decision. Despite the fact that you recite statistics that are narrow in time, we did provide a 38 percent shareholder return over the last year. I don't know how many things you invest in, but I would suspect not many things, companies, products, investments have returned 38 percent over the last 12 months.

Having said that, it is not an economic decision to me. The lens in which we are making that decision is through the lens of our people. We employ over 200,000 people in this company, and we want to embrace diversity. Of all kinds."

"If you feel, respectfully, that you can get a higher return than the 38 percent you got last year, it's a free country. You can sell your shares in Starbucks and buy shares in another company. Thank you very much."

This shows him in action taking the managerial role of a negotiator, disturbance handler, and resolving conflicts. He is firm and bold in taking a stand against the shareholder, showing that he is very deeply rooted in his beliefs. though it may displease the shareholder, all his employees will respect him for standing up for the company.

Not only are there quotes from Schultz that reveal aspects about himself, there are also quotes from others who worked with him, such as co-founder Zev Siegl. He recounts:

"My impression of Howard at that time was that he was a fabulous communicator. One to one, he still is."
Being a good communicator is an important trait for any leader in leading people.

Wynn's Leadership Style & Traits

Change is not threatening. - Steve Wynn - creator of Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio and Wynn Resort

Who is a leader? A leader is the person who control things by position. Here's the key: there's an energy to leadership. There's a passion, a level of connectedness that leaders have with others. People like Las Vegas developer Steve Wynn, who defines energy, vision, and relationship.

In 1989, Wynn decided to test his vision and put it into action by building the Mirage and then Treasure Island. After proving his success, he built the extravaganza icon of the Bellagio. Wynn started a $12 billion building his wonderful works such as the Wynn and the Encore. Time Magazine placed him as one of the "World's 100 Most Influential People."

Wynn has a business sense and extraordinary eye for details as well as energy for passion. Steve Wynn key traits would be dedication, hard work, detail oriented, a problem solver, creative, and innovative. He is included in a category of transactional leadership traits and behaviours.

Steve is a problem solver, creative and innovative where we can see from his quote:

I have developer's disease. I love to sit at a drafting table and draw plans for hotels, wrestling with problems of traffic and the flow of people. That's what turns me on. -Steve Wynn

Wynn is also a detail oriented person. We can see it based on the Q&A between Business Insider and Steve Wynn which he can still remember the building structured:

BI: How is the progress on the Cotai casino project?

SW: I remember studying a chart 2 months ago with my colleagues that showed, for example, if you're interested in this, the high-rise has columns on 36-foot centers and there are 40 of them. There are 40 structural base that are used for suites and rooms. The regular base, 2 rooms, and sometimes 2 structural base were used for super deluxe suites. The building is 98 feet wide. It's extremely deep because the rooms are 45 feet deep with an 8-foot hallway, which is -- you only see 8-foot hallway in buildings. While in Cotai, our typical hallway is 8-foot wide and 7-foot tall. So what happens is that we have 40 columns, 40 structural base and we have 4 of them across the building. There's one on each outside window and 2 on the interior.

Biography of Steve Wynn, The Casino Developer & Owner

Stephen Alan "Steve" Wynn starts in the gaming sector by taking over the family bingo parlor business when his father passed away.

His success brought him to invest for the Frontier Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, then he and his wife, Elaine, moved in. The creative businessman moved to Las Vegas and started gripping shared in local casinos. He inflated and revitalised the “Golden Nugget” casino, which resulted in prosperous visitors visiting the place. Wynn built another Golden Nugget in Atlantic City in 1980. By then, he was estimated to be worth about one hundred million dollars.

Golden Nugget Hotel & Casino

Treasure Island Hotel & Casino

After getting interests in other casinos, Wynn built The Mirage on the Strip. Wynn's next project was Treasure Island Hotel and Casino at a cost of $450 million. The Cirque du Soleil show at the Treasure Island was the first permanent Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas.

His next high-end casino is The Bellagio, included an artificial lake and a gallery that housed museum-quality artworks, is the priciest gaming resort in the world and a real luxury destination.

After selling Mirage Resorts to MGM Grand Inc. In 2000, Wynn opened the Wynn Las Vegas in 2005; it is his most expensive project to date. In 2006, he opened Wynn Macau, China, the largest gaming jurisdiction in Asia. Lately. He further added Encore Las Vegas and Encore Macau.

The casino collector opened a high profile gaming resorts that further multiplied Steve's profit margin. Wynn became a billionaire in 2004, when his net worth doubled to $1.3 billion.

Steve Wynn has brought luxury to Las Vegas. He has defined Las Vegas luxury. No one does it better than Steve Wynn.

Here's some pictures of his hotel & casino:

The Mirage, Las Vegas

Bellagio Hotel & Casino at night

Lobby of the Bellagio

Encore at the Wynn, Las Vegas

Wynn Encore at Macau

Sunday, 30 June 2013

Biography of Tony Fernandes, Founder & CEO of AirAsia

“In AirAsia we consider ourselves basically a dream factory…We deliberately decided that we wanted a company where people can pursue their passion and we wanted to make use of all the talent that we have in-house. The culture that we have stems from the fact that we want openness and we want people to be creative and passionate about what they do. In order to do that, we’ve got to inspire them.”

Tony Fernandes
CEO and Founder
AirAsia

Credit: Chris Forrest Harvey

About:
Anthony Francis Fernandes, better known as Tony Fernandes, is the perfect fit as the “ultimate dreamer and adventurer in business”.

In October 2001, Fernandes mortgaged his home and used up his personal savings to acquire a heavily-indebted Malaysian government-owned airline called AirAsia. Even after knowing that he was buying two ageing Boeing 737 jets, 200 employees and $11 million debt, Fernandes went ahead with his “purchase” as he was a risk-taker and a believer of making the impossible possible. Fortunately, despite his inexperience in airline operation, the former managing director of Warner Music Malaysia was able to reform AirAsia into one of the most successful low fare carriers in the world.

The secret to the success of AirAsia lies in the recipe of great management style and unique culture which Fernandes has passionately concocted. He works hard and finds creative ways to create an environment for his “Allstars” (what AirAsia call its employees) to continuously improve, learn and most desirably, achieve their dream.