This month, Kai Schukowski will turn 30 years old. This year, he also won the distinction of being the youngest general manager in the history of the Kempinski brand. He officially took over as general manager of the Kempinski Hotel Ajman this year after his predecessor, Ulrich Eckhardt, left the company in 2014, after 17 years of heading up the property in the Northern Emirates.

German national Schukowski says his interest in the world of hospitality started when he was 14, when the results of a job fair quiz showed his aptitude in the field. His father, who had a construction business, heard about his son’s interest in pursuing hospitality and set him a challenge: if young Schukowski could survive an internship in a hotel, he would allow him to study hospitality management. After six months of banqueting at a Berlin property, Schukowski was even surer about his end goal. From there, he moved to Dubai in 2005 to study at the Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management.

After his graduation, Schukowski joined Kempinski’s head office in Geneva, Switzerland in 2009, where he was involved in the strategic planning of the brand and reported directly to the company’s COO. He says of the experience: “It was an eye opener, because it gave me an eagle eye from the [perspective of] company strategy, and even today it really helps me to understand how they think and where they want to go, and translate that into the property.”

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After two years, he received the opportunity to become the regional operations manager in charge of all Kempinski hotels in China. “I was working with the senior vice president of operations for all of China. I was sitting with the GM and ExCom team, running through all the numbers and performance, sharing best practices with different properties and seeing how we can elevate performance and quality. I got an inside scoop into the hotel operations.”

Fast forward another two years, and in the summer of 2013, Schukowski was appointed hotel manager at Kempinski Hotel Ajman, the first Kempinski property in the region of India, the Middle East and Africa. He performed the role of acting general manager when Eckhardt left, and was eventually promoted to the GM’s role.

“Someone really believed in me and gave me the opportunity to come to this beautiful property in Ajman and prove myself as a hotel manager,” he says. Winning a Hotelier Award in 2015 for this role, the young GM also credits
Eckhardt who trusted and empowered him to prove himself.

Talking about officially becoming GM, Schukowski says: “I was extremely grateful to take over that responsibility from such a legacy. Those were huge footsteps to follow and fill.”

Schukowski is especially focused on his team. One of the changes he has insisted on is calling everyone at the property ‘hoteliers’ rather than ‘employees’ or ‘staff’. As part of creating a family-like atmosphere at the hotel, heads of departments regularly cook for all the hoteliers at the staff canteen, sports activities are organised for the team members, along with staff parties. “All these things build a community,” Schukowski says.

But this community-building, Schukowski believes, is part of his job.

He says: “I consider myself a conductor in the orchestra, in a way. I cannot play the violin, the cello or the piano, but I know the song I want to hear and I know how to select the people to play that music. But without them, I cannot do anything.

“It’s the skill of the GM to bring these experts together and make sure they harmonise together. Because you can have the people, but if they play different songs, it doesn’t sound nice at the end. Being at the corporate office taught me to look at the big picture, set a clear strategy and the way forward. Being detail-focused is nice, but you need to know where you’re going.”

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