Not content with breaking the rules with regards to concepts, pricing and location, Fraser-Smith has also turned the hotel’s F&B organisational structure on its head. “One thing I have done is I’ve removed all the F&B infrastructure. So there is no executive chef and no food and beverage manager. There will be a chef de cuisine and there will be a restaurant manager and they will be accountable for the performance of their restaurant.”
By doing this, Fraser-Smith aims to create a mentality of independence without actually operating independently, saying: “Each outlet is accountable and reportable for its performance. As a result, the talent that we’ve been able to attract in key positions has been phenomenal.”
Wyndham Hotel Group has appointed Esmeralda Van Wyck as cluster director of restaurants and bars with each outlet reporting directly to her. Fraser-Smith elaborates: “Each outlet will be responsible for the promotions they want to run, how they want to run the business, it’s set against metrics and we will incentivise them openly to perform. So we’re disrupting the market.”
“What I enjoy and what I look forward to enjoying more is being challenged. We did this fairly quickly but now, we’ve got a team in place with the Wyndham Hotel Group so I can throw an idea at them and say ‘What about this?’ They can say ‘No, I don’t like that.’ And that’s good. It’s checks and balances along the way.”
Despite his impressive track record, Fraser-Smith concedes that he isn’t infallible: “I cannot say that everything that I put forward is going to be right. If I came up with a concept and went to The First Group and said this is going to cost AED 8 million. I think it’s going to work but it’s going to be a huge risk. I would probably talk myself out of it because that’s not where we play. Give me a room with no marble flooring, give me a space with no false ceilings. That excites me now and that’s where I think we can go.”
According to Euromonitor data in KPMG’s ‘Hungry for More?’ 2016 UAE Food & Beverage Report, the country’s F&B industry will be worth AED 82 billion (US$ 2.2 billion) by 2020, up from AED 52 billion ($1.4 billion) in 2015. The figure is no doubt bolstered by projected spending from an influx of tourists expected for Expo 2020 Dubai.
Fraser-Smith says: “In the next three years, we’ll open 35 more outlets. Some we will look to franchise off as concepts and then there’s something very big in the future that I can’t talk about right now.”
Apparently something else he can’t talk about is The One Dubai Marina. Opening in Q2 of 2018, the property is set to wow the market with a global first, according to The First Group. All Fraser-Smith is at liberty to say is, “It’s worth the wait.”
Still, it’s no good having groundbreaking concepts and industry-disrupting operational structures if customer-facing staff fail at the final hurdle. The property has an informal approach to hospitality and Fraser-Smith has placed a particular importance on training and education: “I need to get the team on the ground to engage. If they’re not engaged, it’s never going to work. I’m actually training the staff on my hospitality vs service theory. We’re engaged in the act of communication with our guests, not in the act of serving them. That will be the difference.”
| Advertisement |