For InterContinental Hotels Group, Dubai Festival City area manager Tom Meyer, explains why hands-on experience has been critical to his success as a GM

What are the highlights of your career so far?
My career to date has spanned several countries and continents, from Hamburg in Germany, to the Caribbean (Antigua to be precise), then on to Sydney, Singapore, Manila, and Hong Kong, before arriving on Dubai’s shores in 2003.
At one stage I did seven locations in 14 years. I can certainly attribute my yen for international travel to my schooldays. I spent most of my childhood at an English boarding school and grew up with a multicultural potpourri of friends. I knew then that I wanted to travel and to experience different cultures up close.

From school, it was a natural segue into the hospitality industry – during my gap year I worked in the InterContinental hotel in Germany. My first hotel experience turned out to be exactly what I was looking for.
Since then I have been in the hospitality business for more than 25 years, and counting. I’m an international hotelier, so I suppose you could say, in the words of the song, ‘wherever I lay my hat …’ but Sydney is still home for my family and me.

When did you take up your current role and what do you consider to be your greatest achievements in this post?
My first position in Dubai was in 2003 as the general manager at one of the city’s oldest and best loved five-star hotels, the former InterContinental in Deira. From there I was given the opportunity to move to open the three hotels here in Dubai Festival City.
 
My greatest achievement would have to be the simultaneaous opening of the InterContinental, the Crowne Plaza and the Event Centre here in Festival City, the largest opening to date in our company’s history. The very first event we did for the colleague team of more than 1000, recruited from 54 different countries was something I will never forget.

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What impact has your property had on the Middle East hospitality sector?
Dubai is an incredible city that is constantly evolving. The competition here is intense and this forces us as hoteliers to constantly look at how we can add value for our guests and colleagues. I am really proud that in a comparatively short time we have been recognised as an exceptional hotel and location for world class meetings and events. We were recently awarded the best new business hotel in the Middle East by Business Traveller.

We were also the first hotel to open a restaurant with a three star Michelin Chef from France. Reflets by Pierre Gagnaire has already been nominated as one of the best 100 restaurants in the world and is the only restaurant in the top 100 from the Middle East region, a real first.

We have also recently opened our colleague accommodation building, custom built to our specifications. This is one of the finest examples in the region today for colleague accommodation and will set the standard for how these should look and feel for years to come.

What makes for a successful GM? 
One of the greatest challenges we face is managing and motivating a multi-cultural team of colleagues to constantly aim higher in everything we do. As with most things in life that are challenging, it is also very rewarding. I love building a team. If you get the right chemisty and the right people, then you’ve got the right team.

I believe in treating both the hotel guest and the individual colleagues in much the same way. What makes a customer really enjoy an experience is very often the same thing for each and every one of our colleagues and this completes the circle. If I see guests truly enjoying a seamless service experience, or colleagues just love the work what they do, it really inspires me.

My management style is very open. I love to get people’s opinions. I’m definitely an ‘open door’ general manager but, as someone once said to me, ‘it’s only open if people go through it.’ I like to surround myself with professionals and let them get on with the job.

To be a great general manager, you really need hands-on experience which you cannot fast-track, you need this experience to understand and then lead your team. You need to relate to the team from the bottom up, understanding then that your relationship with them, and theirs with each and every guest, is critical to our overall success.