Cora Stuart, Paul Bridger, Janet Fitzner, Stephan Vanden Auweele, Simeon Olle, Henning Fries and Peter Blackburn
How would you sum up your attitude as a leader?
SO: I think for me it’s walking the walk and being hands on, being on the front line with the team and acting really as a team leader should act. We talked earlier about the demands of this industry, particularly when you have extensive food and beverage offerings and the hours involved, at the end of the day you just can’t do it as an individual, you have to surround yourself with as competent a team as you can find, and that’s the only way really that you will get success. I don’t think that it’s really driven through any one individual but through everybody in the team performing and contributing.
HF: We are a people business so you have to have passion for people as well as a passion for the business, and I really would sum it up in that if you bring that passion to the team, and to the operation and to the hotel, then that really is going to translate in results.
JF: You have to be passionate in the hotel industry anyway and then it depends on your team being behind you and doing it together with the team. I cannot do it alone. You have to get the team with you and all go in one direction and then of course you try to keep the motivation up to get the fighting spirit.
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Paul Bridger: I think it’s leading from the front, talking to your guests because your guests and your team will give you all the answers you need about your business; you don’t need to look at your P&Ls. They are the ones who will tell you how your business is doing.
SVA: I think our industry is a very particular business because it is the only industry where you have to start from the bottom or very low and you can work your way up. I think there are very little industries that have kind of similar career paths. It is a very tough school actually and I think that really shapes you. The school is natural elimination so the people that are not working hard enough or performing enough get kicked out by the system over the years, because they don’t have the passion, they don’t have the character, they don’t have the charisma. The system is basically shaping itself and leaving only the people with the right passion and the right attitude because it takes you five, 10, 20 years to get through the system. You very seldom see someone dropped in from another industry and told you are going to be general manager of this hotel because you have an MBA from Oxford.
JF: It’s dependent on the people, you have to be the mother, you have to be the psychologist, you have to be whatever is required — I think that makes the difference.
What are your views on the issues raised? Send them to: louise.oakley@itp.com
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