To Lead In Times Of Crisis, One Must Be Equal Parts Realist, Pragmatist and Optimist
Keith Kefgen | April 1, 2020
By: Keith Kefgen As an evaluator of leadership capability, I have been asked what it takes to lead in a time of crisis, such as COVID-19. My answer has been simple, “you must be equal parts realist, pragmatist and optimist. This mixture of archetypes is essential in dealing with the fast moving and unknown outcomes of a crisis. Realist. a person who accepts a situation as it is and is prepared to deal with it accordingly. To face a situation that is as complex as COVID, fact finding is critical. Like a complex puzzle, getting started in the known areas is a good start (start in the corners). Ask for help in areas that are unknown a...
Who Not to Be in Hotel Leadership
Larry Mogelonsky | March 18, 2020
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) Can you change a hotel’s culture without a change at the top? Think about this long and hard as it is very rare that the answer is a ‘yes’. Instead, my hope is to present four potential pratfalls to avoid so as to offer some perspective on how these senior executive behaviors may trickle down to hinder your hotel’s culture from achieving maximum productivity. In many ways, it’s a process of elimination, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a bit of fun in the process! The General Numbers Manager These individual bases everything that he or she does off of data and...
Learning From Past Crises
HSMAI | March 16, 2020
By Kaitlin Dunn The World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19, also known as the coronavirus, a pandemic on Wednesday, March 11. While the coronavirus has been a huge disrupter not only in the hospitality industry but in every sector around the world, it’s not unique. Hospitality professionals have weathered numerous other crises, from outbreaks to natural disasters — each one offering its own lessons. D.C. Becker, principal and co-owner at Titan Group of New York, has been through two recent crises. While he was with Interstate Hotels & Resorts, he was in Shanghai in 2011 after a deadly tsunami hit neighborin...
Strategic Coronavirus Operational Planning
Larry Mogelonsky | March 11, 2020
By Larry Mogelonsky, MBA, P. Eng. (www.hotelmogel.com) The news regarding this virus is omnipresent. It has impacted travel throughout the world, for which nearly every hotel will feel the effect. Stemming from numerous emergency planning sessions for the properties we manage through our consultancy, below is the rough preamble of what we have proscribed to help hoteliers get through this global ordeal. Preparation is essential, not only in terms of what we do hygienically, but also in how we build our business. Whatever the actual severity of this virus, the fact remains that it is not our call as hoteliers to make a decision either wa...
How Brands Can Manage a Travel Industry Crisis
Deborah Fell | March 11, 2020
By Deborah Fell Travel isn’t always a bed of roses. There are natural disasters, tainted products, bad actors, data breaches, regional and global viruses, and events big and small that require industries to step up, speak up, and do whatever it takes to care of their employees and customers. As the coronavirus outbreak tops 93,000 in dozens of countries, it’s an appropriate time to offer advice on how to handle an industry crisis. Protect Your Employees, Guests, and Brand Brands have a responsibility to ensure life safety for associates and guests. Government safety regulations vary around the world, but standards, process...
Sustainable Tourism: A Long Road Ahead
Samuel Wich | March 4, 2020
By Samuel Wich Every single second, more than 30 tourists arrive at their destination worldwide. With more than 1 billion passengers projected to travel in 2020, the effect tourism has on the environment cannot be underestimated. “Sustainability” has been one of the biggest buzz words of the past decade in the industry. Yet, the proliferation of its use is not necessarily a good thing. Like other terms that are often used in marketing to promote some products or services of virtually any company, (e.g. “eco-friendly” or “green”), the word itself has in many instances lost its true meaning. According to the United Nations, su...
Help Save the Planet by Eliminating Hotel Bathroom Toiletries
Chekitan S. Dev | March 4, 2020
By Chekitan Dev What’s the problem? Hotel bathroom toiletries are like 12 noon check in check out: an archaic practice that persists only because no one has thought to change it. When hotels first began to offer bathroom amenities, it was considered a ‘luxury’ item for use and something interesting to take home. This inertia is partially driven by hotel bathroom toiletry companies that are part of a billion dollar business globally. Today, many guests do travel, or can travel, with their own toiletries and don’t really need hotel toiletries. But if it free, travelers will use what is provided so they can save their own stock. The p...
In the Age of Pandemics: Some of the Reasons That Tourism Industries Fail: Part One of a Two-Part Series
Dr. Peter E. Tarlow | March 3, 2020
Part 2 will appear in April. By Dr. Peter Tarlow Much of the tourism literature is dedicated to tourism successes or how to succeed. When not focusing in on successes, the literature often deals with crisis management, such as the most recent outbreak of CoVid -19 (Coronavirus). Rarely do we examine our self-inflict failures. The fact is that many tourism and travel businesses, however, do not succeed. The reasons for these failures may be of a personal nature, not enough passion or pure laziness, but the great majority of failures can be classified into sociological taxonomies. These categories help us to think abo...
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