Aiming for excellence The hospitality industry has never been more challenging and exciting than it is today. Our industry is highly competitive and to prosper you need to ensure that your operation is best in its class, writes Harry Murray MBE FIH. The Oxford Dictionary defines excellence as ‘the quality of being outstanding.’ To achieve excellence you need clear direction and consistent focus. Direction needs good leadership, passion, energy and a partnership with an engaged team. You also need to build a long and lasting relationship with your customers who should be the focus on every decision you make. Aiming for excellence in any field, whether it is sport, academia, or business, requires a very focused and committed desire to be the best at what you do. Observe anyone who has achieved excellence and you will invariably find a passionate, dedicated, and hard working individual who refuses to be second best. In sport the goals and objectives are easier to understand. You know where the goal posts are; how many runs you need to make; and where the finishing line is. You also have league tables, world records to break, world finals; and the ultimate benchmark - the Olympic Games. Jack Nicholas, often described as the best golfer ever to pick up a club, once commented that he had been very lucky in his career. A journalist pointed out that the more Nicholas practised the luckier he became. Of course there are examples of failure in sport and if we analyse the recent saga of the England Rugby team it is not difficult to see where they went wrong. In my view, their first mistake was not caring about the customer; the thousands of fans who had paid £5,000 plus to travel to New Zealand; or the millions who watched the games on TV. Secondly, management failed to instil the necessary discipline in terms of the attitude of some of the players and to ensure their bodies and minds were alert for this world event. Thirdly, they lacked self-discipline and focus. Business, and in particular the hospitality business, is no different to sport when aiming for excellence. This applies to any individual who wishes to be the best chef, the best sommelier, best housekeeper or best manager. Aiming for excellence also applies to the leaders of hospitality who wish to be recognised as running the best hotel, best restaurant or best group hotel. Measuring Success We have many bodies that help to measure success. Guides such as The AA, Michelin, VisitBritain’s Gold Award, and our own industry awards. The guides help to benchmark and draw attention to your shortfalls. There are no

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shortcuts in quality and we all learn from our mistakes. One often hears excuses from managers when they have a bad result from an inspection. The chef or the restaurant manager was off; the head housekeeper was on holiday. What about the customers staying that night? Did they get a 20% discount? A standard is a standard. A promise is a promise and should be delivered consistently at all times to be successful. I once heard a quote that if an airline pilot was to only achieve 99.5% success when flying a commercial airline there would be a certain number of crashes per year. This highlights the importance of systems and procedures when defining and delivering standards. Magazines like Caterer & Hotelkeeper have played a major role in this country in raising standards and inspiring many people to raise their standards. The Worshipful Company of Innholders, The Savoy Educational Trust and The Master Innholders have played a leading role during the past 30 years in raising standards through The St Julian scholarships, educational events such as The General Managers Conference and mentoring.. The Institute of Hospitality plays a major role in raising professional standards in our industry including the Hospitality Assured Accreditation which guides hospitality businesses to raise their standard and business performance, which of course is the reason for this forum today. Fortunately for me at the age of 13 I already knew that I wanted to be the manager of a 5 Star Hotel. The aim wasn’t even focused on financial reward. I consider myself still fortunate today that I have the same passion for the industry as when I started on my career many years ago. Every day thousands of people are doing jobs they hate and are counting the days to Friday afternoon. A successful business was created from this desire : T.G.I.Friday ‘Thank God it’s Friday.’ How sad for these unfortunate people. We spend at least 40 years working. My advice to any young person is to find a job you love and you will succeed. Springboard is doing a great job in persuading young people to consider hospitality. I have managed hotels through five decades and it has been an interesting and enjoyable journey on observing how hotels have evolved during this period. The basics of course haven’t changed and the common thread is people - customers and staff. The 1960s were the practical period. It was vital to have worked in all departments and have a wide knowledge of food & beverage. This training wasn’t wasted because, apart from acquiring skills, the most important learning curve for me as a future manager was observing what motivated or de-motivated your colleagues In the 1970s more hotels adopted the uniformed accounting systems and, forecasting, and monthly P&L accounts became a way of life.

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In the 1980s there was more focus on sales and marketing. Derek Taylor Grand Met Hotels- an ex President of the Institute led the way. The nineties became the property / takeover period when many foreign buyers came onto the scene - especially in London and the luxury end of the market. Budget hotels expanded to address this imbalance which helped introduce many people to hotels nationwide. The noughties has seen an enormous development in technology computers, iPhones, iPads, CCTV everywhere. I was asked recently if hoteliers “walk the floor” and interact with the customers far less than in the past. I am not here to judge fellow hoteliers but, in my view, you can’t successfully operate a hotel from an iphone or computer. Banks and many other businesses have declined due to arrogance; distancing themselves from their customers and not supporting their front-line staff. In my view the closer you are to the customer and your staff the more chance you have of delivering the promise. This requires a great deal of self discipline. Walking the floor should not be interpreted as ‘mistrusting’ your team but as an opportunity to role model, support them, praise them, and pay attention to detail. It is also an opportunity to interact with your customers and obtain valuable feedback. Tom Peters, in his book In Search of Excellence, talked about ‘management by wandering around’ (MBWA). He pointed out that staying close to the customer was the most important fundamental of management and was being ignored by many companies. What was interesting is that many years later he reviewed all the successful companies that he had portrayed in his book and more than half were declared bankrupt or didn’t exist and 25% had underperformed. One of the main reasons is they failed to research what the customer wanted in the future and IBM was one of these companies. Microsoft is the best example of exceeding customer’s expectations during the past decade. Aiming for excellence needs inspiring leadership skills and a great desire to be the best. Training in hotels in the sixties and working in departments gave me a good insight into some examples of poor leadership and I observed many staff who were de-motivated due to the way they were treated; working conditions in many hotels were also extremely poor. Communications were also poor in many cases due to the arrogance of top management. To achieve excellence in any business you need to define the difference between a Leader and a Manager. There are of course many interpretations of this.

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A manager does ‘things right.’ A leader does ‘the right thing.’ A Manager puts the ladder up against the wall. A leader makes sure it is the right wall. A successful hotelier needs to be an inspirational leader with a very clear and focused vision. He must also have the ability to meet customer’s requirements. Customers have more choice; want value for money and a product that exceeds their expectations. Service excellence is both unobtrusive and elusive. We know when we have received it, and we know when we have not, and it is only the customer who decides this outcome. A good leader A good leader inspires by example through integrity and trust and creates a common purpose.The front line staff face the customer every minute of the day and they should be empowered to deliver the promise at all times. A good leader gives full support to his team empowers them and treats them with great respect. The days of prima-donna managers - and in particular prima-donna chefs are over. If we want talented people to join our great industry we must lead by example and “do unto others what we would want for ourselves” Hospitality Assured Hospitality Assured provides the Frame-Work to deliver Service and Business Excellence. It also provides all the measurement tools through the 9 key steps to ensure a business stays on track. Customers expectations never stand still and what is described as excellent today could be the standard tomorrow. To aim for excellence you need to encourage and develop your team to look at every single task you deliver from the firsts contact with the customer making the reservation until they depart to see how you can enhance the standard and add value. A good example of this is the questions you ask when a reservation is made; apart from the normal procedures regarding their stay, dates room type F&B requirements treatments you can extend the discussion regarding the purpose of the visit. If it is a birthday or anniversary celebration here is an opportunity to enhance the whole stay. I appreciate that in a business hotel speed is essential and a long discussion could irritate the guest. The website of course gives you the opportunity to ask these questions.When you are focused on the customer the mind never stops and as a leader it is important that your team think the same way. Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa

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In 1997 I was appointed Managing Director of Lucknam Park and I have enjoyed a most incredible journey during the past 14 years with an incredible team that I am extremely proud of because it is their hard work and loyalty that achieved the success. In 1988 this 1720 Palladian Mansion was converted to a hotel. It enjoyed reasonable success in the first few years but in the early 90’s the recession started to bite. Hotel standards and staff morale started to decline due to a shortage of cash. On taking up the appointment the first task was to analyse the situation and prepare a business plan for the owners to consider. There is always the danger that you make quick decisions when you take over a declining business which you later regret. The first 2 months were spent interviewing all managers, heads of department, and observing the business. I also made a point of meeting as many customers as possible to obtain their feedback. With the full support of an enthusiastic team we analysed every aspect of the business to establish the ‘gap analysis.’ • • • • • • •

Where are we now Where do we want to be. What is the ultimate goal What is the gap between now and where we want to be How will we get there. How will we measure progress When will we know we have arrived

We carried out a complete audit of the product which had become tired due to lack of investment. We carried out a complete audit of the service to identify training & development needs and any weaknesses within the team. We put figures to all these findings to build into the financial plan. Following this we worked together to carry out a SWOT analysis and complete a Business Plan; which included the budget and a capital expenditure plan. We also agreed on a VISION: to Develop Lucknam Park as the best Country House Hotel & Spa in Britain. The MISSION STATEMENT Lucknam Park’s highly motivated and skilled team are passionate about quality standards and service excellence and consistently aim to exceed customer expectations with continuous improvements. The mission statement reflected our new objectives which were aimed at the highest possible standards of excellence. We also agreed the values and the goals and objectives with clear measurable indicators to monitor success.

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Following a great deal of hard work from the whole team I presented a fiveyear business plan to the owner, chairman, and board of directors. The strategy goals and objectives were agreed and we were given the green light. Some of the key goals and objectives at that presentation included the following: • • • • • • • • •

To position the hotel as the best country house in Britain Raise the AA grade from four black stars (76%) to five red stars (86%) Become a member of Relais & Châteaux Obtain a Michelin Star Visit Britain from Silver to Gold Award Obtain Investors in People accreditation Maximise the PR Substantially increase profitability to an acceptable level. And most important of all: ‘enjoy the journey’

In addition to the training gap, we also agreed a refurbishment plan.To achieve success it is essential you keep the vision and mission LIVE every day. There are no short cuts to excellence and the strategy must be regularly reviewed. Guests do not expect to be told that the hotel will be perfect in a few years’ time. Exceptional service, enthusiasm and high standards in all departments do not need capital expenditure. We achieved all our goals but we were still not satisfied with the occupancy and profitability which was below the level of our main competitors. We identified from customer research that this was partly due to a very tired and old-fashioned spa. Eventually the decision was taken to close the spa October 2007 for one year. In 2007 we also reviewed our market position. The Country House Hotel market was expanding and a number of new hotels were established. Competition was growing at the top end of the market. We decided to look at Hospitality Assured as we felt at that stage that Investors in People was not stretching the team. When we carried out a self assessment we quickly found a number of weak areas. I think these can be highlighted in the scores between our first inspection and our last which was in March this year. The overall improvement was 14.5%; but the two key areas of improvement were customer research (15%); customer promise (25%); and business planning (18%). So what does all this mean in terms of aiming for excellence? During the past year ending 31 May 2011 the hotel recorded the following results. • • • •

13% growth in room sales 17% growth in total revenue 40% growth in NOP AA Hotel of the Year 2010

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Catey Independent Hotel of the Year 2010 Conde Nast Johansens Most Excellent Spa of the Year 2010

In achieving this success, we must also take into consideration the opening of the new spa in November 2008. However, one key area that proved beneficial with Hospitality Assured was making the decision to appoint Julia Camp, a talented sales & marketing director, in April 2009. Following this appointment we made a dramatic improvement to our website which enhanced our promise to the customer. We also invested in more customer research which has also proved beneficial. I am now chairman of Lucknam Park and the baton has been passed to Claire Randall and under her direction there are some very interesting new concepts at the planning stage. No business can stand still and the objectives should be to continuously improve and exceed customer’s expectations. Aiming for excellence Firstly, excellence is not five-star. Excellence is the very best at what you do. A bed & breakfast can aspire to excellence; a hospital or conference venue can aspire to excellence. Disney’s approach to quality is a good example of how to motivate a whole campus of people all singing from the same song sheet. They place a great deal of emphasis on creating a well-trained and enthusiastic workforce to ensure that each member of the cast knows exactly what their role is in this great enterprise. Walt Disney’s himself realised that you can dream, create, design and build the most wonderful place in the world – but it requires people to make the dream a reality. Disney also defines quality as attention to detail and exceeding guest expectations. Disney also collects an astonishing amount of data on its guests from surveys, focus groups, opinion polls, and other means. Jan Carlson turned Scandinavian Airlines around, from failure to success with his ‘Moments of Truth’ strategy empowering all his front line staff who interact with customers every minute of the day. In 1985 British Airways aspired to excellence by putting 35,000 staff through a two-day training programme on ‘putting people first’ and the following year were voted best airline in the world. Their profitability also increased substantially. Unfortunately you cannot then sit back and expect the standards to continue. Singapore Airlines are regularly voted best airline in the world because of their on-going strategy of consistently delivering service excellence. They acknowledge that having an international reputation for service means that passengers come with high expectations so they consistently research on how they can exceed expectations and introduce ‘wow factors.’ In the 1970s Isadore Sharpe the former CEO of Four Seasons Hotels had a very clear vision of where he wanted to position his hotels. For him it was all

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about treating employees the way they are expected to treat their customers; with the same care and understanding. Of course, as mentioned earlier, at that time employees were very much driven by the stick rather than enticed by the carrot. It did however take him until 1980 to finely define their golden rules which were a statement of their goals, beliefs and principals. It was these golden rules that established this company as the leading hotel group in the world. Achieving excellence is a continuous challenge and an ongoing relationship with the customer. All successful companies take both compliments and complaints seriously. Every complaint should be investigated not only to try and recover the customer but to use it as a learning lesson to avoid a recurrence. How would I summarise aiming for excellence? • • • • •

Effective leadership with passion, energy, and an on-going desire to be the best. Clear direction with measurable goals to achieve excellence A partnership with an engaged and highly motivated team. Totally customer-focused in every aspect of the business and a passion to exceed expectations at every possible opportunity Enjoying the journey to excellence and success

Harry Murray MBE FIH is chairman of Lucknam Park Hotel & Spa.

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