last few days offer @Bodhi spa

 

Interesting Excerpts of the ITC Chairman- Deveshwar’s AGM address during the 100^th year commemoration

 

 

“Vision values and vitality

 

The most critical factor in the longevity of an organization is its integral vitality namely the capability to remain relevant and contemporary, the ability to anticipate and proactively manage change and the agility to continuously reinvent and reinvigorate itself.

 

The vitality is manifest in many ways .......in the deepening consumer insight, ability to rapidly absorb knowledge and harness technology, breakthrough innovations in products and processes, the widening bandwidth of it's distributed leadership and it's resilient adaptive ness to continuously leverage the market opportunity. Together it constitutes an ever strengthening competitive capability.”

 

“Governance structure

 

The decentralized structure with distributed leadership, enables the executive management of each of it's businesses to relentlessly pursue the task of attaining international competitiveness by focusing on honing it's unique skills, unencumbered by the other priorities of the corporate structure. In the other hand the senior team at the apex is engaged in the strategic supervision and management of the company as a whole, free from the involvement in the day to day functioning of the business divisions. This structure enables the top management to assume the character of holding company with a mindset of a venture capitalist, mentoring existing businesses and creating newer avenues for growth by blending skills and capabilities drawn from different parts of the company. Over time these blended capabilities will in turn spawn newer competencies which will impart a force multiplier to the company 's future growth potential.”

 

“New paradigms of competitiveness

 

Future competitiveness of companies and therefore their profitability will crucially depend on the ability to embrace Sustainability.”

 

 

Madraspattinam review

Madraspattinam was a nice period film. worth seeing it for the nostalgia of 1940's "Madras" . The film itself tries very hard to sustain interest after sometime. The director seems to have run out of footage and puts us through a chase for a tortuously extended time! The heroine Amy Jackson did a good job but unfortunately Arya does not know to emote !OMG !! Good support by Nazar as Pehlwan trainer ! but was too overweight to go shirtless. Kinda liked the English bastard fiancée' of the heroine who emoted the attitude and the obnoxiousness of the British Raj. Events in the3 movie throws back memories of Laagan in the wrestling match for the golf links and smatterings of Titanic with the rich girl and the poor boy routine and also Passage to India. BTW the ending was too clinched. Overall worth watching for the Madras scapes of yester- years. Good attempt by director Vijay.

Dj Kewin is spinning the wheel at the Gallop @ Radisson GRT Chennai. The show is on every night and its a retro gig!! Must visit place- things to do before you say bye !!!

Hotel General Manager's tale

Guests are Gods
Employees are Angels

(continued from....)

Compelling vision & a meaningful mission

One steamy summer afternoon I was doing my usual hotel rounds which is
part of my leadership strategy of managing by walking around.
Especially in a service industry it is very important thar a leader is
visible to the foot soldiers and lieutenents. This very connect of
leasldership inspires people to out perfrom themselves and gives them
a sense of belonging. As I was practicing and excercising my mind by
remembering employee names and making 'small talk' I realized I was
on a futile path living the day for today ! This really struck me.
Where are we headed ? What do we want to be known for? Are we all
working towards a purpose ? do we believe in some core values by which
the team can make decisions independently ?
This got me very agitated and uncomfortable. I got hold of some of my
HOD'S and asked them the questions which were the thoughts of my
internal dialogue. Without surprise the answers were varied. So , we
needed to get a vision and a mission in place to give direction to the
entire operations and give a meaning to all the hard work of the
associates. Brain storming sessions followed by serious discussions
and realizations and finally a plan emerged out of the chaos.

Vision ( what)
Radisson GRT hotel will strive to be the best hospitality company in
the country known for the service standards and guest care.

Mission (how)

Radisson GRT hotel will strive to create repeat guests by dazzling
them with the services of a life style hotel where extraordinary is
normal and luxury is the rule.

We threaafer delibrated on goals and a strategy to implement our
vision and mission.

Our next challenge was to communicate the grand plan with our
associates down the line. How do we take this uniformly with the same
passion and enthisiam to Everyone. The key was to get all the them
excited about the future collectively and individually. How do we show
that there something for everyone to gain.

'Way ahead' a power point presentation was put together which included
all the elements to excite and infuse the needed enthisiam and 'change
agents' were nominTed to roll out the implementation. Benchmarks were
indicated for guest satisfaction levels and financial success. Even
goals for employee satisaction were defined.
Huge success. The people got all excited and a new enery was flowing
through the organisation. I could feel the intense aura which led me
to believe that we are all set to achieve like never before.

Spiritual hospitality

Spiritual Hospitality


As I was looking at the landscape artist's proposal for renewing our landscape around the hotel and to upgrade the gardens, suddendly a thought struck me. Why do guests stay in 5 star hotels ? They want a 'home away from home' , a clean place, a posh ambience and crisp service. Is that all ? They can choose to stay any other hotel then ,why choose a 5 star internationally branded hotel. Maybe , they are looking at good food served with a smile and friendly people also. So what else ? Every hotel worth its buck provides that. How can a hotel be different and how can it leave an impression on the guest -like a real WOW experience.
Most of the Group hotels have perfected the science of service. They have guest service programs like the 'Spirit to Serve' program in the Mariotts, 'Yes I Can' guest service program in the Radissons, 'Ladies & Gentlemen serving Ladies & Gentlemen' in the Ritz Carlton Hotels etc . These program are SOP driven , step by step programs which advocate 5 steps of serivce or 7 techiques or 10 principles or some other way of making the whole guest satisfaction concept a 'by the book' driven excercise. This traditional thinking and methods influence most of the hospitality industry today. Then what will open the doors to levels of guest experience much higher than 5-stars. What is that which is unclonable, differntiated from competition and which will leave an lasting impression on a guest experience. As a successful 5 star hotel we have huge efficiencies in guest satisfaction but we want to go to the next level. The answer is to provide guests a heart-warming, loving and caring spirit that makes the guests wish that time would stand still; not because of the material splendour, which anyone with money can create, but because of the love, care, warmth, and compassion that the staff exude, particularly through their eyes and body language. Unfortunately, this cannot be created through a efficient, correct and friendly service only. We need to look at the hotel not as an extention of the outside world but as an "oasis of peace" the guests enter after a hard day work. This can not only be created with the ambience but with the people who are saturating the hotel with a heart-warming spirit of love, compassion, warmth, care, and empathy.To create this spirit you have to do things differently.
We must first teach our staff to love themselves first. This is not as simple or as silly as it sounds. How many hotels who want their staff to show love to the guests teach them how to love themselves first? It is pointless simply telling staff, "You must love yourself first." That achieves little or nothing. But we could teach them easy 3-minute meditations that will touch their heart and develop the feeling of love for oneself. This will start to changing the thought -energy and vibrations that they send out. There is nothing strange about this. You must have gone into a room before and felt positive or negative about the room or people without knowing why. We sometimes feel that the other person is not 'vibing' with us. This is because thoughts are simply vibrating energy ,infact the whole body is made of energy and one can influence the body's energy field to create a loving guest experience . But it has to start from the top management belief and that means do we should have love, compassion and care as part of our mission statement and then use these concepts in the service design .
How do we do this:

• To take this forward we should employ the right kind of music, stories , incidents and combinations of these with certain 5-minute meditations to reach the hearts of the employees so that they want to show more love, care, warmth, empathy, and compassion.
• We can also create in employees a feeling of being so happy by practising showing gratitude with emotion in a certain way. It helps their positive emotiional state and will increase the desire to make people happy. We can have them spend 3-5 minutes doing this in a briefing before going out to serve guests.
• Employees often carry emotional baggage with them from home to work. We need to remove these negative energies in the pre -briefing sessions as worries and stresses cannot help the emloyee create a wonderful guest experience. There are simple 2 -3 minute meditations to stop negative thoughts.
• Another essential element is to change all of the SOP manuals so that they are aligned with the guest experience at the level of Spiritual Hospitality. Every step in each skill should include at least one of the core values that underpin the new vision statement.
• Example:"Address the guest in a heart-warming and caring tone with a warm smile and warm eye-contact that say, "I'm so pleased to see you." Soften your voice to make it sound warmer and let the person hear in the tone of your voice that you care from the heart. The guest will feel your warmth and respond to it. Your attitude and manner should be welcoming as this will make the guest feel happy."
• Teach and take sessions for employees on law of attraction from Rhonda Bryne's "Secret". "ask, believe, receive" — is the essence of the Law of Attraction.
• Make the employees perform the SOP's at100% efficiencybut add the spice of the 'serve love' porgram
• Empathy is an important quality to develop in the employees because the guest experience will require employees to be able to read and understand the guests intuitively, and to show that they are in-tune with them
• Developing the intuition of the employees supports the development of empathy, and is a very important part of service at the level of creating truly memorable experiences and beyond because it increases the employee’s feeling about the guests, and enables them to know what they should do to make each guest happy. By developing their intuition and by encouraging employees to use it, to act upon their feelings, and to show empathy with compassion, they will create more varied memorable experiences
• Another element to add to this service is mystery or magic where guest should feel that the employees are reading their minds and know what they like and want. This can be developed with the development of intuition.

To summarize this, we can change the guest experience by the way we develop the spiritual values and elements of the guest experience. There is some work being done on this by Peter Macalpine in Thailand and in the west but we are in a better position to embrace this as Indians we are taught spirituality and values from young and understand the nuances of Dharma and Karma.

This is a wonderful pyramid I use to plan my life goals many times. Every once in a 8 year period which is the so called significant 'installments' of life ( 8yrs, 16 yrs, 24 yrs, 32 yrs,40 yrs and so on) you are stuck without a plan and you are clueless where you are heading ,what are you doing and actually what is the purpose of everything. Don't get me wrong -I am far from being philosophical or idealistic but I always seem to have the inquisitive twist of a conscience which urges me to reach the deepest levels and make everything I do and stand for meaningful, at least for me-which is most important! Aristotle said "happiness depends on ourselves". Nothing can be truer. Happiness is a choice you are making every time. Likewise, living a life plan is a choice. The other choice is to 'ride the wave' and take it as events are offering you. "The greatest revolution in our generation is the discovery that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives"- William James.

Sometimes, once in a while you can invert the pyramid and start from 'what I need to do' and get answers for -Why we exist. Does this sound complicated? Ponder on the pyramid and fit answers and you will see a clear path ahead. Every time I do this I feel like I am travelling in a hazy cloud and then I am suddenly out of the cloud and into bright sunlight and every thing is so clear including the tiny droplets of dew on the leaves and the rings of fire around the sun and the cumulus clouds lazily floating about. I can feel all my senses ready to go as if I got up from the deepest and most restful slumber and I can hear everything so clearly including the gurgling of the faraway streams and the birds playfully chirping and competing with the crickets and the smell of the first monsoon mist.

Some of us get this feeling after a glass beer too !!!:)))

 

 

Introducing the TOP 10 Most Tasty cuisines in the world on a lunch buffet at Garden Café’ in Radisson GRT Chennai inspired by sheer gluttony.

 

I just love the concept of ‘eating the globe’. It’s a challenge to make menus from 10 cuisines in vegetarian and non-vegetarian everyday and that too with authentic recipes and that means -authentic ingredients and that means- a lot of research for the Chef. I am sure eating this food would re-kindle appetites and desires to go to places far and wide because they do good “BBQ’ or to eat awesome kunipaniyarams. I also hope this make you really , really hungry.

 

MY TOP 10 ‘all time’ Favorite foods:

 

Nasi Goreng ( Indonesian fried rice)

Pad Thai ( Thai fried noodles –street food)

Chapa Pulusu or Vepudu ( Andhra fish curry)

Crab biryani

Lebanese Mezze ( Hummus, Pita, Baba Ganoush, Falafel & Dolmas)

Spaghetti Al Aglio Olio Peppernchino ( Italian)

Seafood Sushi ( Japanese)

Sichuan noodles with veg manchurian ( Indian Chinese)

Burritos ( Mexican)

Smoked Salmon and cream cheese sandwich

Worst food – some heresay

Braised dog ( Korean)

Stir fried rats ( Chinese)

Cod Sperm Sushi (  Japanese)

Rotten shark Meat ( Iceland)

Blood pudding ( UK)

Camel Foetus ( Middle east)

 

 

 

 

FAVORITE WATCH IN MY COLLECTION –NOW A COLLECTORS PIECE !!

The Omega Seamaster Professional Diver has been worn by Daniel Craig in his first Bond movie Casino Royale. He chooses the stainless steel full size with blue face, blue bezel on a stainless steel bracelet - model 2220.80.00.

- Automatic Co-Axial movement
- Official chronometer
- 41mm
- 300 meter / 1000ft water-resistant
- Screw-in crown
- Stainless steel case and bracelet
- Helium escape valve - Uni-directional rotating bezel
- Non slip screw-locked case-back
- Domed scratch-resistant sapphire crystal with anti-refelctive treatment
- BLUE dial decorated with wave motif
- Stainless steel case and bracelet with deployant security clasp

Omega has been associated with James Bond movies since 1995. That year, Pierce Brosnan took over the role of James Bond and began wearing the Omega Seamaster Quartz Professional (model 2541.80.00) in the movie Golden Eye. In all later films, Brosnan wore an Omega Seamaster Professional Chronometer (model 2531.80.00). The producers wanted to update the image of the fictional "super-spy" to a more distinctly sophisticated "Euro" look.
In 1999, with the successful development of Calibre 2500, Omega made history by introducing the first mass-produced watch incorporating the co-axial escapement — invented by English watchmaker George Daniels. Considered by many to be one of the more significant horological advances since the invention of the lever escapement, the co-axial escapement functions with virtually no lubrication, thereby eliminating one of the shortcomings of the traditional lever escapement. Through using radial friction instead of sliding friction at the impulse surfaces the co-axial escapement significantly reduces friction, theoretically resulting in longer service intervals and greater accuracy over time. On January 24, 2007 Omega unveiled its new Calibres 8500 and 8501, two co-axial (25,200 bph) movements created exclusively from inception by Omega.

Watches of James Bond
One of the finest Bond gadgets that one can own is of course a wristwatch. Below you can find a list of the watches that were featured in the movies.

Rolex Submariner
From Russia With Love (1963)
Rolex Submariner
Goldfinger (1964)
Rolex Submariner
Thunderball (1965)
Rolex SubmarinerBreitling Top Time
You Only Live Twice (1967)
Rolex Submariner
On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)
Rolex Submariner 5513 / Rolex Chronograph 6238
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
Rolex Submariner
Live And Let Die (1973)
Pulsar LED / Rolex Submariner 5513
The Man With The Golden Gun (1974)
Rolex Submariner 5513
The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)
Seiko 0674 LC
Moonraker (1979)
Seiko M354 Memory-Bank Calendar
For Your Eyes Only (1981)
Seiko H357 Duo DisplaySeiko 7549-7009
Octopussy (1983)
Seiko TV Watch / G757 Sports 100
A View To A Kill (1985)
Seiko
The Living Daylights (1987)
Rolex Submariner 16800/168000
Licence To Kill (1989)
Rolex Submariner 16800/168000
GoldenEye (1995)
Omega Seamaster 2541.80
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
Omega Seamaster
The World Is Not Enough (1999)
Omega Seamaster
Die Another Day (2002)
Omega Seamaster
Casino Royale (2006)
Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean

Omega Seamaster Diver 300M-------MY FAV WATCH
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean 600M

Sowmya got herself a new haicut. Kinda cute :)

Hotel GM Tales

Talking about feedback systems and how they can influence repeat visits and mainly how they can have an impact on the perceptions of new guests looking at this feedback on sites like the Tripadvisor, ignoring negative guest comments won't make them go away and your future guests are reading them. I make it a point to log in as a management representative and respond positively to the feedback and offer solutions of service recovery if it is needed. This is so very important as future guests are looking at how we deal with complaints. We need to be proactive and take the complaints seriously to make an impression on our levels of guest service perceptions. I think many people simply want a hotel to recognize a problem and then, do something about it. The bottomline is there is a terrific returns if we can invest time and resources in following feedback on such sites.

Hotel GM's Tales

 

Phew! Exciting day today !! Got to welcome the entire Indian Cricket team . They are staying in the hotel on transit to Sri Lanka. Most interesting character was Shrreshant sporting a big complicated tattoo on his forearm. Yuvraj and Raina as usual were spritely and were upto monkey tricks. Sachin was awe inspiring but Dhoni bhai was the best. His wife Sakshee is so charming and pleasant and both seemed very happy. We are the first hotel to host them after the marriage and so the official Honeymoon hotel .... Ofcourse the usual : a girl went up to Shreeshant's room and my security followed but Shreeshant let her in !!! The crowd in the lobby went crazy when Yuvi and Raina came down to dine at their fav restaurant The Great Kebab Factory. Ofcouse , Sachin could not come down as he would have been mobbed and ordered Inroom dining of a large bowl of Chic corn soup and a Thigh cut of Tandoori chicken. Murali Vijay is smart and really worked out but the fiittest among the lot is Dravid. A cricketer and a gentleman. All our staff were in full attendance and the Guest relations girls were fighting and doing duty rsoters who should garland Yuvi and Sachin , Mahi and Dravid. The waiters were so excited they kept dropping the wellcome drinks. Hope they win their matches after the auspicious start at Radisson GRT welcomed by yours sincerely.

 

All the best boys ...come back with laurels and congrats Dhoni. I must say your choice for a wife was good and hope you have a great time in Sri Lanka.

 

Hotel GM's tales !

So weird !

Somestimes a job of a general manager is so exasperating. Can you
believe that a guest complains against a hotel and started making a
scene in the lobby because a frustrated ( I presume) guy with a couple
of beers down his gut and wanting to excrete some of it , suddenly
decides to shake hands with a lady, s derierre -you don't get it -
backside-ok dude ,I dint want to be gross -arse ,on his way to the
gents !!!
The lady 's husband held us responsible. I am goin to have a bad
headache !!!!!

Every Hotel should have an USP

Don't you agree that every hotel and the products in the hotel should have a unique selling proposition ? a differntiator which makes you stand apart from the competition . I feel this is so improtant in todays clutter of services and hotels ever so the guest is becoming very discerning and has a wider choice than a few years ago. Radisson Hotel GRT Chennai has a positioning as a 5 star business hotel but the USP we are projecting is to 'enter the peaceful oasis -a home away from home' after a hard day's work. We support this USP with the long drive- in surrounded by gardens and a unique architecture which is not the usual multistoreyed 5 star buildings. We turned this into an advantage by positioning which was considered an disadvantage earlier ! We also have projected the hotel as a 'lifestyle' hotel which defines the way you live. 5 star and any luxury business is always aspirational and need to touch the chord of emotion which masages the ego and put the user on a unique position everytime he comes in contact with the brand. So, the spa, the state of the art fitness studio , tea lounge, Club lounges etc add to the life style experience . Similary services are designed to break the mould and stand out everytime. Can be copied by competition very fast but the challenge is to innovate and get into the 'blue ocean' everytime. We get noticed when we offer BOB the fish as a dinner companion for single diners, we get positive comments on the complimentart Apana foot ritual we offer for the jet lagged travellers and many more such small but significant differentiators the creative team comes up with all the time.

A Hotel General Manager's tales

Guests are Gods

Employees are Angel

It all started when as a small impressionable boy I entered a 5 star hotel to be wowed by the sight of pretty ladies with very low waist-ed saris smiling as though have no worries in the world and the gentlemen in smart dark suits strutting very businesslike not aware of the great ambience surrounding them but are out to accomplish something big. I could feel the luxury and the glamour shaking hands everywhere. The extraordinary food was served in exquisite crockery and eaten with stylish cutlery and the imaginary crumbs dusted off the lips with the finest feel linen napkins. The crystal glasses were filled with blood colored wine and light caught the glint in the crystal cuts of the glasses when lifted for a sip. The light banter, the clicking of glasses and occasional sighs of satiety all enveloped by soothing live music created an urge in me to become part of this one day. And so be it, I joined the Institute of hotel management in Bangalore to graduate as an hotelier keen to enter the world of hospitality.

My journey took me through a lot of trials and tribulations and through some of the best hotel brands and locations and experiences from downright gross to fabulous managers and leaders who influenced my thinking and my doing.

I am the General Manager of a luxury hotel now. My friends are celebrities and I dine and drink the best available Bassa fish and new world wines. I get yelled by guests on some days and appreciated on most. I entertain the best looking people in the world. I preside over employee nervous breakdowns and sit judgment on the tardiest affairs as part of my daily routine. I work hard and long hours when others are partying and sleep the rest of the time. I live like a rock star but get paid less than a waiter!

When I am not occupied with these pursuits I am doing strategy implementation, revenue management, business development, calculating returns on employed capital, creating unique guest experiences, negotiating with vendors, having debriefing meetings with the sales team , debating on operational excellence with process leaders, discussing CAGR with the accountants, working with the local community on child projects, creating a strong culture in the hotel and sometimes watching movies which are a passion. Read on and discover the fabulous and zany experiences and life of a hotel manager.

The hospitality business is based on 2 very important aspects: Guests –because of who the hotels exist and

Employees - because of whom the guests come back.

So, my philosophy and beliefs are built on; for the first part on the traditional Indian cultural ethos where the Guests are Gods – ‘Athitho Devo Bahva’ and the second part on my experiences and experiments with managing hotels where the Employees are Angels. Hospitality is all about people and understanding emotions that drive people and service is integral to the very essence of hoteliering.

Thus, I am going to title my experiments with hotel leadership as :

Guests Are Gods

Employees Are Angels

This clearly brings into focus the importance of people in making hotels successful. I am not a management guru or on any stretch of imagination an exponent of forward thinking.

One bright day when I was having lunch in the hotel I was managing in Bangalore I got a call from Chennai from Mr Kylasam , Ex.director of the GRT hotels and Resorts . He told me that a vacancy arose in the Radisson GRT hotel in Chennai for a General Manager and if I am interested I could apply for it and this was a message from Mr. G Rajendran who was the chairman of the GRT Group of companies. What followed was a reluctant catharsis from a comfort zone to explore a career with an International branded hotel owned by one of the most trusted south Indian brands GRT .

When I took over the 101 rooms Hotel operations in 2004 the hotel was positioned as an airport hotel, not clear if it was playing the 4 star field or the 5 star. Consequently, the average room rates were 4 star. The restaurants and the bar were also getting footfalls from around the vicinity and rarely saw a vibrant hotel lobby. When I had the first meeting with the process leaders and the heads of departments they were satisfied with the status quo. Someone told me that the hotel was doing well for an airport hotel considering the location from down town. I could have settled down to a mundane process of day to day operations, satisfied. Perhaps, I could have believed that we were doing the best we could do. This happens too often when we don’t look at the big picture and see an opportunity for change. The gradual change for the worse gets unnoticed in the humdrum of daily small accomplishments. We are happy because one of the 40 guests who checked out today gave us a ‘good’ score on our feedback system.

So, when do we need to sit up and realize we need Change ? Why do we need change in the first place ? What level of change is necessary to make us market leaders ? What hotel companies should we benchmark against ? Should we benchmark against only hotel companies? How will we make this change? What are the risks involved in change ? Is it change for the sake of change or is it to take the hotel forward so that it improves the lives of people involved ?

One usual day I was taking a walk in the heart of the house of the hotel. I could see my employees working hard in all areas. I thought to myself: Did they do that because they saw me or is it because they feared the supervisor? Why should they work hard if they are not recognized for their contribution?

Thus began the incredible journey which transformed the way of working teams to create a unique differentiator which proved successful in recording phenomenal growth, increased guest satisfaction and earned us many awards and accolades in the following years.

The inspiration came from the book Whale Done by Ken Blanchard. This is a book which tells a story of Shamu the killer whale and how with positive reinforcement was tamed to perform in the San Diego Water World park.

I bought 15 of these books and presented them to all my heads of departments and executives in leadership roles with large spans of control. I told them that we will discuss the essence of the message and how we could implement it in our environment to motivate the employee through recognition and positive reinforcement.

Employee of the Moment program was born out if this endeavor. The program revolves around catching the employee doing the ‘right things’ and recognizing them on the spot. The positive actions or behaviors were designed from the “ Yes I Can’ philosophy of guest service advocated by the Radisson Brand in their hotels worldwide. I will talk about this philosophy in length later on. The recognition can come from peers, employees from support or allied departments or supervisors, managers or any employee of the hotel. For want of a good name for this we called it “Bravos” and designed a card which could be handed over to the employees on the spot with the ‘good behavior’ recorded on the bravo. The information was consolidated on a format which was displayed boldly on all departmental bulletins. We devised a reward pattern depending on the number of bravos collected. To our great surprise and delight the response was hugely enthusiastic and overwhelming. Employees were ying to earn more bravos and kindle their deep need to be recognized. At this point, I want to cross reference the Gallup study on Employee Engagement and satisfaction of several thousands of organizations in various fields. One of the most important need of any employee engagement was recognition and the need to belong even more than money and perks.

In a short time I could see the results of a motivated team brought

about by this program. The guest satisfaction scores increased and reports of service excellence was being reported on a daily basis. I could not leave the program without taking it forward now. There was immense pressure to structure the program to make it transparent and easy to implement and monitor. Again, as it will become a practice later on in all the breakthrough initiatives in the hotel, the leadership committee met and brainstormed the alternatives and options. What emerged was a the Employee of the Moment program. This program extended its scope by recognizing the highest bravo ‘stars’ of functional departments every week by inviting them to have Breakfast with the GM (me) in the Hotel’s Coffee shop where a sumptuous “Radisson Super Buffet Breakfast’ was laid out and served by the restaurant stewards and supervisors. The ‘stars’ were infused with great pride to sit for the first time in a restaurant on the same table as the GM and served by their fellow employees as the guests are served. This had a fantastic effect on the morale and was infectious to the point that all the employees were aspiring to this treat. Another point scored in the success scorecard of “Recognition”. The program slowly evolved further and extended the scope into other programs like the Employee of the month. Employees with the highest bravo from every department were selected for this award. The Employee of the month awards were given out in the “Open House” town hall meetings to make it as public as possible. Every winner was exalted by the departmental heads and the ‘behaviors’ behind the bravos explained to all. The heroes were treated to many gifts including a special off day with movie tickets and a pizza lunch at a pizzeria. At the end of the year all the Employee of the month winner applied to win the most coveted “Employee of the year” award which was through a selection process by a committee of departmental heads and the final round decided with vote by the entire hotel . There were view points that this process would not reward the ‘best’ employee but the most popular employee. The point most were forgetting is that the employees like to align to the best performing who has an influence on them. And my point was that if the winner had an impact and influence on most of the employees he will also have a great effect on the guest focus areas. The surprise most of the years was that the winner of Employee of the Year were from heart of the house functions like Kitchen stewarding Asst or a Chef which further strengthened my belief that the best influencer of people and not the best salesman is the best performer in any service industry and especially in hospitality which is a people’s business.

At this point I also want to tell you we that did have our share of doubters and the “not possiblers” in the process towards structuring and implementing the program. Fortunately, for this initiative and most others we had small catalysts who brought about the major changes. These were people from within, most of the times or ideas from successful hotels. Other times, I borrowed breakthrough practices from international and local brands. I was not shying away from copying best practices and adapting it to our environment and requirements.

It was a positive start and the employees through out the hierarchy were accepting me as a leader who is making a difference. They were excited by the immediate tangible results. This was very important for me if I needed to influence a wider span in a shorter time span. This also taught me a lesson on implementing Change. Always, start with a small initiative and make sure that it is successful and touches the most people in the organization to catapult the process of the Change movement.

I like to narrate a moving story supporting the success of this program. Naresh, ( name changed) a dish washer in the kitchen stewarding team sent me an SMS asking for an appointment to talk to me one day. I called for him and he broke down uncontrollably in my office. He told me that he was having a lot of domestic problems with his wife and his brother cheated him off his ancestral share of property. He was in debts as he had started a business and his partner and his best friend misappropriated finances and absconded. He lost faith in people and was under terrible mental stress and could not sleep several nights. He chose to do continuous shifts to enjoy the food in the staff cafeteria and sleep in the locker and get away from relatives. He started getting bravos for his industriousness and for excellent support to the restaurant and kitchen team during peak periods. He was recognized and felt elated having breakfast with the GM in the restaurant and went on to win the Employee of the month and the popularity among the employees. At this point he told me that he was planning a suicide and had reached a ‘no return point’ and his self esteem had completely eroded. The bravos brought on a sense of achievement and returned his self respect and brought him out of depression. He started solving his problems with his wife and life improved. He claimed that this program saved his life !

(will continue....)

Hotel Trends

Energy Spa Terms such as ‘pranas’, ‘chakras’ and ‘grey cell boosters’ are widely searched. This indicates the growing preference for the growth of ‘energy medicine’ industry as part of the hospitality sector. This means that cleaning up the body’s energy will become a primary area of focus for spas that promote body-mind-spirit balance. Practitioners of such energy based healing traditions are going to be in great demand. SpaFinder statistics indicate that there are 2,300 Indian spas which actually generate $384 million as annual income. Spa trends across the globe are worth analyzing.
Mini-treatments such as five minute chair massages are growing in popularity as guests are increasingly aware about stress reduction. So, hoteliers are keen to help their guests relax by offering spas that focus on transforming their tired energy into vibrant, dynamic energy by using the right techniques.
An interesting example is Florida’s Mind Spa Mental Fitness Center, where ‘brain work-outs’ are a popular workout. Through computer stations that feature scientifically developed brain exercises as well as biofeedback segments, there are even Neurowave chairs that help to stimulate brain function. This exercise also helps to prevent memory loss and overcome disorders that are age-related or memory related disorders.

summer holiday in Bheemeswari fishing camp

Had a couple of blissful days at the GRT nature trails Skyroca resort in Yercaud. We got these fabulous rooms with a glass floor which had a scary view of the valley below, It was like hanging in mid air . Ramya freaked out and slept on it the whole night. As if this shocker was not enough we had to have a shower with a glass floor !. Kind of strange feeling undressing and washing with a view of the valley down and the hairpin bends with the traffic. Sowmya was concerned a little if anyone can go down to the rocks and look up !! The food was good and maybe tasted better in a place where you don't have much else to do. We did the usual routine of going the Shevaroys Temple, pagoda ! point (crappy dirty place), children seat ( nice view of the resort from here) etc. The rose garden was pretty good and we could checkout some great looking plants.

The next day we had a reservation in the jungle lodges at Bheemeshwari fishing camp on the banks of river cauvery. Sowmya , Ramya, Usha and I got a little adventurous and Googled a route from Salem to the Jungle lodges instead of taking a safe route from Bangalore to the fishing camp via the Kanakapura road. We started off quite well and plotted the route on my new IPhone Maps and reached Pennagaram. Thereafter the tracker went crazy and was taking us where there are no roads! We reached anchetty through rough tracks along hoggenegal and finally reached Anchetty after many misses and re tracking. thereafter we had to go to kodi halli which we pronounced wrong every time as the villagers were correcting us every time we asked and we gave up:( . At last after going through great hills and vales and ghats (awesome views) and many misses we reached our destination.

We realized there was no mobile signal of any operator ! and were informed proudly by the forest rangers that we are the only occupants of the 40 acres jungle resort for the next 2 days! It was kinda eerie !! . We were allotted ( or choose) the best log huts just on the banks of the river. Very excited:)) Amazing views of the hills and the river and the jungles across. We saw lots of monkeys prancing around. We were offered a ride on the coracle on the river and caught the sunset which was Gods nature at its best hues. Later we 'joy' fished . Most juvenile & retarded activity. As the sun set on us we were led to a bon fire specially lit for us and a BBQ ! Is this luxury ? Followed by some tasty home co oked food and we went back to our log huts. We waited and chatted to midnight as it was Ramya's birthday the next day and we wanted to wish her.

At about 3 pm the electricity switches off ! Bloody hell! Usually I am a brave guy but middle of the forest in a log hut and errie sounds of animals scampering and grunting and the wood creaking was like a scene out of a horror movie. But then the lights came back and we got up to a forest rangers wake up call with bed coffee at 6 am. Who the hell still has bed coffee ?? crazy british habit!

We got ready for a trek and were offered a 'hard' trek to scale a vertical hill or a nature walk in the Jungles. Though I wanted to choose the 'hard' trek the softees with me made me choose the nature walk. We saw deer, wild boar running through bushes and supposedly elephant and bear paw marks. Came back to a hearty breakfast and felt like the old time Maharajah during hunts.

The rest of the day was spent fooling around in the nets tied around trees and tree ladders and eating at regular intervals followed by the evening BBQ and dinner yet again.

The next day was more leisurly as we did not want to do the dumb treks for the animals to see us and in the evening we went on a Jeep safari into the jungle . It was an ecstastic experience as we got mobile signal and we were back in touch with sms pouring in and calls coming in. We were driven to a view point and saw the Cauvery river in full glory and also the sun set. It was etheral , like a huge canvas painting.

The next day we drove back to Bangalore which is an 2 hours drive on NH 209 and hit the Pizza Hut like addicts deprived of basic needs!!

Overall a nice holiday where we relaxed and still had adventure. The best part was the drive from yercaud to Bheemeshwari !! Highly recommended !!!!