Keynote Address to MBA – Hospitality students of Anna University

Keynote Address to MBA – Hospitality students of Anna University

Respected Vice Chancellor, Dr Suganthi, Dr Hansa, dignitaries off the Dias and friends -(pause)- happy morning. I am very excited to be here today to inaugurate the Xenia 11 with a keynote. I am also excited to be here in the Anna University –one of the best universities in the country and globally. I have visited Cornell, Yale and the Nanyang in Singapore but this is the first time I am in the Anna University. (pause) I am also excited to be here with all the enthusiastic participants who have taken the step to showcase and learn management skills in hospitality. You deserve a round of applause. Clap.

I am going to introduce a concept in the next 10-15 minutes which is peculiar to the hospitality. This is HQ.

All of you are aware that we have had a couple of rough years the past 2 years due to the economic downturn. Hospitality was not spared. The bright side is that during these times the consumers needs change and if we can spot the opportunities we come up with winner. Some of the iconic companies like Disney, GE, Hewlet Packard and Ritz Carlton were founded during downturns.

Though hospitality is part of the wide service industry, service and hospitality are two different things. Service describes the degree to which you have technically delivered a promise. Hospitality describes how you make the recipient of the service feel. It is measured by the degree to which the recipient feels you are on their side.

Hospitality requires human beings with special emotional skills. A couple of decades ago IQ formed the basis of success and later EQ was introduced as a fundamental for success as it dealt with interpersonal relationship skills. Hospitality requires a special quotient called the hospitality quotient or HQ. People with high HQ have skills like kindness, curiosity, empathy, focus, perseverance, clear and compelling vision, passion, pride and performance excellence besides basic competencies like communications etc. Hoteliers have come to realize this now more than ever that the quality of workforce is the key differentiator and are ramping up their recruitment and retention strategies.

It brings to my mind the lesson I learnt at a very young age when I visited a village near Guntur. The local Pehalwan used to teach the budding wrestlers and one of the exercises was to catch hens left lose in a pen. The boys used to run around and find it very difficult and keep shifting hens. . The pehalwan’s advise was : never change your hen, you can change your tactic, you can change your method but don’t change your hen. This was a lesson in focus and perseverance to goals. Never change your target or goal ever.

In 1963 a set of scientists did a study on the class at Harvard on goal setting. They found out that only 3 percent of the class had written down goal and 97 % had goals in their mind or not al all. After 25 years the same set were researched and it was found that the 3% with written goals had a net worth more that the 97% of the class and were most successful. Go down and write your goal down today. This clear and compelling vision for a future works.

Perseverance is a virtue with high achievers. How many of you like cricket? On 24th February’2010 Sachin Tendulkar scored a double hundred in an ODI for the first time by anyone. This has happened after 2900 ODI matches. Everyone including the news media was in raptures. Who knew the story of perseverance of the little master. In December 1989 , in the debut series of Sachin in the 4th Test match he came in at 4th wicket when India was 58 for 3 . He was 16 years old with curly hair and a frail physique. Waqar Younis was his at his best and bowled a short ball and injured Sachin and his nose started bleeding. The physio rushed in and the runner Sidhu advised him to retire hurt. Sachin was annoyed with this and took a stand “Main Keleega” (I will play) and went on to score 57 runs and put up a match winning partnership with Sidhu of 100 runs. This is what separates mere mortals from champions. The mental strength and attitude of the winner is the factor which brings out the best even though you have talent.

For years now businesses globally are using the marketing mix as a fundamental approach in marketing to gain market share and differentiate with the competition. Informally it is know as the “4 p” concept and later developed to 7 Ps. This is product, place, price and promotion. Most of these traditional P variables are defunct today due to the technology progress and changes in the business patterns. These P variables have a different perspective for a high touch industry like the hospitality.

Last year, I was to go to New York for the Radisson’s global conference and since I was going to New York I wanted to watch a Broadway show. I researched the internet and bought tickets for Mama Mia which is a smash hit show running to full houses from 2001 in the Winter garden theatre. I paid $ 110 for mid section seating. The day I landed in New York there was a snow blizzard and the entire city was shut. Anyways since I spent the money I went to the theatre and was amazed to see the welcome with hot chocolate. Unfortunately there were hardly 100 people in an 1000 capacity auditorium ! I was led to the front rows and thereafter got to see a smashing performance of almost 50 actors supported by the others.
That’s where I got the taste of the new perspective to marketing strategy and the 4 p’s.
I saw professionalism-the first P. First of all, the show could have been cancelled due to the poor attendance but they ensure that the show went on. Secondly, they offered us the front rows when they had an opportunity to delight. Second P was the passion: We saw pure passion of every cast member when they performed their roles even to such a small audience. Pride: Every person connected to the show from the ushers to the cast was so proud that they belonged to the company and we could make out their attitude and finally performance excellence: They did the entire 2 ½ hour show with the breaks and everything as they normally do. This is what is necessary to stand apart from competition and differentiate you and this can be done only by a team with high HQ.

I conclude my keynote and wish you a fruitful day of learning and a future where you will develop the HQ to be successful in your ventures.