Keynote address for the ISES Industry Forum & Customer Satisfaction 2015 Results for the Tourism Industry

1. Middle Management in the Hospitality Business:
Road to Improved Customer Satisfaction
David L Jones, PhD
Professor and Programme Director –
Hospitality Business
Singapore Institute of Technology

2. Agenda
• Understanding Gen Y – Our future leaders …. middle
managers
• Changing expectations and/or perceptions ….
Hospitality Business
• Road to customer satisfaction improvement

4. Secret Formula
25 + 24 = 18

5. Secret Formula
25 + 24 = 18
Grandpa!!

7. Reality versus Expectation
Generation Gap

8. Baby Boomers

9. Gen Y

10. Change Expectation
or
Change Perceptions?

11. Traditional Baby-Boomer Values
• Long hours
• Pay your dues
• Do shift work
• Start with peeling potatoes and cutting carrots….
.. or making beds

12. Gen Y Perceptions
• Silicon Valley reality
• Start-up mentality
• Non-hoteliers success in hospitality

13. When Expectations and Perceptions Don’t Match
…. Middle Management Gap

14. Transitioning the Expectations
• No longer a trade or skill based industry….. now a
business …. a big business!
• Owners are financially focused
– Developers don’t call it a hotel, to them its an asset

15. Hospitality is Big Business

16. Who is in the Hospitality Business C-Suite?
• C-suite has changed …. where is the hotelier?
– Lawyer (Marriott)
– Finance (Hyatt – MBA, Hilton)
– Economics (IHG, FRHI)
• Not hospitality grads …. why not?

17. Who is in the Hospitality Business C-Suite?
• C-suite has changed …. where is the hotelier?
– Lawyer (Marriott)
– Finance (Hyatt – MBA, Hilton)
– Economics (IHG, FRHI)
• Not hospitality grads …. why not?
Answer: Teach Hospitality Business!!!

18. What is Hospitality Business?
Business is a system of
interconnected, interactive parts

19. Educational Pathway to Business
Operations Management Business

20. Changing Our Perception to
Hospitality Business

21. Fresh Grad

22. Fresh Grad

23. Future Leader …..

24. …. Middle Manager

26. SIT HB Degree Student Profile
• Average age = 22, which means they’ll be 24 or 25
when they graduate
• All will have at least 1 year of industry
internship/work experience, one already has 5 years
• Future will be more industry experience as older
students return for degrees
• Candidly, SIT grads will have more experience than
most faculty teaching them at other universities

27. Pathway to Middle Management
Operations Management Business
What? How? Why?
Subjective Objective

28. Middle Management Preparation
• Need to understand the business – business acumen
• Passion to follow the companies
• Understand the mindset of an owner
• Know how to defend customer service for profit

29. HB Graduate Characteristics
• Burning desire – passion for the industry
• Specialized knowledge
– Customer and ownership
• Goal orientated – have a vision
• Action orientated – willing to put theory into practice

30. They will be ready!

31. Take a Risk!
• Drop the fear of failure
• Give a transparent career path
• Empower the future leader …. soon to be middle
manager

32. Transparent Talent Management Process
Talent
acquisition
Talent
development
Talent
retention
Context
• Hospitality industry
• Employees vs employers
Malcolm Leong - Head, Revenue Management & Distribution,
Far East Hospitality Management

33. Transparent Talent Management Process
Talent
acquisition
Talent
development
Talent
retention
Context
• Hospitality industry
• Employees vs employers
Malcolm Leong - Head, Revenue Management & Distribution,
Far East Hospitality Management
Set a Timeline

34. RM Analyst Director RM
Vice President
of
Revenue
Optimization
Designing a Career Path –
Revenue Management Example
Doris Inkman, Regional Director of Revenue,
FHRI Hotels Asia Pacific

35. Road to Improved Customer Satisfaction
Filling the Middle Management Gap

36. The Service Profit Chain
Source: An exhibit from J. L. Heskett, T. O. Jones, W. E. Sasser, Jr., and L. A. Schlesinger, “Putting
the Service-Profit Chain to Work,” Harvard Business Review, March-April 1994, p. 166.

37. The Service Profit Chain and Middle
Management
Source: An exhibit from J. L. Heskett, T. O. Jones, W. E. Sasser, Jr., and L. A. Schlesinger, “Putting
the Service-Profit Chain to Work,” Harvard Business Review, March-April 1994, p. 166.
Middle Management Gap Business Acumen

38. Big, Global Business with Service at the Core
Hospitality Business Middle Management is Key

40. Facts About Gen Z – 1998 or later
• Can’t recall a time before Google
• Or smartphones
• Wear watches that’s primary function isn’t to tell
time
• Never had the feeling of holding a paper map in their
hands
• Favorite apps are Snapchat, vine and Instagram
• FOMO – Fear of Missing Out
Joe Mele, ehotelier.com