A reminder to us all from HospitalityEducators.com: PAY IT FORWARD all year! Reflections – People Who Make A Difference

As hoteliers and restaurateurs, we are involved in our communities as service providers, active citizens, employers, tax payers, and more.

Hotels are open 24/7, 365 days per year.   Most restaurants (in hotels or freestanding) usually serve at least 2 meals per day and are open on most holidays and days when other businesses may have the opportunity to allow their staff family time.

The title of this blog is PAY IT FORWARD all year!     As active members of the hospitality industry, many of us participate in a number of community goodwill services.   We share quality but unsold prepared food with food banks and shelters.  We recycle our linens to charities that find people who can use them.   Rather than make a little change, we will donate the furniture that has been replaced during renovations to a range of services that uses them productively.   We and our staff volunteer in our community.

The end of the year holidays always generate news stories and this year is no different.

This short article is not political and there is no hidden message in it.

2014 has not been a good year for law enforcement officers, as noted in this 2 minute CBS Sunday morning report from 12/14.   The following video shares a variation on a theme we have heard for years- Secret Santa – and how it represented a way for a sampling of the overwhelming numbers of good officers who are never in the news to help share.

The message is self explanatory and the need is year round.    We encourage everyone in hospitality to continue what you already do and see if you can expand it by 10% in 2015.

If you are just getting started, see what your own staff and local local community needs and act accordingly.

The message is not about Santa or just giving money – the intent of this anonymous donor is to get everyone reaching out and talking again with each other.

Hospitality.jpg

Kathleen Hogan Ireland Sept 2013John Hogan Sept 2013DSCN0215Dr. John Hogan CHA CMHS CHE CHO and Kathleen Hogan MBA CHO are the co-founders of  HospitalityEducators.com, which was created in 2010 to be a resource for hotel owners and professionals as they sought to improve market share, occupancy, operational efficiency and profitability.  The husband and wife team are transitioning the original membership site concept and evolving the business model today to a focused resource offering consulting, training, and individualized support to both hospitality and other service businesses.   Services include keynote addresses workshops, online support, metrics measurement, marketing and customer service from a group of more than a dozen experienced professionals.   While continuing to serve hospitality, the demand for these types of services is growing and can be personalized.

John Hogan is also the principal of HoganHospitality.com, which provides a range of expert professional services for hotel owners, including professional development for organizations, training, consulting and expert witness services.

Contact information:  Kathleen Hogan  480-436-0283, John Hogan 602-799-5375 or  service@hospitalityeducators.com

The Practical Side of SWOT : HospitalityEducators.com changes Business Model #1 | A statement of teaching philosophy

HospitalityEducators.com changes Business Model #1

  A statement of teaching philosophy

HospitalityEducators.com was created in 2010 to be a resource for hotel owners and professionals as they sought to improve market share, occupancy, operational efficiency and profitability.

The original business model we used was that of a membership organization, and our success included readers and members from all six continents and more than 50 countries.   When we evaluated our progress in our business plan mid -year, we realized that our business model was becoming more like a magazine which had never been our intent.

The annual SWOT analysis showed us that we were not focusing on what had been our passion and goals, so we elected to move our business model from the membership site to a resource for both hospitality and other service businesses.

This is the 1st of 3 explanations of how our business model is evolving over the next several months.

Our strengths include a network of professionals who have interacted with and assisted a number of service businesses through teaching and training.  To that end, we are pleased to share

A statement of teaching philosophy for HospitalityEducators.com

tech

 

Our philosophy of teaching includes fostering self-instruction, formulating questions rather than just giving answers and establishing high expectations. Professors have limited capacity to teach students anything – they primarily motivate students to teach themselves. Our principal pedagogical role is to help students learn how to search for a complete answer as we work through the question-and-answer process of real world scenarios. Our goal is to stimulate active learning and acceptance with the idea that being “wrong” is part of learning. 

teach“There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.”

Peter Drucker (1909-2005),  Author  

Our role as the instructor is not only a source of knowledge, but also a source of support and an avenue for other resources. Students can expect that we are approachable, available to answer questions, and genuinely invested in their academic success.

“It’s not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”

Roy Disney, American Film Writer

We are firm believers in active learning, and we try to maintain a very interactive classroom. Teaching is not about lecturing to students; it is about presenting theories, concepts, and questions to students in ways they can incorporate into their own life experience or goals.teaching

It should be the goal of every student and professor to increase knowledge and understanding in both the classroom and the real world. Group interaction is an important part of learning, so that all parties share ideas, argue or validate them with others and practice teamwork as an important link in social and mental development.

real world 

“A company culture cannot be imposed or training classmandated. It must grow from within over a long period.”

Isadore Sharp, Founder Four Seasons Hotels

 

Teaching is an opportunity to inspire and empower.  Our teaching philosophy is based around concepts that bridge and link academic programs to real world situations.

 

  1. Strategic planning

continuos learning

  1. Continuous Learning

 

  1. Individualization      Achievement  in       “Real World” applications These real world scenarios offer solid and practical links to the academic work in      the class.

 Corporate Teaching Philosophy phi symbol

 “Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one.”      

Malcolm S. Forbes, Publisher, Entrepreneur (1919-1990)

The global community is changing at a record pace and recognizing and responding to emerging opportunities is critical.  Keeping focused on achieving agreed upon results requires open, honest, consistent and transparent communication.silver puzzle

The Founders of HospitalityEducators.com careers have always had strong ties to academic integrity, including service as an adjunct professor at different institutions.  Additional commitment to learning was delivered to other Institutes and Universities through research and recommendations on curriculum and program specifications for hospitality programs. 

Our role as corporate and academic educators in the business world has provided us with individuals who continuously challenge us to seek better and more effective ways to reach the desired goals.  We want to challenge others to likewise achieve more from themselves and from others.

As a teacher and as a business professional, one lesson learned from mentors was critical thinking.  In a world changing at incredible speeds, this competency is invaluable.   Interdisciplinary study lends itself to more creative thought development. 

“Success is the result of perfection, hard work, learning from failure, loyalty, and persistence.”                   

 Colin Powell, American Secretary of State

Defining Successsuccess

  1. Successful graduates of balanced programs learn certain academics but also have embraced the need to learn certain life lessons, such as the Seven Habits of Highly Successful People.
  2. Successful innovators and professionals need to develop strong competencies as a leader, a relationship builder, a problem solver and eventually a mentor.

As faculty members , the range of experience and exposure to the industry can be huge, especially if dealing with introductory courses. We set different learning objectives for the level of the course and the student likely to be taking it.

  1. to fully explore the range of career options available in the field of business
  2. to provide the appropriate level of information and tools needed to help in the student’s understanding of this class to the options available in business and/or hospitality
  3. to share real world experiences and examples by a professional who is passionate about what he does

‘It’s fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure.”

Bill Gates ,  Founder of Microsoft)

Blended Learning

Learning occurs as a progression but that process is not uniform with each student.  In our careers, we have come to the realization that students learn from us and from each other, but that we also learn from them in this fast-paced world. By sharing with them my teaching objectives and experience, students know that we are genuinely interested in them.

 

Expert professional training and consulting services for hotel owners.

Success does not come by accident or chance.

Contact us for assistance.

John.Hogan@HospitalityEducators.com or 602-799-5375

HospitalityEducators.com was created to help hospitality businesses address problems via a training and information resource site to help you increase your Hotel’s revenue, market share and profitability.  With more than 2,000 pages of tips, guides, best practices, strategies, plans, budgets, videos and resources, HospitalityEducators.com is the #1 independent website for hotel owners and managers.  This site can help you solve your problems now!      Read More  

KEYS TO SUCCESS  is the umbrella title for my ongoing programs, hospitality services and columns. This year’s writings focus on a variety of topics for hotel owners, managers and professionals including both my “HOW TO” articles, HOSPITALITY CONVERSATIONS™, Lessons from the Field™, Hotel Common Sense™ , THE P-A-R PRINCIPLE™  and Principles for Success.

Feel free to share an idea for a column at john.hogan@hospitalityeducators.com   anytime or contact me regarding consulting, customized workshops, speaking engagements … And remember – we all need a regular dose of common sense,


 Dr. John Hogan CHA CHE Oct 2010 MinneapolisJohn Hogan is a successful hospitality executive, educator, author and consultant and is a frequent keynote speaker and seminar leader at many hospitality industry events. He is CEO and Co-Founder of www.HospitalityEducators.com , which delivers focused and affordable counsel in solving specific challenges facing hospitality today.

www.HospitalityEducators.com  is a membership site offering a wide range of information, forms, best practices and ideas designed to help individual hoteliers and hospitality businesses improve their market penetration, deliver service excellence and increase their profitability.

www.HoganHospitality.com
Your Hospitality Resource for the Hotel Owner, Innkeeper, Manager and Hospitality Industry Associations.

Lessons on Understanding Culture | Recommended Reading from HospitalityEducators.com

download (1) by Kai Hammerich and  Richard D. Lewis

 For a number of years, I served as the Director of Education and Cultural Diversity for a large international company and this topic interested me.

The book is not long – 10 chapters in 3 main sections and a total of 300 pages, which is short for a book that seems to have university classes as a main target. It also has shorter topics that focus on short subjects, and the highlights and summaries give the book the attributes of a reference.

Fish Can’t See Water is based on the authors experiences and analizes international cultures on how businesses succeed or fail based on those cultures. I found it to be an extensive introduction to the end products of national culture on a number of the world’s larger private companies.

Fish Can’t See Water illustrates how the corporate culture of a business is joined to its failure or success. Having worked for both financially strong organizations with a positive sense of culture as well as others that have had tunnel vision, one can see differences in the long term productivity of these organizations. Ignorance of national values and culture is a road map to failure.

I found this book was relatively easy to read, but not in a single reading as one needs to assess the content.

Well done – thought provoking!

Dr. John Hogan CHA CHE CHO
HospitalityEducators
Hogan Hospitality

Hospitality.jpg

Kathleen Hogan Ireland Sept 2013John Hogan Sept 2013DSCN0215Dr. John Hogan CHA CMHS CHE CHO and Kathleen Hogan MBA CHO are the co-founders of  HospitalityEducators.com, which was created in 2010 to be a resource for hotel owners and professionals as they sought to improve market share, occupancy, operational efficiency and profitability.  The husband and wife team are transitioning the original membership site concept and evolving the business model today to a focused resource offering consulting, training, and individualized support to both hospitality and other service businesses.   Services include keynote addresses workshops, online support, metrics measurement, marketing and customer service from a group of more than a dozen experienced professionals.   While continuing to serve hospitality, the demand for these types of services is growing and can be personalized.

John Hogan is also the principal of HoganHospitality.com, which provides a range of expert professional services for hotel owners, including professional development for organizations, training, consulting and expert witness services.

Contact information:  Kathleen Hogan  480-436-0283, John Hogan 602-799-5375 orservice@hospitalityeducators.com