Recommended Reading- Historian Turkel reminds us how the past influences the future

This is  worth reading for a University class , or on understanding how the past influences the future

    Stanley Turkel has spent his career with a number of well-known companies in management roles. These include Loews, Sheraton and Americana. He consulted with Dunfey (now Omni) and found his permanent home in his favorite city – New York. Turkel is well-known in the hotel industry, from his writing, his hotel consulting practice, his expert witness service in hotel-related cases, as well as asset management and hotel franchising consultation. He is certified as a Master Hotel Supplier Emeritus by the Educational Institute of AH&LA.

At times, Stan can be sometimes controversial in his monthly editorials NOBODY ASKED ME, BUT… yet without a doubt he has left his mark on the industry with his insights, his shared knowledge, the questions he asks and in his writing.

Turkel loves to share insights and stories about the history of hospitality. He was designated as the Historian of the Year in both 2014 and 2015 by Historic Hotels of America, which is the official venue of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. This honor is presented to an individual for making a unique contribution in the research and presentation of hotel history and whose work has encouraged a wide discussion and a greater understanding and enthusiasm for American History.

I just finished a book I meant to read years ago and wish I had done so earlier. Great American Hoteliers: Pioneers of the Hotel Industry is a fascinating and interesting refresher of where much of our industry found its foundation.

At a time when the industry is soaring and ownership is as widespread as it has ever been, it is appropriate to look at where some of that success originated. Turkel considered 16 hospitality professionals he ranked as significant. Alphabetically, they are:

1. John Bowman – founder of the Biltmore Hotels brand

2. Carl Fisher – the developer of Miami Beach

3. Henry Flagler – the multi-industry entrepreneur who developed much of eastern Florida through railroads and hotels

4. John Q. Hammons – an early Holiday Inn franchisee who developed his own systems and destiny

5. Frederich Harvey – a turn of the century western developer who innovated national parks and service delivery

6. Ernest Henderson – a real estate developer who accidentally created the Sheraton Hotel brand and came to enjoy some of the facets of hospitality

7. Conrad Hilton – a name recognized by most, but with stories that are worth reading about how he came to unintentionally make hotels his niche

8. Howard Johnson – a restaurateur now mainly forgotten, but who made interstate food and lodging an essential part of American travel

9. J. Willard Marriott – the father of better known Bill Marriott, Jr, this pioneer had to be convinced to change his beliefs and switch from food service in many facets to hotels

10. K M Patel – one of the early innovators from India who found inn keeping as a bridge to success for his and many other Indian immigrants who found being a hotelier an honorable profession

11. Henry Plant – a lesser known developer who developed the Gulf Coast of Florida
12. George Pullman – not usually thought of as a hotelier, this innovator created hotels on wheels. This is a mixed story of success and unpleasant actions, in my estimation

13. A M Sonnanbend – creator of a family business that managed many of New York and America’s better known eastern hotels as well as creating several brands

14. Ellsworth Statler – I admit to a bias here, in that I know a great deal about one of the most innovative and creative hoteliers America has ever known. While he passed away in 1928, his legacy remains in construction, service, training, profitability, marketing and value for both guest and hotel owner.

15. Juan Trippe – known primarily as an airline executive, this Pan Am innovator partnered travel with both hotels and air travel

16. Kemmons Wilson – a construction builder, Wilson used his personal family travel challenges to create a family friendly hotel that grew to one of the world’s largest and best known brands

A book worth reading for a University level program, or for those who are looking to understand how the past influences the future.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

 

Comments and suggestions for future articles are always welcome john@hoganhospitality.com 

 

John J Hogan, CHA CMHS CHE CHO

Hotelier, Speaker, Educator, Author, Expert Witness

• Principal,  HoganHospitality.com   Expert Witness Services, Workshops, Consulting
•  Co-Founder & CLO, HospitalityEducators.com, Resources in Customer Services, Training, Marketing and Sales, Profitability
• Visit  johnjhogan.com for Coaching and Development

John@Hoganhospitality.com    Office 480-436-0283   Cell 602-799-5375

The Best Boutique Hotels In _______ / Are you getting tired of this heading?

I use a google search that uses the term “Boutique Hotel” because I have been retained to complete some research in recent months for a number of clients for a range of reasons. The number of “news” articles that lead off with this heading seems to be growing at an incredible pace. In reality, most of them are essentially PR promos.

My question is this- what do you at your property to make it special? Unique? Memorable?

Feel free to contact me if you could use an independent, 3rd party resource.

Comments and suggestions for future articles are always welcome john@hoganhospitality.com 

 

John J Hogan, CHA CMHS CHE CHO

Hotelier, Speaker, Educator, Author, Expert Witness

• Principal,  HoganHospitality.com   Expert Witness Services, Workshops, Consulting
•  Co-Founder & CLO, HospitalityEducators.com, Resources in Customer Services, Training, Marketing and Sales, Profitability
• Visit  johnjhogan.com for Coaching and Development

John@Hoganhospitality.com    Office 480-436-0283   Cell 602-799-5375

Click below for a fascinating look at one of the most successful of all American Hospitality businesses

Howard Johnson’s, Host of the Bygone Ways

Oct 6, 2017

For more than seven decades American roads were dotted with the familiar orange roof and blue cupola of the ubiquitous Howard Johnson’s restaurants and Motor Lodges.  The company’s founder and namesake was a grade school dropout who became a franchising pioneer and introduced the restaurant industry to centralized purchasing.  Johnson repeated his formula with motor lodges, creating one of the world’s largest hotel chains.

In 1965 Howard Johnson’s sales exceeded the combined sales of McDonald’s, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried Chicken.  By 1979 the “Host of the Highways” had become the largest hospitality company in America, with more than 1,000 restaurants and 500 motor lodges.  But the company saw a decline of its rule over the roadways in the 1970s after a series of events destroyed the company’s earnings.
cover photo courtesy Ben Schumin

 

https://sometimes-interesting.com/2017/10/06/howard-johnsons-host-of-the-bygone-ways/ 

 

Howard Johnson first became locally famous for his ice cream.  He claimed the secret recipe came from his mother, while other accounts suggests it came from William G. Hallbauer, a retiring German immigrant who had been selling ice cream from his horse and cart in the area at the turn of the century.  The ‘secret’ was to double the amount of normal butterfat, and to use only natural ingredients.  This created a premium ice cream that was an immediate sensation and earned Howard $60,000 in revenue from his first beachfront stand.

An image accompanying a 1948 newpaper article shows Howard Johnson’s 28 flavors at the time (source).

Additional flavors were added – 28 in all – as well as “frankforts,” a premium hot dog sandwich developed by Howard that was grilled in butter.  Johnson clipped the frankfurters at both ends and notched them lengthwise.  He used only the highest quality meats grilled in a creamy butter, and for buns he used lightly buttered and toasted fresh rolls.

By 1928 Howard Johnson was grossing $240,000 from his store and small network of beachfront ice cream and frankfort vendors.

[ Howard Johnson’s original 28 ice cream flavors:  Banana, Black Raspberry, Burgundy Cherry, Butter Pecan, Buttercrunch, Butterscotch, Caramel Fudge, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip, Coconut, Coffee, Frozen Pudding, Fruit Salad, Fudge Ripple, Lemon Stick, Macaroon, Maple Walnut, Mocha Chip, Orange-Pineapple, Peach, Peanut Brittle, Pecan Brittle, Peppermint Stick, Pineapple, Pistachio, Strawberry, Strawberry Ripple, Vanilla.

MORE DETAILS HERE
https://sometimes-interesting.com/2017/10/06/howard-johnsons-host-of-the-bygone-ways/ 

                 

 

 

Comments and suggestions for future articles are always welcome john@hoganhospitality.com 

 

John J Hogan, CHA CMHS CHE CHO

Hotelier, Speaker, Educator, Author, Expert Witness

• Principal,  HoganHospitality.com   Expert Witness Services, Workshops, Consulting
•  Co-Founder & CLO, HospitalityEducators.com, Resources in Customer Services, Training, Marketing and Sales, Profitability
• Visit  johnjhogan.com for Coaching and Development

John@Hoganhospitality.com    Office 480-436-0283   Cell 602-799-5375

Guest Blog – Jonathan Albano – Host of the Lodging Leaders Podcast; Tri-branded hotels change playing field

In this episode, you’ll hear from executives and managers at North Point Hospitality and First Hospitality Group of Chicago, which each opened a tri-branded hotel in the past 12 months. Is this email not displaying correctly? View it in your browser.

Nashville, Tennessee, is home to the country’s first tri-branded Marriott hotel. Developed by North Point Hospitality Group, the 470-room limited-service property consists of transient brands AC Hotel and SpringHill Suites, and Residence Inn, an extended-stay hotel. Located in downtown’s SoBro neighborhood where government offices are located, the $140 million complex is also across from Music City Center, a six-year-old facility with more than 2 million square feet of event space. Since it opened, the hotel has been at near capacity every day. In this episode, you’ll hear from executives and managers at North Point Hospitality and First Hospitality Group of Chicago, which each opened a tri-branded hotel in the past 12 months. They share the state of the tri-brand business so far, including some unforeseen challenges; how convention and tourism officials grasp the multi-flag concept; and how guests react when they realize there are three different hotels under one roof. Click here to listen to the full episode Jonathan Albano, CHO Host of the Lodging Leaders Podcast Co-Creator of the Build Great Hotel Teams Training Program (404) 594-4484

Connect with Lodging Leaders        Copyright © 2019 The Lodging Leaders Podcast, All rights reserved. John J Hogan, CHA CMHS CHE CHO John@Hoganhospitality.com    Office 480-436-0283   Cell 602-799-5375 Hotelier, Speaker, Educator, Author, Expert Witness Principal,  HoganHospitality.com   Expert Witness Services, Workshops, Consulting  Co-Founder & CLO, HospitalityEducators.com, Resources in Customer Services, Training, Marketing and Sales, Profitability Visit  johnjhogan.com for Coaching and Development

Easy-to-follow guidelines on Real Customer Service from Disney

The author of this book has been responsible in his career for the customer service at one of the world’s best known service delivery companies -DisneyWorld. He was responsible for 40,000 people in hotels, theme parks, shopping, entertainment and sports centers.

Disney’s often been used as a training center for leadership and guest service and Lee Cockerell’s book on delivering sensational service is right on.

There are 39 chapters or rules in this 179 page book and they are all direct, common sense in approach in logical.

The introduction states simply “be nice”. He says this means being friendly, polite, pleasant, considerate and skilled. He cautions that rules and procedures will not work if you do not have the right people doing the right job. This is more common sense, but we have discovered in so many businesses that common sense is relatively unknown.

Examples of rules include:

• Number 1 – customer service is not a department
• Number 4 – do not get bored with the basics
• Number 12- rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
• Number 17- listen up
• Number 24- do not make promises, make guarantees
• Number 38- keep doing a better

The other 33 are just as direct and understandable, yet they need to be understood.

I have been in the hospitality industry my entire career and I find this a logical, easy-to-follow set of guidelines for anyone providing service to others.

Highly recommended!

John J Hogan, CHA CMHS CHE CHO   John@Hoganhospitality.com

Office 480-436-0283   Cell 602-799-5375

Hotelier, Speaker, Educator, Author, Expert Witness 

•   Principal, HoganHospitality.com    Workshops, Consulting, Expert Witness Services    
•  Co-Founder & CLO, HospitalityEducators.com, Resources in Customer Services, Training, Marketing and Sales, Profitability 
•  Visit  johnjhogan.com for Coaching and Development

GUEST BLOG Lodging Leader Podcast #005 | What Makes a Leader with John Hogan

Please join Lodging Leaders Podcast founder Jonathan Albano with this link:

http://lodgingleaders.com/005-what-makes-a-leader-with-john-hogan/

John J. Hogan, CHA CMHS CHE CHO is a career business professional and educator who has held senior leadership with responsibility in several organizations involving operational, academic and entrepreneurial enterprise. He has demonstrated competencies as a strong leader, relationship builder, problem solver and mentor and is frequently invited to speak at franchise meetings, management company and hospitality association industry events. He also acts as an expert witness in both research and testimony in hospitality industry related cases.

Background:

John has been a part of the hospitality industry his entire adult life. He started out as a teenager at a seasonal summer resort in Vermont and shares that his emotion towards the spirit of hospitality was very profound from the beginning. John studied hospitality at University of Massachusetts and over the last 40 years has worked with companies of all sizes ranging from smaller family owned large to large independents, to niched, to corporate and franchises. He feels it is an exciting, never boring, always changing industry.

Resources & Links:

• John Hogan on LinkedIn
• www.hospitalityeducators.com – Resource Site for Hotel Owners & Managers
• www.hoganhospitality.com – Expert Professional Services for Hotel Owners
• AAHOA Certified Hotel Owners Program (CHO)

For book recommendations, go to:

https://hoganhospitality.wordpress.com

Leadership:

John decided to take on his first leadership role because it felt right to him. In his experience, he learned that one can’t be afraid to make mistakes – because you’re going to. It’s about making mistakes but not the same mistakes. It’s about knowing a good amount about everything but not needing to know everything while learning how to delegate because you CAN’T do it all alone. It is important to TRUST others and give them the tools they need for the overall success of the company.

So, what makes an effective leader? According to John, “Management is doing things right whereas leadership is doing the right things.” Leaders know how to take you through to the next level.

Are leaders born or made?

What are the common pitfalls hoteliers face today and how can they be avoided?

In working with local businesses and CVB’s. How does one drive reservations there?

Improving ADR:

How can Hoteliers increase their spend for guests?

What was a defining moment in your career?

What are some personal habits contributing to your success?

 

Hospitality Educators was created by John and his partner Kathleen in 2010 as a membership site.  It is a resource site. Parting advice: Keep your enthusiasm. Keep your focus. Enjoy what it is you do and regularly figure out how you can get 10% better this month. Within the year you will 100% be there!

Thanks for Listening!

Thanks so much for joining us again this week. If you have some feedback you’d like to share, leave a note in the comment section below!

If you enjoyed this episode, please share it using the social media buttons at the bottom of the post.

Also, please leave an honest review for The Lodging Leaders Podcast on iTunes! Ratings and reviews are extremely helpful and greatly appreciated! They really do matter in the rankings of the show, and I read each and every one of them.

And if you haven’t done so already, don’t forget to subscribe to the show on iTunes. It’s FREE. All it means is that you’ll automatically be notified when the next episode is released. There are options for subscribing on Apple and Android devices!

Until the next …

John J Hogan, CHA CMHS CHE CHO    John@Hoganhospitality.com

Office 480-436-0283   Cell 602-799-5375

Hotelier, Speaker, Educator, Author, Expert Witness 

•   Principal, HoganHospitality.com    Workshops, Consulting, Expert Witness Services    
• Co-Founder & CLO, HospitalityEducators.com,  Resources in Customer Services, Training, Marketing and Sales, Profitability 
• Visit  johnjhogan.com for Coaching and Development

Recommended Reading: A excellent resource for family businesses all the way to Global 500 companies.

As a member of the boomer generation, we often heard in business that one’s career may be boosted, enhanced or damaged not just the “what” we knew but also by the “who” we interacted with.

That observation continues today, but this book looks at the workplace in a different perspective. The “who” today is not just the ones at the top of an organization, but the talent located throughout at certain key positions.

The discussions include the actions and track records of four executives author Claudio Fernandez-Araoz describes as the greatest business leaders of recent times.

These include:

1. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos
2. Vale’s Roger Agnelli
3. Apple’s Steve Jobs
4. Samsung’s Yun Jong-Yong

Two of these are American, one is Korean and one is Brazilian. Some are better known than others in the US, but they do share some common values and strategies of how they made their organizations better and more successful. Many of those insights are shared by the four CEOs – success comes from recruiting and retaining top talent and giving the HR team the resources needed to remain on top.

This author has a track record in executive search and understands the pressure and needs in hiring CEOs and senior executives. This book recaps a number of his observations on that career of interviewing, recruitment and selection. This book is easy to read and contains practical, valuable information.

The chapters are short (4 to 7 pages) and the entire book of about 200 pages in six parts are well connected.

The message is geared towards hiring managers and the series of essays explains how to pick the right person for a job. This also means it could help one looking for a position. It discusses the needs to have clear expectations for people when hired or promoted and the likely consequences many of us have seen when favoritism is shown.

The author discusses holding executives and hiring managers accountable for who they decide to promote or hire, which is not the norm in many businesses.

This book offers insightful but very understandable lessons on both the recruitment and ongoing review process for management selection decisions.

It also gives one pause on the subject of succession planning.

This is an excellent resource for family businesses all the way to Global 500 companies.

Highly Recommended

John J Hogan, CHA CMHS CHE CHO    John@Hoganhospitality.com

Office 480-436-0283   Cell 602-799-5375

Hotelier, Speaker, Educator, Author, Expert Witness 

•   Principal, HoganHospitality.com    Workshops, Consulting, Expert Witness Services    

 

• Co-Founder & CLO, HospitalityEducators.com,  Resources in Customer Services, Training, Marketing and Sales, Profitability 

 

• Visit  johnjhogan.com for Coaching and Development

 

The Most Important Words for the Workplace or “A short course in human relations”

Several years ago, a  famous athlete was being inducted to his sports’ hall of fame and in his remarks, he commented on the need and value for team work. He quoted the often used phrase “there is no I in team” but he added there is an I in “win”.

An online search for the author of the following short piece does not bring a definite answer – there are slight variations but the message is fundamentally the same:

6. The six most important words:      “I admit I make a mistake”

5. The 5 most important words:           “You did a good job”

4. The 4 most important words:          “What is your opinion?”

3. The 3 most important words:           “If you please”

2.  The 2 most important words:          “Thank you!”

1.  The 1 most important word:           “WE”

The least most important word: “I”

This past week another sports team reached a new pinnacle.  The message in this link is not about sports but how the practice of Leadership and Team made a difference.       5 lessons Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots can teach you about leadership

Tom Peters in many of his writings states “Leaders don’t create followers, they create more leaders. “

What are you doing at your hotel today to Build Your Great Team?

All rights reserved by John J. Hogan and this column may be included in an upcoming book on hotel management. This article may not be reproduced without the expressed permission of the author.

About John J. Hogan

   John J. Hogan, CHA CMHS CHE CHO 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 Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of HospitalityEducators.com, which was founded in 2010 as a solutions center for hotel owners and managers. He is also the Principal of HoganHospitality.com, which offers hotel expert witness services and hospitality consulting.    Specific new services, workshops and keynote topics can be found at  johnjhogan.com  

He is currently working with his partner Kathleen Hogan and others on several new projects including the HOTELIERMASTERMIND series, an eBook series with Howard Feiertag on hotel sales, two new web sites and a fresh set of Keynote and Workshop programs, hospitality services and columns.

---

Certified Hotel Administrator (CHA), Certified Master Hotel Supplier (CMHS), Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE), Certified Hotel Owner (CHO)

Contact: John Hogan John.Hogan@HospitalityEducators.com  / 602-799-5375

Hospitality Tip of the Week from HospitalityEducators.com

A Providence RI hotel salutes its’ customers and staff in a special way.

(A special tribute to Southwest Airlines crew, which is known for their unique approaches to customer service)

How do you say THANK YOU to your best guests?

 

Success does not come by accident or chance.

Contact us for assistance.

John J. Hogan CHA 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

Workshops Available include: 

From the Chalkboard to the Front Line

What They Don’t Teach You at Hotel School

Focus:

• Hotel Profitability
• Hotel Sales
• Marketing Ideas
• Hotel Operations

There will always be an ongoing debate on the comparative merits of experience versus the knowledge acquired in formal educational settings.   The best lessons anyone can learn from hotel schools include an awareness of what really occurs on the front line in the actual hospitality setting.  This keynote transitions the academic message to the real world of running a profitable hospitality business.

 Click    here   for Keynotes and Workshops Available 

http://www.HoganHospitality.com
Your Hospitality Resource for Hotel Owners, Innkeepers, Managers and Associations

Lessons in Leadership

Lessons in Leadership – By  John J.  Hogan CHA CHMS CHE  CHO

This title is not specifically referring to one company, one brand or one country in the title.

For the past five to seven years, even in a tight economy,  leading developers have been targeting previously under-served countries and the pace has hastened this past 24-36 months. (See this link for specifics)

For this lessons in leadership, I looked to the East for a different perspective and different industry.  While hospitality is not the same as manufacturing, there are parallels in certain people skills.

A former senior managing director of Toyota Motor Corporation and renowned leader of their famous manufacturing system, Masao Nemoto is known throughout the world as a leader in quality control and process optimization. In a sense, he is one of the principal architects of the “Toyota Way.”    His ideas on leadership and quality management are documented, and reveal the profound knowledge Nemoto infused into the day-to-day operations at Toyota, much the same as certain hoteliers such as Statler, Hilton, Wilson,  Johnson, Marriott, Oberoi, Sharp, Carlson, Kerzner, Forte, Ritz and others did in hotels.

Nemoto insisted on a culture of shared responsibility and he believed that critical tasks could not be left to a single business unit, but rather should be a collective responsibility. Nemoto’s point of view says that leaders must lead across the company, not just their own particular area. 

His beliefs went from the senior leaders all the down to the individual worker on the assembly line, where everyone speaks, insisted Nemoto, not just management. A direct result of this view is the work principle: problems must be solved at the lowest possible level. All employees take responsibility for problem solving, instead of pushing the problems or issues up the line where it likely gets choked in bureaucracy.

In my career, I have worked with and in all sizes of organizations.   I have sat in countless meetings that seem to be stalled with some regularity and have found myself wondering the same things you might be thinking today:  “Are we competing against each other or against the competition?”

Nemoto’s 10 leadership principles:

1. Improvement after improvement. Managers should look continually for ways to improve the work of their employees. Advance is a gradual, incremental process. They should create all atmosphere conducive to improvements by others.
2. Coordinate between divisions.Managers of individual divisions, departments, or subsidiaries must share responsibility.  A corollary of this is that upper management should not assign important tasks to only one division.
3. Everyone speaks.This rule guides supervisors of quality circles at Toyota, ensuring participation and learning by all members. It has also been generalized to all meetings and the annual planning process. By hearing everyone’s view, upper management can create realistic plans that have the support of those who must implement them–an essential element in quality programs.
4. Do not scold.This was an alien concept to most managers. At Toyota the policy is for superiors to avoid giving criticism and threatening punitive measures when mistakes are made. This is the only way to ensure that mistakes will be reported immediately and fully so that the root causes (in policies and processes) can be identified and amended. Assigning blame to the reporter clearly discourages reporting of mistakes and makes it harder to find the underlying cause of a mistake, but it is difficult to train managers to take this approach.
5. Make sure others understand your work.An emphasis on teaching and presentation skills is important because of the need for collaboration. At Toyota, managers are expected to develop their presentation skills and to teach associates about their work so that collaborations will be fuller and more effective.
6. Send the best employees out for rotation. Toyota has a rotation policy to
   train employees. There is a strong tendency for managers to keep their best employees from rotation, but the company benefits most in the long run by training its best employees.
7. A command without a deadline is not a command. This rule is used to
   ensure that managers always give a deadline or schedule for work. Employees are instructed to ignore requests that are not accompanied by a deadline. The rationale is that without a deadline, tasks are far less likely to be completed.
8. Rehearsal is an ideal occasion for training.Managers and supervisors give numerous presentations and reports. In a QC program there are frequent progress reports. Nemoto encouraged managers to focus on the rehearsal of reports and presentations, and to require that they be rehearsed. Rehearsal time is used to teach presentation skills and to explore problems or lack of understanding of the topic. Because it is informal, rehearsal time is better for learning.
9. Inspection is a failure unless top management takes action.The idea
   behind this is that management must prescribe specific remedies whenever a problem is observed or reported. Delegating this task (with comments like “shape up” or “do your best to solve this problem”) is ineffective. So is failing to take any action once a problem is defined.
10. Ask subordinates, “What can I do for you?”At Toyota this is called “creating an opportunity to be heard at the top.” In the first year of a quality-control program, managers hold meetings in which employees brief them about progress. Three rules guide these informal meetings:

• Do not postpone the meetings or subordinates will think their project is not taken seriously.
• Listen to the process, not just the results, since QCs focus in on the process.
• Ask the presenters whether you can do anything for them. If they ask for help, be sure to act on the request.

If top management is perceived as willing to help with problems, employees are more optimistic about tackling the problems and will take management’s goals more seriously.

KEYS TO SUCCESS is the umbrella title for our programs, hospitality services and columns. This year’s writings focus o- 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™ and Principles for Success

Hospitality Tip of the Week™

“Focus on Continuous Improvement”

“Improvement after improvement, that has been my guiding principle in my more than three decades of service with Toyota Motors and its affiliates.”                    
Masao Nemoto, Former Managing Director, Toyota Motor Corporation

Success does not come by accident or chance.

Contact us for assistance.

John J. Hogan CHA 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

 Click    here   for Keynotes and Workshops Available