Monthly Archives: May 2014

The Meaning of Hospitality

Leave a comment

One of my favorite quotes goes something like this: “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers; for thereby some have entertained angels unawares” .

So what is the meaning of this word?  Where does it come from? Is it related to Hospice?  Or to Hospital? Or both? Well, in its purest form the word hospice, hospital, hospitality come from the Latin word of “hospes” which has the meaning of hosting a guest or stranger and/or “hospitium” meaning guesthouse.  As we all know, a Hospice is a place where one can receive “end of life” care for terminally ill patients with a focus on quality and comfort of life instead of cure, and hospitals, on the other hand, focus on cure and health, with one leaving the hospital in a better shape than when they came in, hopefully.

But what is the underlying connection or the common denominator? Service of course! And this is what makes this industry so special. Service does not mean being subservient to another but rather being of service to another – providing something that is missing, an amenity, a product, a benefit, you name it – something that will leave one better off after the fact than before. But, still, what is service? Or better yet, the lack thereof? Well, it’s the customer that comes into your restaurant, and waits patiently while the wait staff do everything except greeting him and taking their order. It’s the customer that comes into your store and has to wait while your sales clerks finish telling a joke among themselves. It’s the person that has to park several blocks away from your business because your staff has taken the best parking spots upfront and so on.

I could write a whole Encyclopedia Britannica on service and still not be done, but, as long as we can remember that hospitality = service and service = hospitality, and that you cannot have one without the other. Lastly, when it doubt, the golden rule always works: “do unto others as you would them do unto you”

We’ve all heard the saying that “to err is human and to forgive divine”…I am of the opinion that “to want/need is human and to serve sublime”.

Like I always say, there are two things you can do!  Either you do it or you don’t!

At your service,
Aurelian

Check Mate

Leave a comment

Do any of you play chess?  It has to be one of the greatest strategy games of all times.  My father taught me chess – he was a champion player.  Wish I could say the same about myself but alas, no luck there!  One thing I did learn is that there are so many comparisons between chess and everything that we do in life, both personally and professionally. Mainly, the risk-reward and consequences of decisions.

To be a good chess player and to be successful in life, you must always be 5-7 moves ahead and considering all the various outcomes and possibilities of each one of those moves!

When was the last time when you decided to accept a role that you thought about your next 3-5 moves in the future?  The ripple effect in taking the job at hand and the impact it will have on your long-term path?  What about deciding on whom to select for a key opening that you have in your organization? Or discharging a key staff member and the ripple effects that it will have?  I could go on and on, but I’m sure you get the point.

Don’t have life, work and everything else give you a check-mate!  Think ahead and always be prepared to act not only in the present but 3, 5 and even 7 moves ahead that way you will hopefully never have to deal with a stale-mate or worse a check-mate!

Like I always say, there are two things you can do: either you do it or you don’t!

At Your Service,
Aurelian A.

Talent versus Skill

1 Comment

If given the choice would you hire someone based on their skill level or their talents? I can hear many of you say that one must hire on skill, the more skilled a person is the less training they will require, the quicker they can start taking care of all the various problems and challenges.  I can also hear some of you faintly saying, hire talent, skills can always be taught but talent is innate.

Therein lies the challenge!  As managers and leaders we tend to focus on the easy way out, the path of least resistance, hence we look to hire highly skilled individuals that would have a perfect fit for whatever role we’re looking to fill in the organization. But, is that really the best course of action?

Don’t get me wrong, skills are crucial and I am not belittling them, but there is truth that skills can almost always be taught.  If you have a strong training program, SOP manuals and the like you can teach anyone to do almost anything. Talent on the other hand?  Talent cannot be taught; at the most it can be improved upon much like polishing a diamond in the rough, as they say.  Talent is what people are born with; it is a natural ability which is not acquired through any effort whatsoever.  A person with talent for a particular job almost always receives intrinsic satisfaction when their talents are maximized!

Here’s a simplified example:

A person with very strong analytical, administrative and organizational skills is hired to work the Front Desk of a hotel.  Yet, they don’t have a talent to be service driven, to be around people, to be thriving on human interactions. Would such a person succeed in their job?  Most likely yes, but will they thrive?  Will they excel? Will they be happy?

Conversely, a similar person with a similar skill level BUT with an innate talent for being in social interactions, service driven, thriving on human contact and interactions, is assigned to a back of house function such as Accounting, would such a person succeed in their job?  Most likely yes, but will they thrive?  Will they excel? Will they be happy?

Have you ever done a job or held a role where this applied to you? Do you know what your talents are? Are you happy and ecstatic going to work every day? Think about it!

Yes, hire skill but always choose talent over it!

There are two things you can do: either you do it or you don’t!

At Your Service,
Aurelian

Perception is Reality

Leave a comment

Today I wanted to share with you the concepts of “perception is reality” and “driving the market”.  Meaning, what people perceive does become their reality and driving the market as in the Kevin Costner movie, Field of Dreams, where he kept hearing/saying “if you build it they will come”. While you’re probably thinking I’m crazy in stating the markets can be driven, I’ll share with you a story from my past.

A little while ago, OK…a long time ago, I had the privilege of working at a very high-end and exclusive establishment with a fine dining restaurant that only open for dinner from Wednesday through Saturday.  A small place with only 70-80 covers, and while Fridays and Saturdays were doing OK, Wednesdays and Thursdays were a different story!  Quite embarrassing actually, fine dining place with 80 covers doing only 10-15 covers a night,and uncomfortable for the patrons being the only ones in the large room.

So what did we do? Close the restaurant for those days? No! Quite the opposite!  For a period of two months, every time someone called for reservations for a Wednesday or Thursday evening they were informed that the restaurant was full with no availability, With the only open spots two weeks away.  Little by little, we built this mystique that something special was going on Wednesdays and Thursdays evenings and that people had to call weeks in advance to be able to get a table. Now, as those evenings booked up, we did add special things such as live jazz band and such, and before you know it the little restaurant “that could” became a sold-out success on all evenings that it was open.

Perception is a reality and the market can be driven!

As I always say: there are two things you can do, either you do it or you don’t!

At Your Service,
Aurelian A.

Service is King

Leave a comment

Hi,

In follow-up to my previous post, I am reminded of what Mr. Selfridge (founder of famous department store in London, at the turn of the century, yes last century and still in business today) once said: The Customer is Always Right! Or, what one of the most famous hoteliers in the world Cesar Ritz once said: The Customer is King!  No wonder he was known as the King of Hoteliers and the Hotelier of Kings!

I am reminded of one story, where Cesar Ritz, at the beginning of his career, was in the midst of planning and executing a grand soiree for lots of dignitaries in his establishment.  A few short hours before the event, they lost all heat and being in the middle of winter, the room got awfully cold awfully fast!  What to do? In those days they did not have the comfort of email or phones for that matter, the event could not be cancelled.

So Cesar Ritz, had the staff build bonfires outside and placed lots of bricks in them to heat them up. Then, shortly before the event was to start, he had those heated bricks placed underneath all the tables in the venue. Furthermore, the first course being served that night was a Bouillabaisse…so he instructed the chefs to make it extra spicy.

So what happened?  The event was a huge success and no one was the wiser that there was no heat in the room!  Go figure!  Talk about perception becoming reality!

No wonder he became the King of Hoteliers and the Hotelier of Kings!

Like I say: there are two things you can do, either you do it or you don’t!

At Your Service,
Aurelian A.