| rendra wasito |
Posted
on 07-Aug-03 06:36 PM
"Charles Darwin saw in the diversity of species the principles of evolution that operated to generate the species: variation, competition and selection." (Scientific American)
Some months ago I wrote about evolution as it applies to hotels, in particular decrying the reappearance of bland and non-identifiable architecture like the Fulbari Resort. To me Amatya's creation of this white elephant was unsustainable from day one, economically, socially and environmentally. Amatya was creating a monument to himself and he was suffering from classic traits of megalomania. He did not understand Corporate Strategy playing. He diversified in the area that he understood nothing about. He would not listen to my input as I had told his family that international strategic tourism inflow projection was off mark by many many dozen percentage points. All his foreign advisors did not understand the Asian market development and used American futurology specialists. The simple observation was that Fulbari was not having the fundamentals of a retail service organisation being location, location, location and much more. It also lacked a solidly developed infrastructure....too remote and too expensive. It was losing over Rs. 10 lakhs a day in the conservative estimation....Amatya had lubricated the banks well and unethically and unlawfully operated the resort while bankrupt (a different exemption in Nepal and this is a pity, as Amatya would had been behind bars in countries of the west).
In spite of a perhaps plain work environment however, one of the geat things about hospitality is that on a daily basis we encounter a tremendous diversity of ages, nationalities, attitudes and skills. Nepalese have not generally handled diversity quite well, and whilst the issue of multiculturalism is often discussed, much of our strength appears to spring from our acceptance of different cultures and identities, blending them into our own. Indeed, from a marketing point of view, one could say that diversity is one of our evolving unique selling points (USP's/POD's or SCA's to those in the know).
Many years ago when I was a young Food and Beverage Manager at Hotel Oberoi Adelaide. I noticed that overseas guests were seeking the genuine Aussie experience, not a polished plum-in-the mouth generic welcome. We therefore decided to welcome all international guests in a typical Aussie way, and hence for the rest of the shift said "Giday" "Owarya" and "Just talk to the sheila on the house phone..." this kind of Newari conduct was lacking at Fulbari (missing themes and actions were lost). Naturally I no longer condone this approach, however, at the time no one complained, and in fact most appeared quite bemused and entertained by it.
Now, I am not for a minute suggesting that this should be introduced to all Australian hotels, however the thought did remain with me that whilst transplanting an overseas service culture to Australia may be undesirable in some ways (eg. providing international consistency of service), people do leave their own country generally to experience the culture of another (Fulbari's approach was bizarre...it was not Western...it was not Newari...it was not Nepali...it was not Thakali....Just to much fuss that gave more pain than pleasure to the guests...lacked Professionalism).
"Friendly Professionalism" allows the genuine warmth and personality of the service-provider to come through first, but with the professional knowledge of how and where to draw the line.
Now I am sure that many managers have developed their own style of this without me necessarily claiming exclusivity, however the definition does appear to me to be uniquely Nepali, and is still found in many independent operations.
If Darwin was right and "variation, competition and selection" are indeed the principles of evolution, then bring on the competition and lets grow the Nepali Resort Species !
This is MY MANAGEMENT THINKING TODAY.
PS: American MBAs are achieved in a year. Most of the younger trainees have not had solid work hardening and immersion exercises. They analyse over 15 to 20 industries in that short time. This allegedly makes them instant COUCH POTATO EXPERTS. In fact, real experts evolve and could not cover more than three to four industries in their life time and become the real experts. Believe or not !
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