Starting younger, aiming higher
As more international hotel brands saturate the Chinese market, they face the problem of localization. One answer, as Pauline D. Loh finds out, is nurturing talent on site, and the younger the better.
It is often the snapshot encounters that give us a hint of things to come. As China opens up and heads out, its hospitality industry is embracing changes every day from major evolution in management styles to smaller revolutions in service attitudes and standards.
There are now more Chinese general managers in charge of hotels, where only experienced expatriate managers were trusted in the past. Hotel groups, which still insist on importing an entire upper management team, are finding it harder to close the gap between the top and ground levels.
"Managers who come in not speaking the language and not understanding the way the Chinese work soon find themselves in trouble," says John Young, a deputy president of the Shanghai-based Jinjiang International group which manages Beijing's State-owned Kunlun Hotel.Young, himself a Singaporean, is a Chinese-speaking hotel veteran with more than 25 years in the mainland hospitality business.
Kunlun Hotel is ahead of its time in being able to hold its own against foreign competitors. The secret is enlightened management, and the ability to use talent properly, Young says.
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