I received a signal to slow down, to allow as many of my readers to 'get on
board’. In other words, give adequate time to readers to reflect on 'Memo:GANA Hotels' (refer
Feb. 8th), to form their own explicit opinions.
By the way, as learning
partners, I thought we should remind ourselves to assemble our learning tools;
a file with sheets of paper or a note pad which would be dedicated to ‘GH Hospitality/GANA
Hotels’, and have a pen/pencil handy as well. It is likely when we start delving into enhancing our image
as supervisors, we will be recalling earlier articles
written on the various departments (ref. 2017 articles) for purposes of applying ourselves to different situations.
While you are forming your opinions on GANA Hotels, permit me to throw in
this remark:
The conceptual information
presented on GANA, our miniature country, is NOT a fairy tale. It was derived by carrying out an analysis on 2016
hotel statistics in our country (GHANA)
and using a reasonable ratio to reproduce a miniature image; thereby giving us a
near real-life and workable hotel environment for this platform.
Just as after our self appraisal, we addressed issues arising from the exercise, in the same spirit, it would be fair to express our opinions on what we can make out of the cross section of hotels in GANA; considering that we have been
branded as a middle income country.
Note: Being true to ourselves is critical towards making any meaningful
progress. The image below is my attempt to place GANA hotels on a hospital bed(this platform) for a quick diagnosis by us.
(FUN BUT AN APPROACH TO LEARNING!)
OPINIONS
I find it pathetic
that our country has a whopping number (74%) of our hotels having a ‘Budget’ status
(an emotional statement, I know;
betrays my passion for the industry).
Depending on how you
view the statistics, you may not make much of the above
sentiment since this category of hotels are generally in the hands of Ghanaian
entrepreneurs. Indeed all the hotels captured as 2-star to ‘Budget’ including
the guest houses are Ghanaian owned and operated. I guess that should be taken into consideration? What do you think?
The ‘budget’ mentality is worrisome for an industry such as
ours within a country which is said to have a ‘middle income’ status. What do you think?
Perhaps when you find out what the minimum requirements
are expected to be for budget hotels; then you would be as outraged as I am.
For the purposes of our discussion I present assumptions of the basic
symptoms of hotels with ‘budget’
mentality, or better stated, ‘low-budget/poverty
mentality’: The environment blames the economy and then the blame game begins... blaming of the government, blaming of
the stock market, blaming of employers and blaming of employees....
As Supervisors, should we fall into this ‘low-budget/poverty’
mindset, we could find ourselves playing the role of helpless victims. It could
tempt us to sit back as spectators to our own destiny.Watch out! (a caution for us)
A ‘LOW-BUDGET INFESTED’ HOTEL ENVIRONMENT is depicted in many different forms.
Take a quick assessment at your attitude, the attitudes of those around
you, as well as that of the hotel you are operating from. Do you observe any of
the following?
- Demonstration of the “I can’t’ attitude
- Buying cheap/poor quality items for operations
- Not seeing opportunities
- Problems being ignored and remaining uncorrected
- Operational initiatives not in sync with the defined key outcomes of the organization
- Doing the same things over and over and expecting different results
- Not giving much thought data on operations
- Playing the blame game/giving excuses/being defensive
- Making Ad hoc decisions
- Cultural (owner behavioral interference) e.g. owner taking directly from revenues without documentation, relatives ‘borrowing ’items from the hotel e.t.c.
WAY FORWARD
As Supervisors we don’t have to see ourselves as victims to
the environment described above.
Indeed, I see too many opportunities slipping
us by because we have not quite asserted ourselves.
Your application of
learning experiences to your unique work environment and your continuous
loyalty on this platform, as we develop the series on ‘the image of hotel supervisor’,
should see some transformations taking place in you. For some, it will be slow paced, almost
unnoticeable; for others, you will cause heads to turn!(sharing your experiences is one way to learn, so I trust you will share as we move along)
Now, you
are getting to know and/or paying attention to your work environment in the light of the
industry.
“‘Knowledge
is power’ is a popular proverb. It means that knowledge is more powerful
than physical strength and no great work can be done without knowledge.
Knowledge is a powerful factor that empowers people achieve
great results. The more knowledge a person gains, the more powerful s/he becomes.
This proverb means that ‘true power comes from
knowledge’. .. In sum, the proverb means that knowing things gives us power. There is no end to knowledge. There is no limit to what a
person can learn. Even big problems can be solved if we have the knowledge of
solving it.”
The above quotation affirms our need to be determined to
equip ourselves with relevant information so we can press on and become relevant on our jobs.
A hotel operation is a big investment, and I ‘stand
up’ for those who have put up suitable edifices to carry out the hotel business. When the business is carried out right, EVERYONE; the owner-investor,
the gurus steering the affairs of the business, the employees and obviously the
guests and even the government benefits!
(I know certain hotel edifices march 3-star status yet ‘they’ prefer to be placed on ‘budget’ status. Do you know why?)
As Supervisors there are many things we may not be able to
change particularly when it’s in relation to the ‘hardware’ but we can influence change and we can also directly change the performance of
operations in our respective hotels.
NOTE: Don't ignore opportunities provided for you to respond: "What do you think?"
Write down your thoughts in your note pad.
