Today's GMs Must be on Top of the Knowledge Chain

THE JOB of the General Manager, or GM, in a five-star hotel has become much more difficult now. When I was a young hotelier, the GM would follow the European tradition of always regarding the customer was king and leaving no stone unturned to keep him happy. The GM used to be a man with a sense of style and was known for his back-slapping conviviality with his guests. The story is very different now. It all started after Indian flagship brands turned towards the US model of hoteliering. They brought in the investors and almost overnight, a lot of importance was given to the return on investments by shareholders. It became the job of a good GM to marry the demands of the customers and those of the shareholders if his hotel was to be labelled a successful business. When the hotel was run under the brand of the owner, sometimes as a single unit, larger risks were often taken. There was more importance given to the style of running the hotel and the amount of satisfaction it brought to both guests and owners. But there is more to the GM's job today than just keeping the shareholders happy. You have to keep the customers happy, make sure the stakeholders who are investors in your hotel are satisfied, and be mindful of a variety of matters, from the environmental impact of the property, to keeping abreast of cutting-edge technology and making sure elements such as health and safety, sleep quality and hygiene (especially if the hotel is in a far-flung location) are constantly taken care of. All this of course is dependent to a great extent on the GM's own desire for personal improvement and upward mobility. In most cases, a GM would want to be in charge of a luxury hotel in a metro. If that were not the case, they would have to adjust their own demands on life and upward mobility with the environment in which they were working, especially if they were posted in a developing market. It gets a little disconnected because the people you begin to work with, who surround you, both at work and in social circles, are of a very different calibre. One other very important aspect of managing a hotel is retaining employees. The hotel business is multi-faceted and people are always moving in and out, creating their own personal relationships and assessments. There is always poaching taking place. Work-life balance needs to be created for the employees to stay on with the hotel because this is a 24-hour industry. Inside the hotel, you would have to take people from the shop floor and help them in interacting successfully with guests who are sometimes icons. The challenge is to get them to interact successfully. The management challenge is to stay on top of it all; it is like being in charge of several businesses at the same time. Today GMs have to be on top of the knowledge chain, from business knowledge, to domain knowledge. They must have a caring attitude towards social as well as environmental issues and be aware of the laws that apply to running the business, over and above what I've mentioned. The GMs no longer are just style icons known for their sharp suits and perfectly folded pocket handkerchiefs. Yes, they need to have a high style quotient, especially when they're interacting with the customers, but above all, their backbone needs to be made of steel, in order for them to bear all the additional responsibilities of running a hotel in the 21st century. It no longer is a roll-up-your-sleeves-and-get-into-the-act kind of business it used to be when I started.

S.S.H. 'Habib' Rehman became the Managing Director of the erstwhile ITC Hotels Limited in 1994 and Executive Director of ITC Limited in 1997. He headed the company's hotels, travel and tourism, and food businesses for 12 years before retiring. In 2012, he was re-appointed to the ITC board as an independent non-executive director. His memoir, From Borders to Boardroom, has just been published by Roli Books. As told to Bikramjit Ray.