AN OPPORTUNITY FROM A CRISIS – Part 24

CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY

By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil

President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada

Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum

chandij@sympatico.ca

Crisis Management in the Post Pandemic Era

Last week I chaired the eighth International Conference on Hospitality & Tourism Management (ICOHT 2021). Professor Suranga Silva of University of Colombo was my Co-Chair. We chose ‘Post Pandemic Tourism & Hospitality’ as the theme for this year’s conference. Some 105 scholars from over 20 countries made some thought-provoking presentations via Zoom. Apart from my welcome speech, I was involved in moderating a webinar on ‘Spiritual Tourism’ and a Worldwide Hospitality And Tourism Themes (WHATT) roundtable discussion with a dozen experts from different countries.

A key theme of discussion was re-building the tourism and hospitality industry after the pandemic. The importance of leaders’ ability to manage crises was discussed. The participating scholars agreed that crisis management should be well covered in syllabi of hospitality and tourism management educational programs. Increasing of global energy prices was seen as the tip of the iceberg of a series of new crises that may affect tourism and hospitality industry. Scarcity of hospitality trained labour was also identified as another crisis.

History shows that tourism always bounces back, but it will take a longer time in the post-pandemic era. Crisis management skills of managers, therefore will be essential in the ‘new’ tourism. Whilst appreciating that crisis management now has a new level of importance, it has to be noted that it always played a role in hotel management around the world.

A Crisis at Coral Gardens Hotel

In August, 1975, Bentota Beach Hotel became somewhat busier again. This was due to the mini tourist season resulting from the Kandy Perahera held on 10 days with over 100 elephants and more than 1,000 dancers. Some of the tourists who arrived in Sri Lanka to see the Perahera visited the west coast for a few days even though the sea was still rough. As the Trainee Executive Chef, I also became involved in helping the management team to plan for the next tourist season.

One day I heard some news about the sister hotel of Bentota Beach Hotel – Coral Gardens Hotel, which was located in the seaside town, Hikkaduwa, just 23 miles south of Bentota. Coral Gardens Hotel was one of the earliest hotels to open in the mid-1960s soon after Sri Lanka identified tourism as an industry with potential for economic growth and employment generation. The key attraction of this hotel was the nearby underwater garden famous for its corals and schools of beautifully colourful fish. The hotel operated the main glass-bottomed boat excursions for tourists visiting Hikkaduwa.

As Coral Gardens operated with a very small leadership team of just two managers (Manager and the Assistant Manager), Bentota Beach shared its Chief Accountant and the Maintenance Engineer with its sister hotel. Coral Gardens frequently faced problems with trade unions, and local fishermen and villagers who tried to sell handicrafts and corals to tourists. Therefore, although smaller than Bentota Beach, it was difficult to manage. A well-experienced hospitality manager – ‘Pappa’ Paranawithane was the fourth manager in four years to manage that property. He had suddenly retired and around the same time the Assistant Manager – Bobby Adams, resigned to accept a good offer to open the first hotel developed by John Keells/Walkers Tours Group – The Village, Habarana.

Meeting Bobby Adams

By then I had learnt that career building depends on relationships one fosters throughout one’s career journey. I met Bobby Adams for the first time in 1975, two weeks prior to his departure from the company. That was at Bentota Beach Manager’s (Malin Hapugoda) office, when Bobby came to say goodbye. A few days after that, on Bobby’s invitation, I visited him at Coral Gardens. He was a humble man who began as a dishwasher working his way through a hard life. For professional training he had done only a six-month craft course in Cookery at the Ceylon Hotel School while working as an Assistant Cook for Joe Wallace, then a well-known caterer in Sri Lanka (later Bobby’s father-in-law).

Bobby was also a rolling stone, but gathered lots of practical operational knowledge while changing jobs frequently. He was impressed that, just like him, I had worked at 10 establishments in a short span of four years in the hospitality industry. We compared our experiences in establishments where we both had worked at different times – Pegasus Reef Hotel, Windmill Restaurant and Havelock Tourinn. At the very youthful age of 25, he was now becoming a Hotel Manager. Three years later, he became the first-ever hotelier in Sri Lanka to become a director in charge of a hotel company in the corporate office (John Keells), surpassing all Ceylon Hotel School graduates of his age group.

Bobby Adams was the most ‘street-smart’ hotelier that I ever met. He was also a good story teller who often ‘spiced up’ the story in his favour. From the friendship I developed with him, I got a lot of practical tips. The main thing I learnt from him was how to create a positive image and make a name for myself as a hotelier.

A few years later, I worked under Bobby twice as one of his Hotel Managers and later as the General Manager for the largest and best two hotels in his corporate portfolio of seven hotels. When I was 27, I also became his deputy at John Keells head office. When I married in 1980, he was my bestman. Also in the same year, Bobby and I invested in a small boutique hotel in Matara – Beach Lodge, where we were partners and directors. I last met Bobby when he attended my 50th birthday party held at Mount Lavinia Hotel towards the end of 2003. A year after that, sadly, Bobby passed away at the age of 54.

Exploring a New Opportunity

“Chandana, come out of the kitchen and join me to go to Hikkaduwa for something very important”, Indrapala Munasinghe (Muna), the Assistant Manager of Bentota Beach Hotel told me while I was getting ready for lunch service one day. Muna was five years my senior at the Ceylon Hotel School and was subsequently trained in France on a hotel operations scholarship. On our way, Muna told me that he was offered the position of the Manager of the Coral Gardens Hotel. Up to that point the kitchen department there was jointly managed by a Kitchen Clerk and a Head Cook. Muna had convinced the board of directors that the hotel needed a professionally trained Executive Chef. That suggestion had been accepted and in spite of my young age, I was his choice for the job. Thank you, Muna!

While we were driven to Hikkaduwa by one of the hotel drivers, I negotiated with Muna that my salary will be increased by 50% to Rs. 750 a month and that I will be promoted as the Assistant Manager and Executive Chef if I perform well during my first six months. We shook hands and that was the deal. Exactly six years later, Muna and I both joined the Ceylon Hotel School as Senior Lecturers on October 1, 1981.

Just before reaching Hikkaduwa, I was surprised when Muna stopped in Godagama to meet two tough business people from the area – Lesley and Dudley. Then we went to their seaside inn – Beach Cabins in Hikkaduwa which was a small rustic place with six rooms attracting diving enthusiasts travelling on shoe-string budgets. I soon realised that Lesley was the boss of the town. He was well-built and strong and owned a few fishing boats and employed many villagers to do the fishing for him. He was also the best deep-sea diver in the area. After a couple of rounds of arrack and devilled beef, we shook hands and proceeded towards Coral Gardens Hotel. Lesley was pleased that Muna and I came to get his blessings prior to commencing work in his territory. We had his assurance that none of the local fishermen will create any trouble for us.

While we were approaching the hotel, Muna explained to me that “It is always better to do Public Relations (PR) with the people who matter well in advance, prior to any problems arising.” I was convinced that Muna was correct. I used this concept in my later career whenever I worked in an area that was particularly hostile to hotels seen as rich and selfish institutions by poor fishermen and villagers struggling to make ends meet. We walked around the hotel, looked at the office we were to share from the following week and adjoining apartments within the hotel provided to the Manager and his Assistant. Bobby Adams was packing to leave for Habarana to lead The Village Hotel opening project.

When Bobby showed me the kitchen, I was disappointed. It was outdated in terms of equipment and layout compared to the Bentota Beach kitchen. It was also behind time in terms of menus, operational procedures, production processes, buffet presentations and kitchen uniforms. Some of the members of the kitchen brigade were surprised to be told by Bobby that I would be in charge of the kitchen in one week’s time as the first Executive Chef of their hotel. Looking around, I guessed that most cooks were in their forties. I was only 21.

Career Mentoring by Malin Hapugoda

When we returned to Bentota Beach that evening, I began packing and saying goodbye to my colleagues. I had a motivating meeting with the Hotel Manager – Malin Hapugoda (Hapu). He told me to consider all those shortcomings I noticed at Coral Gardens as my opportunities to make a significant improvement to products and services. He also told me that as Coral Gardens will have only two managers, Muna and I have to be aligned properly to achieve common goals, revenues and profits while managing the demanding unions with a lot of tact and patience.

On my last day at Bentota Beach where I spent only one year, I felt that Hapu saw some greater potential in me. Four years later, as the manager of neighbouring Hotel Swanee, I became closer to Hapu, with whom I served on an association committee as office bearers. Four years later, in 1983, the day before I left Sri Lanka for graduate studies in the UK, the phone rang and it was Hapu. He wished me luck and checked when I will be back in Sri Lanka. When I told him that it will be most likely in 1985, Hapu said, “Call me the day you return and I will have a job for you.” That was as the first manager of a 150-room four-star hotel in Hikkaduwa which Hapu was in charge of developing at that time.

Around 2006, Hapu called me in Canada. By then he had become the Managing Director of the only Sri Lankan hotel chain operating hotels in four countries – Aitken Spence Hotels. This time, he offered me the post of Chief Executive Office, Aitken Spence Hotels in Oman, in charge of five hotels. Although I would have loved to work with Hapu again, due to my commitments in Canada I could not accept that lucrative offer.

Finally, in 2014, forty years after working as a junior member of his management team at Bentota Beach Hotel, I did a short consulting assignment for him. Hapu was then in charge of 27 hotels. I designed and delivered a team building session for his senior team of Vice Presidents and General Managers of Heritance and Aitken Spence Hotel Group. I felt deeply honoured when Hapu sat through all my training sessions with his team in their corporate office in Colombo. To me, Hapu is the most accomplished hotelier Sri Lanka has ever produced. I am proud to say that he is my friend.

Muna and I left Bentota Beach on October 1, 1975 and took over the management of Coral Gardens.

(Next week, unexpected challenges as Coral Gardens Hotel’s first Executive Chef at age 21)