CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY

Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil
President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada
Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum
chandij@sympatico.ca

Resorts Vs. Business Hotels – Key Adjustments

Two useful lessons I learnt early in my hotel career were ‘Creating a Buzz’ for the operation/department/hotel I was leading and ‘Making a Name’ for myself as an innovative hospitality professional. In addition, I learnt that it is essential to quickly understand the local culture and adjust the manner in which I communicate to blend in with the key market segments important to the business.

As Colombo was my birth place, it was easy for me to do this at Le Galadari Meridien Hotel in Colombo. However, predominantly as a resort hotelier up to 1986, I was new to the five-star market in Colombo. I learnt a few things quickly with an aim to blend in well for success.

Unlike smaller resort hotels managed by local companies, operating large five-star business hotels managed by international hotel corporations were usually complex. In terms of committees, large numbers of meetings, detailed reports and lengthy budgeting processes, management of internationally branded hotels was more challenging and time consuming. I always believed that managing by walking around and being seen in action would be essential for hospitality managers. At Le Galadari Meridien, I had to balance these two aspects to be productive.

I made sure that I did all my meetings and office work during non-busy times of the banqueting, restaurants, bars and the night club operations. That allowed me to spend extra time interacting with our customers. I found the elegant lobby of Le Galadari Meridien a wonderful place for me to do ‘Meet and Greet’ and valuable Public Relations (PR) with our in-house guests, as well as, with non-resident customers.

Self-Marketing

Having done ‘Creating a Buzz’ and ‘Making a Name’ fairly effectively at Le Galadari Meridien, I was invited to give a guest lecture on ‘Self Marketing and Career Planning’ to the fourth-year management students of the Ceylon Hotel School.

At the end of my lecture, I simply suggested to the students, to ask themselves three questions as the basis for planning their careers:

1. Where am I? (Current position, personal and professional strengths and weaknesses);

2. Where do I want to go? (Ideal future positions I would like to target);

3. How do I get there? (Action plan for career development to reach the identified goal).

When I said to that group of students that on January 1 every year, I ask myself these three questions and then do a one-page revised career plan for seven years, they were surprised. This is something I continued to do annually like a rolling plan until I reached the age of 58, and set up my consulting firm.

Within six months of joining Le Galadari Meridien, towards the end of the year 1986, I was confirmed as the Food & Beverage Manager. After completing my performance review and before confirming my promotion, the General Manager, Jean-Pierre Kaspar took me to lunch at a competitor hotel – Ramada Renaissance. “Chandi, all Food & Beverage Managers of Le Meridien around the world are French. Are you 100% sure that you can do this job?” he asked. I said, “Just look at the Profit and Loss account. In the last six months, we have doubled the Food and Beverage departmental profits since I succeeded a Frenchman! You have no choice, but to confirm me.” He laughed and handed over my new letter of appointment.

Another six months later I was promoted again, as the Director of Food & Beverage, a job title unique at that time for any Sri Lankan hotelier. After promoting me, Mr. Kaspar asked me, “What is your career goal in seven years’ time?” Having already done my rolling seven-year plan, I boldly said that, “I would like to succeed you as the General Manager of Le Galadari Meridien!”. After a pause he said, “Chandi, that’s a realistic goal. I think that you could do that, but let’s make a plan.”

Over lunch, Mr. Kaspar wrote a plan for me on a paper napkin and gave it to me. He suggested that I work as the Director of Food & Beverage of Le Galadari Meridien for two more years. Then ideally, move to a Le Meridien in the Far East or the Middle East for three years at the same level, but on an expatriate contract. “Then you should aim to come back here as the number two or Executive Assistant Manager for two years. In seven years from today, at age 39, it would be a good time for you to get promoted as a Le Meridien General Manager.” We shook hands.

After laying out a very attractive career plan for me, Mr. Kaspar said: “First, let’s work on the next steps. In the coming year I will arrange for you to shadow the Directors of Food & Beverage of two busy Le Meridien hotels in Singapore. After that, I will try my best to fully sponsor you to attend Le Meridien Management Development program at Meridien Management Institute in France, followed by two management observer placements in Paris and London.”

All those steps worked out as per our plan, for which I am most grateful to Mr. Kaspar. To ensure career progress, in addition to ambition, a good plan and hard work, one needs great mentors and some luck. “You market yourself very well!” Mr. Kaspar remarked. He then said, “Next week the new Regional Vice President for Le Meridien, Mr. Ducray will be visiting us for the first time. He is my immediate boss. You need to impress him.” Mr. Kaspar planted some seeds in my mind. I did exactly that and my official trip to Singapore was confirmed.

Additional Duties – Advertising (Ad) and Promotions

In 1987, I told Mr. Kaspar that I had studied Marketing as a part of my graduate studies in Sri Lanka and England, and I now wished to embark on studies to graduate from the prestigious Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), in the United Kingdom. He then delegated a couple of his duties to me. I was put in charge of leading all local media ads and handling special promotions. In performing these new tasks, I coordinated with the Public Relations (PR) Manager and the Director of Sales.

I enjoyed these new duties outside the scope of the Food and Beverage Division. On behalf of the General Manager, I chaired the weekly, advertising meetings with the hotel’s advertising agency – Creative Services Limited — led by a childhood friend and neighbour from Bambalapitiya Flats, Herman Gunasekara. His uncle, Anandatissa de Alwis, who was an ad and promotions guru, had founded this agency. I also worked with them to produce the monthly, promotional newsletter of the hotel and the colourful, event promotional posters.

I was given a free rein and I generously promoted Food and Beverage products and events to our local customers. The first, festive season events I led in organizing at Le Galadari Meridien, including three New Year’s Eve dances, were highly successful and profitable. I was able to combine three of my skills (Food & Beverage Management, Marketing and Art) into this task. I used the Le Meridien ad manual with hundreds of beautiful illustrations done by artist Ken Maryanski.

The Magic of Ken Maryanski

Le Meridien launched the worldwide career of famous Artist, Ken Maryanski by choosing his instantly, identifiable Gallic images. After graduating from the New England School of Art, he began his career as an Art director and designer, while doing occasional posters for Le Meridien Boston. According to the artist, it took the unique vision, a refreshing spirit, and the French personality of Le Meridien, to fine-tune his style. Maryanski’s work has been showcased in Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal and several other English, French and German publications. Over the years Ken Maryanski had visited most of Le Meridien properties around the world, to find creative inspirations for new artwork.

Ten years later, by the time I opened Le Meridien Jamaica Pegasus Hotel as its General Manager, Maryanski’s amusing caricatures had clearly become the trademark image for all Le Meridien hotels around the world. In 1997, Le Meridien head office in Paris initiated a series of travelling exhibitions of Ken Maryanski’s artwork, in selected five-star hotels. I was happy to organize Le Meridien – Ken Maryanski art exhibition in Jamaica, as a part of the 25th anniversary celebrations of Le Meridien. As a semi-professional visual artist and a former curator of an art gallery in South America, a few years prior to that, I took a personal interest in mounting this exhibition in Kingston, Jamaica.

Although I never had the privilege of meeting Ken Maryanski, when he passed away in early 2022, I was saddened. Since 1987, when I first used his illustrations for ads of Le Galadari Meridien, I felt a creative connection to him. I considered him a creative genius, and I was an ardent fan of his work. Ken’s quick wit, sarcasm and complex imagination, will live on through his art.

New Professional Focus on Marketing

My involvement in ads, PR and promotions during my time at Le Galadari Meridien, opened several new doors for me. Since I first did an Interactive Marketing course at the University of Colombo in 1981, taught by one of the greatest Marketers in Sri Lanka – Mr. Stanley Jayawardena (then Chairman of Unilever, Sri Lanka), I was fascinated with the concept of Marketing. That inspired me to study Marketing further with the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) in the United Kingdom and I eventually became a graduate of the CIM.

Although, I loved Ken Maryanski illustrations, when Le Meridien produced a detailed ad manual, I had a few challenges. The hotel company insisted that all their hotels around the world use similar ads when promoting events such as Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day etc. At that point, I began having doubts that it was a good idea.

I felt it was clever to maintain a broad theme for the corporate image. However, hoteliers operating Le Meridien hotels in different parts of the world should be given some flexibility in ads to promote events popular with locals. As different market segments have different likes, dislikes, attitudes, beliefs, cultures and customs, flexibility in ads and communication is important. When I studied advanced, hotel management at Meridien Management Institut in France, I debated this point. Although our French professors did not agree with me, the participating managers from around the world agreed with my viewpoint.

Those discussions I had in France sparked my interest in further investigating this aspect. I embarked for a MPhil/PhD in International Hotel Marketing at the University of Surrey, in England, in 1990. The working title of my doctoral thesis was ‘Effectiveness of Advertising – An Analysis in the context of International Five-star Hotels’.

In later years, I taught Hospitality and Tourism Marketing as a Professor/Visiting Professor in England, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Guyana and Canada. In Jamaica, at the University of the West Indies, as a Senior Lecturer in Tourism Management, I coordinated Marketing courses for over 2,000 students in their Department of Management Studies.

When I migrated to Canada, I worked as the Vice President – Market Development of the Canadian School of Management and as the International Vice President of the parent company – IMCA Socrates Limited in England. My long journey in promotions, sales and marketing stemmed from that initial, practical experience at Le Galadari Meridien in the late 1980s. Thank you Mr. Kaspar and Le Meridien!

Promoting Banquets

I was fortunate to get opportunities to lead a series of exciting and large banquets at Le Galadari Meridien Hotel. I led a large, outside catering event when the new building of Lake House was opened by the President of Sri Lanka J. R. Jayewardene in 1987. Soon after that event, I received a very, nice letter from Mr. Kaspar.

He stated, “I would like to thank you, personally, for having successfully organized the outside catering at Lake House. It has been brought to my attention that this is the first outside catering for over 1,000 persons handled by our hotel since its inception. Congratulations for your accomplishment! I am proud to have you on my team!” I was motivated by that letter and issued letters with the same ending sentence, to members of my management teams in the five hotels I managed in later years.

In 1987, a new trend in Colombo was to have large coffee mornings as fund raisers. These were cocktail reception type events, but with iced coffee, snacks and sweets, mainly for ladies who walked around the booths of many sponsors. We made a name as an ideal venue for coffee mornings for over 1,000 participants. Other hotels could not match our package, which included special rates by top bands we had under contract at Le Meridien.

We also made good profits from large Biriyani (popular Mughlai cuisine) lunch and dinner weddings for rich Muslim families. As the hotel was owned by a Middle Eastern family – Galadari, by contract we had to serve halal food and it was prohibited to serve pork, ham or bacon. Although that was a challenge in our menu planning for an international clientele, I started to publicize it in order to get more bookings for Biriyani weddings from Muslim families.

We also allowed free tasting of the Biryani menus for ten, close family members about a month before each wedding and before the full payment was made. That gesture was popular. We were willing to change the dishes slightly to suit the culinary traditions of each family. Our Banquet Chef understood the importance of being flexible to please the customers.

“How many people were invited by my cousin Hameed for his son’s wedding that he hosted at the Bougainville Ballroom, last month?” a rich gem merchant asked me and Ananada Warakawa, the new Banquet Manager I recruited. I remembered the number as 1,050 but shrewdly, I rounded up the figure. I knew that holding the largest wedding was a status symbol for some competitive rich families. “Mr. Ahamed, your cousin hosted nearly 1,100” I said. He looked at his son and then said, “We need to do better than that. Mr. Jayawardena, can you cater for 1,200?” We agreed, but in addition to the ballroom, we had to use all private dining rooms closer to the ballroom.

The next wedding was booked for 1,250 persons and Ananada Warakawa was getting very nervous. Eventually, when I pushed him to take a booking for a Biriyani dinner wedding of 1,500 persons, he told me, “Boss, even if we use all corridors between the ballroom and private dining rooms, we cannot accommodate that number!” I said, “Don’t worry. I have already spoken with Mr. Chandra Mohotti, the Director of Rooms Division, and my flexible peer. He is allowing us to use a section of the hotel lobby for the wedding. We have to cover that section well with screens, so that our room guests will not be disturbed while checking in.”

We broke the all-time record with a wedding of 1,500 and the food and service were well coordinated. However, Mr. Kaspar was very unhappy when he saw an overflow of 150 people eating Biryani in a section of the lobby. “Chandi, never do that again. The lobby is out of bounds for banquets! Remember, we run a five-star French hotel!” he said. “OK, boss!” I agreed with him and stopped trying to set new banquet records in Colombo!