The Change is in the Fax…

Michael Chaffin wrote about the trivial change he made in regards to a fax machine.

I understand his point, in regards to the current technologies, and all, but I am an old school style with a dash of new age mixed, in, I Tweet, I Face book, I Linked In, as I posted earlier, I remember when hotels Telexed, which was before faxing.  I still like faxing from time to time, I faxed documents to a company last week, and they emailed me and told me that I had to go online and follow up. I look at sites today, and all the hiring that people do, some are simple, some are so far out there, that I just shake my head in wonder. Sometimes I feel Michael’s pain. I think at times we rely on the Internet to do some of your work, like they say on TV shows, “We did it with old fashioned detective work.”

What they mean is they put their hands in the box and went through the files and did it the hard way.  I think if we stepped back and took a real approach to some methods we would be amazed at what we are capable of.  Don’t get me wrong, I find it funny that we refer to the old school way as quaint, or outdated, it’s all the same.  I’m all for getting the work done, and train the staff and get out and play a game of pool, and have a pint. We as hoteliers have to meld the traditions and the technologies that we have available to us and apply them to achieve the desired result whatever that may be.

Yes it may be painful in the initial set-up but I know that once in place, it is easier to maintain a system that works.  I truly believe in getting a system that is easy to maintain, and reference, I learned that trick from Four Seasons. Like in map reading sometimes taking the long way may be more difficult and arduous, but the direct route may be more dangerous, and you won’t know what you missed along the way.

Working From Within: Whose Job is It.

A line in the sand, how many times have we heard this, “We drew the line in the Sand”. We played that as a kid, “I dare you to cross that line?”…We have all seen or played this. There are two ways to see this and they are both correct.


· An employee is hired under a more prosperous time, and job description does not include a menial task such as cleaning a restroom. At the time there was a cleaning company that came in and handled all the janitorial duties of the store. In a lean economy as the storm hit, the company released the cleaning company and hired a crew of their own and went down this road for a while, the second wave of the storm hit and they disbanded the in-house cleaning crew and hired new crew with the stipulation that they clean the restrooms. Move to present day, and the restrooms need attendance, and they ask an original employee and they state that that’s not what they were hired for, and refused. The ironic part is that the employee hired was still there.

Back in the day when I came up in the hospitality business I learned to do everything I could to advance without a degree. I worked public area, laundry, windows, rooms, carpets, floors, offices, I learned to work Front Desk as well, and it set a pattern, I worked Stewarding, Room Service, Banquets, Kitchen, Restaurant, Bar, and learned all I could. When I played sports, I swam on the swim team, and swam all 4 strokes, in football I learned to play all offensive positions I felt that in life I was worth more if I could do more.

As a Manager I never felt I could ask an employee to do a job that which I have not done myself. I cleaned restrooms as a Manager many a time. I did it by leading by example. Hence I learned to clean rooms, and kitchens I figured how as a Hotel Manager could I tell it was done correctly or at all if I hadn’t done the job myself.

Is it a game changer…if you don’t do as instructed, and not in your job path?

I think that at the least the Manager needs to evaluate and know what staff they have on hand. It goes back to being versatile and able to adapt out of your comfort zone.

I look back and think how fun it was being able to play several positions in football, and in swimming doing the 200 yard Individual Medley, I set the stage for doing and understanding how it all came together. I had a Manager who had a saying on his desk about 4 people, Anybody, Somebody, Everybody, and Nobody…This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about this, because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.

Life Advice from a Journalist's Perspective....

 Savannah Guthrie , UA alumna and NBC News reporter who did work locally at KVOA Channel 4, gave a speech to the 2011 Class, and I think it applies to us all.

The heart of Savannah Guthrie's address centered around four points of “unconventional advice” for life post-graduation.

First point: Be afraid. Knowing it’s possible to fail pushes you to accomplish more.
“A little bit of fear is good for you, for the simple reason that it leads to over-preparation,” she said.

Second: Believe you might succeed more wildly than you ever imagined.
“We think small to avoid bigger failures,” Guthrie said. “Don’t settle.”

Third” Seek out uncomfortable situations.
“Sometimes that big leap is going to give you air sickness,” said Guthrie, who recalled turning down a prestigious clerking position after law school for an uncertain return to television news.

Fourth: Slow down. Success doesn’t come all at once.
Guthrie talked about reporting for a small-town television station and how every journalist was looking for the perfect resume-booster — an “escape tape” — to get them to a bigger city. What she said she didn’t realize was that every day she spent in the trenches, shooting her own film and writing her own scripts, she was preparing herself for success down the road.

“I’m glad the first politician’s staffer to chew me out was a local politician and not the White House,” she said.
“So, be afraid, uncomfortable, unrealistic and slow. There, I send you out into the world,” Guthrie said, with one last pointer — call your parents once in a while.

Where Do Groceries Come From?

I remember listening to the radio as a child, and hearing Tennessee Ernie Ford’s “King of the Road”…Groceries have taken a new turn today with the apps, and the online ordering, and since we are a hurry up society, and in keeping with the ease of convenience why should groceries be any different. Out here with Safeway you can order online and have it delivered to your house, now Wal-Mart does it also with the exception that the price you see online is the same price you see in the store.

They use the same principles that we used when I sold Broadline Groceries with US Foodservice, you could set up an order guide and a shopping list and place your orders and never really see your Sales Rep. I recently was allowed to observe Schwan’s the grocer that drives up to your house in a truck also offers a online ordering component. They still come to your house every 2 weeks but give you the ease of being able to order at your leisure.

I was pleasantly surprised about the eagerness of the young man I observed. People were very giving in relation to allowing him into their homes and their lives. Their products are very nice and give you a sense menu planning with a no fuss, no muss prep and serve.

In today’s society this is where we have come to. As a young child I also recall a Coffee man and Milkman coming to the house to see Mrs. Juell. And the use of a trucker’s wallet (which I thought was very cool) I also recall a Dry Cleaner delivering to the house across the street. Fast forward 40 plus years, and similar to when I sold food where I placed your order via a wireless laptop and it would show up the next day. Today the Schwan’s guy drives to your house via a Garmin, and takes your order, knowing if he is out of a product on his truck, and if you pre-ordered an item from last time, and he goes to the truck and places your order in a bag and delivered to your door, and you pay with cash, check, or a credit card, which he swipes on a reader on his hip and it prints a receipt.or if you have a pre-paid order and are not home he puts it in a freezer bag with dry ice and leaves it at your door…and he goes on the next stop.

The funny things I noticed are that they do a majority of their business between 4 and 8 pm. And they can make more than 1 stop on a street but not in sequence, and will be on a street 3 –4 times in a 2-hour window depending when a person is home. After 8 pm however I noticed that with 5 calls only 2 stops resulted in sales, in a business sense I think that the 8 to 9 window was not beneficial in a quadrant time analysis.

Back to when I was growing up, like many, my mother would spend the day cleaning and prepping for dinner. It’s not like that today, it’s about how quick we can get it done and move on to what is next. What is the price we pay for Convenience? Where do your groceries come from?

Which Tools Work Best…Building a System that Works…

I was reading an article the other day that said you should have basic tools for home repairs and you need a good measuring tape, a good hammer, a screwdriver, and adjustable wrench. This applies to Hotels and Restaurants also. I do some things around the house and I have learned that you need to do a lot of things before you start.




There is planning involved, the right tools, do you need help? , Doing planning is the diagram for success; it’s like a blueprint. It’s the misen place, like using a recipe card to make a dish. If you pass up an ingredient the recipe will not turn out as anticipated. If you don’t snap a chalk line when building a block wall your lines won’t be straight. By planning you establish objectives, a goal, where you it will go, how you want it to end.

To “DO” something is to bring it together, whether it’s drawing a play in the dirt, it’s mixing the ingredients together so it has a base. In a hotel or restaurant you implement a system to drive a service level, raise the bar, to operate at a higher standard.

After you start a system, like a car engine, after driving for so long, you need to “Check” it, by testing your staff, you can check to see if you are on course. You also do this while you monitor your staff; you can see where you may need to make adjustments, by assessing this you can like building the wall, move it until it’s plumb, (or straight). In a recipe you taste it to see if it needs a pinch of salt or pepper to balance it out.

By being proactive and making changes after you plan it, do it, check it, you go back and modify it. When I was with a Luxury group and we wrote a training manual and implemented it, we met after 6 months and made changes, tweaked it. Sometimes a plan comes out and you have guidelines and some freedom to move around and make it fit. Then again there are those places that have a cookie cutter plan.

Make sure you have the right tools to get your operation running smooth, menus, design, cost factors, forecasts and labor, budgets, training plans. Having the right tools make the job easier, make you money, save you money, and make you a success.


Put us on a retainer. Use us as Executive Management. Cost Controls, Inventories, Service analysis. Have us to create a system for you to get to the next level. Need an Objective viewpoint of your Hotel & Restaurant Operation development. Save $$ on OSE and FFE for Construction and Renovations

It’s All in the Planning…Plan the Work, Work the Plan..

When I look at operations, I find it interesting that there are those that need to re- focus there energy in the sense that they don’t have a system in place that if they did it would save time and money. A lot of systems don’t interface, and thus the link does not happen the way it is supposed to and if it did the work world would be a much easier place. As a Division head, and before that a department head, I strove to create systems that made an operation run much smoother, and gain labor in the process.


There are those that will if implemented correctly, and maintained will make your work life easier, and able to move into and take on other responsibility, and IF done correctly will make a corporate hotel environment flow easier as well, and give a snapshot as to where there are leaks in the boat so to speak.

I recall that during studying Leadership in the Private Sector at Rappahannock Community College in Warsaw, VA in 200, through The Tides Inn, we reviewed and critiqued 3 movies and figured out the Leadership aspects, the movies were 12 Angry Men, Hoosiers, and Apollo 13. I loved the scene in Apollo 13 where Ed Harris spills the contents of a box and says, “We need to get them home using only the things in this box”.

We are still currently reviewing putting out a program in which you can after a discussion with us, deciding what your needs are, can install systems and teach the applications, and leave the disc. It’s not a patch for a leaky boat, but like a bilge pump, that will get you back on your way to delivering great service at a cost that will reflect at your bottom line.



Put us on a retainer. Use us as Executive Management. Cost Control, Inventories, Service analysis. Have us to create a system for you to get to the next level. Need an Objective review? Hotel & Restaurant Operation development. Save $$ on OSE and FFE for Construction and Renovations.