by Georges Panayotis
Professional activities are all caught up in an unbridled cult of youth as the new solution for saving on expenses and gaining in managerial "flexibility". Could the management of a professional soccer team act as a model? Experience acquired during years spent climbing the social ladder can become a handicap rather than an asset for companies providing services that are ready to replace them with more flexible, young employees and even with more easily programmable robots…
The American army is recruiting exceptionally gifted video gamers to win the new electronics war. Far from the battle fields, they are wreaking havoc with unmanned drones, filled with electronics and munitions. Tomorrow will the exceptionally gifted Revenue and online marketing managers, comfortably settled in their open spaces, replace receptionists, executive assistants, sales managers and maybe even general managers… ?
People remain an essential element in a hotel brand's DNA. Who better than a hotelier at heart, regardless of his position, trained for his job on the field or in hotel schools, to instill daily activities with the values associated with a brand? If functions are bereft of responsibility, technology is wide spread and turnover is accepted as a destiny… then the brand loses its consistency. Administrators content themselves with reducing expenditures, just as they reduced the necessary capex limits or quibbled over financing research and development.
It is important to continue to stimulate the desire to avoid midrange commoditization. After taking it easy it is difficult to shift back into gear when other businesses or other offers complete the void or give rise to new emotions. The winning combinations quickly experience competition and are subject to imitation. To stay in the lead it is better to be inventive than adopt a me-too strategy. Hoteliers who rest on their laurels will quickly realize they are only creating illusion: their clients want new songs, words and music, with real performers who know how to sing and even dance.
Jobs in hospitality are growing richer over time. They should come with stable contracts, regular training that encourages growth. They must not be relegated to the same fate as jobs in fast-food that young people take on with no real conviction or ambition.
