thomas mielke
Sustainable Business Practices vs. Business Recovery: HR in the Middle
Thomas Mielke | February 28, 2022
By Thomas Mielke In the current business context, most hospitality organizations are finding themselves wanting to strike the right balance of "building back better" without jeopardizing a speedy recovery and keeping sustainable business practices at the heart of it all. It is important to note that this is taking place at a time when there is heightened interest, as well as public scrutiny, toward an organization’s “footprint” and purpose. For example, stakeholders, as well as shareholders – who have already become more attuned to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles – expect a marked step forward as it relat...
Mobile Technologies to Drive Operational Focus and ROI
James Houran | January 28, 2022
By James Houran, Thomas Mielke Odds are that your organization has relied on – or presently uses – two traditional business tools: (a) Psychometric Assessments for hiring, training, and development with mission-critical roles, and (b) Annual Team Member Surveys to monitor the engagement of organizational talent and the effectiveness of its leadership. However, many organizations do not suitably link these two approaches in a way that promotes operational excellence. This article therefore reviews the aims of these tools and suggests a simple step-by-step implementation that produces a crafty self-reinforcing loop of ongoing calibration...
Hospitality’s Second Act: Capitalizing on the Enchantment Economy
Thomas Mielke | June 30, 2021
By Thomas Mielke The successful vaccine rollouts mean global economies are now generally rebounding from the sustained social and travel restrictions of the past year. Consequently, service-hospitality organizations are seeing consumer activity like so-called ‘revenge tourism’ further speed up the recovery. Although demand will undoubtedly be high, so too will customers’ expectations. Having longed for entertainment, enrichment, and escapism, guests will not want to be disappointed. Operators should therefore be hypervigilant ‘wooing, and wowing’ consumers. At a recent expert forum, organized by Seatrade Cruise and AETHOS, pan...
Hospitality’s ‘Hot Seat’ Leadership Series: COOs – A Tale of Two Fortunes
Andrew Hazelton | February 18, 2021
By Andrew Hazelton, Thomas Mielke Part II In our roles as organizational advisers to the hospitality industry on all HR-, talent- and recruitment-related aspects, we are frequently being asked: “What can we [or I] do differently to stay ahead of the curve?”, often followed by, “What profiles, backgrounds and leadership skills are currently most sought after by the market?”. This natural curiosity about the ‘hot functions’ is keeping both organizational leadership teams as well as individual executives preoccupied. How can one best reshuffle or complement one’s existing leadership team? Are there specific experiences or ...
Company Cultures and Residual Shockwaves From 2020
February 3, 2021
By Thomas Mielke, James Houran Social and economic disruptions often shift people’s behaviours — sometimes in small ways, other times more seismic. On this point, AETHOS conducted a ‘COVID Gap’ analysis for the C-suite within hospitality organisations at the end of last year. The results were sobering. Particularly, we found several significant changes across these team’s Execution, People, and Cognitive skills: “Overall, management teams were more tactical and short-term focused, but also much nimbler in their thinking. Strategy alongside established protocols and processes were thrown out the window. Aspects relating to tea...
Hospitality’s ‘Hot Seat’ Leadership Series: Trends in Key Functions – Part 1
Andrew Hazelton | February 1, 2021
Andrew Hazelton, Thomas Mielke We are frequently asked by leaders in our industry what roles are ‘hot’ and where are we seeing movement? That curiosity is reflective of our highly competitive sector, one where individuals are eager to further their professional development but also of an industry where scarcity of talent remains an issue – and the pandemic, perhaps counter-intuitively, will probably exaggerate this even further. Of course, one cannot deny that, at present, there is a larger than usual talent pool for employees to pick and choose from. However, the pandemic has also caused some considerable ‘talent haemorrhaging’,...
Why HR Practitioners Look Forward to Rolling-Up Their Sleeves as 2021 Provides Opportunities To ‘Build Back Better’
Thomas Mielke | January 11, 2021
By Thomas Mielke In Conversation with Susan Meinl... Susan Meinl is an industry veteran, having spearheaded for well over two decades the HR function within one of the original associations set-up to support small boutique hotels across the globe. As global HR leader at Design Hotels (www.designhotels.com), she has witnessed and shaped the organisation’s journey from start-up all the way through to its (gradual) acquisition by Starwood Hotels & Resorts / Marriott International. After more than twenty years within the corporate world, Susan has now decided to set up her own practice, honing-in on leadership coaching, and HR facilit...
Mind the ‘COVID’ Gap
Thomas Mielke | December 3, 2020
By: Thomas Mielke, London | James Houran, Ph.D., Dallas There was a collective sigh of relief in early November when Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and the Oxford-AstraZeneca team announced in rapid succession their news of vaccines with 90%-plus efficacy rates. However, business leaders in the hospitality industry understand that these positive developments are not a ‘silver bullet’ to solving pressing problems in the here and now. Neither will be the breaking news of the now UK-approved Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that coronavirus vaccines might be deployed, at scale, early to mid-2021. Challen...
