Category: May 2022

Letter from the Dean – Leadership

May 2022 “Those lobster rolls were amazing, weren’t they?” extolled David Pavelko, Global Hospitality Partnerships Director of Google Travel. The combination of humor and humility won over the enraptured audience as he took on the tall order of being the closing speaker after many inspiring Talks at our school’s recent Hospitality Leadership Summit. In addition […]

Editors’ Letter – Leadership

May 2022 By Taylor Peyton, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Leadership and Workplace Psychology, Boston University School of Hospitality Administration and Priyanko Guchait, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Houston, Conrad N. Hilton College of Global Hospitality Leadership An often underrated, but important, action that skilled leaders do is offer their followers a new perspective. That leadership […]

Cultivating Hospitality Leadership Identities

By Sandra Sun-Ah Ponting, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, San Diego State University As the world continues to process the devastating impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, continuing human demands to gather with others and engage in designed experiences have spotlighted the necessity of hospitality service provisions. Pent-up consumer demand for outings at restaurants, stays at accommodations, and […]

Lessons I Learned During the Pandemic

By Alexander Pratt, Area Director of Human Resources, Omni Hotels & Resorts, and Alexa Rostovsky, Boston University School of Hospitality Administration, SHA’24 In March of 2020, the hotel where I work – the longest continuously operating hotel in the United States – closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. As an Area Director of Human Resources before […]

A Guide To Rethinking and Reimaging Your Restaurant

By John Barton, Boston University School of Hospitality Administration, SHA’24 and Priya Tewani, Boston University School of Hospitality Administration, MMH’22, CAS‘21 The restaurant industry is still reeling after a record-breaking and expectation-shattering summer of 2021, during which many restaurants and tourism businesses saw revenues return to within 80% of pre-pandemic levels (Statistica). Despite omicron’s toll […]

Rebuilding Better: Fostering a Restaurant Industry in Service of Employees

By Lilly Jan, Ph.D., Nolan School of Hotel Administration, Cornell University As restaurants began to reopen to customers last year, the nationwide “labor shortage” made headlines with commentary from the media, the government, and the public as to why the restaurant industry was struggling to restaff operations. Speculation and assumptions made by lawmakers, industry commentators, […]

Global Organizational Strategy: A Framework for Leading Hospitality in Times of Crisis

By Peter Bheda, Chairman and CEO, Frontera Hotel Group, Lecturer, Boston University School of Hospitality Administration, MMH’22 Introduction In today’s unprecedented global business environment, many leaders are having difficulty managing people and companies. Perhaps this is due to us overthinking what leadership is and making it more difficult than it should be. Broadly speaking, leadership […]

Dear Executive, Do You Believe in . . . Magic?

By Taylor Peyton, Ph.D, Assistant Professor, Boston University School of Hospitality Administration These days, I know why I pay over $100 for one LEGO set for my six- and eight-year-old nephews. It’s because they are completely captivated by the possibility of what those colorful piles of plastic blocks could be. Star Wars DeathStarTM! Colosseum! HogwartsTM Castle! […]

How Three Global Hospitality Companies Led With a Clear Vision

By Gregg Rockett, Professor of Practice at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University School of Hotel & Tourism Management Introduction “Leadership is about establishing the vision of the future, along with great strategy and building a great culture,” Chris Nassetta, CEO of Hilton Worldwide (Smith, 2019). An effective leader drives the vision for the organization, thus […]

What is the Recipe for Leading Successful Creative Restaurants?

By Arturo Molina-Collado, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing, Department of Business Administration, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Toledo, Spain Introduction After the pandemic, UNWTO (2021) has stated that creativity could contribute to the success of hospitality firms; for instance, creative strategies in leading restaurants provide innovative and unique experiences (WFTA, 2021). This type of restaurant uses creativity […]