Category: Business Practices

Back to the Front: Improving Guest Experiences at The Langham, Hong Kong

By Michael Oshins While classroom interactions, readings, group projects and homework can help students develop new insights and understanding, nothing beats experience for the ultimate learning opportunity. With that in mind, Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration developed Tourism in China, a class that strikes a balance, with classroom learning provided for the first seven […]

A Conversation with Howard Schultz CEO of Starbucks

By Christopher Muller A conversation between Mr. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, and Dr. Christopher Muller during the September 2011 12th annual European Food Service Summit in Zurich, Switzerland (edited 2014). [Muller]: So we get to just have a conversation. Can we talk about Starbucks and social responsibility, the leadership of how you drive not […]

Self-Confidence in the Hospitality Industry

By Michael Oshins Roman philosopher Cicero believed self-confidence was critical to one’s success: “If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.” This key to success was reiterated by sports legends Vince Lombardi, “Confidence is contagious. So is […]

The Four ‘Ps’ of Hospitality Recruiting

By John D. Murtha The hospitality industry relies upon a supply of college graduates for entry-level management positions. Graduates can immediately contribute valuable services to employers and their initial jobs are a start toward future roles as general managers, corporate executives, consultants, and owners. The Four P’s When recruiting the most capable young women and […]

Hospitality Management: Perspectives from Industry Advisor

By Rachel Roginsky and Matthew Arrants In prior quarterly reports, Pinnacle Advisory Group presented timely updates about the New England lodging industry, which included focused profiles on particular cities. In this issue, the firm offers more general insight about the hospitality industry. Several Pinnacle executives recently participated in a panel discussion about investment, management, and […]

Still Searching for Excellence

By Bradford Hudson Three decades ago, American industry was obsessed with quality management. Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman helped create the enthusiasm during this era with their best-selling book In Search of Excellence. Although the subsequent quality movement was quite successful in the manufacturing sector, it has been less successful in services. Indeed, there is […]

The Ethic of Hospitality

By Christopher Muller Hospitality : n. friendly and generous reception of guests or strangers, or of new ideas. –The Concise Oxford Dictionary The idea of hospitality is evident in several types of human behavior including obligatory duties, commercial activity, and prosocial action. These are intertwined and revolve around the commitment to caring for others whether […]

The Historical Origins of Business Statistics and a Current Application in Lodging Forecasting

By Barry A.N. Bloom Academic journals often contain statistical information, and this is certainly true in the hospitality discipline. So it may be interesting for some readers to examine the nature of business statistics in general, review the contributions of a pioneer in the development of business statistics, and explain how some of these methods […]

Revisiting the Glass Ceiling: Career Progression for Women in the Hotel Industry

By Zoe Ho The hospitality industry has no shortage of women entering the business, but senior management positions seem to be dominated by men, especially general managers at major hotel properties. Although the proportions have probably improved over time, two academic studies by Robert Woods and his colleagues a decade ago indicated that fewer than […]

Tags:

Building Hotel Revenues through Tourism

By John Murtha When evaluating ways to maximize revenues, hotel executives should consider supporting the efforts of local destination marketing organizations (DMOs). Helping to build and sustain travel to a city or region can benefit individual hotels, by combining resources and energy on marketing tactics that would otherwise be too ambitious or costly for a […]