Inside Asian Gaming

inside asian gaming January 2016 10 Cover Story day hospitality companies in Macau are suffering a significant loss of revenue as a financial consequence of failing to achieve this goal. In preparation for the next wave of mega luxury resorts to enter the Macau marketplace, it would be wise to recognize the value of focussed coaching to groom line employees. Such effective training would establish talent banks, offer rich learning opportunities and provide access to external functional experience and knowhow. Staging and preparing employees to engage the future needs of the organization and the market in an applied and dynamic manner has to be a priority for all those whose organizations are dependent on delivering outstanding customer service and memorable experiences. Unfortunately, in most cases this is a wish list item. Few human resource departments are able to articulate their development initiatives well. So human resources needs to be rethought entirely, transitioning away from the focus on hiring quotas, pigeon holing and giving birth to endless new policies. This has to end if corporations are to demonstrate market leadership, market growth and healthy profitability on a sustained basis. Competitive companies need to get ahead of the market, not wait for market conditions to change or to be told what to do by the CEO or Managing Director. A lesson could well be taken here from BMW, which has attempted to teach even its administrative and accounting staff how to be innovative. INTRODUCING HALO SERVICE Just imagine if you will all floor employees such as those who directly provide primary level service to guests and customers no longer delivering zombie line platitudes, but instead their responses to each Traveling Asia with Dr Brian To Last month I had the pleasure of travelling with Dr Brian To across Asia discussing hospitality and gaming. We visited three casinos and seven hotels in four countries, immediately followed by a debrief in London with a team of five gaming and hospitality professionals to discuss our trip and the general state of play of Asian gaming and hospitality. To say travelling with Dr To was an eye-opener would be a gross understatement. It could be better described as an education. His keen eye for detail, immediate grasp of complex issues and concepts and easy-going yet insightful manner were a delight to witness. Brian is equally comfortable amongst 5-star luxury and 2-star, er, shall we say, “less-than-luxury.” He is a very keen student of the hospitality industry, talking with authority on a wide range of aspects of the industry. Facilities, property maintenance, management culture, food and beverage, service delivery, systems and processes, marketing, hotel room features and amenities, entertainment – it was all within Brian’s ambit. Every single staff interaction led to a commentary and potentially a lesson about the industry, not only for myself but quite often the staff member concerned! But Brian does not deliver such lessons in an authoritative or demeaning way – far from it. He is a man who loves life, is thoroughly good-humored and delivers almost every word with a laugh, a smile or at least a devilish wink. He’s equally comfortable thinking with a Western mindset or an Eastern one and has the language skills to communicate with most of those he meets across Asia. His wide range of skills includes human behavior, management culture, leadership and strategy, especially in the hospitality industry context. I could think of no one better placed to commentate on or assess any given hospitality product – whether that product be a meal, a hotel, a city or indeed an entire country. Dr To relaxing at the Harvard Club of New York City By Andrew W Scott