Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
SJR: Good afternoon, welcome to Hotelier on the Grill
This is Stuart Jay Raj
We're sitting here with Justin Malcolm
who is the general manager of the Aloft Hotel in Sukhumvit Soi 11 in Bangkok, Thailand.
Rather than me introducing Justin,
Justin, could you just give us a quick introduction of who you are?
Not too detailed as we'll get into more of that during the interview.
JM: Sure Stuart, first of all thanks for coming by and having a chat today.
For those that I haven't met and are listening to this,
as Stuart said,
I head up here the Bangkok Aloft Hotel here at Sukhumvit 11.
I've been here for just over 12 months.
I've been fortunate enough to be with Starwood Hotels and Resorts for 18 years.
Surprisingly.
And I've worked in some great locations.
And for five of our nine brands over that time.
It's great to be in Bangkok.
It's such a vibrant and happening place.
It's a fantastic time to be here. Thank you Stuart.
SJR: So let's get straight into the questions.
Twelve standard quetions and normally the answer that first comes into your head is the best one.
** Question One: Where did you fist cut your teeth in the hotel industry?
JM: Well you know, it's a funny story Stuart.
I originally wanted to be a chef.
Surprisingly.
I deferred University after I finished my 12th year in school.
And I never went back.
I started work at Sheraton Sydney Airport in Australia as a room attendant.
And really, never looked back.
I have held almost every job in between since.
And ended up studying later.
But that's really where I cut my teeth.
I learnt about hotel operations first hand.
SJR: At the Sheraton Sydney Airport.
** Question Two: What was your first big break?
JM: I think that my first big break ...
I have had a few big breaks to be honest Stuart
and the two that stand out that were really career defining for me
were an opportunity that I got after the Sheraton Sydney Airport
to work for a short term contract in Phuket with our Sheraton Grand property.
At the time.
I guess my second big break was when I was working at the Westin Sydney.
A property that I pre-opened.
But a property that was really the first Westin Hotel in the Pacific region.
So it was a very important property for us.
And the General Manager at the time obviously saw something,
and promoted me from an Assistant Department Head role to a Director's role.
So that was really a big jump at the time.
And really career defining for me.
Because it did really shape the future thereafter in terms of my moves.
SJR: Right, so that was after the Sheraton?
JM: That was after the Sheraton Grand.
Yeah, I moved from Sheraton Grand in Phuket to open the Westin Sydney in 1999.
SJR: ** Question Three: Why were you able to make it to this place where you are now
where perhaps other people haven't been so successful?
JM: I think its two-fold for me Stuart, if I think about it carefully.
One is, I have worked with some fantastic people that believe in taking chances on people.
I think that that is first and foremost, and Westin Sydney is a prime example of that.
The second is because personally I'm an extremely driven person
in terms of setting myself some pretty high goals,
and really relentlessly chasing them.
So they're probably the two things that play into where I am today.
SJR: Right, And so
** Question Four: Could you tell us of you darkest moment in your career?
JM: Yeah, my darkest moment...
you know when we talk about darkest moments in hotels,
they're always situations that you never want to talk about right?
We see a lot in hotels from all walks of life.
I think that I guess the one that sticks out for me is not a nice one unfortunately.
It's related to an attempted suicide.
A case in Sydney where we were tipped off by the person's ex-wife.
And we entered the room,
and I did find the gentleman luckily in time.
We were able to revive him.
So there is a good news part to this story
Even though it was a pretty dark time.
I guess the darkest time for me is really seeing the other side of life.
Where people really feel like there's no way out
And they really are at they're desperate point.
And to find suicide notes to children and things like that,
is not a nice thing to experience.
So for me that was not a nice thing to go through.
SJR: When you're in these kinds of circumstances,
** Question Five: How do you get through that?
JM: Well, hotels for me
and still are today extended families.
Hotel teams are usually pretty tight.
And so from that perspective, I've had a number of wonderful, wonderful colleagues around me at the hotel.
And of course the hotel itself.
The management team at the time.
Extremely caring and these are all very important parts
after an event like that in terms of getting through it,
these are all people and the management team at the time play a role in getting through that.
SJR: Right, so it's not a lone effort?
JM: Definitely not a lone journey I tell you that much.
SJR: ** Question Six: What drives you?
JM: What drives me?
Well I think first of all I like to create opportunities for success.
And what drives me as a result of that is the people that I work with being successful.
Because I do think that success creates success.
And when I see that, with hotel teams that I work along side of,
That really motivates me to do a better job.
SJR: Could you give an example of that?
JM: Yeah, I mean there are many times in our careers and not just me,
everybody will have had this experience where you've done exactly what people have done with me in my career
Provided an opportunity for advancement,
or succes.
And then get out of the way and let that person get on with it.
I really think that that's an important part of people development.
SJR: That's a perfect segue into the next question then.
** Question Seven: Do you have a mentor? If so who and why?
JM: I've had a lot of mentors in my career.
For many many different reasons.
Both personally and professionally.
If I talk about professionally,
I've always surrounded myself with mentors that challenge me in terms of my way of thinking.
I've had a number of these people throughout my career.
Obviously these people -
One was certainly the General Manager at the time at the Westin Sydney
who gave me the opporunity to advance significantly.
From an assistant department head role into a directors role.
But I've had also very wonderful bosses who have always been my mentors.
Even in the Maldives I had a wonderful Area General Manager, Brian Seagrave
Who taught me so much about not only managing 'unconventionally' I guess.
But also about in managing in micro social environments like islands.
I learnt a lot in that time.
Also my bosses today.
They provide mentorship to me and I think that that's
something that I certainly don't take for granted.
SJR: Right. And of course you're being the mentor for the people under you.
JM: Well you hope so right?
You always talk about what legacy you leave behind and I hope that one legacy that we all leave behind
in leadership roles is that we do provide mentorship or opportunities to others.
SJR: ** Question Eight: Could you tell us of an experience in your career that's made you proud?
JM: There have been a lot.
And for the reasons that I've described.
But I think that the one that probably sticks out the most.
I remember when I was working in Kuala Lumpur for the Westin,
the company asked me to go to the Maldives.
We had a huge task of branding a resort that we took a financial interest in as well.
And I arrived a month before the global financial crisis,
so we had this huge mission to re-brand, rennovate and build new rooms in the Sheraton property there.
The Sheraton Maldives.
It was a tough time.
First of all building anything in the middle of the ocean is tough.
But going through the financial crisis at the same time really added a lot of pressure.
And I felt myself, the managment team and
of course my mentor at the time Brian,
we really stuck together.
We belived in what we did and we got our hands dirty every day, to go through that experience.
And it really is one of our top performing resorts now in Asia Pacific.
So I feel proud that we were able to do that.
I feel proud because not only did we do that as a team,
but when you strongly believe in something that you're doing
and you really stand up and you're convicted behind your approach every day,
I guess for me the defining moment was that the company recognized that
and I was awarded the most inspiring leader award for South Asia for 2009.
So that's something that I'm very very proud of.
Even today.
SJR: Congratulations.
JM: Thank you.
SJR: ** Question Nine: What's the best advice that you could give somebody who is looking to be a successful GM?
JM: I think that in this day and age and in particulary in the last say, five or so years,
or maybe even a bit longer,
where we see a huge surge of social media and the influence that technology now plays
in our daily life in hotels,
coupled with the fact that we as an industry always measured things a lot.
There's a lot of data around now, and I think that it's easy to get caught up in a lot of information.
So I think for me, that it's really about grass-roots actions.
It's always important to remember that interacting with your guests,
interacting with your business partners,
interacting with your staff, are still extremely important parts of the business
and are not to be underestimated.
SJR: So don't just get caught in the statistics.
JM: I mean it's easy not to talk to people in this day and age.
You've really got to make an effort.
So for me that's still very much an important part of running a hotel.
SJR: ** Question Ten: What is something that GM's shouldn't get wrong?
JM: One thing that ...
When you ask me that question, I guess I relate taht to my personal career journey.
I think if I look at reasons why I've been successful to date,
I'd like to think that they're reasons that I'd want to not get wrong in the future.
And that is really about people and taking chances on people.
Like I said before, providing and searching relentlessly for opportunities for people to be successful,
but more importantly, get out of the way and let them get on with the job.
So that's something that I'm really committed to personally.
SJR: So not micro managing?
JM: Yeah, I don't think that's a strong attribute to be honest.
SJR: Moving on to our last hotelier based question,
** Question Eleven: If you weren't in the hotel industry, what's your ideal alternate career?
JM: Could I say retire now?
I love car racing, so for me it would have to involve the racing industry.
In some way shape or form.
So, I guess there are some similarities but also big differences at the same time.
The car racing industry is fast-paced.
Hotel businesses are fast-paced.
Every day is different,
but I guess that the excitement of being on a race track and the adrenalin
and being part of a successful team is still part of what I want,
but I think that in the racing car industry - I'd love to experience that.
SJR: Do you race yourself?
JM: I used to race a car in Australia.
I don't race now.
I haven't raced since I left Oz.
SJR: Well thank you for that.
They were our eleven hotelier based questions,
our twelfth question
is kind of off the hotelier agenda a little, but it gives us an insight into who you are.
** Question Twelve: What's one app that you're currently using that you would recommend?
JM: I don't know if this is boring,
but I read a lot of news
and I use an app called Sky Grid.
I don't know if you've heard of it,
but sky-grid ... there are many of these apps around,
but Sky Grid is good in the sense that you can really sort of choose the topics that you really want to focus on.
And you get pushed all of that news content daily.
Or hourly.
It's real time.
I choose nine or so different categories.
And I get that pushed into me .
I guess from a personal level,
I like an app called Tune-In radio.
I don't know if you've heard of that either,
but this app allows users to listen -
stream and listen to radio stations from anywhere in the world.
So on the weekend I love to listen to radio stations in Sydney.
You just close your eyes and it takes you back,
so it's nice when you're working away from home to have a little bit of a connection.
That's a great personal app that I listen to.
SJR: I concur.
We also use that too in the gym while we're training.
I actually noticed here in the hotel, it's run by an app as well.
Or people can have their experience via the app as well.
JM: We do.
We're a technologically driven brand,
so we try and stay on cutting edge opportunities as it relates to providing technological applications for guests.
We have a touch room concept here where we hand out phones with apps
that have the ability for you to control everything in the room.
But not only that,
it acts as a wireless hotspot as you move around it gives you a local number.
And it allows you the connectivity as you're on the move.
Either for business or for leisure.
So we've had great feedback about that.
And we're looking forward to launching the next phase of that which should be within the next couple of months.
SJR: I've seen some of the articles and seen it in action down here.
It's absolutely amazing.
On behalf of hotelier herald,
and Hotelier on the Grill, I'd like to thank you very much Justin.
It's been an honour and a pleasure having you with us here sharing your experiences.
It's indeed the new generation of GM.
You have traditional roots, but you're also taking it into the future of where hotels are heading.
JM: Let's hope so. But Stuart I'd equally like to thank you for taking the time to have a chat today.
Thank you.
SJR: Thanks Justin.
JM: Cheers, Bye bye.