Reflections: Peter Borer

By Staff -- HOTELS Magazine, 8/1/2006

Peter Borer, chief operating officer,The Peninsula Group, Hong Kong

I want to reflect upon our industry over the last 40 years and look at what it has to offer today to someone entering it as a career—with the help of what I call the “3 P’s.”

The first “P” is prospects. Today it is rare to pick up a newspaper without reading about globalization—that invasive process where geographic distance becomes a diminishing factor of importance in the establishment and maintenance of cross border economic, political and socio-cultural relations. Now, while globalization often engenders negative connotations, given the turbulence and change that often complements it, the human flows that can come from it positively enhance career prospects.

Over the past decade, an increasing number of hotel companies have diversified their operating bases from a few countries or a single continent into global operations. This, coupled with the general unrestricting of the movement of labor, means that staff can now move as easily between Beijing and Birmingham, Manila and Milan, New York and New Zealand as they can between Washington, D.C. and New York City. This has produced a plethora of wonderful opportunities, and a greater diversity of geographical postings can be expected.

My second “P” is people. People are the very cornerstone of our industry, be they the guests we serve or the staff who serve them. We require teams with a clear and unwavering understanding of the importance of genuine service, based upon respect and understanding of the guest.

So the opportunities afforded by the benefits of freer human flows afforded by globalization provide the opportunities to improve people skills, cultural awareness and understanding. This is to be encouraged and applauded, as with increased globalization comes the need to serve a more diverse clientele, and in turn our industry needs culturally aware people. The modern hotelier has the privilege of mixing with a vast variety of people from different countries, races, religions and cultures, and this is a critical factor to the success of any hotel.

My third “P” is passion. Passion, I believe, is a prerequisite for any successful hotelier. It is about long hours, dealing with guests (and staff) who can sometimes be very difficult, lots of meetings (some productive and some not), and, at times, it can be frustrating and you will wish you had gone into a different career. But the most important thing is that you love it—and that is why passion is so important.

To sum up, we have a wonderful industry where opportunities abound. A young man or woman reading this article and thinking of joining our industry can be assured there is a lot of hard work, long hours and regular frustrations. But they will be entering an exciting industry where travel is at their fingertips, and where they can mix with different peoples and cultures on a daily basis. It is truly rewarding. The choice is theirs. I’m profoundly glad I made it.