MORE FUN AT THE MOUNT – Part 12

CONFESSIONS OF A GLOBAL GYPSY

By Dr. Chandana (Chandi) Jayawardena DPhil

President – Chandi J. Associates Inc. Consulting, Canada

Founder & Administrator – Global Hospitality Forum

chandij@sympatico.ca

Personal Connections at the Mount

My Confession 11, published with the title of ‘The Greatest Love’ last week in the Sunday Island, resulted in more than the usual number of comments on social media. I was particularly happy to receive the following message on LinkedIn, “Fantastic article. I love the ending poem of the article dedicated to “the greatest love”, your mother. So touching and reminds every reader of the warmth and leadership role of a mother. Although, today is the day dedicated to all fathers, your article covers not only the great adventures and love of the hotel, but more importantly what a key role parents play in fostering children.” This message is very special to me because of the writer. He is Mr. Sanath Ukwatte, the Chairman of the Mount Lavinia Hotel (MLH) Group.

I met Sanath for the first time in his father’s office at MLH in early 1985. His father, Mr. U. K. Edmund, was one of those humble Southerners who came to Colombo and built significant business empires in mid-20th century Ceylon. He was a visionary business icon. After running the business of the Ceylon Government Railway’s entire catering operation, he built one of the two largest breweries in Ceylon, Three Coins. He purchased MLH in the mid-1970s, and expanded the great hotel while maintaining the early 19th century architecture. In early 1985, soon after I returned to Sri Lanka after completing my MSc in International Hotel Management at the University of Surrey, UK, I received a telephone call from the veteran hotelier Prasanna Jayawardene, who was the General Manager of MLH. He wanted me to join MLH as the Deputy General Manager, and wanted me to meet the owner and his young son, who was learning his father’s business.

At the end of the interview, Mr. U. K. Edmund stated decisively in Sinhala, “You are hired. When can you start work?”. I told him that I also have interviews with John Keells, Le Meridien, Oberoi and Coral Gardens Hotel; therefore, I needed a little time to decide. At that point, Mr. Edmund told me: “OK, go to all those interviews and see what happens. We will offer you much more than any of the others!”. I finally had job offers from all five companies, accepted the offer from John Keells and became the General Manager of their two largest resort hotels – The Lodge and the Village in Habarana. Sanath kept in touch with me, and offered me the post of the General Manager of MLH in 1988. Eventually I left a good job in London to accept Sanath’s generous offer on an expatriate contract for three years. Being the General Manager of MLH, was my last job in Sri Lanka, and easily the most memorable in my 50-year career in hospitality.

A Waiter at the Hut

During the 1972/1973 tourist season, four of my batch mates from the Ceylon Hotel School (CHS) and I continued to enjoy our work at MLH. Doing our co-op (in-service) as trainee waiters, we hardly made any tips serving the fixed four course dinner menu. Soon after the dinner service, we volunteered to work at the Little Hut, the famous night club at MLH. As tips were great at the Hut, we even did a couple of extra hours, without overtime wages. We also liked the live bands that played there. I always treated the hospitality business the same way as show business. One day I was happy when a top musician performing at the Hut, Ishan Bahar, asked me, “With your afro hairstyle, you look like a musician, would you like to sing in a band?” After work, around midnight while walking to the bus stand, we sang the top hits of the day that were played at the Hut. Inspired by Ishan’s comments, I tried to imitate Johnny Nash, and sang very loudly, but badly:

I can see clearly now the rain is gone

I can see all obstacles in my way…

Although I could not sing well, years later, I produced a series of popular stage music shows with choreographed dance routines, set changes and special effects, at hotels and BMICH, the national conference centre of Sri Lanka. At the finale of one of those shows in 1980s, Ishan Bahar called me on stage and presented a token of appreciation, painted by him and signed by all the musicians who performed at that show. In the early 1990s, as the General Manager of MLH I convinced Ishan Bahar, to return to limelight as the special guest artiste at the Hut at prime time on Saturday nights. Thank you for the music!

After the tips

I quickly got interested in optimising my tip earning potential. More than the desire for making money, it was somewhat of a competition within myself. I started observing experienced waiters who made lots of money through tips. Most of them had good social skills and knew how to up-sell. I learnt those skills very quickly. I started recommending lobster to customers who were thinking of shrimp, Champagne to customers who were thinking of wine and fillet steak to customers who were thinking of beef stew. It worked most of the time. I also identified high spending customers and became friendly with them, while memorizing their favourite drinks and dishes. Most of the experienced full-time waiters were from villages which meant that they were not very fluent in English. That provided the trainee waiters from CHS a slight unfair advantage when promoting and up-selling products to European tourists.

Employee Relations

MLH at that time had a very colonial style hierarchy with several levels of employee meal rooms. Although we were trainee waiters, because of our CHS connection we were treated a little differently. For example, we were not sent to the common employee canteen in the basement for our meals. We were served our meals at a comfortable clerical staff meal room on the first floor. I was always uncomfortable with this preferential treatment. I was keen to avoid any jealousy from the full-time employees who were helping us to learn the profession. Therefore, ignoring advice from a couple of my CHS buddies, I addressed some of these senior waiters as ‘aiyya’ (elder brother), ‘uncle’ or ‘boss’. They liked that as I was showing them respect.

Tip Records

One thing I learnt quickly is that to up-sell food and beverage, one needs good product knowledge. When we were not too busy, I commenced studying the cocktail lists, wine lists and à la carte menus. I sought Chef Publis’s help in understanding some of the dishes I was not familiar with. He was always very helpful and friendly, and went into detailed explanations in Sinhala. All of these efforts made me a better waiter who earned lots of tips. Every night during my commute to home, I would sit at a back seat on the top deck of a red double decker to count my tips. When I went home, I announced my successes to my mother. I soon kept a target for each month and recorded daily tip earnings on a handwritten sheet. For my first month at MLH, I reached my target of Rs. 1,000 in tips. Considering that my salary for the same month at MLH was only around Rs. 100, my tip earnings were a lot of money at that time.

A Workers’ Strike

One afternoon when five of us arrived at the hotel for our shift, we were surprised to see most of the staff outside the hotel shouting slogans against the management. They were aggressive. Even the employees who were usually very friendly with us looked and sounded angry and unfriendly that afternoon. I realized how peer pressure can change attitudes of some people, very quickly. Owing to the support of the socialist government of Sri Lanka at that time, the left-wing trade unions controlled by the LSSP, were very strong. A union delegate ordered us to go home and said, “We will not let you go into the hotel today. Until the management changes their unfair rules, we will close MLH!”

My batch mates and I were scared, but I gathered some courage to inquire the reason for this sudden strike. The American General Manager had insisted that all staff wear Hyatt uniforms, which included trousers and shoes. In his mind, maintaining Hyatt standards, at any cost was a top priority. Unlike now, most employees coming from villages had never worn western clothes. They wore sarongs and slippers, and never in their life wore a pair of shoes. That day the lesson I learnt was that managers must balance corporate standards with practicality, while understanding human challenges.

This lesson helped me to avoid a major strike in Jamaica in late 1990s when the union there refused to wear a section of Le Meridien uniform, as it reminded them of the dark days of colonial slavery. My superiors in the corporate office of Le Meridien in Paris insisted that corporate standards must be maintained at any cost. I disagreed and was able to eventually change the corporate policy in recognition of the cultural challenge.

I told the chief union delegate in the middle of the MLH 1972 strike, “We simply cannot refrain from working today. We are students and not members of your union. If we don’t work today, most likely we will be expelled from CHS.” He disagreed. After further negotiation he asked me to come down to the employee quarters with him and meet with the union leader for a one-on-one meeting. I met a powerful leader of LSSP trade union. His name was D.G. William who later became an LSSP Senator. His commanding personality and his booming voice, made me very nervous. However, with a brave face I narrated my rationale. He listened and thought for a while, before telling the chief union delegate, “This boy has a reasonable point.”

He then ordered the delegates to let five of us to proceed to MLH to work. That was my first experience of situational leadership. That afternoon we worked very hard as there were not enough employees to serve the guests in a hotel that was full. The strike was settled just before dinner service. The management gave in. Those employees who were uncomfortable wearing trousers and shoes were allowed to continue working in sarongs and slippers.

Decades later I did an assignment for another great hotel in Sri Lanka of the same vintage as MLH, the Galle Face Hotel. My three-month long assignment there was as the Consultant to then Chairman, Mr. Cyril Gardiner. My client made the arrangement to convert the board room of the hotel as my temporary office. This board room had been re-named by Mr. Gardiner, after one of the greatest trade union leaders of the country – late D.G. William.