NEW DOORS OPENED IN LONDON – Part 41

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

Trust House Forte

I arrived in London during the summer of 1979 to undergo a special Management Observer/Trainee program with the largest hotel chain in the United Kingdom – Trust House Forte (THF). I had worked at their hotel in Sri Lanka, the Pegasus Reef Hotel, during my first year at the Ceylon Hotel School seven years before as a part-time bus boy. What I did not know about THF was that by 1979 it had emerged as the largest and the most profitable hotel and catering company in the world.

As required, I went to the THF Personnel Division on my first Monday in London. “I am Geoffrey Pye, the Director of Personnel for THF hotels in London. I will personally conduct your orientation to THF”, a well-dressed and kind gentleman informed me. “Meet Miss Linda Woodhouse, the new Training Officer of the Cumberland Hotel.” He introduced a young and friendly lady who was assigned to coordinate my management observation/training program.

Linda informed me that by staying at the Regent Palace Hotel I would be a guest observer there. My main assignment was at the Cumberland, a 900-room hotel located above the Marble Arch underground station. “Chandi, you are lucky to be able to understudy Mr. Bejaramo, our famous Catering Manager”, Linda told me. It was my first orientation program.

As a British-owned group, THF’s presence in the United Kingdom was clearly visible with massive contract catering operations, large restaurant chains and some of the most iconic hotels. In London, THF owned and managed some of the greatest hotels in the Commonwealth, such the Grosvenor House, Hyde Park Hotel, the Cumberland, the Strand Palace, the Browns, the Russell, and the Waldorf. THF also owned and managed the famous banquet venue – Café Royal situated very close to the Regent Palace Hotel and Piccadilly Circus.

Linda provided me with many interesting facts about THF’s history and current operations. Sir Charles Forte had become the CEO of THF in 1971. He was an Italian-born British caterer and hotelier who founded the leisure and hotel conglomerate that ultimately became known as the Forte Group in later years. When he was four years of age, Charles had migrated from Italy to Scotland with his family. After working in milk bars operated by his father in Scotland, at age 26 Charles moved to the capital city with £2,000 borrowed from his father to set up his own first milk bar in London in 1935. Having expanded his business into catering and hotel businesses, in 1970 he orchestrated a clever merger of the Forte Holdings with an older hotel and catering group, Trust Houses Ltd. That merger resulted in the formation of Trust House Forte or THF.

In Britain, THF continued its hotel expansion with various ambitious acquisitions including the 1976 purchase of the Lyons Hotel Group, a substantial assortment of first-class hotels including the Cumberland and the Regent Palace. For decades, Sir Charles attempted to take control of, arguably, the most famous hotel in the United Kingdom since 1889 – Savoy Hotel. The vision, hard work and business acumen of Sir Charles resulted in THF managing over 900 hotels in 44 countries by the year 1979.

Sir Charles’s only son, Rocco Forte, an Oxford‐educated linguist and a chartered accountant, was expected to eventually succeed his father to lead the THF empire. A subsequent acquisition of Le Meridien from Air France was a prestigious addition to the group. For decades the Forte family was successful in keeping hostile takeover bidders at bay, until 1996. I never had the opportunity of meeting Sir Charles, but in later years, as the general manager of two Forte hotels in South America, I had the opportunity of welcoming and hosting Sir Rocco Forte (he was knighted in 1995). Sir Rocco established his own company – Rocco Forte Hotels in the year 1996.

Building an International Career

In professional life, opportunities gained, contacts made and relationships nurtured can significantly and positively impact career progression. After 1979, I kept in touch with Linda Woodhouse, who helped me by arranging two more useful management observer assignments in London with THF. These were during the mid-1980s at the Grosvenor House Hotel and the Hyde Park Hotel. That exposure opened another door for me to secure a position as an internationally mobile expatriate hotel general manager of THF/Forte PLC in 1994, with special help from Mr. Bodhipala Wijesinghe, who worked at the TFH head office in London.

In that capacity I managed three of their hotels – Forte Crest/Guyana Pegasus Hotel, Timberhead Eco Resort in the Amazon Rainforest and Forte Grand/ Le Meridien/Jamaica Pegasus Hotel. In 1994, out of nearly 1,000 hotel general managers in the group, only four came from developing countries, and I was one of them. Sri Lankan accountant and hotelier, Ranjan Nadarajah (Nada) who passed away last week in UAE was another. In the year 1998, the two hotels managed by Nada and I became the first hotels to be awarded ISO 9002 certifications in our two regions (The Middle East and North America). Nada was a very nice colleague, and I did a short mystery shopper assignment for him at Le Meridien Dubai in the year 2000.

I also did the General Manager’s Foundation study program at the Forte Academy in the UK. I shadowed some of my peers, general managers of sister Forte Hotels in the UK, Barbados, the Bahamas, Bermuda, USA and Canada. In 1998, the group kindly arranged for me to have a two-year sabbatical leave in order to complete my doctoral studies in the UK. “This is a very unusual request! You are one of our best GMs, so why do you need a PhD?” a confused Human Resource Vice President of the corporate office of Forte PLC asked me, prior to approving my request for the sabbatical leave.

After successfully defending my doctoral thesis in London, in the early 2000s, I declined three lucrative offers from Forte PLC/Rocco Forte Hotels to work in Egypt, India and Russia. That was due to my family commitments in Canada and my new desire to pursue a second career in post-secondary education and management consulting. In 2002, I did a long mystery shopper assignment with my wife, at Le Royal Meridien King Edward Hotel in Toronto, Canada. Altogether I gained some type of work experience at 14 Forte hotels located in ten countries between 1971 and 2002. In the years 2003 and 2004, I also did a leadership development consulting assignment for Rocco Forte Hotels in England and Scotland. Thank you for all these amazing opportunities, THF/Forte PLC/Rocco Forte hotels!

A Guest at the Largest Hotel in the UK

In 1979, being the manager of the small 52-room Hotel Swanee in Sri Lanka, staying at THF as well as UK’s largest hotel (1,068 rooms), the Regent Palace was overwhelming for me. The hotel looked after me very well by providing full board accommodation on a complimentary basis for two months. Like most of the major hotels of THF chain at that time, the Regent Palace offered a carvery buffet every day. I was a frequent diner at that sumptuous carvery whenever I did not have my meals at the Cumberland Hotel where I worked.

Although it was the largest hotel in Europe when it was opened in 1915 by J. Lyons & Company, most of the rooms at the Regent Palace were very small, similar to hotels opened before or during World War I. I was surprised that some rooms did not have attached bathrooms, only wash basins. In spite of some shortcomings, I was very happy staying right in the heart of London. It was the most convenient location for me.

The Regent Palace was within close proximity to the Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, West End theatres, Leicester Square movie theatres, Regent Street shops as well as to many museums and art galleries. I was very happy to be there and walked all over London. If it was not raining, I walked to the Marble Arch to work. On rainy days I took the subway or a bus.

Some weekends I had many invitations from Sri Lankan friends, members of my family, a few former guests of Hotel Swanee, and the Swedish and Sri Lankan couple who worked at the Tjaereborg Tour Company’s office in London – Kurt Hansen and Bobby Jordan, who were my friends from Ceysands days. I had a busy social calendar during the evenings and free weekends. I also visited a few of my younger Sri Lankan friends who worked at Wimpy Bars in the West End.

Ranjith Dharmaratnam (Assistant Manager of the Village, Habarana), who travelled to London with me, was trained at the accounts department of another THF hotel – Grosvenor House. As he had family in London, he did not stay at the Regent Palace. One day I unexpectedly met a former work colleague of mine from Bentota Beach Hotel who had moved to the Pegasus Reef Hotel to be the Front Office Manager. Having noticed his potential, THF had sent Srilal Mendis (Menda) for training in London. A few years after his training Menda also became an international hotelier. Menda and I explored most of the tourist attractions in London and surrounding areas during weekends. I also travelled to Windsor, Winchester, Portsmouth and South Hampton.

The late 1970s were not always a peaceful era in the UK. I was shocked to see on TV, that the Irish Republican Army (IRA) claimed responsibility for the August 27, 1979 murder of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten. As the supreme allied commander for Southeast Asia, he had commanded the British troops from his base in Ceylon during the latter part of World War II. For a few days I was glued to the TV in my hotel room, watching news about that shocking assassination.

A Management Trainee of a 900-room Hotel

My work at the Cumberland Hotel was mainly in the Food and Beverage department. It was much grander than the Regent Palace and had a very busy catering and banqueting operation. The public rooms, restaurants, banquet hall and grill room were located centrally. I also spent some time observing and working in the catering department as well as the kitchens, purchasing, receiving, stores, payroll and accounts departments.

I was a regular at management meetings, simply to observe. The most useful meeting I attended was a top-level meeting among managers of 20 THF hotels in London, to coordinate their Christmas and New Year’s Eve events. This was one best practice I implemented soon after returning to Hotel Swanee. I loved to talk with all levels of employees and gathered interesting, historical information of this grand hotel.

Stemming from that interest, five years later in 1984, I wrote a 100,000-word (353 pages) master’s dissertation at the University of Surrey about British five-star hotels. I did my field research at all 16 five-star London hotels. Most parts of my master’s dissertation were later published as a text book for British universities, with my supervisor, Professor Richard Kotas of the University of Surrey, as the co-author. In the early 1990’s I succeeded him as the Director of the Hotel School at Schiller International University’s London Campus.

The island site bounded by Oxford Street, Old Quebec Street, Bryanston Street and Great Cumberland Place, had been acquired around 1925, by Lyons for building the Cumberland Hotel. It eventually opened in 1933. The hotel was a pioneer by including many luxurious features at that time, such as sound-proof, double glazed windows, air conditioning and 900 bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms.

The Cumberland had been acquired by THF, two years before I did my management training there. I found that some of the old-timers from Lyons had doubts about the changes implemented by THF. During some good weather days, I spent my lunch breaks seated at the nearby Hyde Park observing birds, playful pet dogs and at times listening to speakers on soap boxes attempting to attract larger audiences. I found every corner of this great city interesting.

With my invaluable experiences of luxury hotel operations at the Cumberland Hotel, I began dreaming of one day becoming the General Manager of a large international five-star hotel. As I looked around, I was disappointed that none of the General Managers, at that time, looked like me or came from developing countries. Most of those General Managers in the London five-star hotels had the British professional qualification – Member of the Hotel & Catering International Management Association (MHCIMA). As the HCIMA head office was in London, I decided to visit them to check on my chances of becoming an MHCIMA.

Door Closed at HCIMA

HCIMA had an impressive total of 23,000 members (21,000 British) professional members. It usually took four years of undergraduate degree level studies plus five more years of post-qualification management experience to obtain the professional title of MHCIMA. Then it was the highest qualification in the United Kingdom for hospitality managers. One day, a little bit nervously I visited the HCIMA head office in South London to check my chances of becoming an MHCIMA.

The HCIMA officer who interviewed me, rejected my application, as she did not recognize my three-year diploma from the Ceylon Hotel School, as compatible to a British HND or OND. She insisted that I complete four years of studies with HCIMA, before being considered for MHCIMA qualification. To me a rejection is always a great motivator, which inspires me to do better and at times, find practical short cuts. After that meeting, I decided that I will eventually earn this qualification, to lay a stronger foundation to become the General Manager of a five-star international hotel.

After a few years of further studies and numerous communications with HCIMA, finally I managed to become an MHCIMA in 1984, and a Fellow (FHCIMA) in 1992. In 2004, after serving HCIMA Board as an elected International Zone Representative for three years, I was elected as the worldwide President of HCIMA (now the Institute of Hospitality, UK), and appointed Chairman of HCIMA Ltd, UK, the commercial enterprise of the professional association.

In those two roles, I was fortunate to get a unique opportunity to lead the world’s largest professional body for hospitality managers in 104 countries with 25 international groups and 26 British chapters. For 84 years since the inception of this professional body in 1938, all Presidents were Europeans, except when a Sri Lankan was elected in 2004.

It was exactly 25 years after arriving in the UK as a first-time visitor and a nervous management trainee in 1979, that I was elected by my British hospitality management peers, as their President. The lesson here, for aspiring young hospitality managers, is that: “Treat the sky as the limit. As long as you have a vision for the future combined with hard work and passion, you can make things seem impossible to eventually happen”. At times the light may not be visible at the end of the tunnel, but that should not be an excuse not to dream big and work hard to achieve unprecedented goals. Go, open new doors!