Good evening, ladies, and gentlemen.
First of all, let me say how humbling it is to stand before you and accept the position of chairman of AH&LA. I owe an immense amount of gratitude to quite a few people, but first and foremost is my family.
First, Sheila - yes, she does exist. (laughter) Married for 29 years, she is my strength, resolve, pillar, partner, and best friend. The one I can count on at all times. You know the old saying "behind every good man is a good woman". Sheila believes in front of every good man is a great woman! Our three kids, who are here, have been extremely supportive of our various moves and somehow managed to be successful in their own rights.
Robert IV, 24-years-old, is a graduate of Harvard University and an investment banker with Wachovia.
Tiffany, 21-years-old, is a senior at the University of Maryland and is looking forward to graduating and pursuing a law degree.
Adam, 18-years-old, is a senior in high school and quite the lacrosse player.
Also here tonight is my mother, Barbara Crawford, who has always encouraged me to do whatever it is that makes you happy. As some of you might know, my degree from Tennessee State University is in biology, and initially mom and I thought medicine would be the field for me. Both of us were proven wrong when I got the hospitality "bug."
My brother, Michael, who, at the youngest, is also the wisest, as you heard for yourself. All of us look to Michael for his advice; his faith keeps us all grounded. Also hear tonight is Michael's wife, Mel, and my sister, Janice.
Secondly, to my Global Hyatt family, I have been fortunate to surround myself with good role models. I can think of nearly a dozen individuals to single out here, but for your sake, I'll only express my gratitude to the following mentors:
The Pritzker family - who gave me an opportunity to excel as a person of color in the 70s before diversity was the corporate word of choice;
Ed Rabin - who guided my career track;
Dick Nelson - a former chairman of AH&LA, who taught all of those around him how important humility and sincerity is in our business;
Alex Alexander - who taught me intensity, and how to demand of your team without sacrificing quality;
Victor Lopez - what can I say? A great friend who never allowed you to accept mediocrity. I've had the good fortune of working with Victor in several capacities, beginning first as his Assistant Food & Beverage Director at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare. One of his favorite terms is "be unreasonable"! Victor believes in the highest quality operation, the little touches throughout your property that differentiate you from your competitor. Always gracious, down to earth, yet quietly intense. Never sacrifice quality was, and is, a mantra that I'll never forget.
I also want to thank Chuck Floyd and Carlos Cabrera for Global Hyatt's support as I travel our great nation on behalf of AH&LA.
I started at Hyatt 31 years ago. People ask why I've stayed for so long. Hyatt has always been at the forefront of innovations within the industry and has always allowed its managers to be creative. Most of us are homegrown, we're inspired to be entrepreneurial, and we're taught that we do make a difference. We were always very close knit, from our ownership, the Pritzker family, to the president and CEO on down. As we grow globally, it's going to be a challenge to maintain that same culture. However, with our present leadership and the continuity of the family, we will always be different.
Third, my Maryland family.
To Mary Jo McCullogh, Peggy Bednarsky, Pam Lytle-Hess, Danisa Protégé, and Miss Vicki. They embraced me as one of their own when we moved to Baltimore and pushed me to be an integral part of the state association. I can truly say that without Mary Jo keeping me focused and on track, I might not be standing before you tonight. Thank you again, Mary Jo.
Finally, there's a core group of volunteers within AH&LA who have taught me the ins and outs of the organization over the years, starting with John Russell. John, thanks for telling me I had the potential to someday lead this association.
Kirby Payne - a very intelligent man who constantly picked my brain and offered his support and advice.
In no particular order - Pedro Mandoki, Valerie Ferguson, Toma Brashear, Leo Vogel, Scott Joslove, Michael Handlery, Jim Abrams, and Ilene Kamsler. And, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Lou Ann Hill.
To Joe Kane, WOW!!! What a hard act to follow as chairman. Energetic, analytical, terrific presence, and above all, a great leader of people. Joe, it has been an absolute pleasure to serve as an officer with you, Pedro, and Tom. I look forward to continuing your mission of service, which I'll discuss more in a few moments, amongst the other core strategies we have as an association.
As I traverse this great country of ours, promoting the values and benefits of AH&LA, none of this would be accomplished without the exceptional organization and team Joe McInerney has put together in Washington, D.C. Joe is not one to bask in the spotlight, but what a tremendous amount he has accomplished for our association and our industry. Let's give a grand round of applause to our leader, Joe McInerney.
The talent Joe has assembled around him is unmatched in the association and hospitality industry. His team is creative, visionary, bright and, most importantly, committed to you and the success of AH&LA. Team members in the audience, please stand and be recognized.
Thank you for your indulgence as I spoke of all those who've had a profound effect upon my life and career.
As I mentioned, I had no aim to go into the hospitality industry. The summer after I graduated from college with a degree in Biology with plans of attending medical school, I was a waiter in Hugo's at the Hyatt Regency Nashville. I worked for a maitre'd who spent more time away from the restaurant versus inside, and this allowed me to be more of a leader in my position as a waiter than one normally would be.
One day, after spending the morning and mid-afternoon in the park with my boys and our toys (we all had sports cars), I went into work, only to be called up to the head of the food and beverage office. As some may recall, in the mid-seventies, waiters wore tuxedos and frilly shirts. When I get to this office, I'm sitting across from him at his desk and I immediately crossed my legs. To his surprise and dismay, he looked at my bare ankles and said, "Bobby, I was going to offer you the position of manager, but somehow I can't, as you don't seem to know how to conform with our dress code."
I didn't speak. I immediately got up from his desk, bolted down three flights of stairs, out into the city, and found socks. I ran back to his office, sweating somewhat, lifted my pants, and proclaimed my desire for the position. This is how my Hyatt management career began.
From that auspicious beginning, I went from Nashville to Milwaukee to O'Hare, BACK to Milwaukee, then to Baltimore, and then Washington, D.C. I was director of F&B at the Hyatt Regency Washington and working with my good friend, Alex Alexander, when I was promoted to hotel manager there. So when things went great, Alex got the kudos…and when things went bad, guess who got the credit?!
I'm happy to say my career has only included two additional moves…one to Baltimore to be the gm of the Hyatt Regency and the other to Florida, where I am currently gm of the Grand Hyatt Tampa Bay.
Looking back, as a first-time general manager, there are a couple of mistakes one can easily make. First, adopting the notion that because you made general manager, you know more then everyone else. You are not the brightest; you may just happen to be a better leader of people at the time. Remain humble - do not get egotistical. Remember your beginnings and all those who assisted you in moving up the ladder and doing so quickly. It's easy to micromanage as a first time general manager. Resist it. Surround yourself with people you trust and allow them to grow. Finally…when something goes wrong, don't give up…just make it right.
I see my role at AH&LA as an extension of what so many of us GMs do, not only in our hotels, but in our communities. We rally talented people; we combine efforts to make things better.
When you're a general manager, it is your civic duty to get involved. My first involvement with a state association was in Virginia led by an executive who was so passionate about making a difference, whether it was a high profile political cause or an issue related to occupancy taxes.
From there, I moved over to Maryland and was very impressed with Mary Jo and her group - extremely vocal, active, and results-oriented. Through the Maryland association, I became chairman and as a result, very active with AH&LA. As as the expression goes, people do business with people they know. That's how I eventually entered the officer ranks at AH&LA.
Based on my speech tonight, you may not believe this, but I actually do not have the gift of gab as some of my peers do. However, what you'll get from me is a chairman who will listen, think things through, prod those around me to be better, and who will be extremely passionate about the wellbeing of AH&LA.
You've heard Pedro and Joe speak about the importance of continuity when it comes to achieving major objectives for our association. We've seen a number of good initiatives and strategies over the years and sometimes we have hardly had time to plan, develop and implement one initiative when the next one comes along. We need time, to not only implement new initiatives, but to really cultivate them. They have to be evaluated, modified, and embedded if they are to work.
Which brings me to the quality I value most in my working relationship with our officers, staff, partner state associations, and ISHAE: teamwork. We're not in this to realize our own agenda - we're in it to effect positive, lasting change for the industry. That requires the sort of culture where egos get checked at the door, everyone is here to serve, and there's a real commitment to the continuity of objectives from year to year.
That was part of the rationale behind our new governance structure implemented last year. The key feature is partnership, and it's working. 2005 also was the first year AH&LA used the new three-year rolling strategic plan. And it was the first year we executed a quarterly scorecard on the year's business plan activity.
Each year, we refine the core objectives in that business plan. In 2007, the first of those objectives will be to increase membership and retention by 15 percent in partner state associations and direct member states.
By developing more meaningful programs for our members, we're delivering tangible results that far outweigh membership costs. When you have members saving 25 percent on the skyrocketing cost of health insurance through our partnership with Aetna, cutting their bills on office products nearly in half through our Staples partnership, or finding hundreds of thousands of dollars they didn't even know they were entitled to, by consulting with our partner, Location Management Services, you don't have to justify the value of belonging to AH&LA. Tap into just one of our major discount programs once, and your membership just paid for itself twice. The team at AH&LA is actively pursuing opportunities that save our members money and grow your business.
I'm proud to be able to stand up here and say that 69 percent of Hyatt properties are members. My personal goal is to have ALL Hyatt properties in membership by this time next year. On that note, I'd like to thank Joe for the 48 new Days Inn members - representing 3,678 rooms - we've welcomed this year. I challenge all of the lodging companies to set a goal of increasing your properties' membership in AH&LA.
Let's talk about our second objective: capitalize on AH&LA's brand value as the voice of the industry.
Increasingly, from the media, to the government, to the general public, AH&LA is known and looked to as the voice of the lodging industry. When our sector's wellbeing is on the line, the industry looks to AH&LA to represent the nation's hotels, and convey the facts to our core audiences, including investors and the public.
For a very clear example, think back to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. When that disaster hit, AH&LA became the center of communications for an industry that was both personally devastated and uniquely positioned to shelter and aid thousands of evacuees.
AH&LA went into emergency mode, coordinating with our Louisiana hotel association to help evacuate guests and employees; providing relief services through our outstanding allied partners, engaging in almost daily meetings with Red Cross, FEMA, and the Department of Homeland Security, and channeling crucial information straight to members.
Our Website became the industry's information hub. We updated members in real time. And through AH&LA, the industry showed its colors: 5,000 of our hoteliers stepped up and made available more than 200,000 guestrooms. Think about that. Think about the central role we fill, in our communities and in our nation, when disasters occur.
Another, more recent example: labor relations. This year we aggressively informed the media and the public of our industry's stand on labor negotiations with Unite Here and vigorously countered union allegations and rhetoric. We told the truth about so-called "card check neutrality". We mailed thousands of copies of our "Meeting in the Middle" brochure to meeting planners across the nation, kept the industry informed via our labor relations Website, and Joe McInerney delivered our message daily to the press. When misinformation was put out there, he didn't let it slide.
Clearly, we are also the voice of the industry when it comes to legislative and governmental affairs, and our governmental affairs team made tremendous strides in 2006, focusing on three issues that would have a significant impact on the industry: comprehensive immigration reform, small business health plans, and secret ballot union elections.
We leveraged the expertise and power of the membership by cultivating spokespersons on each of these issues through our reformulated Governmental Affairs Committee. The goal was to raise the profile of the industry and association, and I'd like to thank Stevan Porter, chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee, for his leadership in this effort.
AH&LA was instrumental in working with the White House Administration and immigration reform advocates in Congress to provide venues for moving immigration reform forward. Our staff and members participated in high-level meetings at the White House and field hearings across the country. We also launched an aggressive grassroots effort to draw attention to the issue. Ultimately, we were successful in working with the Senate to pass a favorable bill, which opponents in the House of Representatives ultimately could not live with. This issue will undoubtedly be high on our agenda again in 2007.
We also took on the politically tough issue of small business health plans. The House passed a bill that would have saved hoteliers 10-25 percent on premiums. We will continue pressing for passage of a favorable bill in 2007.
And, AH&LA raised awareness of the secret ballot issue and built support on Capitol Hill for legislation that would protect employees' rights to secret ballot elections. We also energized the service sector by creating the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace to push for legislation.
A strong Political Action Committee is critical to doing business in Washington, and our HotelPAC is stronger than ever. In 2006, we expanded the size and scope of HotelPAC by bringing in new contributors from the membership and fine-tuning events that have yielded strong results to make them even more cost-efficient and successful. We also welcomed many influential Members of Congress at HotelPAC events, giving our members invaluable face-time with policymakers. Building relationships and laying the foundation for understanding our industry is key to ensuring our voice is heard on Capitol Hill when our issues come up for a vote.
We are the industry's voice internally as well, and there's no better example than what we accomplished this year, with the leadership of Joe Kane, to raise our industry's satisfaction ratings and get back to the core business of service. Or as Joe Kane better puts it, service excellence. As Joe recapped earlier, by last November, our industry's satisfaction ratings had begun a southern trajectory. A year later, those ratings are headed back up. We're finally even with our eleven year benchmark, and Joe, I will carry the banner next year and make sure we stay focused on service and keep the momentum you've built.
That brings me to our third objective: strengthen and promote the industry's multicultural and diversity opportunities. We've done a lot to address diversity in very specific terms, and I'll get back to specifics in a moment, but first, bear with me because I'd like us to think about this in broader terms…
I believe that most leaders in our industry value the concept of diversity. Ask them if it's important, they'll say yes. But important how? Many in our industry do not know exactly where to place this issue in terms of relevance and impact. Many, to answer honestly, would define it as a community service concept: do the right thing by employees, reach out to minority vendors. Well, of course the data now shows that diversity is also imperative to the bottom line.
And more of us are getting that. But I believe we spend too much time talking about this topic as if it's a one-shot issue, when really, it's embedded in everything we strive to accomplish for our industry.
For example, diversity can't be separated from the concept of training and education. Quality is not cheap - we've got to invest in educating, recognizing, and advancing talent when we see it.
How can we expect our employees to get excited by our industry and meet the considerable demands it makes, if we're not listening to their needs, making sure we have a "top down" approach to inclusion, and providing world class training and education? That's the mission of our Educational Institute. And we're staying innovative by launching new training programs, including an Unlimited Training Library - which can be used for all property employees for training and certification and show a trackable ROI - new certification training and designations via the Internet, and a live learning lab at EI's new Orlando office where we plan to host seminars for hospitality employees.
Diversity is also about the value we place on providing opportunity for everyone looking to build a future in this industry that has been so good to so many of us. Our Foundation is built upon the value of opportunity.
This year, under Pedro's outstanding leadership, the Foundation's Annual Giving Campaign put nearly $440,000 toward that value. That's the amount of scholarship funds the Foundation awarded to more than 300 hospitality management majors from 92 colleges and universities around the country this year.
In total, the Foundation will distribute approximately $900,000 through its educational, research, and outreach programs by the end of the year.
This is how we make sure that, 10 years from now, when the industry needs hundreds of thousands of additional employees, we're ready. When the industry needs to quantify and communicate the impact of room taxes, or energy management, we're ready. When we need to understand how to leverage technology to keep the industry viable, we're ready. And yes, when we need to quantify the bottom line impact of diversity, thanks to the Foundation, we're ready.
Get on the Foundation's Annual Giving list, a veritable "Who's Who" of the industry's most progressive, committed professionals. Believe me, that's what it is, and you'll be recognized for joining it and you'll make the difference in our industry's future.
So, as you can see, our objectives are woven into every aspect of the association. They drive everything we do. And we're making great progress toward realizing them.
Each year we face challenges that make it a gamble to guess what our industry's year-end profits will be. The national economy, gas prices, security concerns, consolidation among the meetings and events industries, and government-imposed travel restrictions - to name a few - each took a toll this year. Yet nothing managed to significantly stem the pace of growth.
At the start of the year, you could see the indicators. You knew we were probably looking at our best year in quite some time. But you couldn't get a straight prediction from the experts and we as in industry weren't ready to believe our good fortune just yet. Now, we've dropped all of that. Forget cautious optimism, let's face it: it's an outstanding time to be in the lodging industry.
With increasing demand and limited new supply, hoteliers around the country, and in all sectors, have been able to raise room rates, and we've seen record profits across the board. According to Smith Travel Research, the U.S. lodging industry recorded its most profitable year ever in 2005 - posting pre-tax profits of $22.6 billion, and when the final numbers for 2006 come in, they should RESET that standard.
The economy is good, our industry is booming, and you can believe we're going to capitalize on it. Accelerating your business, and keeping you informed, connected, and prepared is essential. That's what AH&LA is all about. And with your help, and the help of the officer corps, our partner states, and the entire team at AH&LA, that's what I'll strive to accomplish as your chairman.
I'm grateful for this incredible honor and opportunity to lead our industry. Thank you and good night.
Chairman's Inaugural Speech - 2007
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