A highly sophisticated culture of service in a five-star hotel does not just fall like manna from heaven. It is founded on good management

backed by a clear vision and a goal-oriented concept. Thies C. Bruhn, general manager of the Kempinski Hotel in Portorož, gives us here

insights into his philosophy and the challenges he must master in establishing a culture of service.

„The Fundamental Prerequisite for Me is the Personality of the

Individual Employee“

Interview with Thies-Christian Bruhn, General Manager, Kempinski Palace Portoroz

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DMR: One question just as a matter of curiosity before we be-gin: You frequently find German managers in the hotel business, especially during the initial phase of hotel openings. How did you happen to find yourself in this position? T.-C. Bruhn: I have been working at Kempinski Hotels for 23 years, so when it comes to company seniority, I’m one of the old-timers. When we signed the management contract here in 2008, the Kempinski CEO gave me responsibility for the opening of the hotel because I am familiar with the Kempinski standards. It was clear to us from the very beginning that we would have to start by bringing our internal experts and specialists from Germany and abroad to this hotel if we were to implement the concept of service that was demanded.

Germans are especially good in the automotive industry and the hotel business. If you look at the five-star hotels around the world, you will note that 60% to 65% of them are managed by German hotel directors. This has to do with the vocational training here – young people learn the business from the ground up during the three-year program. During the first two years here in Portorož, colleagues from Germany and Austria were especially helpful to me in implementing the Kempinski stan-dards and training the new employees. Little by little, we pro-moted local employees who had quickly embraced this concept of service to executive positions. Now I am the only German working here. DMR: You brought up the subject of a culture of service and stan-dards. How is this organized at Kempinski? T.-C. Bruhn: We are a European hotel group founded in Ger-many, the oldest hotel company in the five-star segment in the world. Naturally, we have cooperated with our specialists over the last several years to develop common standards such as those in the “Food & Beverage” sector or in the “Rooms Divi-sion” sector. However, headquarters in Geneva did not dictate everything to us. We determined a lot of things at the hotel and general manager level. Our philosophy is that we are, in the sense of “hardware”, a group of individual hotels. The ar-chitecture and furnishings of the Adlon are distinct from what we have at my hotel here in Portorož, my hotel is different from the Four Seasons in Munich, the Four Seasons is in turn un-like the Atlantic in Hamburg. Nevertheless, our arriving guests must have the feeling that the standard of service is the same everywhere, and naturally it must satisfy the expectations for a five-star hotel. We ensure this standard by measures such as the internal quality checks which are conducted twice a year. A “guest” checks in and evaluates arrival, room service, spa

treatments, gym area, housekeeping, the service in the various restaurants – simply everything from A to Z. After three days, he or she reveals him-/herself to me. We then go through every single point and analyze them constructively.

My department heads and I evaluate this regular feedback; it is always extremely helpful as we work to improve our standards even further. It is of course an advantage that I live here on the premises because I see a lot with my own eyes and can speak to my team and react immediately. DMR: To what do you pay special attention? Have you established any specific criteria defining how you see good service? T.-C. Bruhn: The fundamental prerequisite for me is the perso-nality of the individual employee. That is why I want to meet personally everyone who applies to work for our hotel. Thanks to my years of experience, I can determine within only a few minutes whether someone will be a good fit for our team or not. This policy has proved its worth. When the members of the staff are friendly to our guests, half the battle has been won. Anyone can learn the standards, but a certain emotional intelligence to-ward guests is a trait which either God or the parents give to people in their early, formative years. People are no longer able to learn this after they reach a certain age. DMR: So you ascribe to the approach of “hire for attitude, not for skills”? T.-C. Bruhn: Yes, attitude is very important to me. That is why I don’t do telephone interviews; I want to meet the employees personally. DMR: Fluctuation tends to be quite high in the hotel business. What is it like at your hotel? T.-C. Bruhn: Fluctuation is almost unknown here. My expe-rience has been that employees from countries which were once under the rule of socialism are not as mobile as employees from the former West Germany or Austria. A person from Munich will naturally ask at some point what prospects there are for him or her. It was almost impossible for me at one time to con-vince employees from the new German states [the former East Germany] to come with me to Slovenia. Only one of the ten employees I asked to come with me back then took me up on my offer to join us in opening the hotel. The others were very strongly rooted in their families and their homeland. I am now experiencing the same thing here in Slovenia. The Slovenians are almost never willing to go to China or the Middle East for a longer period of time.

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But since our season is only five months long, from May to September, I send a lot of employees as a “task force” at the end of our season to other Kempinski hotels like St. Moritz or Kitzbühel where the high season is just starting. The occupancy rate in our establishment declines in November, December, and January, and in February we even close the hotel for the whole month. But this “task force” support is no problem for our Slovenian employees because it is a limited period of two or three months. They return here in April or May. But at least this gives them an opportunity to become familiar with other Kempinski hotels and to gain experience. DMR: Do you offer this seasonal job rotation program throughout the entire Kempinski group? T.-C. Bruhn: Yes. This is the advantage of a hotel group, much like that of a large corporate group. You can take advantage of synergies to keep personnel expenses at a reasonable level and to give the employees a chance to learn more.

DMR: You touched on the subject of employee recruiting earlier, a popular HR subject. How do you handle its management? Are these employees who have grown up within the framework of your hotel and consequently know the operation in its entirety, or are they more likely to be people you have brought in from the outside who bring some fresh air with them? T.-C. Bruhn: I have the advantage that I know a lot of depart-ment heads or executive members from other hotels. Naturally I picked out the best from the pool for the opening (which was accomplished in only 7 months, really fast work) so that this hotel could be positioned properly on the market. Continuity is very important in a small country like Slovenia, which has a po-pulation of only two million, the reason why I myself have been here for six years. The same can be said about many of my em-ployees. Guests also take delight in seeing the same good service employees every time they come here. This is very important. Of course there are also destinations where we change the hotel director every two or three years, just as there are departments

Thies-Christian Bruhn has been the general manager in charge of the Hotel Kempinski Palace Portorož since 2008. In his position, he is responsible for sales of eight million euros and operating profit of €1.9 million. His mission: to take the hotel to a profitable “high-quality” level and simultaneously to develop the future positioning of the establishment. His social responsibility: to secure the jobs of his 160 employees and acquire new talent for Kempinski.

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such as sales and marketing where it is advantageous to bring in some fresh air every two to three years. Of course I take special note of the previous position and the letters of reference in new applications. But we fundamentally prefer internal employees who can point to a certain seniority at Kempinski. DMR: So you try to maintain as much continuity as possible in the areas close to the customers? T.-C. Bruhn: Yes, I try to maintain continuity in operations. That is less so in sales and marketing, in part because I want to make new contacts. Every sales director who comes in as a new employee for us has new and different contacts. DMR: You said that your employees must be a good fit with the team. What characterizes a good team? T.-C. Bruhn: We have just prepared next year’s budget for our Management Board. Since I don’t believe that the budget dis-cussion is a “one-man show” for the hotel director, I invited my executive team to take part. Together, we determined our objec-tives in a number of long, constructive meetings. It is important for every single team member to have the feeling of sitting in the same boat and of having a say in the decisions.

I also have the philosophy that it is always better to make any decision, even if it sometimes proves to be the wrong one, than not to make one at all. To this extent, my employees are enabled to make decisions. Since I live here on the premises, the recep-tion frequently called me at the beginning and asked what rates they were allowed to offer to certain guests. I always turned the question around and asked what they would recommend and assured them that I would stand behind their recommendation completely. This was a learning process for my employees – that I would give them free rein in this matter and that they could make their own decisions. I am in the same situation. The rea-son I work for Kempinski has to do with the so-called “unshared bottom line responsibility” that I have for this establishment. Our president and CEO are very clear in stating that every hotel director is responsible for his or her hotel. I think that’s great! The structures are completely different in many American cor-porations such as Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons; everything at these companies has a very strict corporate orientation and must be approved through the appropriate channels. Our orientation here is highly entrepreneurial; I personally enjoy this very much, and I am glad to pass it on to my employees. I have a great team here and I am very proud of the employees. If you look at the ratings at Trip Advisor or Booking.com, you will see that we are one of the best Kempinski hotels.

DMR: So can we say that your personnel management focuses more on allowing your employees the greatest possible degree of freedom and on giving them the opportunity to decide themselves on the style of service they provide? T.-C. Bruhn: Yes, but of course that all has to take place within a certain framework. For instance, every employee has a certain amount of funds at his or her disposal. Even the doorman. If someone has the feeling that a guest is unhappy, he or she can spend €150 to make the guest happier by presenting him or her with a small gift. DMR: Let’s return to the subject of new media and rating portals such as Trip Advisor. What do you believe to be the primary diffe-rentiation traits you can select in the hotel business? There are as many hotels as grains of sand on the beach ... T.-C. Bruhn: We have a clear vision and mission: we want to become the leading lifestyle resort on the Adriatic. I think that in terms of value for money we are virtually unbeatable. Moreover, we have a clear concept of service. But rating portals such as Trip Advisor or Booking.com are becoming increasingly important for us. We also notice this in the number of reserva-tions. More and more guests are making use of these portals for bookings because it is very simple. In addition, I have an inter-nal program called iFeedback where guests can enter positive or negative comments about the hotel. I receive this feedback on my cell phone within a minute and can immediately assess the comments in consultation with my front office manager and guest relations manager or follow up on them right away. There is an iPad with iFeedback at the reception as well – we know immediately, without any time delays, whether guests are satis-fied or not. DMR: What is the service level behind this? T.-C. Bruhn: We respond immediately. If a guest writes that he or she would like to be contacted because (for instance) there has been an issue with housekeeping, the responsible depart-ment head will respond immediately. DMR: While on the subject of services: Is this the subject of discus-sions on your management team at regular intervals with the aim of drafting concrete actions? Is it standardized? T.-C. Bruhn: Yes, we have a training manager who belongs to my department head team. I meet my department heads for a briefing at nine o’clock every morning and we go through all of the day’s work: which guests are arriving and leaving, our

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IT manager and spa manager report on possible technical pro-blems. Our training manager makes suggestions for training programs that need to be conducted. We talk about all of this on the team and implement our decisions as quickly as possible. DMR: Speed is also a major factor, especially in view of the online portals. Do you check the entries on these portals right in your hotel, or is this handled by headquarters? T.-C. Bruhn: Both. I check the entries daily and evaluate them. This is good feedback, but always with a certain time delay be-cause the guests have already left. I introduced iFeedback so that our guests would have an opportunity to report issues immedi-ately and expect a response. Nevertheless, Trip Advisor is im-portant, especially for guests who have never been to Slovenia. DMR: When it comes to incentives for your employees, are there any performance management KPIs against which the employees are measured? T.-C. Bruhn: Yes. For example, there is an Employee of the Month Program here; the department heads discuss perfor-mance with the executive team and me in deciding who to ho-nor. We also use results from the iFeedback program where em-ployees are mentioned by name. Moreover, we have an internal Kempinski Satisfaction Survey which we analyze in detail.

The Employee of the Month receives a small bonus as well as a certificate. In addition there is a GM’s Breakfast every month when the employees of a department join me for breakfast. The departments rotate in their participation. This gives employees the opportunity to speak to me while I have the opportunity to feel the pulse and the atmosphere within the staff. Everyone is welcome to submit suggestions for improvement to me at any time. No one has to make an appointment to see me about this; I prefer the open-door philosophy. DMR: So this Employee of the Month program is a key component. Do you otherwise look at the overall feedback that you collect from all of the employees? T.-C. Bruhn: Exactly. Our worldwide Kempinski Employee Sa-tisfaction Survey is conducted in August of every year. It consists of 120 questions. Every employee receives an anonymized code word for the login. The questionnaire contains questions about various topics, e.g., how is the food in the canteen, how well do the departments cooperate with one another, what condition are the dressing rooms in, whether there are personal meetings with the hotel director, and what is the overall level of employee

satisfaction. We have a very high employee satisfaction rating of 86%. This is substantially above the European mean in our group. DMR: How important is it to have a vision for the company or your team? Thies C. Bruhn: It is extremely important to have a vision and a strategy. When I came here in 2008 and introduced myself to all of the hotel directors, they all said that Portorož would run by itself because vacationers from Italy always come here. But it has never been my strategy or philosophy to rely on one single market. If there is a crisis on this market, you are really in trouble. So we decided at a very early point that we would have to concentrate on German and Austrian guests as well. Since co-ming here by car is no trouble, that is a sensible idea. And what happened? Italy also went into recession in 2008/2009, and the business from Italy here in Portorož plummeted by 35%. For-tunately, we were able to compensate by 45% growth among Austrians and an increase of 30% among Germans because we had chosen the right strategy long before. That is why we are the hotel with far and away the best profits in Slovenia. DMR: Is your vision statement based on one from Kempinski? T.-C. Bruhn: Of course, we are the oldest five-star luxury group, founded in Europe. However, we very clearly say that we don’t want to have more hotels than the group is old. In other words, we don’t want to have 500 hotels like Hilton because you very quickly lose the overall perspective and then you are no longer operating in the luxury segment. Luxury for us is limited to and defined in Europe. While we want to offer a certain quality and variety in the architecture of the buildings, the service concept in all of the establishments should be the same. DMR: Have you anchored this in specific missions? T.-C. Bruhn: Yes, Kempinski Corporate has anchored this in the form of mission statements. We also have an internal DNA. We would like to be a hotel group which is guided by the entrepre-neurial approach of “Passion for European Luxury”. Moreover, innovations and traditions should be created (“Creating tradi-tions”), employees should be “straightforward”. We try to find employees who stand behind these principles. I would like for employees to tell me when they see things differently. If a sales director always seconds everything I say and nods his head vigorously in agreement, that is the wrong approach. It’s good to hear what employees are thinking, to listen to their opinions, and perhaps to implement these opinions as well. I’m in favor of an open culture.

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DMR: You mentioned the subject of innovations. What form does the subject take in the hotel business? And what innovations would you expect to see in the hotel business in the future? T.-C. Bruhn: A couple of decades ago, the minibar was an im-portant innovation in the hotel business; today, the greater con-cern is about what can be realized in terms of IT technology. We have an innovation team in the hotel, and it meets month-ly. During these meetings, new ideas are presented and talked about, and there are discussions about what could be developed to make our hotel even more efficient and better.

The selected ideas are forwarded to Kempinski Corporate as well. I write a quarterly innovation report to our president and CEO. Then the best ideas are selected and, as appropriate, im-plemented in other hotels as well. DMR: Are these ideas distributed internationally? T.-C. Bruhn: Yes, absolutely. DMR: Are the guiding principles you mentioned earlier set down precisely, and is there training in their application? T.-C. Bruhn: Yes, they have been set down in concrete form and there is training in their application. We also try to incorporate them into the hiring criteria by asking specific questions, e.g., we describe a situation and ask the applicant how he or she would deal with it. DMR: How do you deal with the subject of “making mistakes”? Do you have a mistake culture? T.-C. Bruhn: We work with people, and people make mistakes. I would rather see my employees make a mistake than not make any decision at all! Of course, everyone should learn from mistakes and try not to make the same ones again. That is why I don’t have a problem when employees make mistakes, provided that they learn from them. DMR: What is your best and your worst experience that occurs to you with regard to the subject of service? T.-C. Bruhn: When I fly on Lufthansa, for instance, I am al-ways delighted to be addressed by name, although there are 300 passengers on board. We try to do the same in our hotels. I don’t like it when employees in the service sector are inflexible. Employees must be able to respond quickly to problems, and they need a certain freedom to make decisions if they are to do

so. An experience I had during a skiing holiday in St. Moritz is one of my negative memories. There was a wonderful lodge with a beautiful view over the valley and three rows of roofed wicker beach chairs. When I indicated that I would like something to eat, a woman informed us that she would apply a surcharge of 150 Swiss francs for the chairs in the first row, a surcharge of 100 francs for the second row, and a surcharge of 80 Swiss francs for the third row. I couldn’t understand that at all. It would be better to set a minimum charge for food and drink and, for instance, charge a minimum of 50 Swiss francs for food and drink in the first row of chairs. I didn’t like the idea of adding a surcharge. DMR: Where do you want to be with your hotel in five years? T.-C. Bruhn: I would in any case like to be here, because I feel really comfortable here. I could work here for the next 20 years. However, we must work on the infrastructure here in Portorož. My vision includes putting in a golf course. This would help to extend the season and attract more guests because you can play golf all year round here. Golfers spend money, of course, and not only for the hotels; the shops would profit as well. If greater purchasing power came here, the shops would improve; unfor-tunately, they are not yet at a five-star level. Everyone in the community is also in favor of this golf course. I always thought that in a country of only two million like Slovenia decisions would be made very quickly. That is regrettably not the case; the decision-making processes here last longer than in Germany. We have been working for four years to obtain the final signa-ture from the Ministry of Agriculture in the capital so that we can build the golf course. A strategy determining how the coun-try should be positioned, particularly in the tourism sector, is often missing. Nevertheless, I see a positive future in this beau-tiful country with its great potential.

DMR: Thank you for this interview!

This interview was made by Marc Wagner, Partner, and Karla Blanke, Business Analyst, Tranformation & Peoplemanagement.