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MAY 2010 p6 My five year assignment in Shanghai had come to an end and I was off to the Emirate of Dubai to manage a complex consisting of two beautiful luxury hotels at the famous Mina Seyahi Beach Resort area of Jumeirah Beach. Aside from a couple of months of baking heat in July and August, its summer all year long in Dubai and weather is near perfect. What I like most about this Emirate is you can enjoy both city and resort lifestyles seamlessly. Within a half hours drive from the city center in normal traffic you will discover several kilometers of picturesque coastline with magnificent sandy beaches and an eclectic array of world class resorts to rejuvenate in. However, compared to previous years, most city centre hotels have seen their occupancies drop more than the beach side resort hotels on account of the economic downturn. Prices have come down and one can enjoy five-star hotels for four-star prices. But Dubai has a distinct advantage over most places I have managed hotels in. Chiefly, because it offers travellers a multitude of choices as a business and a holiday destination. This place rivals some of the finest locations in the world for shopping, recreation, business and holiday making-it is indeed, as marketers like to say, an all round holistic destination. Al Fresco dining is one of my favorite pastimes. Coffee culture has been elevated to an art form in Dubai. Cozy cafes, sizzling restaurants and bars with great food abound though they tend to be pricey in most hotels at the moment. I suspect prices will come down somewhat in the near future to a more reasonable level, reflecting new economic realities and local market conditions at large. Sadly, businesses these days tend to base their decisions on fear about the future, rather than the quality and worth of a product-brand equity and value for price. Typically business decisions are based on so called “lagging indicators”- what’s known-i.e on past results, relevant data and facts with a view of the future. Today many managers are basing their decisions, or so it seems, more STANTON CHASE INTERNATIONAL Why hotels need to focus on the future not fear Peter Alatsas Exclusive Newswire on “leading indicators”-what’s unknown-i.e assumptions about the future that are mostly based on fear and conjecture. This rather pessimistic approach is a negative self-fulfilling prophecy, which can only perpetuate the very conditions we are trying to escape from, deflation, which is likely to prolong the economic hardships at the expense of a more rapid recovery. Hotels the world over have been adversely affected due to the credit crunch. Despite the economic downturn, Dubai expects to receive just over 7 million visitors in 2010 – a slight increase over 2009 levels. However, the concern is that travellers are spending less than in previous years and as a consequence sales have dropped resulting in lower yields. This is to say, whilse occupancies in many cases have remained reasonably high, earnings have dropped below acceptable levels since customers are more frugal, fearing that the worst is yet to come. Many consumers still fear they might lose their jobs in the not so distant’ future. Economists ominously warn about the toxic combination of rising unemployment and falling prices which can be devastating (deflation) as we experienced during the great depression and Japan’s lost decade in the 1990’s. I know from experience having served twice in Japan during those difficult times first in Tokyo and then in Kyoto. Deflation needless to say is very undesirable. As unemployment rises and consumers spend less, businesses reduce prices, but if sales do not pick up, then revenue declines further, compelling businesses to reduce wages and/or eliminate jobs. This becomes a vicious cycle that is very difficult to reverse as history has shown. For one, we can help reverse this cycle if we change our attitude. We can also change our psychology by thinking and talking about recovery while learning from past mistakes. Peter Alatsas is the General Manager of the Complex: Mina Seyahi, Westin and Meridien
MAY 2010 p7 E xecutives, once at that exclusive and illustrious level, no longer have the luxury of applying for a job through the regular means which were available to them during the earlier part of their careers: an ad in the paper, or on an online job board, or just randomly approaching target employers by mailing a CV. At Senior and executive levels, individuals seeking a change need to reconsider the usual push strategy and employ a more drawn out, pull strategy and this requires is a switch in mindset that they have to get acquainted with. There is of course another more obvious reason for this change in strategy. CXO opportunities are simply not advertised or declared vacant. Roles at the C-Suite are highly sensitive, and are 99% of the times treated in complete confidentiality until a candidate is identified and the vacancy is filled. Even the transition is handled with a lot of delicate and carefully planned steps and announcements. So how does a leader at senior or executive level go about finding his next role. The answer is pretty simple. What are the 3 N’s of Successful Executive Job-Searching? Networking, Networking, Networking! Here are four essential steps that are designed to help executives like you get the next position or manage a career change. Uncover your Brand! “I begin with saying uncover”, because I guarantee that you already have a brand, whether you are aware of it or not. It may or may not be the brand that you are aiming for, or the brand that you like, or it may not even be so greatly publicized, but rest assured that you have a brand. You need to start by understanding that without a personal brand strategy, it will be difficult to get on the STANTON CHASE INTERNATIONAL Job Search Strategies for Executive Level Leaders radar for the ever elusive, $1 Million plus income. Not that it’s a guaranteed result, that if you build your brand, you will automatically earn $1Million dollars a year. Like all brands and products it’s a continuous set of criteria and steps that you take to travel up that income scale, while fighting for that same income with other executives who are also working on theirs. So start with one fact. You are a brand. Now you need to act upon that fact if you have not started to, and if you truly want to have a successful life. A successful personal branding program is based on its ability to create in the mind of your prospective customers or employers that there is no product (in this case, you, a person) in the market quite like you! Of course your brand needs to deliver on your promise. A good branding program will be made up of a number of elements that will help you audit, understand, uncover and develop your personal brand to meet your career objectives. Get Connected! Of course, in today’s world, there is no hiding your personal brand. Did you Google your name lately? If you have a name like mine, it’s difficult to miss. I can tell you for a fact that there is no other person in the world called Wassim Karkabi. It is not the case for Suresh Kumar, or John Smith. But don’t confuse your brand with your name, they are connected, but they are two different things. If you are not already taking advantage of the burgeoning world of Social Networks, Business Networks, Blogs and other such tools, also collectively referred to as Social Media, you should take a serious look at how you need to implement that. President Obama, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashed Al Maktoum, Al Gore Wassim Karkabi Exclusive Newswire etc… are all on LinkedIn, Facebook and a number of other social media. Think of it this way. Before the availability of Mass Media such as Radio, TV, and print, we did not have the ability to mass market. Now the availability and combination of Online Social Media and search engines such as Google, have given the individual the ability to promote his personal brand, on a shoestring budget. Be aware, that there is the right way of going about this and the wrong way of doing the same. The wrong way may be as damaging to your career and brand, as the right way can explode your career to new heights. Embrace Relationship Networking Networking today has also taken on a new and different life. It has become this vague concept that applies to everything from blogging to sending a message on twitter or growing your connections on LinkedIn. What I want you to wrap your head around is targeted, relationship networking. Identifying your market niche and network within it, get connected to people, add value to their lives, individually, and build a sustainable relationship with them. Unless you are a recruiter, there is really no point in being connected to 15,000 first-level connections on LinkedIn. It makes more sense to be connected with a handful of CXO’s in your industry of preference and the equally relevant executive search consultants. Those are the people that will reciprocate the value that you are adding to them, when the time comes. Think of those online social media as Recommender Communities. Build & grow your own networks within relevant recommender communities. I cannot stress enough how important it is for senior & executive level people to get on LinkedIn. >>>
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Middle East - Stanton Chase International

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