Development Quarterly - Issue 3 IHG Europe's Development, Design & Openings magazine

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INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW “ “ When I go on site I am the IHG ® ambassador which is all about creating a buzz. A Day in the Life of… Gilles Goasdoué Gilles Goasdoué is the Director of Hotel Openings Performance & Support, Europe. Born in Digne les Bains, France, he moved to the UK 28 years ago and worked briefly as a waiter before moving into an auditing role at InterContinental ® London Park Lane. Gilles’ contribution to IHG ® has been exceptional. Before joining the Development, Design & Openings (DD&O) department he led the UK&I franchising team, establishing a highly valued and recognised team of professionals and many of the foundations of what became Hotel Performance Support (HPS). Since joining DD&O in 2009 Gilles has developed the New Hotel Openings (NHOP) team to become a group of highly talented individuals with a passion for delivering Great Hotels Guests Love. Gilles will shortly hand the leadership baton over to a new Head of Hotel Openings while he continues to support the NHOP field team, acting as a rapid response team member to support hotels during peak periods. As part of his day job, Gilles has travelled to nearly 50 countries around the world. Here he tells us a little more about his day-to-day life and career with IHG. I normally get up extremely early in the morning and arrive in the office about 7:00am. I like to make the most of the day. After I’ve caught up on the night’s emails, the questions start flooding in from either the Hotel Openings team in the field or new hotels that we are looking after. My days in the office are quite rare at the moment because we are opening so many projects in Europe. I have been travelling for the last 15-20 years, so you get used to it. I might be in the head office in Denham for one or two weeks and then back on the road for another eight weeks. One of my roles at IHG was installing Holidex all around the world, from Sydney to Chicago to Thailand, which was fantastic. I don’t have the restrictions of a family, so am pretty mobile. Although it can be difficult to maintain a social life. I can’t just join a club and play badminton every Tuesday night because I won’t be there half the time. It is challenging, but it is a way of life. I wouldn’t change it. I love my job. I have what I call the hospitality virus. When you work in hospitality, you catch it and then you have it forever! I have never really wanted to be anything else. As a child I used to spend a lot of time in the kitchen with my mother who was a talented cook. I was always fascinated by hospitality. Whenever I went out to eat with my family, I was always interested in the waiting staff and service behind the experience. I suppose the people element of the job has always interested me. Pretty much my entire working life has been with IHG, from working as a young boy at the InterContinental London Park Lane as an accountant to being General Manager at a Holiday Inn Express ® near Northampton aged 25, to Global Technology in the corporate office to my role now in Hotel Openings. My job is very varied, which keeps it fresh. I always say it’s a bit like being a General Practitioner. We do a bit of everything and we get the specialists in when we need them. My job sector is very much a people business. We deal with varied personalities which makes the job very interesting. We deal with a lot of people here at a corporate level and then with the people at the hotels from the GM to frontline staff. I love this part of the job because it is interesting to hear their different perspectives. When I go on site I am the IHG ambassador which is all about creating a buzz and ensuring everyone understands the benefits of joining IHG, from our system size to our brands to the amount of business they will drive. I tend to go to bed around 10:30pm since I get up so early but I don’t really have a routine because I don’t know where I’ll be. Luckily I can function on very few hours of sleep and mostly catch up on sleep on planes. Tips for sleeping on planes? It sounds boring, but change your watch to your destination time, don’t eat anything and drink a lot of water. At home I switch off my mind by baking and messing around in the kitchen, which I suppose is where my interest in hospitality really stemmed from as a child all those years ago. 47
Page 1 and 2: D E V E L O P M E N T Q U A R T E R
Page 3 and 4: ISSUE 3 contents Welcome to issue t
Page 5 and 6: ISSUE 3 editor’s letter… welcom
Page 7 and 8: TRAVEL InterContinental ® Carlton
Page 9 and 10: TRAVEL InterContinental ® Lyon - H
Page 11 and 12: TRAVEL Why Bordeaux? Classified as
Page 13 and 14: INTERVIEW Interview with… Apurva
Page 15 and 16: BRANDS The Boom of Branded Boutique
Page 17 and 18: BRANDS
Page 19 and 20: BRANDS Hotel Indigo ® York, design
Page 21 and 22: BRANDS Number crunch: - Hotel Indig
Page 23 and 24: INFOGRAPHIC $35,000 per annum The t
Page 25 and 26: TRENDS Enter the Dragon… The impo
Page 27 and 28: TRENDS The two tiers on offer both
Page 29 and 30: INTERVIEW “ “ Holiday Inn ® is
Page 31 and 32: TRENDS “ “ The initiative is im
Page 33 and 34: OPENINGS 2015 07 01 2015 Openings 1
Page 35 and 36: OPENINGS 2015 ˇHoliday Inn Express
Page 37 and 38: OPENINGS 2015 ˇHoliday Inn Express
Page 39 and 40: OPENINGS 2015 ˇHoliday Inn ® Fran
Page 41 and 42: BRANDS Introducing the Next Generat
Page 43 and 44: BRANDS And if research conducted at
Page 45 and 46: EVENTS IHG ® Germany Investor Day
Page 47: EVENTS Events… Dates for your dia
Page 51 and 52: WHO WE ARE Hogarth & Ogilvy manages

Development Quarterly - Issue 3 IHG Europe's Development, Design & Openings magazine

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