French hotel chain Accor is creating a "training manual" for general managers on how to deal with owners.
Laurent Chaudet, general manager of the Pullman Dubai Mall of the Emirates, is involved with the effort, which is intended to ease the culture shock between management styles in different regions.
"We faced a lot of problems sending some GMs from Europe to Asia. The guys were not ready because they used to work in some affiliated franchises. I’ve been personally requested – because I’ve been in Accor for nearly 30 years in the management company – to train our general managers to know how to better deal with the owner’s representatives, particularly in Asia."
Siegfried Nierhaus, managing director for Atlas Group Middle East, applauded the move, saying any move to improve relations between owners and operators can only strengthen the brand.
"This is an excellent initiative and I believe that operators should invest more time and money in training their GMs who are the representatives of the brand. GMs should spend significant time before moving to any new destination to study the new destination and learn about do's and don'ts etc. In this time where the development of our region is continuing to look positive, the success of a brand depends more on the quality of the resources which operators put into place," he said.
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Jan 1, 2012 , United Arab Emirates
First, Accor should produce proper Standard Operating Procedures manual for the hotel operations and for each employee profile consisting of operations, handling equipments, systems, guests etc.