lebua's Great Expectations

Despite its short life, lebua has become a brand closely associated with modern day Bangkok. Much of this is due to the vision of CEO Deepak Ohri and his constant drive for success, and his ability to instill his passion in his staff. Director’s Pattamaporn Kittipanachol spoke with him to discover how he makes it work.

“When I look back over six and a half years, human resources remains the biggest challenge for every company - yesterday, today and tomorrow,” says Deepak Ohri, CEO of lebua Hotels and Resorts Co., Ltd. And nothing is more important to the hospitality industry than its staff.

The quality of lebua’s team was illustrated at the Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards 2008-2010 (HAPA), where it swept five top awards for its food and beverage outlets and ‘Luxury Hotel of the Year’ in Thailand, and Deepak was conferred ‘Most Enterprising Hospitality Entrepreneur’.

In May 2003, when Deepak first joined lebua, the distinctive domed rooftop with its elegant Neo-classical architecture and spectacular skyline was dilapidated. Yet by December 2003 the owner, Rattawadee Bualert, had already envisioned the future - an iconic rooftop restaurant. And Deepak took the opportunity of a lifetime.

It was no easy job, however, as building a luxury brand from its origins takes skill, time and considerable effort, as events were to prove. Tasked with the transformation, “the most challenging part was getting the staff. Nobody believed we could open a restaurant like Sirocco and that it would be successful. When we spoke to the chefs, they didn’t believe what we were saying. They couldn’t even visualise what I was thinking.” Hiring was done “by finding someone who wanted to attain a higher position. For executive chef, we hired a sous chef. Our first HR manager was a hotel HR clerk.

“We started with a staff of 15. I was a busboy carrying food and dishes between kitchen and side station.” After Sirocco began operating, “our current head of Sirocco told me, ‘we need to hire 20 more staff.’ We were lucky that everything turned out right. After they joined, our business immediately tripled. On February 15, 2004, we generated average daily sales of THB 100,000.  On February 16, 2004, our daily sales rose to THB 300,000.”

Recruiting Winners

Attaining such results starts from taking risks in recruitment and appealing to people’s desires. Deepak continues: “[a] selection process is based on emotions. We don’t look at their qualifications. We ask them: ‘We give you the opportunity, do you have the confidence?’ We see if the person is confident, ambitious, and has an inner fire. I got my chance very late; I don’t want to give my employees their chance that late.

“At previous organisations, my bosses never understood me. When I asked, ‘Why don’t I get the opportunity?’ I would be given reasons which were not right. That’s why we give our staff a chance. And we give them all the resources so that they do not fail. And nobody has failed - because everybody wants to achieve something. There’s nothing more important than the self-esteem of a human being. But circumstances can make people compromise it, so we create an environment where this does not happen.

“When I was hiring my PR Director, people told her that I had ‘very high expectations’ and that I was ‘very demanding’. The way people work here is with a lot of empowerment. They are given complete independence, respect and authority to do their jobs.”

Deepak firmly believes that experience is the best learning tool, as opposed to hours of theory studied in class. “We don’t have a training department. It’s all on-the-job where each supervisor is the trainer. The number one trainer is our customer, who is always training us how to match their expectations.”

However, there is a risk that “that someone may not agree with your philosophy.” How do you prevent it? “One of the best ways to detect a person’s emotion is by looking at their eyes. You can fake anything except your eyes. No organisation can understand consumer behaviour if they do not have the capability to understand their employees’ behaviour. 

“Our biggest strength is delivering what we say. When we say we respect each other, we do. Most companies fail to execute that. And that’s why we’ve been able to retain and attract good people to work for us. We’re very clear in what we want. We’re also very fair. If we have a policy, that policy stays, and applies to everybody. Everything about our organisation is related to respect, ethics, morals, and values.”

Attuning values

In an age when luxury is constantly being redefined, customers are ever more difficult to satisfy. Branding your product at the top end of luxury requires constant readjustment with goals being set higher and higher. Deepak adds, “We are the first company in the world in any sector to be certified by research company TNS (using the TRIM Index), who surveyed 120,000 companies worldwide, as the only company that really aligns customers' values with employees' values.”

“There will always be a gap between what I think, and what my customers think about my product because we’re on different sides of the business. So, in surveys, we ask our customers what they expect and what our employees provide, to analyse what issues account for those gaps.

“Our philosophy is ‘Build on Design; Sell on Emotion’. In today’s world, nothing is natural. You need to create things behind the scenes. When customers come in, they don’t see computers, matrices or software. All they see are our staff saying ‘Sawasdee khrap’, calling their names, and at our restaurants, they are served before they lift their heads.” It was clear to see the service standards expected by the prompt and continued replacement of my drink during the interview. “The ‘emotion’ is our staff’s smile, empathy, keenness and ability to anticipate. All of this, combined with back end computer systems and analysis is the basis of the design and management of service processes.”

Customer Service

With no shortage of 5 star hotels in Bangkok competition is fierce. How does lebua define its quality standards? “We don’t define our quality standards - our customers define our standards for us. We’ve understood that whatever we do, we can never know what customers want. So we created a system where customers tell us what they want, and then take it further. When customers want something at Point A, we also look for something at Point B. That’s how we’re able to anticipate our customers and raise our quality.”

When compared to chain hotels with ‘corporate philosophies’ lebua’s “philosophy is stronger because we are able to do what we say. In big chains, when communications travel thousands of miles to so many different people, the real purpose is always lost. Our policies are identical in Thailand and in New Zealand, and both properties are doing well, under direct lines of communication.

“There are no compromises on our philosophy, there are no compromises on our standards. We only have three standards: a warm welcome, anticipate guest needs, and a fond farewell. We don’t give our staff 36 books to memorise.”

Deepak explains how customer service reinforces employee attitudes. “We offer the exclusive Belvedere IX Vodka which is not even sold in duty free. If you want to drink it in Thailand, you can only get it here. When you tell your staff that this vodka is only available in six cities in the world (at the time of interview), it gives them a real sense of pride in being a part of lebua.” This is a long way from their early days when he tried to order wine from an American wine company. “I told them that we would be selling X amount of wine every day. The seller laughed and said there’s no way we could do that. Now we’re selling double that amount per day.”

The most satisfying HR challenge, Deepak says, was the last one they encountered. “We had just spent a lot of money before the airport closure. Suddenly, cashflow went down.” Postponing payments to suppliers did not help so he requested that staff take 23-24% salary cuts for six months. Ten people from a total of 1,000 staff left at the outset. “I held staff meetings every week to motivate them and promised that business would return in 90 days. Business did come back after 90 days, so we reinstated their salaries. Overall, we lost 50-60 staff. This is not a small amount in terms of human resources. When we hire staff, one employee can invite 20. So 50 people leaving could mean the entire staff! We’re grateful to them for understanding, and we’re very happy to have passed the turbulent time much faster than other organisations.”

Looking Ahead

With awards in abundance and a growing reputation, improving the product remains a key focus for Deepak. “Now, we are launching the Tower Club. Everybody’s launching one, so what’s so special about ours? It is not only a Club Suite where you get minibar, internet and ‘paid’ movies for free, but can be used by Seven Society members when networking with other business leaders. Seven Society is a recently-launched, invitation-only networking platform for movers and shakers which provides both face to face interaction at the Tower Club Lounge as well as via an exclusive online community.”

For guidance, Deepak says, “Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew has been a great influence in my thinking and the hospitality business. He doesn’t know who I am, but I always read about him, and take guidance from his writing and speeches. Since Singapore is a small country, we correlate it with our small company. We have learnt to be resilient in bouncing back from crises.

“We’re a small company. However, we have converted our weakness into a strength by proactively working towards customers’ demands.” The figures speak for themselves. “Average occupancy in the city is 56%. Most hotels occupancy have fallen by 20%, but we’re up by 15%. Our return customer rate is 68%, despite raising our pricing. Food and beverage revenue is down everywhere; we’re 30% up,” Deepak smiles as he rattles off the figures. “These are our rewards for listening to customers.”