The poster girl for Asian female success in a male- and western-dominated industry, Rainy Chan, regional VP and GM of The Peninsula, Hong Kong, tells Raini Hamdi why intuition, passion, patience and loyalty are still the backbone of success
Four of the 10 Peninsula hotels in operation today are run by a female general manager. Is this a deliberate effort?
We don’t deliberately look at gender. It’s about the right timing. We look for talent through headhunters and people we know. Unfortunately there aren’t a lot of female GM CVs out there – many don’t make it to that level.
Still today – why?
Women are still expected to get married and take care of the kids. But in this industry, we have to travel and work long hours. If you tell your husband I’m moving every two years, he’s going to look at you and say, ‘Huh? Excuse me?’ Hence, many women don’t make it to the top, not because they are not capable or wanted, but because they have to make choices. Women just have it tougher in having to make a choice in certain stages of their career.
Your advice to young people, when it comes to making choices?
Don’t overthink it. Women think too much. When I talk to students, they say, ‘I don’t want to be in hotels because I won’t have a life.’ How do you know? How do you know what kind of life you want to have? You start, then see what comes.
In general, women will intuitively know how to make a decision. If you are lucky enough to find a job you love, nothing should matter, until something else matters a lot more, and then you will intuitively make the choice.
What choices did you have to make?
I was working in the hotel industry and had moved to the US when the Peninsula Hong Kong, which was looking for a front office manager, called me. I could not believe it. I asked did they know I’m a woman? In 60 years, they’ve never hired a female FOM. Did they know I’m Chinese? They said yes they know (laughs).
I was engaged. But as a Hong Kong Chinese girl looking at the Peninsula, there was no way I would say no. So I asked my ex-fiancee, ‘Can I just go for one year?’ He said, ‘I guess the best way to keep you is to let you go.’ Except of course he had let me go forever. It’s meant to be. If we were meant to be together he would have moved to Hong Kong with me. I’m Chinese and I believe in serendipity. When it’s meant to be yours, it will come.
Did you imagine you’d be heading The Peninsula Hong Kong one day?
Never! I was lucky to be discovered by my mentor, our COO, Peter Borer. He was a pioneer in thinking, ‘Enough of this expat business, I want to hire a local, but someone with enough international perspective and training, who can balance the new and the old, the west and the east.’
Then there was this unconditional giving – the opportunity to learn, to improve myself but, importantly, he knew that the key area where I needed the most support was confidence. I did not go to college or hotel school; I learnt everything at work. He let me do it, he believes if you do something with the intention of benefiting the hotel or the company, you will always make the right decision and even if it’s wrong it can’t be that bad because your intention is good.
What mistakes do you see young people make in their career?
They give up too quickly. They think they’re bored, they think they have learnt everything. But they have not; no, in the service industry you can’t possibly graduate from learning how to care for, or manage people, too quickly.
I think they just don’t want to face the challenge. They give themselves new challenges without overcoming the old ones, not realising that eventually the old challenges will come back, no matter what company or field they are in. That kind of attitude will prohibit them from building a solid portfolio for themselves.
I’ve a solid portfolio. I’ve managed people in different countries and gone through earth-shattering events – 9/11 in New York, tsunami in Bangkok and SARS in Hong Kong – as a senior executive of this company. Sticking with the same company, you grasp its DNA – that’s why the company trusts me to run its flagship hotel. What’s wrong today is if you stick around for so long, people say what’s wrong with you!
Loyalty goes a long way. In my tenure with the company, I’ve established so many friendships and these form my rock. In hard times, I reach out for them; we open hotels together, go through crises such as 9/11 together. These relationships would never happen if I didn’t stay put.
But what made you stay?
It’s a unique hotel company, and quite wonderful. There are other wonderful hotel companies but because their model is management contracts, they are not in a position to keep all of their hotels consistent in quality and reinvestment. Most of our hotels, on the other hand, are undergoing some kind of upgrade – no other hotel company can say that. The Peninsula Chicago, for instance, is renovating its rooms and suites, which are in great condition still. We don’t wait to renovate. It is all about consistency: the renovation in Chicago and Beijing will put the hotels in line with those in Hong Kong and Paris, which now field the best technology.
The fact we own our hotels gives us that freedom to reinvest to ensure our quality is maintained. Also, it enables us to keep the hospitality tradition. It’s different when you are just managing; you have different owners, some are short-term thinking, others a bit more long term. That model still works, but I look for a company like Peninsula, where I know I am working for the chairman and that I would not have a hotel that I’m managing today having a different name tomorrow!
There’s a strong sense young people aren’t loyal. What’s an industry to do?
I run a hotel with people of four generations. When I started as a GM, I knew I had to build a hotel for the son of Sir Michael (Kadoorie), not for Sir Michael, so that when he takes over, the hotel will have people who have served for 40 years.
So how do I do that? First, we have to change our expectations. Long service today is five to 10 years, not 25 years. We launched a five-day work week two years ago so we can compete with other industries. We find out what young people want, just as we learn what our guest needs are, and we create the environment for them.
I also meet all long-service staff who are leaving – I give them my phone number. Many call when they want to come home.
This article was first published in TTG Asia, September 18, 2015 issue, on page 10. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe.
