Our first View From the Top in 2012 is a feel-good story of how a director of sales rose to become the CEO of a growing Asian hotel chain based in Singapore. Raini Hamdi finds out how Peck did it
Jason Peck
CEO
Furama Hotels International, Singapore
We always ask women CEOs how they cope, so, for a change – what’s it like to be a CEO of an expanding chain, at just 43 years old and with a wife and two kids?
Quite frankly, in the last two years, I neglected my family a lot. The company expanded from four hotels five years ago to 43 hotels today, even though many of the hotels are in Thailand and China, the latter under FX, which is a no-frills, easy-to-manage brand. Still, that’s a lot of growth in five years.
How do you juggle career and family commitments?
I’m lucky I have a supportive wife. As you know, I rose from a director of sales (DOS) position (within eight years) to become a CEO and it has not been easy, frankly. Given my age, the job, the industry, you need an understanding and independent wife – imagine, your husband is always out. My two kids, one 19 years old and the other 12 years old, are also pretty independent and my wife is a businesswoman herself, working for her dad, so that helps a lot.
We try and schedule our lives – if I’m away, she will try her best to be at home; if I travel, I will always plan to be away Monday to Friday, so I can be with the family during weekends.
It is common for a DOS to rise to become a GM. Few, if any, rise to become a CEO. How did that happen?
Actually, when FHI was set up (as the management company of Furama Singapore, now Furama City Centre; the other property, previously a Novotel, is now Furama RiverFront), the owner did not have any plans to manage anybody’s hotels, only its own.
I joined Furama Singapore as DOS in 2003 during the SARS crisis, when the occupancy was five to 10 per cent. I had left my job at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group when it decided to cease the regional office – as no one knew how long SARS was going to last – and asked staff to take six months no-pay leave.
I brought in strong results at Furama Singapore. This got me and Kevin (Ng, son of Ng Kim Suan, chairman and substantial shareholder of Furama Limited, the owning company) thinking: why can’t we manage hotels ourselves? Kevin was then business development manager for Furama Limited. At the same time, the management contract with Accor (for the Novotel) was ending. I also had an offer from Hilton International – a VP position in the regional office here – and I told Kevin, if I’m going to oversee just one hotel, it would not be suitable for me. And Kevin himself was young and aggressive (in wanting to grow the company).
But during that time, the other hotel, a Novotel at the time, had 480 rooms (today, it has 605 rooms), which were still a lot of rooms to fill and Singapore was not as vibrant as it is now. While we had stabilised and strengthened Furama Singapore, we had to be sure if we could manage the other hotel. We looked at the GOP and did our sums, and we were confident we could do it.
I’ll never forget what our chairman said. He was very supportive. He said, Jason, you don’t have to do much better than Novotel. If you can do the same, I have 100 per cent control, I save on the management fee and most of all, I can put my Furama brand back on the hotel.
“Why would I settle as regional head of an international chain, or a VP, if I can head the company myself?”
I suppose that’s why we are seeing the rise of more Asian management chains – hungry, young Asian owners and managers, and the fact that one hotel does not cut it to draw talent?
You can’t attract talent if you have only one hotel. People want to grow. There is only one GM for one hotel and one DOS – after you’ve promoted him to corporate director of sales within six months, what then?
Was it tough for you to choose between staying with Furama and joining Hilton?
Not at all. I had been with Banyan Tree and I’ve always had the vision to be with a Singapore homegrown brand. My first hotel was Equatorial Singapore; I was one of the youngest DOS’ then at 26 or 27 years old and I saw for myself how my boss, Lee Soo Han, had the owner’s trust in overseeing 18 hotels. Equatorial was the biggest local chain then. Once you have the trust, the Asian owner will let you run the show, as long as you report to him.
But why a homegrown brand – patriotism?
In my heart, if I work for an international chain, no matter how hard I try, at best I will be a regional head or a VP, not an MD or a CEO. It’s not discrimination. Its HQ is not in Singapore. And why would I settle as regional head of an international chain, or a VP, if I can head the company myself?
So you envisioned being a CEO?
I know I would be because the owner empowered the division to me when I turned around the business. The chairman, too, shared he wanted to focus on the shipping company and needed someone to head the hotel division.
Why not his son, Kevin?
Kevin has always wanted to be the owner, he wants to invest. Kevin worked in a bank for a long time and he never was into operations. He always says we’re a tac (tactical) team: Jay, I will go and enquire about a hotel, you handle the management. We work very well together.
What lessons do you learn from this, as to why some Asian brands succeed and others don’t?
I have the hotel knowledge but I really need someone like Kevin who has the legal and finance knowledge. And this is a strong good match. Without Kevin, you can indeed hire a finance and legal guy or set up the department, but it is different because it is his, he can make decisions, and he is young, aggressive and takes calculated risks.
Why do some owners choose new chains such as Furama over the internationals?
Various factors. An individual Thai owner, for example, may insist that the international chain employ his financial controller – and this could be his daughter or brother – and that’s something the international chain usually will not accept.
The international chains on the other hand may insist that the owners spend X million dollars to bring the property up to their brand standards, but the management contract starts right now. They also subject projections to 10,000 items that any bank which wants to lend owners money to build or renovate will lack the confidence to when they see there is no real guarantee with all the subject-tos.
I’m just speaking in very general terms to demonstrate that there has to be flexibility and a real win-win. We at Furama, too, have brand standards but, instead of subjecting projections to 10,000 items, we only subject them to maybe eight to 10 items. We promise owners, even if they don’t ask, that within a certain kilometre radius, we will not manage another hotel, regardless of the brand, and we have three (Furama, FuramaXclusive and FX). We don’t ever want to put ourselves in a situation when the owner turns to us and say, would you, as an owner yourself, do that to your hotel?
This article was first published in TTG Asia, January13 issue, on page 7. To read more, please view our digital edition or click here to subscribe.
