From hotels to cabinets, Philippine-made!

Two events I attended the other week offered pithy ‘food for thought’ — in very different ways.

- PHILIP CU UNJIENG

First up was the launch of this year’s Hotel Sales & Marketing Association (HSMA) Virtus Awards. Held annually, the Virtus Awards spotlight leaders and teams who deliver measurable ROI in hotel sales and marketing. It recognizes innovation in digital campaigns and market development; plus acts as a benchmark for best practices in hospitality. The awards supports future-ready leadership, investing in young professionals in the industry; and will happen in October.

The theme of the 11th Virtus Awards is Path & Bridges: Leading the Way and Building Continuity; so it’s with this emphasis on mentorship and succession that keynote speaker Therese ‘Gang’ Capati spoke about generational divides, and effective communication across multi-generational teams — a reality of today’s hospitality landscape. Gang is the president of Rock Ed Philippines, is with Project: Steady Asia, and is a trauma therapist.

Gang immediately captured our collective attention with her anecdote about the intern she had, who when asked to perform some simple task, like emailing someone, very calmly told Gang that the task was not in her “job description.” And wait, if like Gang and so many in the room, you were ready to blow up and talk to that intern about commitment, willingness to be of use, and to contribute while you were spending hours there as an intern to create the right impression ... think again.