酒店行业的运动员
在做过多年的行政总厨和酒店管理者之后， Harald Buerkle（立即）报名参加了格里昂在线MBA课程的学习。如他自己所说，这样可以使他的“知识和审辩式思考能力更上一层楼。”，2011年2月时，Harald Buerkle刚入学不久，他获得了一个令人惊叹的工作机会：于2014年冬季奥运会之前在索契（Sochi）附近开两家酒店。
“在与我的妻子进行了一个简短的商讨之后，我回复说，当然，我愿意去。”Buerkle笑着说。“但是我没有考虑到我已经报名参加了格里昂在线MBA课程。后来我想到，哎呀，我还要读MBA课程呢。”
尽管有一些阻碍， Buerkle对这门课程仍然没有打退堂鼓。“这就好比一名运动员中途因为遇到一些本可以解决的困难而退出了比赛，”他说。“我喜欢挑战，并且我坚决相信：通过投入精力和聚焦于时间管理，任何事情都可能完成。”
Buerkle和他的妻子于2011年8月抵达罗莎库塔（Rosa Khutor），而后立即开始了MBA课程的学习。罗莎库塔（Rosa Khutor）位处雪山群，所有的滑雪活动都可以在这里举行，且到索契奥林匹克体育馆只有40分钟车程。Buerkle将在坐落于滑雪缆车底部的两家酒店担任总经理：罗莎库塔丽笙公园酒店（The Park Inn by Radisson）— 一家有211间客房的四星级酒店，及罗莎库塔丽笙酒店（Radisson Hotel, Rosa Khutor）— 一家有181间客房的五星级酒店。
Buerkle的个人经历使他自然而然地成为这次工作机会的合适人选。自2005年起Buerkle就在丽笙酒店（Radisson）工作了，当时他参与了丽笙在乌克兰基辅的SAS酒店（Radisson SAS Hotel Kiev）的开业筹备（任行政总厨）。在那之前，他在凯宾斯基酒店（Kempinski）工作了九年，其中有一年工作地点是在莫斯科。
公园客栈（Park Inn）开业筹备最后日期截止到Buerkle到任六个月，即赶在2012年1月高山滑雪世界杯举办之前完成。在这样短的时间内完成开业是一件很不容易的事，因为以罗莎库塔（Rosa Khutor）为目的地的整个场所都需要从头开始建。当时公园客栈还只是一个“灰色的外壳”：没有管道，没有电，地基也没有浇筑混凝土。
“在俄罗斯，供应是很脆弱的，”Buerkle说。“及时置到运营设备是一个很大的挑战。每一样东西都需要用特殊的纸张装订成册，并且需要盖章和签字达五次之多。为了确保事情完成，我不得不建立了一个大型的网络，通过使用那个网络去完成这些事情。”公园客栈（Park Inn）开业时，距世界杯开幕仅剩三天。
“那年冬天的雪太大了，当时整个酒店看起来都已准备妥当，”他回忆说。“但是当雪融化的时候，我们看到了现实 — 为了满足奥林匹克运动会的需要，仍然有特别多的地方需要建造。”
午夜奋斗充电
与此同时，Buerkle每天晚上和周末都会学习。“这个MBA是一个很艰难的课程，就像我那两家酒店的开业一样。”Buerkle说。“在这个酒店中身兼数职也让我有可能同时做好两件事情 — 与员工建立起相互信任的关系和巧妙运用时间。这个在线MBA课程有课程安排、课后作业和明确的完成课程和作业的期限 — 每周有三次、四次或五次课后作业 ，因此你不能落后。我经常比课程表提前两天下载好学习资料。但是我仍然坚持游泳。”他微笑着说。“我在我的iPad上阅读这些资料，同时稍稍享受一下生活。”他补充道，“格里昂的全球声誉以及这个在线MBA课程出众的灵活性使得格里昂成为我的首选。”
第二家酒店于2013年1月开业，准备承接奥运会前的测试赛，但是当时其它酒店的施工扬尘堵住了排污管道，致使酒店的地下室被淹，因此开业时间又往后推迟了两天。刚开业不久，酒店的主电源线又被在公路上施工的起重机切断，他们又不得不使用应急发电机来维持酒店运营。供水也被切断过，在此期间他们只能用瓶装水。
“我们的第一批客人来到酒店后是有一些惊奇的，”Buerkle认为：“他们都很支持我们，因为每个人都知道我们是刚开业。对于我个人来说，之前当看到全球的媒体对俄国和这场冬季奥运会有很多负面的报道后，有时候我也很失望。他们看不见这里的一切都从头开始建需要花费多少努力和艰辛，他们也不知道建成后这里的人们有多自豪。”
另一个挑战：招聘
从当地招聘员工选择是非常有限的，因此Buerkle和他的团队不得不将招聘范围扩大 — 从西伯利亚（Siberia）到圣彼得堡（St. Petersburg）。虽然奥林匹克这个项目吸引了诸多求职者，担要招聘到训练有素的职工还是非常困难，尤其是能和国际客人用英语沟通的员工。并且由于签证的限制，也不能招聘外国人。
Buerkle在已开业的第一家酒店中有200多名员工已经培训好，可以随时听候差遣。他计划从这些训练有素的员工中调出一半到第二家酒店中，然后两边再安排新人进来。但是当同行竞争者在5公里外的另一个景区也建好了几家酒店后，“每一个人都来到山里抢着招聘训练有素的员工，”他说。
还有许多员工被挖走了。“现在我们和竞争者达成了协议，就是我们不再从彼此酒店挖人 — 或者如果需要的话，要通过对方酒店的人力资源部进行。这样我们双方都不用再浪费资源和时间了，也不用背着彼此在暗地采取行动，这些行为最终都是没有意义的。”
奥运光环
Buerkle同他的部门领导和其他员工一起参加了奥运会开幕式，他还给员工们分发了许多张奥运会的门票作为对员工们这么多天来辛苦工作的奖励。Buerkle观看了几场高山滑雪和障碍滑雪的比赛。从慕尼黑（Munich）南部下来，到阿尔卑斯山（Alps）比尔克勒（Buerkle）一带，Buerkle喜欢在这中间的山坡上滑雪。“我还没有进行足够的训练来完成在黑色地段滑雪的目标，但是可能现在就是时候了，我已经完成了MBA课程。”他笑着说。
"澳大利亚住宅区和德国的住宅区挨得很近，因此你在晚上到那边的时候身边都是金牌获奖选手。那18天的聚会太精彩了。我管理的酒店中有一家在罗莎库塔广场（Rosa Khutor’s square），那里每天晚上都有大型聚会，现场还有乐队表演和烟花。村庄里的聚会一直到半夜才结束。"
毕业论文：奥运会对金融的影响
Buerkle在两个月前就提交了他的MBA毕业论文，这样他就可以全身心投入奥运会的筹备中。Buerkle在毕业论文中研究了举办冬季奥运会对酒店和当地的金融影响。通过将温哥华（Vancouver，2010年奥运会举办城市）和伯尔尼（Bern，在几次奥运会申办中撤回申请）作比较，他发现温哥华酒店的平均房价在奥运会期间比奥运会之前要高，而在奥运会开幕之前的几个月平均房价是比较低的，在奥运会结束后紧跟着的夏季，由于商务会议的增加使得酒店的平均房价又比之前提高了一些。他得出结论：奥运会期间对酒店的带来的财政上的好处是非常有限的 — 奥运会在公共关系上对当地产生的宣传影响更为重要。
他说这个现象和现在罗莎库塔（Rosa Khutor）所经历的很相似，在奥林匹克运动会之后滑雪者们及商业会议对酒店的需求量很大。
Buerkle说他的成功大部分归功于他的妻子。“是她一直在支持着我，让我拥有更多可支配的时间。如果没有她，这些事情我都做不到。而在这两年半的时间里，她在精神上也没有得到多少回馈。”三月末残奥会一结束，这对夫妻就去海滩和高尔夫球场度假了，他们当之无愧，且选择了气候更加温暖的地方 — 阿布扎比（Abu Dhabi）和迪拜（Dubai）。
“某种程度上来说，我对MBA和奥运会两者都投入了很多情感，”Buerkle说。“并且如果有机会，我会再体验一次同时做这两件事。MBA让我的思想与众不同，从业内同仁身上学到的东西也十分鼓舞人心。什么主题不重要 — 无论是介绍市场营销还是人力资源，你可以将新的想法运用到你手边的项目上就是一件充满乐趣的事情。
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The hospitality athlete
After years as an Executive Chef and hotel manager, Harald Buerkle (right) enrolled in the Glion Online MBA program so he could to take his “knowledge and critical thinking abilities to the next level,” as he puts it. Soon after enrolling in February 2011, however, he was offered an incredible job opportunity: to open two hotels near Sochi before the 2014 Winter Olympics.
“After a short conversation with my wife, I said of course, yes.” Buerkle laughs. “But I didn’t think about the fact that I had also signed up for the Glion Online MBA program. And then I thought, whoops, there’s something else you have to do.”
Despite the certain obstacles ahead, Buerkle did not consider dropping out of the program. “That would be like an athlete who would quit his or her participation due to adversities that are solvable,” he says. “I like to be challenged and I strongly believe that with commitment and a focus on time management, everything is possible to achieve.”
Buerkle and his wife arrived in Rosa Khutor in August 2011, and he immediately began the MBA program. Rosa Khutor is the mountain cluster where all the ski events would take place, a 40-minute ride from the Olympic Stadium in Sochi. Buerkle would serve as General Manager of two hotels located right at the bottom of the ski lifts: The Park Inn by Radisson Rosa Khutor, a four-star hotel with 211 rooms, and the Radisson Hotel, Rosa Khutor, a five-star hotel with 181 rooms.
Buerkle’s experience made him a natural choice for this opportunity. He has worked with Radisson since 2005, when he was part of the opening team (as Executive Chef) for the Radisson SAS Hotel Kiev in Ukraine. Before that, he was with Kempinski for nine years, including one year in Moscow.
His deadline for opening the Park Inn was six months after his arrival, in time for the resort to host the Alpine Ski World Cup in January 2012. Opening in that short time frame would not be easy, because the entire destination of Rosa Khutor was being built from scratch. The Park Inn was just a “gray nutshell” with no pipework or electricity; the basement concrete had not been poured.
“In Russia, supply is very fragile,” Buerkle says. “Getting operating equipment in time is a big challenge. Everything has to be documented with special papers and stamped and signed five times. To get things done, I had to build a large network, and use that network.” The Park Inn opened just three days before the World Cup.
“We had so much snow that winter that the entire resort looked completely ready,” he remembers. “But when the snow melted, we were back to reality—there was still a lot of construction needed for the Olympics.”
Burning the midnight oil
In the meantime, Buerkle was studying evenings and weekends. “The MBA was a tough schedule, exactly like the openings of my hotels,” Buerkle says. “Delegating a lot of tasks inside the organization made it possible for me to do both at the same time—developing trust in the people, and using the time wisely. With the Online MBA, you have class postings and clear deadlines with your assignments—three, four, five each week. So you can’t fall behind. I always downloaded the material two days ahead of schedule. But I still went to the swimming pool.” He smiles. “I took my iPad and did my readings and enjoyed life a little bit.” He adds, “Glion’s global reputation and the enormous flexibility the Online MBA program offers made Glion my preferred choice.”
The second hotel opened in January 2013 to host the pre-Olympic test events, but its opening was delayed two days when the basement flooded due to a sewer line blocked by construction dust from other hotels. Soon after the opening, the hotel’s main power line was cut by a crane working down the road, so they had to run on the emergency generator. They had to use bottled water several times when the water was shut off.
“Our first guests had a few surprises,” Buerkle acknowledges. “But they were very supportive because everybody understood we had just opened. For me, to see how negative the media globally were about Russia and the Winter Games before the events began was sometimes very disappointing. They couldn’t see with how much effort it took to build everything from scratch, and how proud the people are to have it.”
Another challenge: recruiting
The local pool of employees was very limited, so Buerkle’s team had to recruit from Siberia to St. Petersburg. Although the Olympics were a big draw for applicants, it was difficult to find trained workers, especially English speakers who could communicate with international guests. Hiring foreigners was not an option due to visa restrictions.
Buerkle had more than 200 employees on board for the first opening. He planned to put half those trained employees into the second hotel and then fill up both properties with newcomers. But when competing companies built several hotels at another resort 5 km away, “everybody started to come shopping in the mountains for trained employees,” he says.
Many employees were lured away. “Now with our competitors, we have an agreement that we do not recruit anymore from each other—or if we do, we go through the HR department. So we all don’t waste our resources and time and steal from each other, which doesn’t make sense in the end.”
The glory of the Games
Buerkle attended the opening ceremony with his department heads and other employees, and he passed along many event tickets to employees as a reward for their long days of work. Buerkle watched a few alpine ski and slalom events. Hailing from south of Munich, close to the Alps, Buerkle enjoys skiing the intermediate slopes. “I did not manage yet to train enough to target the black ones, but maybe it is time now after completion of the MBA program,” he laughs.
“The Austrian and German houses were very close, so you go there in the evening and you have all the gold medal winners around you. It’s an amazing party for these 18 days. One of my hotels is on Rosa Khutor’s square, where big parties happened every night with live bands and fireworks. And there were parties until midnight in the village.”
Dissertation: the financial effects of the Games
Buerkle submitted his MBA dissertation two months early so he could focus on preparing for the Games. For his dissertation, Buerkle researched the financial effects of hosting the Winter Olympics on hotels and destinations. Comparing Vancouver (which hosted the 2010 Games) to Bern (which withdrew its bid for those Games), he found that although Vancouver hotels’ average house rates were higher during the Games, they were lower in the preceding months and higher the following summer due to increased conference business. He concluded that the Games’ financial benefits to hotels is very limited—more important is the PR effect on the entire destination.
He says this phenomenon is similar to what they are experiencing now in Rosa Khutor, with a high demand from skiiers and corporate conferences post-Olympics.
Buerkle attributes much of his success to his wife. “She really kept my back free. Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to do everything. Mentally, she did not get much back from me for those two and a half years.” As soon as the Paralympic Games finished at the end of March, the couple took a well-deserved vacation on the beaches and golf courses of a warmer climate—Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
“For both the MBA and the Olympics, I had a lot of emotions involved, somehow,” Buerkle says. “And I would do both again. The MBA helped me to think differently. Learning from my colleagues in the industry was always very inspiring. It doesn’t matter what subject—whether it was Intro to Marketing or HR, it’s fun to apply the new ideas while you are working on a project.”
After years as an Executive Chef and hotel manager, Harald Buerkle (right) enrolled in the Glion Online MBA program so he could to take his “knowledge and critical thinking abilities to the next level,” as he puts it. Soon after enrolling in February 2011, however, he was offered an incredible job opportunity: to open two hotels near Sochi before the 2014 Winter Olympics.
“After a short conversation with my wife, I said of course, yes.” Buerkle laughs. “But I didn’t think about the fact that I had also signed up for the Glion Online MBA program. And then I thought, whoops, there’s something else you have to do.”
Despite the certain obstacles ahead, Buerkle did not consider dropping out of the program. “That would be like an athlete who would quit his or her participation due to adversities that are solvable,” he says. “I like to be challenged and I strongly believe that with commitment and a focus on time management, everything is possible to achieve.”
Buerkle and his wife arrived in Rosa Khutor in August 2011, and he immediately began the MBA program. Rosa Khutor is the mountain cluster where all the ski events would take place, a 40-minute ride from the Olympic Stadium in Sochi. Buerkle would serve as General Manager of two hotels located right at the bottom of the ski lifts: The Park Inn by Radisson Rosa Khutor, a four-star hotel with 211 rooms, and the Radisson Hotel, Rosa Khutor, a five-star hotel with 181 rooms.
Buerkle’s experience made him a natural choice for this opportunity. He has worked with Radisson since 2005, when he was part of the opening team (as Executive Chef) for the Radisson SAS Hotel Kiev in Ukraine. Before that, he was with Kempinski for nine years, including one year in Moscow.
His deadline for opening the Park Inn was six months after his arrival, in time for the resort to host the Alpine Ski World Cup in January 2012. Opening in that short time frame would not be easy, because the entire destination of Rosa Khutor was being built from scratch. The Park Inn was just a “gray nutshell” with no pipework or electricity; the basement concrete had not been poured.
“In Russia, supply is very fragile,” Buerkle says. “Getting operating equipment in time is a big challenge. Everything has to be documented with special papers and stamped and signed five times. To get things done, I had to build a large network, and use that network.” The Park Inn opened just three days before the World Cup.
“We had so much snow that winter that the entire resort looked completely ready,” he remembers. “But when the snow melted, we were back to reality—there was still a lot of construction needed for the Olympics.”
Burning the midnight oil
In the meantime, Buerkle was studying evenings and weekends. “The MBA was a tough schedule, exactly like the openings of my hotels,” Buerkle says. “Delegating a lot of tasks inside the organization made it possible for me to do both at the same time—developing trust in the people, and using the time wisely. With the Online MBA, you have class postings and clear deadlines with your assignments—three, four, five each week. So you can’t fall behind. I always downloaded the material two days ahead of schedule. But I still went to the swimming pool.” He smiles. “I took my iPad and did my readings and enjoyed life a little bit.” He adds, “Glion’s global reputation and the enormous flexibility the Online MBA program offers made Glion my preferred choice.”
The second hotel opened in January 2013 to host the pre-Olympic test events, but its opening was delayed two days when the basement flooded due to a sewer line blocked by construction dust from other hotels. Soon after the opening, the hotel’s main power line was cut by a crane working down the road, so they had to run on the emergency generator. They had to use bottled water several times when the water was shut off.
“Our first guests had a few surprises,” Buerkle acknowledges. “But they were very supportive because everybody understood we had just opened. For me, to see how negative the media globally were about Russia and the Winter Games before the events began was sometimes very disappointing. They couldn’t see with how much effort it took to build everything from scratch, and how proud the people are to have it.”
Another challenge: recruiting
The local pool of employees was very limited, so Buerkle’s team had to recruit from Siberia to St. Petersburg. Although the Olympics were a big draw for applicants, it was difficult to find trained workers, especially English speakers who could communicate with international guests. Hiring foreigners was not an option due to visa restrictions.
Buerkle had more than 200 employees on board for the first opening. He planned to put half those trained employees into the second hotel and then fill up both properties with newcomers. But when competing companies built several hotels at another resort 5 km away, “everybody started to come shopping in the mountains for trained employees,” he says.
Many employees were lured away. “Now with our competitors, we have an agreement that we do not recruit anymore from each other—or if we do, we go through the HR department. So we all don’t waste our resources and time and steal from each other, which doesn’t make sense in the end.”
The glory of the Games
Buerkle attended the opening ceremony with his department heads and other employees, and he passed along many event tickets to employees as a reward for their long days of work. Buerkle watched a few alpine ski and slalom events. Hailing from south of Munich, close to the Alps, Buerkle enjoys skiing the intermediate slopes. “I did not manage yet to train enough to target the black ones, but maybe it is time now after completion of the MBA program,” he laughs.
“The Austrian and German houses were very close, so you go there in the evening and you have all the gold medal winners around you. It’s an amazing party for these 18 days. One of my hotels is on Rosa Khutor’s square, where big parties happened every night with live bands and fireworks. And there were parties until midnight in the village.”
Dissertation: the financial effects of the Games
Buerkle submitted his MBA dissertation two months early so he could focus on preparing for the Games. For his dissertation, Buerkle researched the financial effects of hosting the Winter Olympics on hotels and destinations. Comparing Vancouver (which hosted the 2010 Games) to Bern (which withdrew its bid for those Games), he found that although Vancouver hotels’ average house rates were higher during the Games, they were lower in the preceding months and higher the following summer due to increased conference business. He concluded that the Games’ financial benefits to hotels is very limited—more important is the PR effect on the entire destination.
He says this phenomenon is similar to what they are experiencing now in Rosa Khutor, with a high demand from skiiers and corporate conferences post-Olympics.
Buerkle attributes much of his success to his wife. “She really kept my back free. Without her, I wouldn’t have been able to do everything. Mentally, she did not get much back from me for those two and a half years.” As soon as the Paralympic Games finished at the end of March, the couple took a well-deserved vacation on the beaches and golf courses of a warmer climate—Abu Dhabi and Dubai.
“For both the MBA and the Olympics, I had a lot of emotions involved, somehow,” Buerkle says. “And I would do both again. The MBA helped me to think differently. Learning from my colleagues in the industry was always very inspiring. It doesn’t matter what subject—whether it was Intro to Marketing or HR, it’s fun to apply the new ideas while you are working on a project.”
【原文引自】：http://www.gheac.com/thread-7173-1-2.html
版权与翻译版权所有，转载，复制请注明出自于“GHEAC-环球酒店教育与行业盟”。
版权与翻译版权所有，转载，复制请注明出自于“GHEAC-环球酒店教育与行业盟”。
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