The Kempinski Flourish Management Trainee Program is the group’s structured route for early career hospitality graduates: rotations across a hotel’s functions, two cross exposures at other Kempinski hotels abroad, a capstone project and a general manager as mentor, ending in a guaranteed move into middle management. This page describes the program as Kempinski presents it and then turns to what the company’s page cannot offer, which is what five hoteliers in my books who trained or led at Kempinski say about the first years and about the company as a place that forms people.
The program, as Kempinski describes it
Kempinski’s students and graduates page describes its management training route in general terms, as “unrivalled exposure to the behind-the-scenes work involved in crafting the Kempinski experience,” learning from senior people across the group’s network and “fast-tracking your career and expertise.” The same page describes trainees “working alongside experienced colleagues and leaders in all departments,” with the option to “specialise in your preferred field of interest,” and promises that graduates “gain the sought-after skills that will set you apart in a competitive, global industry.”
The Flourish name and structure come from Kempinski’s human resources leadership rather than the page itself. The program rests on three pillars, Learn, Experience and Grow. Trainees rotate across functions in one hotel, each rotation recorded in a Training Passport; take two international cross exposures at other Kempinski hotels; complete a capstone project; and are mentored by a general manager. At the end, graduates are guaranteed a move into a middle management role in Rooms or Food and Beverage. Selection is competitive, the program is for early career hospitality graduates, and it runs across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Openings are posted hotel by hotel through the job search on the Kempinski careers site. The program’s length, pay, intake dates and the hotels recruiting in a given year change, so I have left them out; the company page and each listing carry them.
What Kempinski general managers say about the first years
Kempinski appears in my books more often as a place people started than as a place they were running when I interviewed them. Two general managers served their apprenticeships there, one took his first leadership role there, and one was mentored there at forty.
Alexander Pichel, then general manager of Hotel Indonesia Kempinski Jakarta, came back to the company that trained him. He left school after the tenth grade, sent a hundred applications and started as a bellboy at seventeen.
“I then managed to be accepted into the hotel management apprenticeship program at Bristol Hotel Kempinski Berlin, the best hotel in Berlin back in the 1980s. Back then, hoteliers were rather old-fashioned and ran a very tight ship. It was their way or the highway. At first, I looked up to them, but I quickly realized that leaders must show empathy, understanding, and actively listen to their staff. Only then will you be able to gain their trust. A top-down approach without the human touch was not a recipe for success.” Alexander Pichel, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
Susanne Hatje, then general manager of Mandarin Oriental, New York, grew up in her parents’ hotel in Hamburg and apprenticed at Kempinski in the same city: “My first role outside the family business was as an apprentice at the five-star Hotel Atlantic Kempinski in Hamburg in 1988.”
“I started out in the laundry room and worked my way up. Starting from the bottom and rising through the ranks is absolutely critical. It teaches you every part of the operation, and you learn to respect and admire the work of your colleagues.” Susanne Hatje, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
Ayman Gharib, then general manager of Raffles Dubai and Sofitel Dubai Wafi, took his first management job with the group: “My first leadership role was as a Restaurant Manager at Kempinski Hotel Ajman in the UAE. I was just twenty-one, and it was my first time working overseas.” It was where he learned to lead a team of many nationalities: “People work and learn at different speeds, too, and you need to accommodate for this. This was also a role in which I learned the importance of empathy.”
Kempinski as a training ground
Axel Bethke, then general manager of Qasr Al Sarab Desert Resort by Anantara, lists the people who taught him, and the last of them was at Kempinski: “Even at age forty, when I joined Kempinski in Beijing, the Managing Director of the hotel took me under his wings and helped me understand the Chinese mentality and how to deal with institutional owners. When people with more experience and insight offer to teach you, always say yes, and learn as much as you can.”
Ralph Radtke, then general manager of Çırağan Palace Kempinski Istanbul, describes the cross exposure that Flourish formalizes, from the general manager’s side:
“At Ciragan Palace Kempinski, we train ourselves to be efficient problem solvers. We send our colleagues to other Kempinski Hotels as part of specific task forces and cross-trainings in order to make them more rounded team members that are knowledgeable in areas other than their core expertise. This additional exposure also provides a different kind of inspiration and motivation to succeed.” Ralph Radtke, in A Wealth of Insight (2017)
What to take from it
Treat the apprenticeship as Pichel and Hatje did, as the years that teach you every part of the operation and show you which leaders to copy and which to avoid. Take the two cross exposures seriously, since Radtke sends his own people out for exactly the breadth they give. Say yes when a general manager offers to teach you, as Bethke did at forty. And read the five full profiles on the Voices pages above before an interview. Chapter 2 of The Luxury of Attention, The Apprenticeship, is about exactly these years.
Questions people also ask
What is the Kempinski Flourish Management Trainee Program?
Kempinski’s leadership program for early career hospitality graduates, built on three pillars, Learn, Experience and Grow. Trainees rotate across functions inside one hotel, with each rotation recorded in a Training Passport, take two international cross exposures at other Kempinski hotels, complete a capstone project and are mentored by a general manager. Graduates are guaranteed a move into a middle management role in Rooms or Food and Beverage.
How do you apply to the Kempinski management trainee program?
Through the Kempinski careers site, whose students and graduates page describes its management training route and links to the job search where openings are posted hotel by hotel. Selection is competitive and the program runs across Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Kempinski’s page says the route is for people studying hospitality who want exposure to the work behind the Kempinski experience.
Which track should you choose, Rooms or Food and Beverage?
The guaranteed placement at the end is in Rooms or Food and Beverage, and the rotations before it cover both. The hoteliers in my books who trained at Kempinski started in the laundry, as a bellboy and as a restaurant manager, and each says the breadth of those early years, rather than the department, is what taught them to lead.
Does the Flourish program lead to general manager?
It leads to middle management. General manager is years further on, though two of the general managers in my books began as Kempinski apprentices: Alexander Pichel in the hotel management apprenticeship at Bristol Hotel Kempinski Berlin, and Susanne Hatje as an apprentice at Hotel Atlantic Kempinski in Hamburg, starting in the laundry room. Both say starting at the bottom is what made them.