Philip Barnes was general manager of The Savoy in London when I spoke with him for The Luxury of Attention. The book notes that he has since become CEO of Rotana Hotels in the United Arab Emirates.
Barnes gave me the sharpest formulation of a principle that runs through the whole book. The general manager sets the tone for everything that happens in the building, and the manager who notices a problem and keeps walking has become part of it, because the team saw the leader notice and will now read every small failure as something the leader is willing to tolerate. He was equally direct about the scrutiny that comes with the job. Everybody in the hotel knows when he goes to breakfast and what he eats. He accepts that as a condition of the role, and he told me that anyone who dislikes it has chosen the wrong work.
“If you walk by a problem, then you are the problem.” Philip Barnes, then general manager, The Savoy
He was just as plain about hiring. He is not saving lives and not sending anyone to the moon. He is looking after guests, and the one quality he cannot teach is attitude. Given presence, manners and wherewithal, he can teach the rest. On guest knowledge, he offered a caution that I think every property running a CRM should hear. A guest history is a snapshot. It does not tell the team where the guest is today, so the information has to be validated regularly, in person, because habits, dietary requirements and interests all change.
In the book, Philip Barnes appears in Chapter 3, Leading by Example, where his line about walking past a problem anchors the argument that the standard is what the leader does every day; in Chapter 8, The Human Touch, where he explains why attitude is the one thing a hotel hires for; and in Chapter 9, Knowing Your Guest, where his insistence on validating stale data corrects the false confidence that comes with a database.
“That’s the kind of scrutiny you are under as a leader, and if you don’t like that, then you’re in the wrong role.” Philip Barnes, then general manager, The Savoy