When I spoke with Susanne Hatje, she had run the Mandarin Oriental in New York City for many years as its general manager. The book notes that she has since become general manager of the Mandarin Oriental Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam.
Hatje speaks in the book to the daily posture of a luxury general manager. She told me she makes a point of being present, in the heart of house and the front of house, greeting staff in the morning and discussing menus, because an open dialogue with the team is where the hunger for excellence comes from. She was equally clear that the role requires her to be part of every facet of the business, finance and marketing and rooms included, and that the standard the team holds in any one of those is the standard they watch her hold across all of them. In our conversation she also described the property’s programming as a continuous experiment in collaboration, a stream of partnerships conceived months in advance and refined afterwards through guest feedback. And she told me two stories about guests, a couple who married on a whim in Central Park and a thirteen year old whose birthday became a slumber party in a Signature Suite, that show what a team does with a booking once it has been confirmed.
“Whether greeting staff in the morning or discussing menus, I make a point of being present.” Susanne Hatje, then General Manager, Mandarin Oriental, New York
In the book, Susanne Hatje appears in Chapter 3, Leading by Example, Chapter 6, The Creative Act, and Chapter 8, The Human Touch. In Leading by Example, her insistence on being on the floor and across every part of the operation is leadership by example at the highest level of the property. In The Creative Act, her programmed partnership stream is one of the cadences I hold up against the belief that creativity waits for inspiration. In The Human Touch, the Central Park wedding and the slumber party suite show the specificity that makes a gesture memorable, down to the chief concierge who served as the couple’s witness.
“We quickly arranged for a last-minute Justice of the Peace, a photographer and a horse and carriage. Our chief concierge, Kenneth Abisror, served as the couple’s witness.” Susanne Hatje, then General Manager, Mandarin Oriental, New York