Yeoh Siew Hoon shares a story of retired circus elephants and draws lessons from it for the hospitality business,

Someone told me this story the other day.

Once upon a time, there was a logging camp in Borneo. The owners decided to import the best elephants from Thailand to move the logs. All was going well.

Then one day, someone (probably the financial controller) said, I know of some retired circus elephants in England and it would probably be cheaper to bring them in to do the same work as the elephants from Thailand.

So they decided to ship back the Thai elephants to the Thai jungles and brought in the retired circus elephants.

The only problem was, all the retired circus elephants could do was to stand on one leg and perform tricks. They did not know how to move logs.

Soon, the logging camp went bust because the Thai elephants, having been snubbed and rejected (elephants have long memories, remember), refused to return to work and word had spread about the discriminatory practice of this logging camp that other elephants across the kingdom decided to boycott it.

Now I don't know whether this story is true or not and okay, I took some creative licence with it but I thought it a good tale from which to draw some business lessons for the hospitality industry.

Lesson 1: Obvious. You pay peanuts, you get one-legged circus elephants.

Lesson 2: Also obvious. Hire the right elephant for the right job.

Lesson 3: Another obvious truth. It's hard to teach an old elephant new tricks.

Lesson 4: Do not listen to financial controllers who only look at numbers – do you know of any who don't?

Lesson 5: When hiring, it is always best to start with local or regional talent who understand local market conditions better than those brought in from far away.

Lesson 6: Hiring retirees in itself is a good idea. They are experienced, appreciative and often hungrier than inexperienced young talent. But put them in fields of their core competence where they can excel. If the retired circus elephants had been hired to perform at a circus in Borneo, they would probably have performed very enthusiastically and drawn in the crowds.

Lesson 7: The logging business is a specialized industry, just like hospitality. Can you hire just anyone to run it?

This is a particularly relevant question in light of a growing trend among hotel companies to hire their CEOs from outside the industry. Starwood was first with the hire of Steven Heyer who came from Coca-Cola. Hilton Group brought in Ian Carter from Black and Decker. And InterContinental Hotels Group roped in Andrew Cosslett from Cadbury Schweppes.

Hotel companies were by no means the first in our industry to go where none had dared before. Low cost airlines pioneered the trend. When they proved that outsiders could not only change the rules of the game but lift the game, others obviously thought this was a good idea.

There is no guarantee this approach will work though as not all non-industry hires – be they for tourism boards, airlines or hotel companies – have succeeded.

So the lesson here is, don't be fashionable for fashion's sake. Look at Paris Hilton and her clothes, you could end up as much the victim as the perpetrator.

Do it because it is right for your company.

Last but not least, the best lesson of all for all my hotelier friends, if the job's not right for you, get out before it retires you.

After all, you don't really want some owner shouting at you, don't just stand on one leg, move that darn log.

Note: If you think of any other lessons, write to yeoh.sh@pacific.net.sg 


The SHY Report
A regular column on news, trends and issues in the hospitality industry by one of Asia's most respected travel editors and commentators, Yeoh Siew Hoon.

Siew Hoon, who has covered the tourism industry in Asia/Pacific for the past 20 years, runs SHY Ventures Pte Ltd. Her company's mission is "Content, Communication, Connection". She is a writer, speaker, facilitator, trainer and events producer. She is also an author, having published "Around Asia In 1 Hr: Tales of Condoms, Chillies & Curries". Her motto is ‘free to do, and be'.

Contacts: Tel: 65-63424934, Mobile: 65-96801460