PRLA Restaurant & Lodging Matters Spring 2022

4 • PENNSYLVANIA RESTAURANT & LODGING matters • Spring 2022 INDUSTRY OUTLOOK “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast” IT SEEMS THAT virtually all businesses are affected by the staffing crisis, most notably the restaurant and hotel industry because we lost so many team members during the COVID shutdowns. The difficulty in finding team members for restaurants and hotels is something that our members are continuously highlighting, so this is a topic near and dear to their hearts. More and more restaurants have been forced to “dumb down” their menu to adapt to the skill level and numbers of available line cooks. Of course, directly related to staffing and training is retention. With a robust recruiting process, followed by effective interviewing (may I suggest behavioral interviews—proven to make a difference) and good orientation and training, retention will improve. That said, I have long subscribed to the quote, attributed to the late business management guru Peter Drucker, “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast.” There has been a fair amount of speculation that Drucker never actually said this, but it doesn’t change the fact that time and time again, it is proven true. In 1981, Harvey Hotels was founded, and I was privileged to be one of the first managers on board. We had a brand with no name, no 800 number, no reservations network, and for the most part no training programs. We had only our four-core philosophy: 1. Incredibly friendly employees 2. Exceeding guest and employee expectations at every opportunity 3. Spotlessly clean and well-maintained hotels 4. Doing the right thing Incredibly, we successfully competed against the big guys, ultimately becoming a billion dollar publicly traded company under our new name Bristol Hotels & Resorts and the largest independent hotel company in North America. Initially we were driven only by culture—and it worked. As our competitors developed new systems, programs, and strategies to try to take market share, we doubled down on culture and won every time. Even today, over twenty years since Bristol was sold to Intercontinental Hotels & Resorts, hotel veterans recall with awe the “Bristol culture.” As I travel the commonwealth today, almost everyone is facing a staffing shortage, but interestingly those businesses that promote a great-place-to-work culture seem to be struggling a little bit less. • John Longstreet PRLA PRESIDENT & CEO “As I travel the commonwealth today, almost everyone is facing a staffing shortage, but interestingly those businesses that promote a great-place-towork culture seem to be struggling a little bit less.”

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