Evolving with Rotana: Growth, Culture, and Talent Development with Eddy Tannous
so I’m here with Eddie tuse the Chief Operating Officer for Rana hotels welcome Eddie thank you Jemma always great to see you so it’s great to be here with you um what’s the big news for RO harder at the moment because there’s so much going on there’s so much going on we just came back from future Hospitality Summit in Saudi Arabia and here we are at Arab travel Market one of the biggest shows we we always have the pleasure to be in listen the market is bubbling the uh the Middle East I think is one of the strongest markets right now for Hospitality so if I want to talk about what’s new uh we have you know the growth aspirations are there we have so many interesting projects but I think what’s more interesting for me is what’s happening with us as a company I think when I joined Rotana 9 10 months ago I always joined with the hope that this company has so much potential to move forward and now I see the company moving forward our new Chief Executive Officer Phil Bond joined us 10 weeks ago and there’s a lot of good elements on the team that have been with Rotana for 15 and 20 years and now we have new blood coming in and this is creating quite an exciting mix of thought process and where we want to go as a company and I think the way we’re going to differentiate ourselves is from you know the bigger players uh on the market is we’re small we’re Nimble but we are also open to change so in our culture we’re really trying to focus on customer experience focus on the guest in everything we do uh so it’s a very exciting Time For Us in terms of growth and I think this is why it’s very important to stay true to who we are as a company and as a brand and focus on what we bring to the table from a customer experience standpoint because we we are today outside of the Middle East we spoke last time we’re going to you know we keep growing in Eastern Europe we are very close to opening our first property in London uh we have very exciting projects in Africa north and sub Sahara Africa so that we just opened a couple of months ago in Istanbul so we are growing and we are growing outside of the Middle East and therefore for us we need to make sure that the Rotana brand promise is really delivered in every single property where we are in a couple of weeks we’re going to be in Pakistan talking about the opening of franchise property so very important for us right now what’s happening in inside Rotana I think is taking all the good stuff that this company has grown in the last 30 years but also how we can how we can take that to the next level with the focus on the customer experience in the core of everything we do that’s really interesting what you say about customer experience now obviously that takes people to deliver that customer experience tell me about some of the evolution in the company culture Rotana because you said you know there’s exciting things happening fresh Bloods enhancing you know what you’ve already achieved what does it mean for talent pipeline Talent Development mixing up Talent you know with a new vibe it’s the nucleus it’s it’s where it all starts I always like to think of that Journey as a cycle it starts with employees and that this might sound a bit cliche it might sound a bit HR but it’s true it starts with the the if if if your employees have what they need they have the resources they have the push they have the motivation to deliver every single day on top of their game then you’re going to reach customer experience and so we’re starting from there uh we just launched our new uh internal uh online training platform so we’re digitalizing a lot of the Learning and Development programs but we still have a great deal of human interaction in between because I want you know JMA I cannot stress on how important it is for us to have that culture from within from the any employee in the hotel to the top CEO of the company to be in the same direction so right now a lot of that is happening I think the focus here is how do we differentiate who are we as a company how do we differentiate ourselves from the rest of the P because you know there’s a lot of great companies out there and again always focusing on not forgetting where we while we’re here we’re here to deliver a service we’re here to make sure that you know when you travel as a businesswoman or when you travel on Leisure that when you get to that hotel or when you get to that Resort you get everything the way you want it you get a great experience if you have issues they are dealt with in a certain way so it’s kind of a reinvention from within but taking a lot of the good experiences that we’ve acquired over across the last 30 years and pushing them forward to today’s age and today’s customer satisfaction requirements or expectations and like you said mean you’re expanding in so many new destinations um you talked about Saudi as well um which has for example saudization targets as we do here in you know UAE memorization targets um just like to know a bit more about how you know you aim to get local people on board as well as mixing things up in terms of male and female talent because as we know hospitality is quite male dominated at the top end um so what’s Rotana doing to change things so Saudi we’ve seen a great movement in Saudi over the last 3 four years with the newcoming of the female Talent into Saudi because it was not existing in the past and this is this was this was a big eye opener for a lot of us the talent that came the uh the passion to actually be in a career and grow in a career for the female element in Saudi was unbelievable um we just started because you know we have she Al part of our team and you know we we we think a great deal of she we think Shea has a lot of potential to lead by example if I may say and Shea has been already on some of the programs with the local UAE emirati Talent as well and today we are forming a a force of female leaders across the company Le leaders that have already achieved executive level or key department head level or general manager level and use that Force to really attract the talent from within because I think if I look back at when I started uh my career in this industry you always want to look at what that what success will look like for you in the next 5 years or 10 years or 15 years I think people who are driven people who want to be successful they always look at that and I think if we can showcase that and if we can showcase the female talent that have already achieved a lot for us as a company we will be able to attract the right Talent into the company because this is where it starts you can have the best Learning and Development programs but if you don’t attract the right Talent then you’re always halfway there you’re not going to be able to complete that and you know the right Talent is has high expectations of you as an employer uh they’re not going to come just for the money or just to look good or just to be in a position they want to see that growth curve so it’s a big responsibility on us we’re very proud to say in Saudi all of our hotels right now are in a very good place from a saudization standpoint but also from A diversity standpoint at least on entry level where we continue to push and where we have a great opportunity is to get the female talent in the leadership level mid management and higher leadership level and I think for a market as young as Saudi I would call it young market for the new generation it’s fine because it’s going to get there I think UAE also there’s a lot of focus on atiz uh in corporate office we have great talent we have at least 10 individuals 80% of them are females that are UAE Nationals that are working with us in very good positions and where we’re pushing to attract them to stay in the industry and grow in the industry as well Wy that’s really great to hear about your you know external and internal initiativ and we wish you every success thank you very much thank you very much ch
Tune in to our interview with Eddy Tannous, COO of Rotana, as we explore the company’s expanding portfolio. Learn how Rotana is enhancing its company culture and refining its strategy for talent development. This discussion offers insights into the internal transformations that are paving the way for Rotana’s future success in the hospitality industry. #ATMYearook
Learn more about Rotana Hotels in the ATM Yearbook 2024 online at https://bit.ly/ATMyb24.
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