RECIPE FOR SUCCESS
From kitchen helper to hospitality CEO
Douglas Martell learned early in life that life can take unexpected twists and the path taken isn’t always strewn with flower petals. But the president and CEO of the Thailand-based hotel management company Onyx Hospitality Group has never let setbacks keep him from having big dreams.
Born on the beautiful island of Madagascar, he led an idyllic early childhood surrounded by wildlife and the fresh air of freedom. But when he was five years old, his parents separated and he found himself uprooted, trading a wild paradise for concrete and buildings.
“Madagascar is a beautiful country and I always ran around in the countryside collecting animals but we had to move back to a small town in England,” the 56-year-old executive tells Asia Focus. “Living in a place surrounded by concrete everyday was the first major change in my life.”
Diligent and energetic, Mr Martell learned early in life how to take responsibility. At 13 he was already helping his mother to earn some extra cash to support himself and four siblings. Life was not always easy but he learned some valuable lessons.
“Success can be partly luck, but success also requires a lot of hard work and a strong work ethic. I’ve always been into working and it’s always good fun to get up early in the morning,” he says with a smile.
A receptive personality and a positive attitude toward work have served him well, no matter what he embarked on. From selling food at market stalls to mowing lawns and babysitting as a teenager, to running a multimillion-dollar company, Mr Martell is always open to opportunity, and along the way he has refined the art of dealing with people, an especially valuable skill in the hospitality business.
“Most business these days is all about people,” he says, “I was lucky to have the opportunity to deal with a diverse range of people since my early days and to understand ways to work effectively with different needs and objectives.”
LESSONS FROM THE KITCHEN
At the age of 16, Mr Martell decided to explore the world on his own so he moved to a seaside resort town in England, picking up a bartending job. A pivotal moment occurred a year later when a friend asked him to help serve at a French restaurant on a busy night. “Coincidentally, some people in the kitchen were sick so I needed to fill in,” he recalls.
It turned out to be an inspiring moment of self-realisation and a crucial turning point in his life.
“I suddenly found something that I enjoyed. I had such a great time working in the kitchen that I decided that this is what I wanted to pursue for my career.”
Despite not having any culinary school experience, he was able to pick up the basics of working in a kitchen very quickly. Having a French family background and an excellent cook for a mother certainly helped. “Even in the lean times when money was very tight, she was always able to provide great meals on the table,” he says.
Being a chef is a difficult life, but Mr Martell is thankful that he had a strong mentor who was, as he put it, equally nice and tough at the same time.
“My mentor would help support me at every step of the way, but I have to play my part. A good mentor is somebody who is very good at telling you what you are not doing right as well as encouraging you to leverage your skills,” he says.
His mentor also encouraged Mr Martell to obtain a professional chef’s certification, which would be mandatory if he wanted to pursue higher careers in hospitality overseas. He dedicated one day a week to school for three years and finally obtained his diploma. “Being a boy from a small English town, the opportunity to work overseas came to only a few people.”
Through his ambition and hard work, by the time he was 26, Mr Martell had become the executive chef in a well-known restaurant in a hotel in New Zealand, managing a team of 40 people.
He says he enjoyed the hard-working life of a chef because he learned to be structured, disciplined and creative. But after some time wearing the tuque, he was asked to step out of the kitchen to oversee the entire food and beverage (F&B) business of the hotel.
Mr Martell humbly describes this key turning point in his hospitality career as a “pure accident”, but he is the person who created the possibility by always keeping his door open. By the time he was 33, he has already become the general manager of a hotel in Australia.
This new journey outside of the kitchen required new skills, including more understanding of financial targets, profits and losses. He knew he wasn’t going to become a financial expert overnight, but he also knew that one of the keys to being a success in a senior position came down to the ability to manage and empower people.
“I really enjoy developing people,” he says. Ensuring that everyone receives appropriate training and opportunities can put added pressure on a leader, but it’s something he still enjoys.
Building a team and making sure that it works effectively is very important, he says. It is less about telling people what to do, but more about getting them to buy in and encouraging them to deliver great results.
“My experience in the kitchen laid a good groundwork for managing the skill sets and capabilities of people in a team,” he explains. “It teaches you that everybody has their own skills and if you want to deliver a great customer experience, you need to learn how to leverage each of the different skill sets of different team members.”
Having been fortunate to have had great mentors throughout his life, Mr Martell now strives to be a good mentor himself by guiding his subordinates to excel in their capabilities, while encouraging them to work on their personal development plans with a clear roadmap of where they want to go.
He also encourages his team to build on their strengths and spend less criticising time their weak points. “If you spend too much time focusing on weaknesses, you will lose the opportunity to maximise your strengths. If you focus on what you are strong at and manage your weaknesses, it will allow you to develop not only your career but yourself as a person.”
Mr Martell has observed that employees are most dissatisfied when they feel they are not getting the learning and development opportunities they need. “It’s not about the money or working hours.”
The younger generation in particular, he says, are learning at a much faster pace than most companies can provide. “So we need to make sure that we have an appropriate training schedule in place and make sure that the training is up to date and engaging.”
DELIVERING SUCCESS
Mr Martell joined Onyx in mid-2014 as chief operating officer (COO) and moved into his current role last year to build on the achievements created by his predecessor, Peter Henley.
When Onyx was formed in 2008, the group had 15 hotels in Thailand under the Amari brand. Under the nine-year leadership of Mr Henley, Onyx became a multi-brand hospitality company with 47 operating properties across three core brands (Amari, Shama and Ozo) in eight countries, from full-service upscale resorts to mid-market hotels and serviced apartments.
Based and listed in Bangkok, Onyx has 20 new properties planned in Australia, Malaysia and Laos. “We aim to establish 99 operating properties across the region by 2024,” says Mr Martell.
One of the keys to unlocking further success, in his view, is China. “China is still a real land full of opportunities. It’s a very ambitious area that could drive 30-45% of our growth long-term.”
The China strategy also holds a personal appeal since he spent four years working in the hospitality industry there.
“To grow in China, you really have to be there and deal in the language and culture. … China is still much about business relationships, having the right contacts and adjusting the product offering to meet the fast-growing market,” he says.
His previous experience with the Chinese hospitality market taught him that to be successful, one needs to give enough flexibility to the in-country team. “It’s a very different working culture and environment. Give your team enough trust and allow them to use their local skills and knowledge to execute the plan,” he says.
Business in China moves at a very fast pace and if decisions always have to be referred back to headquarters, it can curb the ability to grow at the expected pace.
Mr Martell explains that in China, businesses enter hospitality for different reasons and motivations. “In Europe and the US, it’s all about return on investment, but in Asian countries, especially in China, there are broader needs of hotel owners than that,” he says.
The biggest piece of advice he has for entering the Chinese market is this: if you respect people, they will respect you. Be respectful, he says, take the time to listen to what people’s needs are and understand what their ambitions and motivations are.
“You can’t go into a country like China and want to do something in a ‘foreign’ way,” he says. “You need to learn to blend the way of working if you want to be successful. … If you take an arrogant approach and say, ‘This is the way we work’ and they need to follow everything that you do, it can be very difficult.”
Another critical success factor in developing and emerging markets is finding the right partners. “Finding the right partner is the key that will alleviate the risk. It’s very easy to be tempted by taking on a managerial contract, but you need to find the right partner,” he adds.
As someone in the business of helping others enjoy their leisure time, Mr Martell finds his schedule quite packed. But when he does have some spare time, he likes to spend it in places where his soul can reconnect with the nature, such as hiking or diving, where he also indulges his passion for photography.
“Despite living in Madagascar for only few years, my memory is still vivid and the love of nature and wild animals has become an integral part of me,” he says.
If you spend too much time focusing on weaknesses, you will lose the opportunity to maximise your strengths. If you focus on what you are strong at and manage your weaknesses, it will allow you to develop not only your career but yourself as a person