Bobby Horrigan, a hotelier awake and asleep!
Bobby Horrigan is a hotelier inside and out, awake and asleep. He is the kind of general manager everybody would like to work with. A great mentor, an inspiring leader. After graduating from Les Roches International Management School in Switzerland in 1992, he joined the award winning team of the Grand Hyatt Hong Kong as a management trainee at the age of 21, the youngest in Hyatt International then. Bobby was named 'Mabuhay Gold - Hotelier of the Year' in 2012. Bobby is polished like a 'true blooded' hotelier usually is, very animated and highly sociable… all premium qualities for a leader in this industry. I quote Bobby from my book 'Hospitality Supertars' published in 2015 on one of his longest assignments in the Philippines with the Discovery Leisure Company, owners of the Discovery Ortigas and Discovery Boracay:
Happy staff = happy customers = happy shareholders
"The service culture of Discovery is unique. Employees are like family. When the hotel won the 'Best Employer of the Year' award, employees were asked why they were happy. And their response was simply 'because we are treated well'. It was not only the regular employees getting incentives, casual employees were given their share too - an act to acknowledge that hard work does not go unnoticed. And so Discovery Ortigas became a model in the industry.
It all starts with the owner, the general manager, the human resource executive and all the way down. The Tiu family is an excellent owner who never meddles in operations. We would meet once a month with Ruben Tiu who would ask all but five questions, most of which would be about the staff-are they being taken care of, what is the hotel's staff attrition rate, etc.
That is how we gave birth to our happy service culture that always put employees first. And that is why going out of your way to go the extra mile wasn't difficult for any staff to make, if only to ensure that a guest is completely satisfied. In turn, that translated to the ' Discovery Circle of Life' that says: happy staff=happy customers=happy shareholders. That has kept us union free all these years".
After leaving Discovery in 2012, Bobby joined long time friend and business partner Jack Tuason to establish Enderun Hospitality as Senior Consultant. Enderun now manages Acacia Hotel Manila and the Misibis Bay Bacacay in Albay. Bobby is also concurrent General Manager of Acacia.
Only recently, Bobby set up Horrigan Hospitality… but that will be another column to write.
(Vic Alcuaz is a Hospitality Headhunter, Trainer & Consultant: www.vicalcuaz.com)