A family affair

For a man ‘isolated' in the top role of his profession Guy Crawford has an intriguingly good relationship with the staff at Jumeirah's corporate headquarters.

"Welcome back Guy", "Guy, good to see you", are some of the phrases that he is greeted with as we walk down the hall on the way to the photoshoot. It is easy to see why this softly-spoken man is so liked as we settle down to the interview.

"I'm the third generation of our family to go into this business," Crawford tells me, adding proudly, "my youngest daughter is the fourth."

"My grandmother owned hotels in Scotland and I've never wanted to do anything else, it's an incredibly interesting industry, which is changing rapidly."

Crawford left the UK in 1979 to go and work in South America and has lived in 16 different countries; mostly through his work with the Meridien and Forte groups. This has been integral in opening his eyes to cultural diversity and expectations.

"I'm very culturally aware and this has taught me to be a firm believer that it is much easier if you try very hard to catch people doing things right as opposed to trying to catch people doing things wrong," he says.

In a sense this adage has become the cornerstone of his management style.

"I'm very physically present out in the business, which is the good thing about being a small company - people know who you are."

Jumeirah Group currently has 10,350 employees from 89 different nationalities but also has ambitious plans for the future, including taking over the management of luxury hospitality developments in Bermuda, Thailand, Jordan, China and further hotels in the UK.

This will lead to Crawford taking a step back from the day-to-day process of running the businesses and handing over the reins to Senior Vice Presidents in each geographical region.

"As we regionalise the company the key relationships will be between the Chairman [Gerald Lawless] and the owners of the properties, and the VPs and the operators of the hotels themselves," he explains.

This highlights a change from the group's origins. At its inception 10 years ago, Jumeirah was the owner of its assets, now the assets themselves are owned by different groups around the world and the group concentrates on its role as the operator of the properties and resorts.

But the central strategy has evolved only subtly from the early days.

"The core of our strategy, to be a luxury hotel group with outlets all around the world, has always been there," says Crawford, "we're aiming to have 57 open and operating hotels by 2011 and to be a global luxury hotel and hospitality firm, and that has been our vision since Gerald Lawless set up the company."

With the plans to pursue these ambitious targets well underway, Crawford is putting his attention to focusing on the group's brand with the aiming of becoming a globally recognised symbol of quality and luxury.

"We are moving forward with an entity of ‘staying different', but with golden threads that hold the company together," says Crawford.

"Our group standards are a common throughout the world, there are expectations that have to be met, but we do want each business to be different," he adds.

Innovative customer focus is at the centre of Jumeirah's push to stay ahead of what Crawford sees as the company's direct competitors.

"We measure ourselves against Four Seasons, Mandarin, Ritz Carlton ... They are very, very good hotel companies - we will stay ahead of them by delivering exceptional customer service.

"We're an expensive proposition so you want the customers to give feedback," he adds, "the customer can get high-end design and build anywhere at the top end of the market, the reason he will come back is service."

In order to gauge customer satisfaction Jumeirah, and Crawford, use a series of different approaches, such as the ‘Big talks', where the customers are invited to come in and talk to the management, or guest questionnaires.

"You have to keep as close to your customers as you can," Crawford elaborates, "I like to walk the hotel floors and talk to people.

"It's not always what you want to hear, but without doubt it'll tell you what's going on," he adds.

The current organisational structure works in the group's favour Crawford explains: "We can be nimble, we can get to market quickly, we can take decisions quickly - all of which affect service."

The hospitality industry has also had to adapt to changes in the market. As the global median population age alters so does the average age profile of the sector's customers.

Companies also allocate more holiday allowances to employees and the ease of international travel has meant that it is no longer unusual for people to journey seven or eight hours to go on holiday for one week.

"People expect more, and they should," says Crawford, "people have more choice.

"Our competition now isn't necessarily Dubai. It might be to go to India, it might be to go to the Caribbean, it might be to go to Malaysia - and in each of these regions there is a primary responsibility to grow the business."

Despite the emphasis on enlargement Crawford avoids painting the strategy as a "numbers game", instead highlighting targeted growth.

"Our target cities aren't necessarily country capitals, we have to be sure that where we open hotels there is a large enough customer base to support a new luxury operator," he says.

The burgeoning of the industry in Dubai has also led the group to work on customer retention as well as attracting new guests.

"You have to grow a core client base through a customer relationship management programme," he explains, "we want to encourage that base to grow with us around the world.

"If the members [of the Sirius scheme] are members in Dubai we would like them to be using that membership in Europe, in America, in Asia - it helps us recognise our customers and work better with them," he adds.

Though the future looks rosy, with the predicted need for the group to double its employee numbers to cater to the new projects, Crawford is aware of the need to prepare for any scenario.

"One of the hardest things I ever had to do was make several hundred people redundant in Europe when business turned down, some of those people had 20 or 30 years service," he says.

"It hardens you, dealing with a recession, you have to do it in as human a way as possible - if it ever happened to you you'd like it done in the same way."

In order to keep in touch with employees at all levels Crawford instituted a programme whereby all the corporate top-level staff have to take on a role at least two levels down for one day a year. Having worked as a beach waiter one year and in the call centre another, amongst other positions, he says that the experience is invaluable in order to stay grounded.

"It helps you understand the implications of the decisions that you take on the people that you work with," he underlines, a management trademark he admired in Bernard Lambert at Meridien and knew all the general managers and worked hard to create a family atmosphere within the group.

While expecting business to remain brisk Crawford says that all companies in the region are going to have to continue to look at productivity in the coming years.

"The pressure of revenue to profit will continue to be squeezed as the costs of primary labour continue to be challenged - and not all of that cost is going to be able to be passed on to the customer as they will just go elsewhere."

The company's Hallmarks, laid down by Lawless, will help with this focus, as they cover the core principles around which Jumeirah revolves.

"They deal with people, they deal with guests and they deal with our clients," says Crawford.

"It sounds very simple, our second hallmark of never say ‘no' is part of the company culture now. You try very hard to never say no to anything. It sounds simple, but it's not," he adds.

Simple or not, as the group continues its expansion into a global entity it is an affable adage that seems to have set the company, and it's CEO, on the right track for the future.

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