“Top Management”
Managers wanted
Since we created BlueShift Consulting in 2016, we have been frequent recruiters at management schools, in particular Nova School of Business and Economics , which I remain actively connected to. And one of the things that has impressed me most, in this contact with some of the most talented, highest-potential young people in the country, is the absolute disconnection I feel between their world and our industry.
Tourism is not discussed in management schools. It doesn’t appear in the examples of best practices discussed in class or in the case studies analyzed by student teams. Needless to say, it’s not on the students’ wish list when envisioning their careers.
For a while, I thought the problem was fundamentally related to industry marketing and employer branding. Perhaps we were unable to showcase Portugal’s structural competitiveness in tourism (a topic I addressed in the September article), the enormous need for management skills, and the opportunity for a promising career in hsopitality. However, as I had more contact with teachers and students, I became aware of the bad experiences of the few adventurers who had the courage to take the plunge. The problem is much deeper—it’s about the industry’s culture. As a student once told me, “There are few sectors that offer employability like tourism. The problem is that the jobs are not for us.”
Tourism is Unattractive for a Management Student
If we place organizational culture on a scale, where, at one extreme, there is the traditional industry, dominated by manual labor and collective labor agreements, and at the other end are the qualified service industries—such as banking or telecommunications—hospitality is much closer to the former than the latter. And that is not attractive to a high-potential Millennial or Gen Z student leaving a top management school with a promising GPA.
Firstly, due to the strongly hierarchical profile of most organizations, considering that this is the sector that designates teams as “brigades.” For a young Millennial or Gen Z with talent and ambition, this is the exact opposite of the less hierarchical culture based on autonomy and flexibility that they see in the “sexy employers” they look up to.
Secondly, due to the predominantly operational focus that dominates these organizations. Closed in on itself and little stimulated by external input, the sector tends to question itself little—things are done as they have always been, perhaps with more efficiency or quality—and dedicates little or no time to real innovation, be it in the product, service, or processes. Those who do not question or innovate do not need managers—good “blue collar” workers are enough.
Lastly, and perhaps the most important aspect of all, due to the general inability to develop career and remuneration plans suitable for highly qualified talent. The process of attracting a high-potential young person starts off on the wrong foot when someone tries to sell them the “opportunity” to be a “2nd Class Receptionist”—not a “Client Engagement Manager,” with a more attractive title but, above all, a richer role. But it’s even worse to assume that a promising management student would spend five years behind a counter doing check-ins and dreaming of a Front Desk Manager position, like their colleagues from the hotel school. To motivate this type of talent, a clear and structured career plan is needed, predicting rotations through various areas of the company and providing contact with the “shop floor”—but framed within a plan to reach an effective management position in a much shorter time. Oh, by the way… eight hundred euros is not an adequate salary.
The Vicious Cycle that Can Be Virtuous
When we combine these three factors, we have a negative spiral that perpetuates an inadequate culture, one that does not attract managers and repels the innovation that the market itself seeks. The consequences for companies are evident and visible every day—from the low attractiveness and mediocre service of restaurants with no concept, unable to compete with the local market, to the absence of the most basic cross and up-selling mechanisms in-house that any good salesperson masters. Two examples of areas where some untainted talent with vision, analytical skills, and appropriate project management tools could work wonders.
If you think this is not for you, remember that breaking a vicious cycle puts you in a unique position to turn it into a virtuous one. Those who can attract these promising managers, who turn their backs on us today, risk seriously becoming a magnet for management schools and, thereby, triggering a cultural evolution toward a more stimulating environment for innovation that, in the long run, will become a huge competitive advantage.
A CONTRIBUTION FROM…
Pedro Santa-Clara | Director of the Nova School of Business and Economics
Why do you think management students are not looking for opportunities in tourism?
I would reverse the question—why aren’t tourism companies seeking management students? At Nova SBE, we have some of the best students in the country being sought after by various industries. However, I don’t recall seeing a tourism company recruiting, participating in our activities, or being concerned about employer branding. I believe there is interest, but if companies don’t show up, they are not top-of-mind for students.
How does the industry look from your perspective? Do you see an opportunity?
It’s a sector with significant opportunities. It has size, it’s growing, and it involves many of the disciplines we teach—finance, marketing, digital transformation, and a huge pricing complexity—areas that require strong management skills. It’s interesting to compare it with banking, a declining sector, or insurance, a less sexy sector, which are very active in recruiting talent. If hotel companies positioned themselves differently, they would have all the conditions to attract our students.
What needs to change in hospitality companies to attract managers?
As you mentioned in your article, it’s an industry closely tied to production, seeing itself as an assembly line for screws, aiming to be experts in screw manufacturing. This lack of innovation and product differentiation is apparent. With a few exceptions, differentiation is based on category and location. Despite the challenge of fragmentation, even large chains are undifferentiated in terms of the product. It’s interesting to compare this with the healthcare sector, which has been successful in creating brands and differentiation, adopting a completely different attitude toward talent. They also have a strong production component, hiring doctors, nurses, and assistants, but alongside that, they have a strong management component and are actively recruiting from schools like ours.
Written by Filipe Santiago
November, 2018
This article was published in Publituris Hotelaria as part of the “Top Management” series. You can access the printed version here and the online version here.
