Intelligence

When God had distributed intelligence, He had shown partiality to rich people. I dare say that I have come across a wealthy person, who does not have a say in any topic on the earth. While in the hotel industry, I have seen owners dropping into the banquet hall at the eleventh hour before starting of a party, would first ridicule the Banquet manager/Maître d’hôtel and make him/her realize that how inadequate his/her knowledge and intelligence is and then order the entire set up to be dismantled and rearranged in a different way. No amount of logical explanation will stick.

I am not sure whether they (the affluent) really believe that they are well informed about everything in the world or they are afraid that if they do not behave in this way, the employees might think them as fools and some of them might try to defy or try to take a chance. Here, I am talking about the owners of independent hotels or small chains. Those, who often travel abroad for business or pleasure, and those who have set up a hotel, after having some success in some other business, are worse of the lot.

They behave in a way, as if God has proclaimed “the rich will inherit the earth”. But they always need a person (read manager) who will hold the can if anything goes wrong. For example, they may order the manager to serve liquor on ‘dry days’; as per Indian Excise law it will be licensee (generally, the head barman or the Bar Manager or the F&B Manager) who will be arrested.

There are two types of hotel managers available in the market – vertebrate managers and invertebrate managers. Vertebrate managers are generally performers, team players and very protective about the team he/she leads. Owners merely tolerate them because of the performance but never adore or respect as they occasionally say ‘no’.

Invertebrate managers are always ‘yes’ man of the owner and takes credit for the performance of the others. They never waste a chance to meet the owner and say only those things that will please the ‘Emperor’. They are not the persons to tell the emperor that “he is naked”. They will fill the ears of the owner with all sorts of truthful or false rumours and gossips with a malicious intention. While there is more than one such manager in a hotel, the Darwinian law of ‘survival of the fittest’ will be applied and the rest will have to make way for the winner.  

It is not that the owners always believe a sycophant manager; still they are employed because of the following;

a) their words give a sensuous feeling to the inflated ego of the owner.

b) It does not matter how much insult has been thrown at them, they will never react (it is not the case

     with the vertebrate managers).  

c) the owners always require a ‘whipping’ boy.

Many a times, the hotel owners engage more than one invertebrate managers to maintain the equilibrium in the organization. On the other hand, the invertebrate managers take advice of the owner on every trivial matter of operation, be it the cleaning agent to be used in the wash up area or brand of toilet paper. Such managers, in turn, keep their own set of scapegoats ready who will hold the can in case any thing goes awry.

 It is not that this syndrome in available only in the hotel industry; I have seen the same in other places as well. Again, still there are few owners (particularly some of those, who started from a scratch) only spell out the business policy and leave the day to day operation to the hands of competent people; interfere only when it is absolutely necessary.  

The Journey Begins

It is my first attempt to bridge the generation gap. I had been born in an era, when possessing a radio or a bi-cycle was an indicator of affluence; in fact people had to pay an annual license fee for possessing a radio and bi-cycle. Grew up, opted for Hotel Management as profession. Fortunately, got a chance to enroll myself in the Hotel Management College at Kolkata, then the only college in entire eastern India.  

For a boy from a village, it was a big cultural shock. Fellow students were from different backgrounds and communities, majority of them were from urban areas and from English medium schools. For me it was a big problem, as the medium for communication was either English or Hindi, initially I was not adept in both. We were being taught things like “Whitney Reservation System”; “Silver Service”; “Indian and Western Cuisine” and many other topics. I liked Food & Beverage Service most as a subject of study, and House-Keeping, the least. Neglected subjects like Accountancy, Economics, Maintenance and Hygiene. The pedagogy followed the “Swiss School of Thought”, with stress given on operational aspects;  not the businesslike approach of the American schools. Not much input were given on the managerial aspects of the subjects. The students were told “what to do” and “how to do”; unfortunately never told “why they need to learn the same”. For example, we were taught that draught beer is served at room temperature (which is not true now), but never told why. Similarly, we were not told why the Irish people and the Americans spell their whisky as “whiskey” (answer to that I discovered six to seven years back). I took great interest in culinary art, often tried my hand at home and more often than not ruining the family lunch or dinner.

After leaving the college, I had joined a 5-star hotel as a captain, worked real hard (12 to 14 hours a day), soon promoted as Senior Captain with additional charge of the kitchen. Unfortunately, during those days professional chefs were hard to come by and we had a “Head Cook” in the hotel, who had least control over his staff. In fact, during those days, only 100 – 120 students used to pass out from four Hotel Management Colleges, established in four regions of India, and there was a big gap in supply and demand in the industry. It is here in the kitchen, I felt how inadequate my knowledge was, particularly in the control areas. I had to undo my previous learning and soak up the new knowledge.

After more than a decade (in between I had a four years stint as a lecturer in a private Hotel Management College and then started my own “Outdoor Catering” business), in 1996, I had joined again a Hotel management college as a senior lecturer. It is where I felt my technological inadequacy. Cyclostyled study materials were a thing of the past, and I had no knowledge of computers. For preparing study materials on “WordStar”, I had to seek help from office assistant (particularly one Somenath Duttagupta), who will start the computer, open the file, from time to time will come to save the file; only thing I did was typing.

Actually, I learnt how to operate a computer only in 2003, when I purchased my own PC. After committing many mistakes and ruining the machine several times,  I finally learnt MS Word. In fact, my son taught me a great deal (who was then 5^th standard student). It was 2006, I could handle e-mails and in 2010 I had opened my Face Book account. While handling a computer or latest technological gadgets, I had always felt inadequate in presence of both my siblings. Finally, few days back I had taken lessons from my software developer son how to start my own blog. I cannot say I have mastered the handling of a blog, but what I can say is I have just started the journey and hope to learn from my mistakes and errors as I have always done.

Google