THE GOLDEN EGG : A FIRST FOR SCOTLAND

Each of us in life is of course a product of the people we’ve been with, the experiences we’ve had, the conversations we’ve had, and the things we’ve seen and learnt.

Quite a few years ago my brother-in-law Robbie Macmillan was working in Norway, at Oslo’s incredible GolfKlubb - OSLO GOLFKLUBB 

I received a very kind invitation from Robbie, to fly over for a few days holiday.

Sitting in Oslo, drinking beers with Robbie and his Norwegian work colleagues, the discussion turned to how Norway’s society functions. I heard the word ‘Janteloven’, followed by the phrase ‘The Law of Jante’, and there began a significant life-changing experience, as I began to very quickly realise that what I had previously accepted as ‘normality’ in Scotland, was in so many ways a complete contrast to how life actually functions in a standalone Norway.

Janteloven, - the needs of society are prioritised over the needs of any individual. And it certainly isn’t considered cool, to play up individual achievements. The result is a society that is for many people, the envy of the world. And that applies across the entire span of politics, culture, socialism, morality, and ethics. As a Scot, this realisation really was an epiphany. I wondered to myself, ‘what would Scotland be like if we also embraced Scandinavian mentality?’, and there began a journey of discovery. 

Worth highlighting, Norway is currently the winner of the 2017 accolade, ‘the happiest country in the world’. And Denmark took the title in each of the 3 preceding years! 

WORLD HAPPINESS REPORT 2017

In turn, I’ve been so very fortunate to return to Norway, and then to visit Sweden, and Denmark as well. The latter resulted in a 3,000 word Case study on Copenhagen for wordpress Twitter: @YesDayScotland, so if you want to know what goes into physically creating and maintaining the world’s happiest country, via:

Twitter: @YesDayScotland COPENHAGEN CASE STUDY

These are all combined benchmarks which an unrestrained Scotland can aspire to emulate, world class systems of excellence, driven by self-discovery and a necessity to define great ways for a society to function. Noted it would maybe take 5 decades for Scotland to get going, but it really is all there to be done. If Independent, we could function very similarly to any of these amazingly happy and successful countries.

If you have never done so, visit Scandinavia. A quick flight from Edinburgh, over to Oslo, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki or Reykjavík. Go see for yourself!

And one thing for sure. Many wealthy Scots who remain blinkered by Unionism, would be in for a very quick change of mind if they even considered Denmark alone, and realised that Scotland could funtion in so many similar and incredibly successful ways. No need to reinvent any new wheels, when we can emulate so many amazing existing successful systems. With a few elements of Janteloven!

It was such an honour to be asked this week, to write an article for Business for Scotland, Scotland's largest campaigning business network and think tank, passionate about unlocking Scotland’s potential.

BUSINESS FOR SCOTLAND: Scandinavian mentality in the Scottish workplace

And in turn, I’m so very humbled indeed, to see the social media reactions to that article, and footage in tandem.

Pulling the footage together was a 3 day job, centred with a 12 hour straight in the Balbirnie House editing suite. Every piece of font, every shade, every tiny second of switching, received everything. Sincere thanks to all of Balbirnie’s team who helped. When running the halfway test shows, and seeing emotions as they already were, we knew that we were heading somewhere special, and we then speeded the edit and raised the emotive further. Those watching the first final edit test shows, were very clearly so full of joy, and I can certainly say there were a few tears as well. And that’s why we work in Hospitality!

Whilst the footage has streamed from Facebook, here’s a direct link to YouTube: 

THE GOLDEN EGG, via Balbirnie House YouTube

The footage is a first for Scotland, because this is the first time any hotel has ever used YouTube to explain how Scandinavian mentality is translating into the continual never-ending strive to provide our absolute best warmth of welcome of Scotland Hospitality.

It’s also been poignant and emotive to use DRAW’s Incidentally, as the backing track. What a belter of a tune! Janteloven doesn’t prevent me from confirming that DRAW were a former Radio 1 Session in Scotland live band of the year, the recording was via Castlesound, Scotland’s top recording facility. And all 4 band members were under 20 when it was recorded. #Youth #Scotland

And thanks again to Carlsberg, for paying for Balbirnie’s new external Courtyard facility, as a celebration of our incredible year of 2016. Aye, if Carlsberg did an external dining facility … LOL!!!

At night, with fairy lights across the Courtyard, overhead heaters, Carlsberg blankets, Euro Downtempo Bossa Nova house mix tunes on, Bistro food and chilled beers, it simply doesn’t get any more Hygge at Balbirnie. It really is so very special, and magical. Pass the Aquavit!

Our bond with amazing Scandinavian brilliance grows ever stronger. And we very much look forward to further embracing Janteloven and Hygge.

I thank my very lovely wife Gaynor for all the times we’ve already had in Scandinavia. And for holding my hand on our many adventures together. And here’s to many more in the future x

Peace, Love and Best Wishes to One and All 

Nicholas Russell / MD Balbirnie 

Memories Made of This, in Stockholm:

Gaynor with the two youngest xxx

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

25 YEAR REINVENTION, THE SAME WAY AS MADONNA!!!

Balbirnie’s Year, as Scotland’s 2016 National Hotel of the Year.

Arriving at work this morning, I asked the very lovely Leah Kinnes, my colleague from our Special Events planning department, ‘I’m going to write a new Blog post talking about what we’ve been through in the last year, can you suggest a title for it?’

The reply was ‘Oh My Goodness’, followed by an expression of *where do we begin*, then by silence and a *pause for thought*, at which point I simply replied, ‘well Oh My Goodness it is then!’

This is Balbirnie’s final weekend as Scotland’s National Hotel of the Year. It has been such an incredible honour for our entire brigade to have spent the last 12 months with Scotland’s highest Hospitality accolade, a career-defining year for all of us here who dedicate ourselves to our careers working in the amazing world of Hospitality. Note the capital H.

In a personal context, I mention that when I began working as Balbirnie’s General Manager a quarter century ago, the organisation in charge of Scotland’s annual Hotel Awards was Macallan / Taste of Scotland.

We received the National Hotel of the Year award in 1996, so to have received the same award 20 years later in 2016, well that is really quite something.

To have received the award twice, and two decades apart, underlines something about Balbirnie. Our capacity for successful reinvention! We study this using the same methodology as employed by Madonna!

As an example, we can use Twitter to show how a bedroom has evolved 4 times in 20 years. The design aesthetics of the early 1990’s are certainly different in 2017. One thing that remains the same however, is our warmth of welcome of Scottish Hospitality. No matter how technology changes what we do, Hospitality will always exist, with a capital H.

It was about 5 years ago that Gary McLean-Quin, the then Chairman of The Scottish Hotel Awards scheme mentioned to me, ‘if you can all keep doing what you are all doing with Balbirnie, and continue to stay ahead of the curves, especially with ongoing reinvestment, there’s a strong possibility that one day you could actually receive the country’s biggest accolade, keep going!’

So, that is what we did. We focussed more than ever on exceeding client expectations, and put great focus on appraising everything we do, on a very considered monthly basis.

Most hotels in the independent sector these days, are doing really REALLY well to reinvest 2.5% of revenue back into improving the fabric of their assets. In the last 3 years, and I add as a matter of actual ongoing necessity, we maintained reinvestment at 5%, 5% and 9% respectively.

In the financial year starting in 2 weeks time, our budget is 4.7%. This also explains why there’s still no company Lamborghini, despite all of our best endeavours over the last quarter century.

In terms of Management Principles for The Aspiring Boss, if you want to know how we managed our brigade of 115 individuals to the National Hotel of the Year status, that is very easily explained in two words - Hard work!!

To be told at last year’s awards ceremony, that the judging decision for Balbirnie was by unanimous verdict, was a moment that shook me to my very core, as a human being. A sudden recognition of the truly wonderful work that has gone into Balbirnie, not just from our entire brigade, but from across our entire network of suppliers, Associate suppliers, and across our span of trades and crafts as well. Our sincere gratitude as always.

And I can certainly pay tribute to our absolutely amazing management team, who in summary continue to work with an applied ethos best described as ‘the Balbirnie way’.

No doubt about one other thing, when working in Hospitality it is the Number 1 priority, to recognise that the customers pay the wages.

As a hotel manager, I’ll certainly always acknowledge that I made sure our team were always completely aware that we were fully capable of nailing the national award, but this could only be achieved if we all pulled together with absolutely lasered focus, in all regards possible.

Football team managers? Need to gear up a team of 11 for two 90 minute games per week. Plan for the opposition, strategically prepare. Success is recognised with more goals than the other team.

Hotel managers? Our team has 115 players. Our game is 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The opposition is national and international. And success is recognised by survival, and ability to progressively keep going.

Self-belief is a wonderful thing. Every single monthly management team meeting, I’d always be saying, ‘never ever lose sight of the dream of all of us one day becoming Scotland’s National Hotel of the Year’, ‘we need to always push every single aspect of what we’re working with in Hospitality’, and ‘when introducing new aspects to what we do, never lose sight of where we’ve come from’. That dialogue was, I admit, relentless for year after year, pushing and pushing, striving with everything we had.

Being able to maintain such reinvestment into Balbirnie House, as a Grade A Listed 1777 National Treasure which ‘evoked Edinburgh’s New Town’, is the living of a hotelier’s dream, as I consisently highlight on our main Twitter feed. And long may that continue. Our customers make that all possible.

I know what it took for us to win the national award. Such are the rigours of the assment process – in Balbirnie’s case for 2016 - 5 judge visits were involved, peer reviews, an entire compendium on every single component of what we do, as well as some 400 photographs! Additionally, one-to-one written and verbal interviews on all aspects of financial performance, historic, current and forecasted.

The harder we work, the luckier we get, but the award for National Hotel of the Year is about so much more as well. It is about driven ambition, aspiration to truly reflect the absolute best of the best of Scotland’s amazing Hospitality sector, an understanding of the relevance of embracing technological change, industry trends, innovation and design, the combined dynamics are what makes working in Hospitality so fascinating.

Whichever property wins at tomorrow night’s Scottish Hotel Awards Oscars, will have been through that same level of scrutiny and assessment as Balbirnie last year. And we certainly look forward to extending our most heartfelt congratulations to our successful industry colleagues. 

Whilst writing, we again extend such sincere gratitude to Jenny Gilruth MSP, and everyone who was involved in and around Scotland's Parliament, in terms of the Motion congratulating all at Balbirnie last year. 

Here’s a previous favourite image, back from the days when I started working at Balbirnie.

Pale Blue dot

Earth photograph taken early 1990’s, by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers, therefore the furthest photo of Earth, ever taken.

 Fast forward 25 years, and to celebrate Earth Day 2017, NASA have just released this incredible photograph from between Saturn's icy rings, captured by the Cassini spacecraft. 

See that dot between Saturn's rings? That's us! In Cassini's last view of Earth, a billion miles away.  

(If you zoom in you’ll see the moon.)

Translated into Hospitality? Compare the technology of these two images. That is what we mean by 25 year reinvention. But it is also something else. It represents the significance of looking after what we have, and continually embracing emerging innovation.

All best wishes from Balbirnie,

Nicholas

MD/ owner Balbirnie House 

www.balbirnie.co.uk 

Balbirnie House 

10 time annual winner of Scotland's Wedding Hotel of the Year

2016 Luxury Travel Guide, Luxury Country House of the Year

2016 Haute Grandeur, Europe's Best Destination Wedding Retreat  

Red Carpet

The story of 2016 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU5Bd-wwjE8 

Balbirnie House confirmed on 2017 shortlist for ‘WORLD'S BEST DESTINATION WEDDING RETREAT'

We're so very honoured and humbled to confirm that Balbirnie House has made the 2017 Haute Grandeur shortlist for 'World's Best Destination Wedding Retreat'. 

We actually found out a few weeks ago, but we've had to wait until now to tell you, as we were asked to write an interview feature in the brand new Haute Grandeur E-magazine. 

In the meantime, we await a further update as to where the awards ceremony will be taking place later this year, we'll update as soon as we know. 

As we said a few months ago in our 5 minute film clip 'Red Carpet', on our in-house YouTube channel, '2016 was a year that left us speechless' - (link below)

Having seen Balbirnie receive the Scottish Hotel Awards recognition in April last year, as 'Scotland's 2016 National Hotel of the Year', on the same night as receiving the award for 'Scotland's Wedding Hotel of the Year' for the 10th annual time, do you know what our management team then did? 
Well, within the next month we had already instigated another 20 additions to what we do, ranging from immediate new systems and procedures, to enhanced offerings for our clients. That basically summarises what we do, we seek to remain ahead of industry curves, which isn't always an easy thing to do. 

We manage this complex process, by having 4 hours of very focussed brigade discussions every month. As routine, this always takes place on the last Tuesday of the month, and involves 20 or so of our brigade of 115 individuals. We contemplate what we've seen taking place in and around Balbirnie during the previous month, we question everything we've seen, then we seek to improve what we do. These discussions can of course involve such joyful conversations, as well as embracing the one thing in these contexts nearest to our hearts, which is always doing our absolute best for all clients. 

In Autumn last year, my very lovely wife and fellow company director Gaynor and I were invited to attend the Haute Grandeur annual awards in Abu Dhabi, and the trip and experience of being able to represent Scottish Hospitality at that level, was simply extraordinary. To receive the award, on behalf of our entire brigade, for 'Europe's Best Destination Wedding Retreat', was absolutely amazing. 

I can't even begin to tell you what 2016's combined awards have meant for those who work in and around Balbirnie House. What I can say, is that many months onwards, I'm still getting frequently stopped myself, when shopping in the local supermarket, by individuals within our extended local community, who always ask me to pass on their well wishes to those who work in the hotel. That is so special, I can't begin to say. Even sitting here typing this Blog today, a lump in the throat when I'm thinking about many of the conversations I've had.

The day the flag arrived!

Leah Kinnes on the left, joined Balbirnie age 16. Works with the hotel manager on weekend mornings, welcoming our new wedding clients to the house.

Sarah Rees on the right, after 3 years of running Special Events, now in 2017 into the role as Balbirnie's Deputy GM

Way up on the roof! Newly installed flagpole, and installing the flag. Can just make out Gardener Duncan Hogg, who himself married at Balbirnie last year, and Maintenance Andy Thomson.

I was driving on the school run the other day, and was trying to explain all of these combined circumstances to our youngest daughter Ruby, age 10. 
'What do you think Dad? What will happen at the 2017 Haute Grandeur awards?'
'Well my wee amigo, we'll just have to wait and see!'
'Balbirnie surely has a 1 in 5 chance?'
'How do you work that out?'
'Well, the world has 7 continents, and I don't think they have wedding venues in the Arctic and Antarctic continents?'
'Nope, it is one in 7, people always get married there as well!!!' 

In the meantime, our dedication continues as always. In terms of future wedding celebrations, we've also had a quite remarkable start to 2017. In the first 60 days of this year, 40 couples have decided to hold their future weddings at Balbirnie House. 

As I continually say over on Twitter, 'welcoming prospective new wedding clients is the loveliest part of the job', and I can also say it is wonderful in 2017 to see so many new enquiries originating from overseas clients as well. 

On behalf of the brigade past and present, our blessings counted every day. Thank you so much to our entire network of Suppliers and Associate Suppliers. And as always, thank you to our customers past and present. 

Here's a link to the new Haute Grandeur E-Magazine. The interview feature is on pages 96 and 97: https://issuu.com/hautegrandeur/docs/hautegrandeur_magazinemarch2017 

Kindest regards from all at Balbirnie,

Nicholas / MD Balbirnie

'Red Carpet' - on our in-house YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LU5Bd-wwjE8