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.
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.
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
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
