Gaming’s top boardrooms of 2017
The gaming industry is one of the most regulated businesses in the world. With a colourful past, the industry has gone to great lengths to earn a reputation as “squeaky clean.” But has that translated to the boardroom and corporate governance in general? We think so. Casino Journal and Aethos Consulting Group™ have been analysing board practices for more than a decade; rating gaming companies on how well they are organized, managed, communicate with shareholders and pay themselves and executives.
Read moreNIMBYism: The Most Significant Cultural Threat for our Industry in 2018
In a meeting with the CEO of a student housing owner-operator just before the holidays, our conversation steered from ‘anticipated challenges for 2018’ to local politics and frustrations caused by difficulty in getting through planning permission for new-build developments. The conversation reminded me of others that I have had with hotel companies and developers as well as restaurant operators in the recent past – they all referenced the rise of ‘NIMBYism’ as something that has caused a lot of frustration to them and their companies.
Read moreHospitality Leadership Solutions Series: Accountability
Leaders have the responsibility of holding team members (direct reports or even peers) accountable for their actions and commitments. It’s often simple in principle but difficult in practice because doing this means leaders must be ready, willing and able to handle conflict. Sadly, many managers avoid any manner of unpleasantness because they value being liked more than being respected, or they overlook bad behaviour when offenders deliver financial results or meet other critical targets. Both approaches do a disservice to team members who should be benefiting from proactive mentorship and honest, constructive performance feedback. Five tactics make handling conflict easier for all.
Read moreAnxiety When Sitting in a CEO Role: Servant Leadership Making Kindness a Daily Routine
Leaders in any industry admit to having anxieties associated with making tough choices, especially choices that affect their employees’ lives. The level of accountability and responsibility implicit in serving in a CEO role isn’t for everyone. Mythology refers to the Titan Atlas who carried something very heavy, possibly the weight of the world, on his shoulders. It is typically assumed that this was a punishment that came down from Zeus, king of the gods, after Atlas sided against Zeus in the war of the Titans vs. the Olympians. But the famous Roman author Vitruvius claimed this “burden” was actually a reward, for "through his vigorous intelligence and ingenuity, he was the first to cause men to be taught about the courses of the sun and moon, and the laws governing the revolutions of all the constellations.” Indeed, we have likewise consistently found that modern leaders view their power, influence and responsibility as a great privilege.
Read moreThe “Trick” to Navigating the Turbulent Seas of Transition
Approximately a month ago, following Ritz Carlton’s previous announcement about moving into the cruise line sector, I contemplated the issues that must have been discussed in the board room prior to committing to such an endeavour. It stirred my thinking about a company’s transition into a new business area that requires new skill sets and a firm’s transformation from a company culture perspective to accommodate and welcome a new talent pool into its realms.
Read moreWhy ‘Heart And Soul’ Is Also A Strength In Leadership
One of the most difficult and humbling things for us human beings is to admit we don’t know something. Our brain has evolved over thousands and thousands of years into a three-pound, organic computer with the sole task of “making things more certain.” Gaining mastery and a sense of control over our physical and psychological environments is a natural, inherent human drive.
Read moreRecap of the 2017 Cornell Hospitality Research Summit (CHRS)
This year marked the 4th annual meeting between academics and industry practitioners at Cornell University in beautiful upstate New York. Like past years the October conference was well-attended, and the speaker slate was varied albeit markedly skewed toward hotel and lodging. Despite this, there was enough general content that was applicable for businesses across the spectrum of hospitality.
Read moreCEO Pay in Gaming: Founders vs Corporate Executives
Besides technology, the gaming industry has one of the largest percentages of entrepreneurs running their respective companies. Larger than life personalities such as Steve Wynn and Sheldon Adelson actually cast a shadow well beyond gaming. But that is changing as entrepreneurs are slowly being replace by corporate execs such as Keith Smith at Boyd, Jim Murren at MGM, Tim Wilmott at Penn and Mark Frissora at Caesars. It is interesting to see how CEO compensation has changed as this process has unfolded. Generally speaking, the entrepreneurs took more of the compensation in equity, while corporate executive appear to have a more balance approach to their compensation mix. In the end, what matters most is whether a CEO earns his or her pay, not necessarily the size of the paycheck. In an effort to analyze executive pay in the gaming industry, Aethos™ developed a proprietary pay-for-performance model that allows for the comparison of disparate data points to determine if a pay package was too large or small.
Read moreExcuses are For Losers
Behind every failed leader is an excuse. In our experience studying and working with global leadership in the hospitality industry, successful leaders consistently tell us in one way or another that excuses were for “losers” whereas “winners” find solutions to tough challenges, or at least look at failed initiatives with a winning attitude and use the situation to adopt key learnings to apply to future scenarios.
Read moreTraditional Lodging Makes Waves on the High Seas
One has to applaud the blue-sky thinking of Ritz Carlton's management team for having the guts to 'go for it'. Whilst the brand continues to proliferate across the globe in city and resort destinations alike, and remains an estate agent's and developer's darling when it comes to branded residences, it has not yet, to date, conquered the other 72% of the world - which is the percentage of the world covered by oceans. This is about to change with the launch of Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection in 2019.
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