New ways of working within the new InterContinental Hotels Group in Asia Pacific

One Team! was one of the five core values adopted by InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) Regional Management team at its first regional management workshop since the restructuring as a new organization under the leadership of Managing Director Asia Pacific, Mr A. Patrick Imbardelli.

Regional General Managers from 11 countries including China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Pacific Islands, Australia, New Zealand and India took advantage of the lifting of the travel bans to gather in Singapore to champion the newly streamlined organization that will significantly improve efficient use of regional and global resources and a more robust structure driving higher levels of innovation, customer focus and revenues.

It was clearly business as usual for IHG's Regional General Managers, not letting SARS get in the way of strategic planning and communications at the Leadership in the Field Regional Management Workshop. This regional management workshop marks the next phase of cascading information to the multi-unit Regional General Managers on the new ways of working with  emphasis on operational excellence, following the company's recent global demerger and rebranding exercise from Six Continents to InterContinental Hotels Group which was completed on 15 April 2003.

At the workshop, Regional General Managers focused on learning about their multi-unit roles and maximizing their abilities to drive the new levels of  operational excellence. These Regional General Managers are taking on added responsibility of managing multiple hotels under their leadership as  well as enhancing the relationship with hotel owners. They were also brought up to date on the redesigning, consolidating and streamlining workflow and how to work more effectively and efficiently within a flatter management structure, with higher spans of control, in line with resources moving strategically closer to businesses.

The workshop also provided broad guidelines how to better manage owner relationships, providing added value support to hotels, owners and general managers whilst agenda items also included new ways of working for all the main functions of Sales and Marketing, Strategy and Business Practices, Legal and Risk, Technical Services, IT and Business Support. The Regional General Managers also had extensive sessions on developing, performance managing and coaching General Managers.

IHG is indeed well on track to building the new structure and operational practice, implementing new ways of working to greater focus on hotel performance with clearer accountability and having the right people in the right jobs. IHG will continue to be a dynamic force in Asia Pacific, with significant scale and brand presence in its growth markets. The regional management team will look to implement value-adding activities that will help IHG deliver increased employee satisfaction, better customer service and improved shareholder value.

The team is headed by Managing Director Asia Pacific Mr A. Patrick Imbardelli and supported in the regions by Chief Operating Officer Mr Edmond Ip for Northern Asia, Chief Operating Officer Mr Phil Lee for Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific, Senior Vice President (Operations) Mr Steven Hicks for South East Asia, Director (Operations) Mr Chandan Kashikar for South West Asia.

"It is very encouraging to see such cohesiveness within the Asia Pacific management team. I am confident that we have the people, the brands and the strategy to successfully grow our business," said London-based IHG's Chief Executive Richard North, who provided first-hand insights into the new organization changes in line with IHG's vision of being the world's leading lodging brand owner. Mr North, who travelled from London to be at the workshop, reiterated that the five core values of integrity, trust, respect, one team and service, are to be embraced by all employees in their daily  work to provide the best possible service to internal and external customers.

Mr North also took the opportunity to share his strategy of developing significant value for all stakeholders by establishing high quality and differentiated brands, reducing capital intensity to drive returns, extending  the hotel network through largely capital free franchise and management contracts as well as leveraging global system scale of economies to drive RevPar and reduce operating cost and developing the best talents within the organisation.

Commenting on the workshop, Mr A. Patrick Imbardelli said, "I'm really excited about our future and we need to move forward as a competent and agile organization to deliver the best experience for all customers and creating long-term shareholder value. Thus it was essential for the Regional General Managers to come together to learn new ways of working to maximize abilities within the new organizational structure. It will be a challenging but exciting time for us as we continue to innovate and deliver on our brand promise, while we remain focused on our growth plans in Asia Pacific."