Women at the top

TRAVELLING LIGHT

Christine Hodder, General Manager of The Puli Hotel and Spa in Shanghai, has inspired a generation of hotel professionals with her rare mix of pioneering spirit, forthrightness and warmth. LEADER’s Gina McAdam caught up with this peripatetic pro during her last visit to London.

LEADER: What brings you to London this time?

Promotional sales visits and press interviews prior to the opening of the hotel at the end of this year, and The Leading Hotels of the World London Showcase and 80th Anniversary Gala Dinner. The Puli Hotel & Spa is an independent hotel, and therefore to support a reservation and sales representation structure, the hotel is a member of The Leading Hotels of the World.

LEADER: Tell us about The Puli and what’s kept you busy.

The Puli will be a sanctuary, a haven for people amidst the hustle and bustle of Shanghai. It builds on a new management company, Urban Resort Concepts, offering the peace, tranquility and relaxation you’d expect to find in a resort. It’s a contemporary hotel, with huge rooms. You won’t believe you’re walking into all this space. We’ve also kept a lot of the authenticity of Shanghai, in earth tones and wood. You’ll know where you are without it staring in your face!

I have a two-year contract as General Manager. We’ve hired most of the Executive Committee and inherited some, and as we near opening our mass recruitment is underway. I also work closely with the sales team and The Sales and Marketing Director in establishing the hotel’s positioning, setting up the new website, and the integration with the reservations and GDS system we’ll gain by being a member of The Leading Hotels of the World.

I’ve been working with The Leading Hotels of the World and also with Virtuoso, a major travel consortium in the United States whose clients are very high-end travelers. The hotel will have to operate for six months and acquire creditability with their agents before we can be accepted, but it’s a must. Really, this role is working with a team, moving forward to the opening of the hotel and ensuring the required systems, operating standards and training are in place for the future positioning of the hotel.

LEADER: In terms of your career, how did it all begin?

I went to a ‘trade school’ which at the time was devoted to the teaching of specific trades, i.e. Art, Catering, Design for students with a leaning towards the arts. I did two trades: hotel and catering and dress-making and tailoring. My mother was a tailor. So if I hadn’t gone into the hotel industry, I might have gone into fashion. (Editor’s note – or perhaps, knowing Christine, a professional singing career?)

LEADER: What made you seek your fortune outside the UK?

I was working with Hyatt and when they took over the Carlton Tower, I asked them if they’d give me an opportunity to move. So they gave me an interim post in New Zealand. It was a far away country but beautiful, a great experience! Then I came back to the Carlton Tower. But I guess I always had the wanderlust and luckily, an ex -colleague of mine called and asked me if I’d be interested in moving to Hong Kong to work with a new team up at Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group (pre the fan). As I’d already been to Hong Kong on a sales trip, I said yes.

LEADER: Did you have any concerns about becoming an expat?

My deliberations on whether to go or not were purely emotional based on my mother. My father had died. And the only reason I went was because it was a regional marketing role and I knew I’d be able to get back often enough. It was nothing to do with whether I could live in Hong Kong or not.

One of the things about life is you never know if you can live somewhere just by visiting. It’s an absolute myth. Visiting and living are two different things. It takes a year if you’re single to get used to a new country and even longer if you’re travelling within a region. It doesn’t really matter what industry you’re in.

LEADER: Where did you live?

I had an apartment but I travelled a lot, because my role was Regional Director of Sales & Marketing Asia Pacific. In those days, Mandarin had most of their hotels in Asia Pacific. They were, however, ready for expansion. It took me even longer to settle in Hong Kong because I was travelling in and out. What it did do was make me really familiar with the region. So everywhere was home, but nowhere was home.

LEADER: Is there something in your personality that made it all work for you?

Yes. I’m a bit like Dr Who. Put me in a Tardis and I take off!

But it does get harder as you mature. You like the familiar things. But I did and do have that bug in me.

LEADER: How did you move from Sales & Marketing into Operations?

I was in Hong Kong for a long time and developed the ability and the desire to understand operations. I decided I wanted more variety in hotel operations. To get there, I took a job back in England at the Chelsea Hotel, which I ran for two years. And that was my foot into operations.

LEADER: Was it easy for you then as a woman to be in operations?

It’s never been easy for women in operations, not unless they’ve been in the familiar roles of Housekeeping, HR and so forth. If I’d been a man, I would have got into operations a lot quicker. I think women have a different eye on business than men.

LEADER: How would you describe your career so far?

It’s been a lovely long haul, and I’ve gone through routes that most people wouldn’t have gone through. After The Chelsea, I went back into Sales & Marketing. I went from The Chelsea to the Westin Stamford and Plaza in Singapore and because of the enormity of the operation – 2,012 rooms and 13 restaurants -- I didn’t worry about going from GM back to Sales & Marketing. It was such a huge project. I stayed there for some time, six years, back in Singapore. I really wanted to go back to Asia. And I have this pull. Europe. Asia. Europe. Asia.

LEADER: What is it about Asia that you like?

I think that the service standards are in-bred. They come from the heart. They may not always be the slick service standards of the more Western mode of delivery, but they have a lot more warmth. The smile is a smile. The ability to want to serve comes naturally. But you still have to teach the practicalities of service. Here, it’s the other way around. You teach the practicalities of delivering, and then sometimes hope for the best. Remember, as a guest you can be more forgiving when the person is smiling at you. When someone is not quite so comfortable serving, you’re less forgiving.

And Asia is colourful. It provides a potpourri of nationalities.

LEADER: Did you work a lot with other expats?

Westerners were normally the top executives. As leaders, they were always brought on board with the idea to train local people to take over. People like me were brought in to share what we knew. Today, a huge number of locally trained staff are very prominent in the management of hotels.

LEADER: Were there any communication issues with your Asian colleagues?

There’s a cultural difference in terms of face. Face is a big thing – we call it pride. But also there’s the inability to say no. ‘No’ in Asia is not a vocabulary that people like. But you can get around that by helping to instill in them the confidence to search for an alternative.

LEADER: What advice would you give to aspiring expats?

First of all you have to understand the culture you’re going into. You have to try, even if they all speak good English, to have a few words of the local dialect.

And then you have to be fair, understand the culture and what’s important for the staff to do well and be happy. In Asia it’s best to try not to overly show your emotions. Also, you just have to accept that you’re not working in the same environment as you would be at home. If you make the decision to go to a foreign country, then you simply have to take on board the information that may help you understand the people and the culture.

LEADER: What have been your favourite assignments?

Except for perhaps two, which I’m not going to tell you, the rest of my assignments I look back on with great pleasure. Maybe I would have to say The Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group. I was there for eight years and it was a wonderful assignment because it allowed me to embrace regionally all the cultures of Asia, including Japan and Tokyo, which I adore. I used to go there every month. It was an absolute joy. It was the most embracing time of my life.

LEADER: What lessons in life can you impart based on your experiences?

Three things. One, always leave your business relationships in good order. Don’t ever walk away from somewhere with negative disorder. Never. Life is an evolution. What goes around comes around.

Two, be true to yourself and try not to do things for other reasons. I’ve learned my lesson. I always thought that if I didn’t take an opportunity, there wouldn’t be others. If I had my time over again, I would be truer to myself in the decisions I made for the future.

And the third thing is, if it’s in you, network. Mean it sincerely. Don’t network just for the sake of it. Network with those people whom you really admire or you want to be with, not just work colleagues or top management. Networking is invaluable. I’ve done this all my life and I have to say that it’s invaluable for friendship, support -- both personal and professional -- and just life.