My Lesson Learned in an Unprecedented Year

Like many of us, I rang in 2020 with immense hope, ready to welcome the new year and decade. Like everyone else, little did I realize that the coronavirus outbreak would result in a severe disruption of our world, derailing not only our short-term plans but fundamentally, creating a seismic shift in how we would all live and work. As this unprecedented year comes to an end, I want to share the biggest lesson I learned as a CEO, that will impact the way I lead and have a lasting effect on our organization.

I still remember the beginning of the year, when I was on a trip to Thailand, being inspired by new ideas and perspectives while planning exciting 2020 initiatives for our company. All of a sudden, news of the coronavirus outbreak instantly put everything on hold. I immediately flew back to Hong Kong, where our group is headquartered, to address the crisis. Since then, it has been a nonstop journey that many businesses can now relate to – the journey of pausing, assessing, evaluating and recalibrating -- and then, repeating.

At Rosewood Hotel Group, we are accustomed to forecasting our business and adjusting our strategies based on projections, but this year has been particularly challenging for the team because of the ever-changing situation. We had to pivot our mindset to take each challenge as it came, staying on top of the uncertain environment, focusing on heightening our safety protocols, addressing the shifts in guest behavior and needs, and innovating our offerings to wrap our arms around emerging trends and capture new market segments. The process has taught us resilience and agility. It has built immense strength in the organization. 

On a personal level, the journey has been honestly overwhelming, and the pandemic quickly became the most challenging situation I have faced as a leader so far – to steer the boat of Rosewood Hotel Group through such troubled waters and keep everyone safe aboard.

Words cannot fully describe the difficulties and uncertainties, but as time passed, I developed the habit of looking for the silver linings and counting my blessings despite the turbulent circumstances. In this year, what I came to realize is that the situation was revealing something far more meaningful and long-lasting in addition to the growing appreciation of our organization’s agility and crisis management expertise. 

Our organization has always been grounded in our guiding philosophy of Relationship Hospitality – a belief that true hospitality springs from the nurturing and building of strong and lasting relationships, not only with our guests and partners, but also with each other and with our communities. We have a long history of social responsibility, providing help to the needs in our society and deploying sustainable practices in our operations. However, when confronted by the pandemic, the call to stand in solidarity with each other was amplified to an epic scale, ultimately redefining and raising the standard of our guiding philosophy. In the midst of extreme challenges, profound changes were made to our company’s culture that are here to stay in the long-run. 

Within days of the global outbreak, our team established Rosewood Raise, the Relief Fund, to provide financial support to those associates who were amongst the first to be affected by the crisis. Our corporate offices and hotel associates jumped on board without hesitation and began fundraising to assist fellow colleagues to get through the toughest times. Our teams at Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, New World Hotels & Resorts and KHOS properties immediately committed themselves to local efforts, supplying necessities and meals to medical associates, local organizations and charities. Across our organization at every level and hotel, we witnessed the generosity and goodwill of our people around the world like never before.

As these community and charitable efforts still continue, I remain genuinely inspired and awestruck by the countless heroic actions demonstrated by our people in the midst of calamity – actions that deliver Relationship Hospitality in its truest form, in which individuals consistently and relentlessly put others first before themselves. Like everyone else impacted by the crisis, our associates faced personal challenges and heartbreaking circumstances, yet they exemplified selflessness by dedicating their lives to the support and care of others. This experience has shown me that our people can deliver Relationship Hospitality in ways far above and beyond my initial vision of it. I am convinced that this breakthrough in our culture must be our organization’s biggest and most important takeaway for 2020.

Looking forward, I will challenge myself to remember this revelation long after the pandemic has ended. I commit to continuing to count the blessings, no matter the circumstance or what the future brings. I will stay focused on further nurturing our organization to operate with a greater sense of purpose, giving our people even more opportunities to express their intrinsic goodwill. We have simply experienced too much this year to not action what we have learned about our capacity to make a greater, positive impact in our world.

Although festivities might look different for many of us this holiday season, I will be ringing in 2021 with immense hope once again. Similar to the last, I am ready to welcome the new year, knowing that no matter what paradigm shift our world might face, our team at Rosewood Hotel Group will continue to raise the bar to deliver Relationship Hospitality in its truest form.