Dear Friends of Starwood Cares,
Welcome to the first issue of Living Starwood Cares in 2012! This issue will continue to showcase the many inspiring stories of our associates living the Starwood Cares culture and sharing their journey in Starwood Careers.
A year ago, Starwood Careers made its debut in Asia Pacific. To date, we have 127 hotels across Asia Pacific rolling out Starwood Careers tracks for more than 2,000 associates. I am sure many of our associates have felt the thrills of witnessing the journey of their own career growth over the past year. Take a look at these fantastic Starwood Careers launches that are happening in our hotels.
Direct Managers Training at The Westin Mumbai Garden City – All Set to Develop Talent!
Cake cutting at Starwood Careers Launch - The Westin Gurgaon and The Westin Sohna
Thank you for the submissions of the many touching Caring Moments stories that have deeply impacted on our associates, guests, business and community. Let us continue to feel the Caring spirit of our Associates from the Caring Moments Winning Stories, as each and every story shares a unique experience and exemplary behaviors of our associates living the Starwood Cares values.
As the Sheraton Brand saying goes, "Life is better when shared"! – Delivering Coal Briquettes to the Community – Team from Sheraton Incheon Hotel
A special highlight to note, the nomination for the prestigious Starwood Cares President’s Awards is now open. We look forward to see the submission of your best Caring Moments stories over the year. Please click here for more information.
Keep a look out for exciting Happenings that have been taking place at properties in Asia Pacific such as the Talent Development and Culture Manager Orientation that took placed at the Sheraton Hanoi Hotel recently. There is a shift of transiting of this role from the traditional Training Manager to the Talent Development & Culture Manager role, given the changing needs of the business and what is expected of this critical role at properties.
TDC Team from the various Indochina properties with their two trainers at the Royal Orchid Sheraton Hotel.
Also, not to be missed is the short autobiography of Mr. Josef Dolp, Managing Director of the Sheraton Macau, as he shares his inspirational story on his Starwood Journey. Be encouraged by his story of growth in Starwood, as well as his words of wisdom and advice to all Associates.
“As you sail through life, don’t avoid storms and rough waters. Just let it pass, just sail. Always remember, calm seas never make skillful sailors.” – Josef Dolp
Check out some interesting reads in Ideas and Resources, where you can find out how to create loyal customers and learn to avoid some of the common mistakes hotels make with review websites. I hope everyone will gain new perspectives and insights to apply in various aspects of your work and life with Starwood!
We hope that this issue will motivate everyone to strive harder and have fun in your Starwood Journey in the year ahead. Make a difference and share your favorite articles and stories with your team to spread the Starwood Cares spirit. Enjoy Reading!
Francis Tan
Vice President
Talent Management & Organization Development
Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts
Dear Colleagues,
2011 was a terrific year for Starwood, with 112 new hotel deals signed and 80 new hotels opened. Over the year, we have also captured market share from many of our competitors and have managed to sustain our strong reputation among many owners, customers and guests. Our brands now make up the world’s best high end hotels and are attracting elite travelers from all over the globe. All this was achieved thanks to everyone who lived up to our strong culture of playing as a team. It is exactly this culture and spirit that inspires others and sets us apart from our competition.
Riding on the high momentum of 2011, we are now looking to open 57 new hotels in Asia Pacific in 2012. With more hotel openings, it is very important that our hotels continue to attract new talent and retain our best associates. What better way than to do so through the use of our Starwood Careers system!
Starwood Careers was launched one year ago as a Care for Associate initiative for our associates’ career growth. It serves as our main platform and strategy to ‘bubble up talents’, enforcing our business strategy of “Utilizing Talents at all levels” and to “Win with Talent”. Starwood Careers provides opportunities for all levels of associates to be equipped with skills and knowledge to be ready for the next position. Today, I am very proud to say that it has been a year since the launch of Starwood Careers, and we have 127 hotels rolling out Starwood Careers for our Associates in Asia Pacific.
We look forward to the many hotel openings in 2012, and I also believe that all of us need to continue to take pride in serving our guests. Together, we should put in our best effort to delight our guests at every hotel, in every possible way.
Continuing to take the lead in innovation and lifestyle experiences, SPG has also recently launched a suite of new enhancements and distinct personal benefits that appeal to our most frequent guests. Standout benefits now include our innovative, dedicated ambassador service, lifetime status and a first-of-its-kind 24 hour check in. With this transformation of SPG, we are indeed changing the game in hotel loyalty programs.
As we move to mark many new and exciting challenges in the year ahead, let us press on to build new peaks, live up to our culture and deliver excellence beyond expectations.
Miguel Ko
Chairman & President
Starwood Asia Pacific
Dear Friends of Starwood Cares,
Warm greetings to everyone!
Quarter 3 was an exciting time in Starwood Asia Pacific, with many Starwood Careers events at properties and other initiatives. This issue of Living Starwood Cares will feature these recent events, and Starwood Cares stories which impact not only our own Associates and business, but also guests and the community.
Starwood Careers made its debut in South Asia region in September with a Talent Developer Certification Workshop. Talent Developers in the region were introduced to Starwood Careers and discussed how to best implement it for their hotel. At the same time, properties in China, Indochina, Pacific and South East Asia have all commenced Starwood Careers tracks in the hotels and Associates are excited at the opportunity to prepare them for the next stage of their careers.
Also, take a look at this quarter’s winners of Caring Moments Awards, which each and every story shares a different aspect and angle to the four pillars of Starwood Cares: Care for Associates, Care for Guest, Care for Business and Care for Community.
.png)
You ought not to miss the short autobiography of Harris Chan, Regional Vice President of Operations, China and how he has been Growing with Starwood and What Makes Starwood so special in this heart.
On a special note, we would like to say a special word of encouragement to our Associates whose families and homes are affected by the flood in Thailand. We wish you a fast recovery, also to thank you for your effort in keeping our properties safe from the flood.
We hope that this issue will provide you with a lot of insights, ideas and stories to serve as a good source of inspiration and energy for everyone. Please do not hesitate to share your favourite article or story with your team.
Enjoy Reading!
Francis Tan
Vice President
Talent Management & Organization Development
Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts
Dear Starwood Colleagues,
This quarter, we have much to celebrate with many exciting news and happenings in Starwood!
In the month of November, Starwood in Asia Pacific will witness the opening of our 200th hotel and resort. This marks an important milestone for our Journey in widening Starwood’s footprint in Asia Pacific with plans to reach 210 hotels by this year end, and over 320 hotels by 2014. As the largest luxury and upper upscale hotel company in Asia-Pacific and the fastest growing division in Starwood, we are certainly the most exciting and dynamic company in the region!
Also, despite an uncertain global economy, we had a solid performance in Q3, 2011 earnings, where Starwood continues to Own the Guest and outperform our competition. Our collective efforts enabled us to beat our investors’ expectations, with EBITDA of $241M and EPS of $0.42 cents. Importantly, this sets us up to start 2012 in great shape.
As important, we are focused on the future and defining what’s next in the hospitality business. We recently introduced 300 Starwood leaders to Global Personalization at Starwood – GPS – which we see as the next game changing innovation from Starwood. The concept of personalization has been rooted in the hospitality business for centuries. GPS will allow us to connect with guests on their own terms, in and outside of their stay. It enables our Associates to anticipate guest needs and deliver tailored experiences at their fingertips.
Having such growth and performance required the dedication and hard work of a great team of associates and I am proud to have the Best Team with us now to continue to Own the Peak. With the launch of Starwood Careers, we aim to continue to develop our associates for their highest potential and recruit the right people for our ever growing no. of hotels in Asia Pacific.
In a nutshell, Starwood in Asia Pacific is gaining good traction to "Own the Peak". It is Our Time and with such tremendous growth now, you are in the right place in Asia Pacific. We couldn’t have done it without your contribution to achieve such confidence and loyalty from our guests, as well as continue to perform beyond expectation for our stakeholders.
Let us continue to in our Journey to Own Q4 for a terrific 2011!
Miguel Ko
Chairman & President
Starwood Asia Pacific
Dear Friends of Starwood Cares,
Warm greetings and hope that you have been enjoying every day with Starwood!
Once again, a new issue of Living Starwood Cares is published to feature recent events in Asia Pacific division and present Starwood Cares stories.
I would like to express my thanks to all properties who submitted stories for Caring Moments and Happenings @ Starwood. Each of them sincerely tells an inspiring story about an exemplary personality and his or her laudable acts. On behalf of Living Starwood Cares team, I wish to show gratitude to all nominators who recognized these good case practices and put forth for sharing; and of course, the Associates who have been living Starwood Cares spirit. You can refer to this link for all the winning stories of this issue.
Many of you might have known that we hosted Divisional Conference 2011, a grand event for Starwood Asia Pacific, in June. Among the many sessions within the conference, our AP Team of RVPs shared their personal Starwood Journeys and Careers. This was a big hit with the audience at the Conference. Please click here to get to know your RVPs’ Starwood Journeys and Careers.
The Starwood Cares President’s Awards garnered many nominations and excitement this year with the presence of our senior leadership teams. Click here to view some photos taken from Gala Dinner and to know the winners of Starwood Cares President’s Awards 2011. Remember to congratulate them for being exemplary Starwood Cares ambassadors. Many stories of the nominees have been featured in our latest Caring Moment Book (Volume 3).
Over the past few months, various hotels have launched Starwood Careers in their hotels with a lot of interesting launch ideas and practices. Take a look at some of the innovative ideas. With such an enthusiastic start, we are confident that many individuals can look forwards to more rewarding careers with Starwood; and in turn, building our talent pool.
With so many beneficial reads in this issue, do take some time to explore the articles.
Happy reading!
Francis Tan
Vice-President
Talent Management & Organization Development
Starwood Asia Pacific
Warm Greetings to All!
It was great seeing so many of our leadership at our recent Starwood Asia Pacific Divisional Conference 2011 in Bangkok. The Conference is a great success and we hope that you have enjoyed meeting new colleagues, renew old ties, feel the collective power of Starwood and the pulse of a dynamic Division; plus the exciting opportunities that lie ahead.
Other than critical insights from the speakers, the Conference also provide a great opportunity for us to award and recognize our well-deserved Associates and hotels who have been working so hard to bring Asia Pacific Division to great heights and also for our Starwood Cares President’s Awards Winners, living out the values of Starwood Cares.
Another area that I am much encouraged is how our Conference delegates feel about Starwood. Based on a simple question: “What makes Starwood special to you?” we received many interesting insights. A very high percentage (61.64%) commented on how they appreciate our Starwood culture and the opportunities to develop in Starwood. It goes to show that our continuing effort to nurture our culture and talents through Starwood Cares and Careers is very important.
Most of all, we want you to feel very connected as a team and filled with pride we share as a Starwood family member. For those Associates who are not able to join us, your leaders will or should have been shared with you their inspiration and key messages from this conference or from the What’s Hot broadcast specially filmed in our home ground.
As you have seen in the news lately, our Senior Leadership Team from corporate headquarters relocated to Asia Pacific for a month which is unprecedented for any global company. This shows the great emphasis and impact that Asia Pacific is making and we are certainly moving towards Path to Peak with a strong second quarter 2011 earnings and projected 30 hotel openings in AP the remaining months to come. This is an exciting time to be in Starwood Asia Pacific!
To sum up, we have generated terrific results in the quarter and are on track to outperform the competition for another year. I believe that we are all reinvigorated and have gained a stronger conviction on where we are heading as a Company. Thus, in line with the theme of the Conference - 'Own The Peak, Own The Future' – let us continue this Journey of living our Promises and navigate to a promising future!
Miguel Ko
Chairman & President
Starwood Asia Pacific Hotels & Resorts
Dear Friends of Starwood Cares,
Warm greetings and hope that you had a good start to the year!
We are extremely excited and proud of the official launch of Starwood Careers! This launch will mark a new chapter of our Starwood Cares Journey and further enhances our commitment in developing talents.
Starwood Careers is a Career & Talent Development system that provides structured developmental tracks for all associates and was created with all associates in mind. The aim of Starwood Careers is to provide a platform of opportunities for all associates who are willing, ready and selected to progress further in their careers within Starwood.
With the launch of Starwood Careers, a series of Talent Development Leader Hub Trainings are being steadily introduced to Asia Pacific. The first Hub Training was held in Sheraton Guilin Hotel and it was a very successful session. Here are some pictures which we would like to share with you.
Click here for previews of the Starwood Careers Hub Session
Every issue, we will chose the best associates whom we feel have best demonstrated the Starwood Cares culture and will present them with Caring Moment Awards in recognition of their great exemplary behavior.
Click here to view the winning stories for Caring Moments Quarter 1.
With that, we would like your support to nominate your best associates / colleagues who have been living the Starwood Cares culture consistently throughout the year for the annual Starwood Cares President’s Awards. The President’s Awards represent the highest recognition and appreciation for our associates that have brought great contributions and performance in our workplace with the Starwood Cares values.
Click here to download the nomination forms.
It is also our pleasure to be able to feature Chuck Abbott, Regional Vice-President of South East Asia in Profiles and Personalities. His enduring journey with Starwood is truly inspirational for all our associates.
Click here to know what motivation he has that keeps him going on this journey.
A special mention of our budding writer – Magdy Anis, Managing Director of St. Regis and Four Point Lhasa who has kindly contributed two inspirational articles on decision making and taking initiatives that will change your life in Resources.
We hope you enjoy this issue! Happy Reading!
Dear friends of Starwood Cares,
Greetings and hope you had a blast in celebrating Starwood Cares 10th Anniversary in your properties!
We are ecstatic and proud of the efforts put in by our properties have spent in commemorating the 10th Anniversary of Starwood Cares – from carefully crafted personalized Starwood Cares Cakes and Cookies, to the creation of exciting events for our associates. Everyone deserves credit for making our 10th Anniversary as a very meaningful milestone in our Starwood Cares Journey.
As we progress towards the end of the year, we would like to showcase some of the most exciting pictures from our properties that captured our collective spirit and values:
Starwood Cares certainly does not stop at our 10th Anniversary, we look forward to another decade to further consolidate our culture, to journey further into bringing the best out of our talent, to own more of our guests and to create more meaningful workplaces and continue to be an active supporters of our communities.
To quote our President & CEO Frits Van Paasschen – “The Best Culture Wins!”.
One of the exciting programs in our next phase of Starwood Cares Journey starting 2011 is the official launch of Starwood Careers. Strengthening our belief that we ‘Win with Talent’, we have designed a Career & Talent Development system that provides structured developmental tracks for all levels of our associates.
Anyone who is willing, ready and selected will have the opportunity to take his/her career to the next level with dedicated developmental programs. Starwood Careers forms a platform for all associates across all levels to enhance their career progression and development. You could view the informative page Starwood Careers to further comprehend what this initiative is all about.
To celebrate the launch of this issue of Living Starwood Cares and to mark the end of a fantastic year 2010, we will be presenting properties with Caring Moment Awards to express our gratitude in your efforts in Living the Starwood Cares Culture. Click here for the award-winning Caring Moment Stories.
As a quick update from the Divisional Office in Singapore, we have been quite active in playing our part in Caring for Community in our quest to encourage active Global Citizenship. Collaborating with Food from the Heart organization, we organized a charity bazaar in our office and established online auction portal, Sbay, in support of this non-profit organization. Click here to read the articles on these as well as to check out what is Happening at our properties around Asia Pacific.
We are privileged to have Don Elliot, Regional Vice-President of India, Bangladesh and Maldives, to share with us his Starwood Journey. Click here to view his life-story.
Last but certainly not least, we wish you all Happy New Year 2011 ahead!
Dear colleagues,
Recently, the Asia Pacific Division hosted Starwood’s top 100 global executives in Beijing, China for our global leadership conference. This marks the first time the leadership conference was held in China, highlighting the importance of China as Starwood’s fastest growing hotel and travel market.
In Asia Pacific, we continue to “Own the Upswing” as evident in our outperformance against our competitors: in the Asia Pacific region, we are roughly three times the size of Hilton or Hyatt and 40% larger than Marriot. In China, for example, we have 62 hotels flying eight of Starwood’s nine brand flags, with another 86 hotels in the pipeline – this signifies China as Starwood’s second largest hotel market behind only the Unites States; in fact, between now and 2011, one in every three Starwood hotels will open in China.
The theme for the leadership conference, Journey to 2020, gave us a framework to discuss about our evolution as the leading operator of lifestyle hospitality brands in the world. We also hosted Starwood’s third quarter earning calls from Beijing – a company first that further underscores the importance of China specifically and global markets generally.
In order to keep “Owning the Upswing”, there is a pressing need to cultivate great talents to cater for the escalating demands for talents in our division. In tandem with our strategy to Win with Talent and with our Care for Associates philosophy, we are stepping up Starwood Careers in a big way starting 2011.
Starwood Careers is a structured Career/Talent Development system that will facilitate the development of our associates’ career across all levels. With Starwood Careers, we have and will continue to facilitate the development of future General Managers, Hotel Managers, Excom members and have started piloting classes to develop the mid management tier such as supervisory levels.
All in all, feedback about Starwood Careers tracks has been very positive. With our push to develop our talents at all levels through Starwood Careers, we are confident of building a strong pipeline of talent to support our growth and to meet the aspirations of our associates.
As we embrace the end of this exciting and memorable year, let us continue on with our Starwood Cares Journey, celebrating key milestones along the way such as our Starwood Cares 10th Anniversary as we move from “Own the Upswing” to "Own the Peak" through our associates, guests and businesses.
With that, I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Miguel Ko
Chairman & President
Starwood Asia Pacific