The Challenges of Change: The Impact of Change on Attitude and Human Behavior in the Environment of Repositioning a Service Product

By Dr. Peter W. Tischmann

Dr. Peter W. Tischmann, a native of Hannover, Germany, has over 30 years of senior management experience in the luxury hotel industry with an extensive background in repositioning luxury hotels acknowledged for quality and service.

Amongst his many accomplishments are the re-opening of The St. Regis, a landmark property in New York City, as well as the repositioning of the Ciragan Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, which under Dr. Tischmanns tenure reached the # 14 position amongst the 100 worlds best hotels as listed by Institutional Investor.

His commitment to quality and service, combined with a strong visionary leadership have earned him numerous international recognitions, amongst others the prestigious Award for Excellence from Leaders magazine.

With the undertake of one of his recent assignments at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in New York, known for a strong union environment as well as its illustrious owner, Mrs. Leona M. Helmsley, Dr. Tischmann has added new perspectives to his vast experience in managing a change process.

Caring about people and the development of future, young hoteliers, is one of Dr. Tischmanns priorities and has led him to lecture on this subject in universities and business schools in Europe and in the United States.

The attached manuscript about the Challenges of Change describes the impact of such change on the attitude and human behavior of the people affected by such change. It combines many years of real life experience with thorough research in pursuit of his objective to publish an outstanding book on this subject.

In an attempt to make the reading of a comprehensive subject such as the process of change easy to understand, Dr. Tischmann has developed a new interesting format to his book, which makes it unique amongst the many business books available today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 26, 2007
• ISBN: 9781465318244

Book preview

Copyright © 2007 by Dr. Peter W. Tischmann.

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This book was printed in the United States of America.

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Contents

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

1

THE NEED FOR CHANGE

2

VISION TO CHANGE

3

GIVING A VISION LIFE

4

THE VALUE OF CHANGE

5

LEADING CHANGE

6

STRATEGIES OF CHANGE

7

GENERATING MOMENTUM

8

CHALLENGES OF CHANGE

9

WALKING THE TALK

10

MEASURING SUCCESS

11

RESISTANCE TO CHANGE

12

MANAGING THE CHALLENGE

13

SYNERGIES OF SUCCESS

14

CONCLUSION

ATTACHMENT

To My Family

For my wife, Denyse,

who encouraged me to undertake this project.

My daughter, Carine, and her husband, Martin,

who had no idea what I was working on.

And to my son, Peter, as a challenge and

encouragement for him, to see that nothing

is impossible.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Peter W. Tischmann, a native of Hannover, Germany, has over thirty years of senior management experience in the luxury hotel industry with an extensive background in repositioning luxury hotels acknowledged for quality and service.

Among his many accomplishments are the reopening of The St. Regis, a landmark property in New York City, as well as the repositioning of the Ciragan Palace Hotel in Istanbul, Turkey, which, under Dr. Tischmann’s tenure, reached the number 14 position among the one hundred world’s best hotel as listed by Institutional Investor.

His commitment to quality and service, combined with a strong visionary leadership, have earned him numerous international recognitions, among them is the prestigious Award for Excellence from Leader’s Magazine.

The Challenges of Change describes the impact of such change on the attitude and behavior of the people affected by such change. It combines many years of real-life experience with thorough research in pursuit of his objective: to publish his first book on this subject.

Caring about people and the development of future young hoteliers is one of Dr. Tischmann’s priorities and has led him to lecture on this subject in universities and business schools in Europe and in the United States.

In the year 2004, Dr. Tischmann was involved with the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel, known for its strong union environment as well as its illustrious owner, Mrs. Leona M. Helmsley, which experience has added new perspectives to his vast experience in managing a change process.

In an attempt to make the reading of a comprehensive subject such as the process of change easy to understand, Dr. Tischmann has developed a new interesting format for his book, which makes it unique among the many business books available today.

PREFACE

At first glance, the subject of change appears to be an easy one. After all, change happens every single day. We change and accept small changes daily.

In anticipation of a sunny day, we prepare our light summer clothes in the evening, only to wake up in the morning and find torrential rain pouring down. Immediately, we change our wardrobe, put on warmer clothes and heavier shoes, and, armed with an umbrella, set off to start a new day. We are comfortable with the fact that today is different from yesterday, and even though we might be well prepared, there is no guarantee of what tomorrow might bring.

Why is it then that what seems so easy in our daily private lives suddenly become a major issue in a working or business environment?

Is it our fear of the unknown, the unpredictable, or the threat of something different? Would we adjust as easily to a rainy day if we had never experienced rainy days before?

The list of such questions is inexhaustible and proof that change, contrary to how it may initially appear, is far from being an easy subject.

Change comes in all forms and colors like the leaves of a tree. From a fresh bright bud bursting out in the early days of spring, the colors of the leaf gradually changes to a darker shade of green as summer progresses, mellow to yellow as the days grow shorter, and turn to amber and eventually to dark red toward the end of autumn. Despite these different colors, which become stronger and more beautiful as time goes on, it is still the same leaf.

Could this example of change be applied to today’s business environment? I believe it can as long as the company concerned does not change its core business.

From my many years of experience in the hospitality industry, it appears to me that hotels are a perfect example. Hotels will always be hotels. They appear like leaves, in all shapes and sizes, but at the end of the day, their core business is to rent out rooms, regardless of how many additional facilities, features, and services they provide.

I chose to write about the subject of change because I have had the opportunity to foster change in two different cultural environments. I have savored the results of a succesful change and am currently experiencing the endless struggle to make change work again.

Change is all about doing things differently today from yesterday, but more importantly, it is about taking time today in order to prepare for tomorrow.

Change helps to stimulate an organization’s potential, ensuring not only its existance, but its business success in the future.

The Ciragan Palace is a great example. It is a hotel with tremendous potential, unique and one of its kind, surrounded by heritage and culture, yet a sleeping beauty on the banks of the Bosphorus.

Having joined the hotel in the midnineties, it became very obvious to me that if we could only rejuvenate the product, improve the professionalism of the team, and instill a commitment toward hospitality and service in the minds of everyone involved, the Ciragan Palace would be well positioned to compete with the elite group of hotels from around the world.

A monumental undertaking and a challenge even to a person with many years of experience as a hotelier. I was not only convinced that it could be done, but I was also determined to do it. A vision was born.

The following pages combine the philosophies of change with the realities experienced in the service environment of a hotel. They describe the lengthy process of change and the challenges involved in modifying the attitudes and behaviors of the people who actually have to make change happen.

It takes passion for quality and hospitality, together with visionary leadership and the commitment to such vision, to ensure the process of change to be successful.

Dr. Peter W. Tischmann

New York City

October 2006

INTRODUCTION

In the past, we have seen many service organizations rearranging themselves to be better positioned in an increasingly competitive market. These efforts have ranged from substantial investments to the rejuvenation of the product itself as well as the application of programs such as Total Quality Management, reengineering, restructuring into lean operations, cultural changes, and turnarounds.

In almost every case, the objective of change has been the same: to cope with an increasingly competitive environment in order to maintain present and future market positions.

Research from John P. Kotter shows that from the many efforts, only a few were successful, whereas the majority produced only marginal results or simply ended in total failure.

Kotter continues to say that change involves the sequence of numerous phases, which together takes a long time to evolve. Not following phase by phase or even skipping some of the stages creates an illusion of progress in the short term but, in the end, will never produce the desired results. The skipping of important phases will almost certainly have a destructive impact, slowing the momentum of any such process and strengthening resisting and negative elements.

Companies that have enjoyed long lasting success have established a plan concentrating on their core purpose and core values. They have developed strategies and actions of their vision, constantly adapting to a changing world.

The ability to balance continuity of present core purposes and core values and the introduction of change for an envisioned future require great discipline and need to be closely associated with the ability to develop a vision.

Vision is the road map to the future and provides guidance about what to preserve and what to change. It establishes within a well-planned framework clear concepts of today’s core values and the envisioned future.

James C. Collins and Jerry D. Porras describe these core values as core ideologies, holding a company together as it goes through the different phases of change. They consider the core values as essential to every organization; without them, a company is sure to be at a competitive disadvantage.

Contrary to the core values, which are aimed at preserving the best, the envisioned future introduces a vision as to where the organization will be in the future, sometimes with very specific targets and time frames.

Visions generally are aggressive in their goals and objectives and, at the time of conception, difficult to visualize by the organization. Once the goals are established, it is important to know how to achieve them and what it means to all involved.

In order