Francis Yeoh is explaining the management philosophy that guides his conglomerate’s hotel business when the conversation takes an unexpected turn. The YTL managing director is on stage at a large hotel investment conference in Hong Kong with 150 executives from Asia and the US in the audience.
When I ask him how he has built a well-respected hotel division despite YTL’s main focus being infrastructure, he says he learnt an important lesson as a young man from fellow Malaysian-Chinese billionaire and hotelier Robert Kuok, owner of the Shangri La chain. Mr Kuok advised him that in hotels there was an “inverse pyramid where the staff are the most important asset in the company”, because they, not the CEO, are the employees who meet the guests.
So far, so management speak. However, Mr Kuok also cautioned against the tendency of some Asian tycoons to see hotels as a vanity project. He said that “‘the staff will be so upset with this terrible arrogance of yours that they’ll pee in the pool. So when you swim, [remember] not to keep your mouth open’.” There is an audible gasp from the audience – and then loud laughter.