Security - the potatoes of the hotel industry
And I don't mean couch potatoes...
“Security managers, in my humble, unbiased opinion, are kind of like potatoes.” They can be used in all kinds of ways.
As a newly-hired security guard at a hotel that didn’t want to hire me, everything was new. I’d never worked in a hotel, and I’d never worked in security. Still, on my very first shift, I was handed a key ring with keys to everything except the drop safe that contained all the cash from the day’s takings in the 491-room hotel.
I didn’t know where most of the keys fit mind you, but I had a helpful colleague that walked me through the building to help me get my bearings. The next night, I worked mostly nights in those days, he handed me the key ring and a two-way radio and told me to do the same round we had done the night before.
“If you get lost or don’t know where you are, call me on this and we’ll figure it out.”
As time went on, I grew to know every square inch of that hotel better than I knew my own apartment. (That’s not as surprising as it sounds… I moved a lot, and didn’t clean my flat very often, there’s probably still a rolled-up sock in a corner of one of those places.)
After being promoted to Security Manager, I told my team to learn as much as they could about the hotel, its departments, and the hotel business.
“After all”, I said,
“it will be thirty years before I retire, so if you like working here and want a promotion, you’ll either have to bump me off or find a job in a different department.”
I don’t know that any of them tried to assassinate or incapacitate me, but several of them did get better-paying jobs in other departments. Accounting, Operations, Sales. Their moves were an education for us in Security too. We all learned more about how other parts of the hotel worked and, together with our former colleagues, we could help identify better ways to mitigate risks.
As Security Manager, it was often my role to be Duty Manager and Weekend Duty Manager. In our hotel, Duty Manager meant you went home late, and Weekend Duty Manager meant you checked into a room and stayed from Friday to Monday. The role included many duties handled by an Operations or Guest Service Manager during weekdays with additional tasks such as signing off on goods that needed to be replenished from the store rooms. (In the early boom-time days, the storeroom was often opened to refill the nightclub’s stock of champagne and caviar. That tapered off dramatically as time passed, the economy tanked, and companies no longer considered a magnum of Dom Pérignon and a jar of the finest caviar to be legitimate business expenses for their travelling staff… (To our younger readers, Yes, that was common and that’s one of the reasons they’re called “the good old days”.)
As Weekend DM, I could stay in our fancy hotel, dine in our restaurants, (normally off limits for staff), host travel agents and media people on “fam trips” and meet guests in a more positive atmosphere than sometimes was the case for the Security Manager. Doing that in a large, city centre hotel for several years, is a wonderful education in hotel operations, people management, and, dare I say, psychology! (I already had a degree in Psychology, but, as a duty manager, I learned a lot about the practical application of psychological theories.)
Of course, not everything goes as smoothly as it was planned on paper. During my brief time as a consultant assisting our hotels in Stavanger, Norway, it was summer and most of the management team was on vacation. They needed someone to step in as duty manager one busy weekend, and I willingly raised my hand. Piece of cake for an old hand like me in sleepy Stavanger, right?
The weekend had two events. A large VIP event to celebrate the opening of a new rail link to the capital, and a wedding. The VIPs were due to arrive at 7:00, check in, clean themselves up after the long journey and be at their formal dinner event by 8:30 pm. It was well-planned and organized. The VIP group guests were all checked in in advance and could simply collect their keys and info packets at a special desk in the lobby. I reviewed everything at about 6:00 and then did a little tour of the house. The wedding was nearing the speech and dance stage. Everyone was happy. I went to my room to dream about the dinner I was about to enjoy in our fancy, formal restaurant.
When I came down for dinner, shortly before 7, I glanced over at the fire alarm panel. (Force of habit for an old security guard…) It was blinking red: FIRE! A nervous-looking front desk agent was at the panel. She yelled at me, “It’s not a fire, it’s not a fire.”
Long story short, a hot water pipe had burst and the steam spewing out of the wall set the internal alarm off. The fire department was on the way. Of course, so were the VIPs. I had to go to the basement and shut the water off to the hotel before anyone could get close enough to find out where the pipe had burst and a local valve that could be closed before restoring the main water supply.
In the end, as it usually does, all went well. The VIPs were only slightly delayed to their dinner. The band at the wedding started to play Hawaiian music when hot, tropical-feeling steam started flowing into their crowded party. When we noticed the water had flooded the basement nightclub, the fire department kindly stayed behind and pumped it all out. The nightclub opened on schedule at 10, but I never did get that dinner in the fine dining restaurant.
This is where Kirsten will chime in and ask me to tell the story of one of our early dates. It took place on the top floor of one of Copenhagen’s wonderful hotels. I was Weekend Duty Manager, but why not treat your new date to a special night out on the company dime, right? We were allowed to have a guest for dinner. The only thing I hadn’t planned for was a delayed flight to Copenhagen that sent us 350 unexpected guests, just before the main course. The hotel was required to house and feed the passengers while they waited for their plane to be fixed. I called the Executive Chef. He said he wouldn’t come in because there was a plan. It worked well, salad and 350 sandwiches were made and delivered to the hungry passengers by interns and apprentices I’d rounded up from the various hotel departments. Kirsten only had to wait about 90 minutes before her date returned from his “Sorry, I have to take this.” call.
Following my promotion to the corporate office, I no longer had the opportunity to be Duty Manager in hotels, but the learning continued.
I’m not sure if the C-suite executives drew straws to decide who I should report to, and if they did, who knows if it was the long or the short straw that forced them to assume responsibility for me and my small corporate security team.
During my years in that role, I reported to the CEO, the President’s advisor, the COO, the CFO, the Executive VP of Legal, the Executive VP of HR, and the Senior VP of Technical Services. There may have been others and if I missed anyone, I’m sorry.
At one time or another, they all asked me what I did. The one-word answer I came up with was “Forecasting”. We always tried to stay ahead of the curve by assessing threats and using analysis to put mitigation measures in place. We called our programme, TRIC=S. Not everyone thought it was a great name for a corporate security programme, but it was very successful. You could say it worked like magic for us.
It was sometimes challenging to report to a completely different department every time the corporate office hierarchy was reorganized. Architects never had the opportunity to report to HR, and sales folks never had to report to Legal, but for security, it was always someone new. It was an awesome learning experience that my architect and sales friends missed out on.
I simply followed the guidance I’d given to my colleagues a couple of decades earlier; I tried to learn as much as I could about whichever department and leader I was assigned to. I learned training and development in HR, construction and building management systems from Tech Services, and contracts from Legal. Every department was different, and I feel privileged to be the only person in our corporate team that was offered that vast array of experiences.
This newsletter is dedicated to all my friends in hotel security and the corporate security world. When this is published, many are attending the ASIS Europe Risk to Resilience conference in Rotterdam, and over a glass in the bar after a long day of educational sessions and networking, there will no doubt be talk of how hard it can be to get the C-suite to listen.
Remember, friends you’re the potatoes! Potatoes don’t always get the most recognition when placed on a plate, but you can pair them with anything and they're great at absorbing all the juices from everything else! The more you absorb from everywhere in your business, the better you’ll be prepared when the C-suite finally comes calling
Stay safe Always Care
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Great story!