WE ❤️ HOSPITALITY - Szymon Adamczuk

The last year has been terrible for the hospitality sector. Most businesses have seen extreme financial challenges and its reputation as an employer has been severely affected. We are now hearing from many, many of our clients about their fears for the future from staff shortages to skills gaps and top mid-senior talent moving to other sectors.

Krishnan Doyle is sharing his conversations with service industry leaders and operators on all that is good about hospitality & catering with the purpose to improve the sector's reputation as one of the largest employer worldwide but also as a great place to develop your career. 

How did you get into hospitality? 

Usually the answer would be „by accident”, but in my case it was willingness to try something new after a few years in retail (grocery and fashion). It was best choice of my life, because I fell in love with hospitality from the first day. 

Do you think it is important to have studied hospitality to be a success in the sector? 

Definitely it’s not necessary but could be helpful. From my perspective much more important is experience and what you can learn from your peers and supervisors every single day. Studies can give you knowledge, but you need practice. 

Which leader / figure inspired you and why? 

There are many great people in our industry, globally and regionally. As I used to work for Starbucks, I would say that one of them is obviously Howard Schultz. I had the privilege to work with Henry McGovern at AmRest, which has built the Company from scratch (today they have >2.2k restaurants in 26 countries). I’m really impressed what an amazing job are doing guys from companies like BrewDog (James Watt), Big Mamma (Victor Lugger) or L’Osteria (Mirko Silz) and I've got the feeling that they are just beginning, even if they have already achieved a lot! 

What keeps you in the sector and why to you enjoy working in it? 

People whom I’m working with every day and our beloved Guests which I can also meet in the restaurants! Hospitality is a very dynamic environment, truly every day is different and even after many years in the industry you can still face new challenges and stay motivated. You can talk about the hospitality with almost everyone on this planet, because everyone has an opinion about food, restaurant, hotel etc. (even if they don’t have real knowledge, it’s always a lot of fun during all these conversations) I really love what I do and enjoy every day. 

Tell us about the development / training that you give to your teams and management. 

As our company exists already almost 20 years, we’ve developed many training tools and are trying to improve them constantly. All our Team Members starts in the restaurant (colleagues from Head Office as well) and for restaurant Team Members and Management we have specific training which can take up to 3 months, especially now, when we are launching our restaurants in the new Countries. During the training process we share the feedback and try to prepare our colleagues for their future work. The most important thing at this stage is to show them our values, help to understand the spirit of the brand, what should be very helpful on their way to be successful.

What advice would you give to those starting out in the sector? 

Be always open to new, take challenges and never regret. Learn from your peers and supervisors as much as possible. It all depends on you because the hospitality has limitless possibilities for your growth. 

If you could go back and tell yourself one piece of advice as you started your career, what would it be? 

I should have started in the industry a few years earlier because I had missed a lot of fantastic adventures 😉 

If you would like to take part as a leader in this thriving sector, get in touch with Krishnan (krishnan@corecruitment.com)