What a success the March Propel Multi Club was this year! The team from Catton Hospitality had a great day speaking to a spectrum of people and were proud to be one of the event sponsors. Taking to the stage this year were a variety of industry experts, each with serious pedigree in their fields. From successful operators, to hospitality innovators, we learnt a lot. Here are some of the best lessons we learnt from the day.
Part 1 – Great people with effective technology is the perfect combination
One of the key lessons from this year’s star of the show and Catton Hospitality’s CEO, Alastair Scott, was that a business is built one shift at a time (albeit a borrowed quote from Tony Hughes) and so planning to make each one a success is essential. Alastair highlighted some useful tips on how to achieve this, especially the importance of adopting excellent IT systems, such as S4Labour. Other gems to gleam from Alastair’s experience of running highly successful hospitality businesses include, removing the teams hiding places in order to encourage them to positively engage with guest, investing in staff development, and showing leadership. Both Alastair and Ian Payne, Chairman of Stonegate Pub Company, spoke of the importance of giving praise to staff on a regular basis, especially if it needs to come with criticism.
You may be surprised to also find out that there is a bigger correlation between increased sales figures and having a happy team, than there is between sales and happy customers.
Many of the guest speakers were keen to express how important innovative technologies had been in their growth and managing their business day to day, but as Mark Ashley, author of ‘Better Than Yesterday’ points out that, nothing can replace good people. All the operators on stage believed in the importance of training and developing existing people within the business. Mark Ashley noted the essential requirement is to not only invest in your team, but to make sure your own wellbeing and personal growth are not neglected. Both Mark and Tim Martin, founder of JD Weatherspoons, agreed that your team are essential for providing ideas and feedback that drive the success of the business.
