"SOIL" 93rd Forum —— Hotel Industry Trends and Career Management Sharing

On September 25, 2019, Mr. LIN CONG, the senior vice President of hotel business development of Marriott international in China district was honorably  invited by "SOIL" of China leaders for Global Operations (CLGO), Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiaotong University. Mr. Lin Cong currently holds the post of Mr. LIN CONG, the senior vice President of hotel business development of Marriott international in China district, He is responsible for the business development of 30 hotel brand of Marriott International Group in China district, at the same time, he is also vice President of China tourist hotel association, the visiting professor of Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Mr. Lin Cong has more than 30 years working experience in international business, deep culturing in the hotel industry, aircraft manufacturing industry, tobacco industry and other several fields, has unique insights on the industry trends and career management and shaping.

The market trend is changing, what can I do?

At the beginning of the lecture, Mr. Lin Cong first gave us a general understanding of the development of hotel industry in China. From 2005, the world's top 10 hotels are all controlled by international companies, to 2017, there were three world's top 10 hotels in China. The hotel industry in China is developing rapidly and the growth rate is amazing. But as the vice President of China district of Marriott group, a veteran practitioner of the hotel industry, Mr. Lin Cong pointed out the real problem after such flourishing scenery:

"The length of hotel development in China is generally low, and the death rate is also surprisingly high”.

So what is the reason for the rise sharply of Chinese hotels in such a short time, and dying so quickly? Unlike foreign countries that the hotel industry is completely dominated by market economic activities, the policy regulation of China has a considerable impact on the hotel industry in China. The practitioners should pay close attention to the national GDP development curve and policy changes. At this stage, the supply of five-star hotels in China is declining, while the supply of mid-range hotels will rise sharply.

Mr. Lin Cong quoted three sentences to express his views on the development trend of the hotel industry in the future. “Soros said that currency is no national boundary, and Drucker said that information is no national boundary. In the era of big data, users are also no national boundary”. And the hotel industry, as one of the most dependent on users, will be in the forefront of the storm.

The general trend of the world market has been changing, and the cultures of the east and the west inevitably collide together, the entrepreneur and administrators with ideals should link up Chinese and western, and change self.

Mr. Lin Cong calls it "breaking field, remodeling, butterfly change, and enabling".

Breaking field– live in a wonderful 3M life

“I sold 26 planes in McDonnell, then I went to Marlboro to sell cigarettes, and finally, I come to Marriott, coincidentally, all three companies have the initials M, so that I call it as my 3M life”.

From the hotel industry, to the aviation industry, to the tobacco industry, then to the hotel industry, these seemingly are unrelated, is full of leap choices, in fact, it is full of the life wisdom of Mr. Lin Cong.

Don't struggling in the Opportunities that are not trend, is the first principle to us given by Mr. Lin Cong. During his career, many companies offered huge amounts of money to hire him, but he did not moved at all, just wholeheartedly strived to the blue sea in his heart. So regardless of whether he was in the quick sale, tobacco or hotel industry, when waiting for the big trend to come and the whole industry rising rapidly, he can always soar to the top of the cloud.

Life is like a pencil, when one end is broken, we can use the other end, which is the second principle that Mr. Lin Cong gave us. He encouraged us to throw off the prejudice against self, to take courage, and to use our driving force to make a different breaking field splendor.

Remodeling — Only there is a low ebb that there will be a rebound

Life is full of accidents. When we face the low ebb of life, the loss is inevitable, and some people could be depressed in consequence. Mr. Lin Cong used a small tennis ball to teach us an important lesson: if you don't hit it at the bottom, you won't have the power to bounce back.

When you choose to give up your former good life and get out of your comfort zone and start reinventing yourself. There are plenty of people who don't understand, sneer and scoff at what you are doing. You just have to stick to what you think is right and move in the direction you want.

In the process of personal remodeling, “empty cup core” is the most important key point. The warning of Mr. Lin Cong to us is that we should learn to give up three things:

Give up your past experience
Give up the things that you are complacent
Give up your so-called core competencies

Butterfly change –perseverance until the day of breaking cocoon

Transform into a butterfly is a hard thing to do, and life is also. The most important thing you have to do before you become a butterfly is to keep yourself alive. So give your life a buffer zone. Mr. Lin Cong mentioned the theory of Charles handy, the management guru he most admired:

“No individual or business can escape the fate of the S-shaped curve”

That is to say, any enterprise and individual cannot escape from the process of changing from flourish to decadence, Mr. Lin Cong considered that the key to breaking the S-line curse is to draw a second S-line before you start to go downhill, such as starting a side business at the prosperous height of your career, for example, put the stake on both sides to ensure that you are still alive when you are at the most abjection so that you can witness the glory again.

People also have to learn to turn a crisis into an opportunity. Mr. Lin Cong took himself as an example. He told the story that he had been transformed from a bright sales director of McDonnell Douglas aircraft to an ordinary front-line salesman of Marlboro company. He was determined that he can give up everything and only need to have a chance to prove himself, and finally he has the story of returning to the peak.

Enabling – perform well the second half stage of life 

What is enabling? Mr. Lin Cong talked about the story in the book of “enabling”. “Enabling is to attach warships and enemy ships in parallel, which is the most touching sentence. In the second half of the opening of China hotel industry, his choice was: never stop learning and constantly look for new areas of his own.

Like sparrows, wild goose and eagles, they are birds, but because after the age of 40, the eagle pecks itself, grows again its claws and feathers, and flies again, by such way, the eagle can live to 70 years old, Mr. Lin Cong concluded that “the work has limits, but you have unlimited potential, you can do anything, as long as the heart has an immortal pursuit, the real end of life is the end of hope, the meaning of life is the continuous pursuit”.

CLGO strives to cultivate leaders who are proficient in technology and management, have a global vision, and have a deep understanding of the Chinese market environment for China and even the global operation field. It is hoped that through such activities, more students who are interested in global operation can be involved, and CLGO program can be supported and recognized by all parties in the industry, so as to promote all parties to benefit from industry-university-research interaction.