LODGING spoke with PM Resort Group President Joe Bojanowski on a Friday afternoon, as he was wrapping up the previous week and planning for the following one earlier than taking off for the weekend “at an honest hour.” This, he stated, was enterprise as typical for the complete crew at PM Resort Group, the place he’s main the corporate’s progress and diversification and looking for to instill an entrepreneurial spirit and fervour for innovation and know-how. Describing his “egocentric motive” for the end-of-week push, he stated, “By correctly planning and ending up every little thing on Friday, we will all recharge and are available again able to go on Monday.”
Early Profession at DoubleTree
The profession path Bojanowski described additionally went largely as deliberate, particularly after he dedicated to a future within the hospitality trade, which he was launched to through a advertising internship at DoubleTree Resort & Resorts in Phoenix, the place he was pursuing a enterprise administration diploma on the College of Arizona.
Bojanowski meant to move residence to the D.C. space upon commencement, which occurred to dovetail properly with the corporate’s administration takeover of a 600-plus-room resort there. He was supplied and accepted a place as supervisor of the resort’s varied F&B shops. “There I used to be completely immersed within the F&B facet of the enterprise for the primary time, every little thing from a nice eating restaurant to a members-only membership.” He was studying lots, however stated, “Not like my counterparts within the rooms division, I used to be additionally engaged on each vacation.”
It was to get out of F&B and into the rooms division that he utilized for the primary of many transfers inside DoubleTree, steadily fashioning a technique for advancing in an trade he’d come to get pleasure from.
“As I used to be getting transferred, I spotted I used to be good on the hospitality enterprise. I loved the folks facet, and noticed the chance that was there. I used to be lucky to be round individuals who mentored and guided me. I believed by modeling the conduct of the profitable folks I used to be assembly, I, too, might obtain success like theirs,” he famous.
Amongst these mentors had been two who impressed upon him the significance of understanding the enterprise he was in, and the easiest way to attain his targets inside it. Noel Motus, then-new F&B director in that very first job, drove residence the truth that the hospitality enterprise was in actual fact a enterprise that wanted to be worthwhile. “As F&B shops supervisor, I used to be centered on delivering an important meals product and nice service, but it surely wasn’t till Noel had me put together a day by day P&L for each outlet that I spotted that every little thing we had been doing was meant to drive income, which, with correct administration of workers and operations, would drive revenue,” he stated. The second mentor, a now-deceased DoubleTree vice chairman, “actually drove me to Rhode Island.” He went on to inform Bojanowski, “I believe you’ve acquired quite a lot of potential and that this enterprise is best for you, however it’s worthwhile to see different areas of nation and get publicity to all aspects of the enterprise.”
His switch to a Newport, Rhode Island resort uncovered him to a largely seasonal property with excessive room charges, and with it, excessive visitor expectations, particularly in the summertime. Subsequent got here a transfer to Columbus, Ohio, a college market the place the rooms division accounted for many of the income. When he took a switch to South Florida, “a unique kind of resort and enterprise setting,” he was engaged to be married and hoped his fiancé, additionally within the trade however nonetheless in D.C., would be part of him there. “There was the seaside and the wonder, and I believed it could be superior to remain down right here for the remainder of our lives.”
As a substitute, his future spouse Pia launched him to Dave Pollin and Greg Miller, two of the founders of PM Resort Group, which in 1997 “was actually only a startup with one resort.” Based mostly on his operational expertise in resorts, they employed him in operations, PM Hospitality Methods, putting him on a brand-new skilled trajectory.
“With DoubleTree, I discovered concerning the enterprise whereas shifting round from property to property—some small, some massive, some resorts, city enterprise assembly areas—however after I joined PM in 1997, we had been growing quite a lot of resorts, so, for the primary time, I acquired publicity to the offers. Whereas my title remained EVP of operations, PM Hospitality Methods, I started main new builds and was concerned in almost every little thing—structure, inside design, allowing model relationships, and model negotiations. I used to be additionally dealing with the openings of properties primarily within the East Coast, which concerned managing working provides and inventories and hiring a workers,” he stated.
In 2007, he was named president of PM Hospitality Methods, Asia Pacific, managing a serious venture in China, and residing in Beijing Metropolis. He returned to D.C. in 2010 to serve first as president of Hospitality Methods after which, in 2011, president of the Resort Group.
Presidential Targets
Bojanowski described the “strategic progress”—together with through mergers—that’s now the aim of PM Resort Group. He commented on the corporate’s potential to fastidiously choose companions that complement its portfolio and conform to the corporate’s imaginative and prescient and general progress goals. “As a result of we’re a privately held firm, PM Resort Group just isn’t topic to stress from exterior buyers or exterior house owners,” he stated.
Amongst these mergers, he cited Paramount Resort Group, which added 12 branded resorts. “Paramount has a geographic footprint within the Midwest and Maine that labored effectively with our huge presence on the East Coast and, to some extent, on the West Coast,” he stated.
He additionally described how the corporate’s acquisition of Modus Resorts supported PM’s want to broaden into the life-style section whereas additionally including expertise to the group and enabling the creation of the life-style and luxurious group MODUS by PM Resort Group.
Classes to Take Away
To not depart the impression that the “success story” he described throughout that August interview was with out its challenges, Bojanowski talked about one he confronted that’s widespread amongst individuals who take pleasure in and are amply rewarded for his or her particular person achievements: empowering others to attain.
“Once I was rising in my profession, I discovered what I might do effectively and to work to the excessive commonplace I set for myself. However, as I superior, I wanted to discover ways to keep that commonplace whereas getting the work carried out by means of different folks, which was a reasonably steep studying curve for me,” he famous.
What he referred to as “each my greatest problem and largest alternative,” he lastly decided, “was understanding that the function of leaders/executives is much less on execution and extra on technique, construction, and sources.” The reward for getting it proper, he stated, is “having a corporation of individuals shifting in the identical path, aligned round a standard imaginative and prescient and set of targets and path.”
His conclusion? “It was exhausting for me, however I’ve come to know that I must depend upon others for my success. It’s about supporting folks in a means that enables them to attain issues, being versatile and adaptable to their totally different fashion, and understanding that it’s the variety of these types and ideas and visions that’s truly what brings energy to a crew and an consequence.”
Enhancing Visibility: Recognition Hyperlinks Efficiency With Alternative
PM Resort Group President Joseph Bojanowski has had a lucky profession by almost anybody’s measure. There have been individuals who helped him and journey that expanded his horizons, however most of all, there was the work effectively carried out that he believes made each alternative a stepping-stone to the following one.
That’s the foundation of his mantra, of kinds: “Efficiency will at all times intersect with alternative.”
Nevertheless, he added, in his personal profession, being “seen” was a vital component that linked his efficiency and alternative.
“It was as a result of there have been folks on the govt stage of the corporate that knew who I used to be and what I used to be doing that I believed if I stored performing effectively, it could create alternative,” stated Bojanowski.
Understanding this, he stated, the primary function of his personal journey to PM’s totally different properties now’s to be amongst those that acknowledge the efficiency of his crew members. “It’s a eager focus of mine and the manager crew,” he stated.
