Conor Kenny has worked in marketing, design and people development for the last 25 years. His career started out at Kilkenny Design and prior to founding Conor Kenny & Associates, he was Group Business Development Director for the Irish Pub Company and McNally Design International.. Conor has worked directly with many of the world’s leading brands including Baileys, Guinness, Hennessy, Tullamore Dew and Smirnoff, through to International hotel groups including Intercontinental, Crown Plaza, DeVere, Hilton, Conrad amongst others. He has also worked with casino groups in Las Vegas and in the UK and with several independent nightclub and leisure operators at home and abroad. In 2002 he founded Conor Kenny & Associates to help hospitality professionals create more imaginative and ambitious plans, develop its people and create real, meaningful and customer driven strategies. Today, Conor is advising many of Ireland’s leading hotels, hotel groups and independent hospitality owner/operators. Conor is a regular contributor to many industry publications, a frequent conference speaker and a speech writer for industry leaders. Conor is an honours graduate of University College Dublin and is a keen marathon runner.
I don't really buy the idea of "We are at a crossroads" It assumes you can keep going the same way, straight on. Generally you can't, if you want to change and adapt. I'm more persuaded by the idea of a T-junction. It forces us to turn left or right. Every hotel faces these inevitable choices. The trick, at the edge of 2012, is to have a vision, a plan and a team behind you.
Conor Kenny & Associates | Wednesday 11 January 2012
You can only worry, be negative and stay down for so long. After that you have 2 choices, grow or die. It’s time to grow; the alternative is not much fun. A Business is just like a garden, there’s no difference. It has seasons and it ebbs and flows like nature itself. You have to mind it, watch it and nurture it. You have to drive it on, plant new things and cut back.
Conor Kenny & Associates | Monday 21 November 2011
When the dawn broke and the recession hit hard, I remember asking my Dad what was the difference between managing in a recession and a boom. He paused, looked at me and in his own inimitable way said "None". It took a little while to digest this starkly simple truism but it stuck with me. Not only that, it is a compass I intend to employ forever more. The first shoots of recovery are nervously tr...
Conor Kenny & Associates | Tuesday 8 November 2011
There is a very useful saying about the man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing. Today, that sentiment is especially true. If you are engaged or engaging in a "It's all about price strategy" can I gently suggest you close the door, turn off the lights and hang the 'Shut for Business' sign outside? It has nothing to do with price. It has everything to do with value. The ...
A crisis can really test your leadership skills, but do you have what it takes for effective crisis management? Conor Kenny from Conor Kenny and Associates shares his advice for crisis management.
Imagine you have a fear of flying. You board your flight full of fear, dread and a sense of terror. Engines whine towards full power, the superstructure groans. Unnaturally you head towards the clouds a...
In this article, Conor Kenny, Head of hospitality & tourism industry consultants Conor Kenny & Associates, looks at 15 reasons a prospective customer might not make it past the front door of your Pub. I found myself feeling very sorry for my friend as we boarded our flight to the UK. He looked ghastly and his white pallor told me this journey was not going to be his easiest.
This is all about complaints. When The Editor of hotel-industry.co.uk gave me my monthly brief for our monthly column I was excited and inspired by his thinking. Today, in a turbulent world, how you handle complaints will define you. In fact, it has little to do with ‘how you handle complaints’ and in an online world ‘everything you say in response to a complaint’ that will really define you.
It may sound like something Groucho Marx might say but it was Nobel prize-winner, Niels Bohr who said “Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future” Our reality is that crystal ball gazing confirms that we continue to have a striking in ability to forecast the future. Look at the current economic climate? Who would have thought that our precious piggy banks were unsafe? Who would hav...
Conor Kenny & Associates | Thursday 7 October 2010
To quote a famous fellow Irishman (he’s famous, I’m Irish) George Bernard Shaw, playwright, once said; “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.” Marketing has never been so necessary. A changed landscape means the need for a new plan, a new marketing plan.
Conor Kenny & Associates | Thursday 2 September 2010
I Don’t Like Mondays | Bob Geldof is famous for many things but, to my generation, his defining legacy is ‘I don’t like Mondays’ It is as fresh today and perhaps more relevant. If you are in Sales and if you don’t like Mondays then you are probably in the wrong job. Or, as the saying goes “your attitude to the job may just defeat you before you even begin” To succeed in sales you have to love you...
