The Sleeping Giant
During the last several months, we have seen a lot of change in all types of industries. Hospitality, travel, and tourism got hit very hard.
We all had to uproot our previously comfortable lifestyles due to the pandemic, and our life now is still very different from just a few years ago.
The crisis destroyed many companies, many good companies learned to survive amidst the pandemic, and a handful of great companies were improved by the crisis and came out even stronger from experience.
At the height of 2019, having broken the previous year's company records, several giants scattered across the land of enchantment celebrating record occupancy numbers went quiet and dim during what normally would be the beginning of a lustrious busy season.
All but one of these giants had gone to sleep in the spring of 2020, no longer filled in occupancy, no longer providing food service in its restaurants; these giants were put to sleep due to the pandemic that hit our world.
Several areas closed down; lights turned off, the lobby music left playing to keep the handful of employees from the Erie sounds of silence accompanying the floors above.
There were no more happy greetings or smiles from guests for the handful of brave souls who decided to stay as they arrived for a great experience and a night out. Instead, the few that visited were met with a temperature gun to the forehead as a lonely employee wearing a mask was trying desperately to maintain social distance.
As the massive building stayed dormant, there was a lot of upkeep for the very small team inhabiting the insides of this beast that stretched for several floors reaching up high in the sky. The opening of such a sleepy giant would be a large undertaking, and it would rake maximum effort to remove the cobwebs and dust off in time to be ready to welcome guests and join its sister properties in the heart of hospitality action.
The window of opportunity was closing, and the sun was getting ready to set, so it took a massive effort to implement the newly learned techniques of lean and consolidation in such a short timeline, but just like you can't hold back the dawn, this giant was not going to stay asleep too long so the team was formed and an action plan laid out.
Setbacks came in and settled on this project like a member of the strategic team, as a constant presence generated several frustrations and compounded the feelings by the several hiring obstacles we endured, but from these failures came growth, and we powered on and finally made it through to the other side.
The grand opening came, and even though we were nervous, we were all greatly proud of the time we put into this project, and to see such a majestic giant alive again made it all worthwhile.
The heart of hospitality has always been in its people, and these special heroes got their properties through the tough times and they are the rocks that all the hotels leaned on, and they deserve special recognition for getting us to through the storm with that I want to say to all of them, thank you.
