Monday, August 10, 2009

Don Dreiske the businessman

Don's business philosophy was simple. Make money, lots of money!Do it with integrity, do it with the help of your team, take care of the little guy, BUT make money no matter what. He once told me that money is all that matters. Make money. And he did. His properties were better than most, more up-to-date than most, cleaner than most, the food was better than most and his General Managers were more scared than most. It was a good scared or a bad scared depending on the GM and if he was meeting the objective Don (and only Don) had set for him

He had these Rules of Thumb. Maids cost should be a certain percent of room revenue. Food should be a certain percent of food revenue. Payroll should be a certain percent, management a certain percent, maintenance a certain percent, etc. Amazingly, almost incredibly, he was spot on, dead right. If those numbers did not come in, the GM (or those in corporate office) had big time explaining to do. The GM's were always amazed that he knew as much about their property as they did. You know why? Because he, basically, left them alone to run the property as they agreed. Did he talk to them? Every day! Every single day, no matter what. Sometimes about the numbers, sometimes about their people, but every day. And most of all, he controlled the purse strings tightly yet evenhandedly (is that a word?). No one had authority to spend over $100 without Don knowing about it (unless there was an emergency and even then after cell phones were popular). Really! And, if your numbers reflected the percentages according to his Rules of Thumb, maybe no questions were asked.

And, if the property did well, guess who Don took on a cruise to celebrate. The maids and waiters and waitresses. Management from other properties would come in when they were on the cruise and fill in until they got back. There were people on those cruises that had never been out of their hometown. Do you think that might be what endeared the "little guy" him and virtually eliminated turnover. Interesting. It is not that GM's didn't get rewarded. They did. They got to keep their jobs!

What do you think so far?

No comments:

Post a Comment