There was another 4-star hotel right in front of Shangri-la Hotel.
It was called Concorde Hotel (not the same group as the Concord in France) which was owned by a Singapore public listed company.
An experienced female Japanese sales manager was running the business there, but she wanted to leave the hotel industry and join one of the Japanese corporate company in KL. So I received the first offer from another company if I wanted to take over her position.
The offer was attractive. In Shangri-la, I was earning not so much different from a local sales executive would earn, but Concorde offered to treat me as an expatriate. So the net income was nearly double, the tax was paid by the hotel, and most of all they offered the accommodation in the hotel with full meals and room service facilities.
Since I was not happy continuing the relationship with the boyfriend at that time, it looked such a promising new life moving out from the shared apartment with him.
So I accepted the offer and broke up with the boyfriend from the US. I met both the Japanese Director of Sales and the resident manager Mr Lau, and the both looked very understanding bosses. Now I was not a sales executive, but became a sales manager.
After finishing a major event for Fuji Xerox, I moved to Concorde Hotel, both the office and private room. I sent the letter to all the clients that now I work for Concorde Hotel. Everything looked perfect.
But, there was a new challenge of life waiting for me there.
The immediate boss was not the ones I met before. It was a mid-aged Chinese lady who was the Director of Sales & Marketing, and she was not happy to have a 24-year-old Japanese sales manager from Shangri-la Hotel, the 5 star in front of her.
Even until today, she has been the most difficult boss and least logical. For example, there was a meeting briefing at 8:45am and I came in to the office before 8:30am, but she was not happy. According to her, since I live in the hotel itself, I should come in much earlier than anyone else.
Her favorite phrase was "Yukiko, I am so disappointed." And that was used for most of the staff in the sales department very often. She was constantly disappointed and very hard to please her no matter what we did.
In one case, there was an in-house Japanese young female guest who was approached by a waiter in the hotel's coffee shop, and she checked out as she was scared when the waiter came to her room one night.
The lady boss said, "Yukiko, that is your fault." I could not believe my ears. What did I do?
She said, "Because you did not greet her and meet her upon check-in and give her your business card to contact for any inconvenience, she checked out without telling us what happened. We could have done something to make up with her if you did your job."
She was like that to almost everyone in the office, and many staff left the hotel because of her. I was resented from time to time, but I learned to live with it after a while because the sales team was quite united and we had buddies to complain about her if you can't stand.
Also, the bosses above her were excellent. Both the resident manager and the general manager, Mr Lee from Singapore, were aware of what was happening and always encouraged and supported me.
When the lady boss was reluctant to confirm my employment after the probation, it was Mr Lee who did so. He was very sharp and talkative man with a lot of charms, and very Singaporean.
In Concorde Hotel, there were less VIPs since it was not the 5 star hotel. But we had many guests from Japanese manufacturing companies like Hitachi, Matsushita, and Toshiba as well as many long term guests.
1996 was such a glorious year for my career as a sales manager. The total sales under my accounts was almost RM6Million, and Mr Lee referred me to others saying, "You know, she is my 6 Million woman from the Japanese sector." My business trips to all over Malaysia and Singapore did pay off that year.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Life of a Sales Executive: VIP and Convention
The first VIP I received in Shangri-la Hotel was the Prime Minister of Janan at that time: Tomiichi Murayama.
It was like a big project. It was mainly led by my Malay colleague Fadzlon, but I spent all my time preparing and receiving the Prime Minister.
The security was very tight. Both the secret service from Japan and Malaysia were there to make sure of Mr Murayama spent the safe visit.
After the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister of Japan also came and stayed in Shangri-la a few month later, but it was not that serious.
One of the member of the House of Representatives wanted to have a dinner with young Japanese people working in Kuala Lumpur. As I had a few friends in the Embassy of Japan, I was invited to the dinner with a few more Japanese ladies from other hotels.
He was young and friendly. He asked how it was to be working in Kuala Lumpur, and he offered Japanese sake to us during the dinner (he was a good and heavy drinker). And suddenly, he announced that he wanted to play golf the next day. As the dinner was held on Friday night, we were asked if we could play golf with him.
At that time, I only played golf once in the golf course. I told him I'm too lousy to play with him.
But he said that was just for fun and it doesn't matter if I was good or lousy. He hadn't played golf for more than 10 years so he would prefer to play with non-serious players.
That unexpected request from the member of Diet made the Embassy officer jump, but the golf next day was arranged last minute and I played golf with him.
He said the last time he played golf, he was working in a bank in Japan, and he was doing so very well until the emergency phone call stopped him in the 9th hole.
The emergency call told him that his father committed suicide and asked him to rush to the hospital.
Ever since, he said, he did not want to play golf and has not played.
His name is Shoichi Nakagawa, who became the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries under the Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and now he holds one of the main position in the LDP.
Besides working for VIPs, I was assigned to look after one big project in 2005: Mitsubishi Motors Dealers' Convention. The group of 800 dealers who had a outstanding performance the year before was invited to the trip to Kuala Lumpur. It was one of the largest corporate groups with many banquets.
The group was split to two, 400 each with 200 rooms, and they checked in and out on different dates. In the middle, the main dinner was held for all to participate. They had handsome budget, so everything had to be perfectly planned to impress the guests.
Logistics of the luggage for 800 guests had to be planned, the rooming list has to be arranged wisely, and the entertainment for the main dinner had to be first class.
I contacted the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board and sought assistance. As the guests were all Japanese and did not speak much English, the entertainment had to be good without using the language.
MTPB promised to back me up and arranged the best dance group and the military band for the event.
Each banquet room was decorated with different theme: One became a jungle, other became a beach...the entire function space was turned into a theme park just for one evening.
During the convention group's stay, I also stayed in the hotel and worked with a minimum sleep. I think I only slept less than 12 hours in total for 4 days.
For the night of the main dinner, 800 guests were in the main banquet room. They were happy with the traditional dance and military band.
When the military band played "Koujo no Tsuki", the large applause erupted from the audience. They were middle to elderly Japanese couple, and they were touched by the traditional Japanese tune played by Malaysian military band since some were old enough to know what happened during the WW2.
I was exhausted but proud of the successful convention. The project produced high occupancy rate and large banquet revenue to the hotel, and left wonderful memory to the dealers and me, personally.
I still remember a big smile on my boss, Yawata-san, after the last bus departed the hotel after the convention. Even though it was such an important and large group for the hotel, he completely let me handle the project alone. It became a great experience and gave me a confidence that I can handle something meaningful to the business.
It was like a big project. It was mainly led by my Malay colleague Fadzlon, but I spent all my time preparing and receiving the Prime Minister.
The security was very tight. Both the secret service from Japan and Malaysia were there to make sure of Mr Murayama spent the safe visit.
After the Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister of Japan also came and stayed in Shangri-la a few month later, but it was not that serious.
One of the member of the House of Representatives wanted to have a dinner with young Japanese people working in Kuala Lumpur. As I had a few friends in the Embassy of Japan, I was invited to the dinner with a few more Japanese ladies from other hotels.
He was young and friendly. He asked how it was to be working in Kuala Lumpur, and he offered Japanese sake to us during the dinner (he was a good and heavy drinker). And suddenly, he announced that he wanted to play golf the next day. As the dinner was held on Friday night, we were asked if we could play golf with him.
At that time, I only played golf once in the golf course. I told him I'm too lousy to play with him.
But he said that was just for fun and it doesn't matter if I was good or lousy. He hadn't played golf for more than 10 years so he would prefer to play with non-serious players.
That unexpected request from the member of Diet made the Embassy officer jump, but the golf next day was arranged last minute and I played golf with him.
He said the last time he played golf, he was working in a bank in Japan, and he was doing so very well until the emergency phone call stopped him in the 9th hole.
The emergency call told him that his father committed suicide and asked him to rush to the hospital.
Ever since, he said, he did not want to play golf and has not played.
His name is Shoichi Nakagawa, who became the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries under the Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, and now he holds one of the main position in the LDP.
Besides working for VIPs, I was assigned to look after one big project in 2005: Mitsubishi Motors Dealers' Convention. The group of 800 dealers who had a outstanding performance the year before was invited to the trip to Kuala Lumpur. It was one of the largest corporate groups with many banquets.
The group was split to two, 400 each with 200 rooms, and they checked in and out on different dates. In the middle, the main dinner was held for all to participate. They had handsome budget, so everything had to be perfectly planned to impress the guests.
Logistics of the luggage for 800 guests had to be planned, the rooming list has to be arranged wisely, and the entertainment for the main dinner had to be first class.
I contacted the Malaysia Tourism Promotion Board and sought assistance. As the guests were all Japanese and did not speak much English, the entertainment had to be good without using the language.
MTPB promised to back me up and arranged the best dance group and the military band for the event.
Each banquet room was decorated with different theme: One became a jungle, other became a beach...the entire function space was turned into a theme park just for one evening.
During the convention group's stay, I also stayed in the hotel and worked with a minimum sleep. I think I only slept less than 12 hours in total for 4 days.
For the night of the main dinner, 800 guests were in the main banquet room. They were happy with the traditional dance and military band.
When the military band played "Koujo no Tsuki", the large applause erupted from the audience. They were middle to elderly Japanese couple, and they were touched by the traditional Japanese tune played by Malaysian military band since some were old enough to know what happened during the WW2.
I was exhausted but proud of the successful convention. The project produced high occupancy rate and large banquet revenue to the hotel, and left wonderful memory to the dealers and me, personally.
I still remember a big smile on my boss, Yawata-san, after the last bus departed the hotel after the convention. Even though it was such an important and large group for the hotel, he completely let me handle the project alone. It became a great experience and gave me a confidence that I can handle something meaningful to the business.
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