New Life In Concorde

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.