I was born and raised in China. Then I went to Australia alone as an international student when I was 15. After I completed my high school there, I immigrated to Canada with my family. Before I went to Switzerland for my MBA degree in 2012, I have been in Canada for over 5 years, and I just love that country.
Having the experience of living, studying and working in four totally different countries (China, Australia, Canada, and Switzerland), I consider myself as very "multi-cultural". The greatest challenge that I had in teenager years was to figure out my personal identity and be perfectly comfortable with the "cultural gap" that I was living in.
I then realized that the diverse experience I had made me much stronger and ready to take on any challenge. On top that, I just have the desire to add on more destinations to my travel and professional experience. The past experience made me believe that there's nothing "impossible" as long as you have the right attitudes and passion to give a try.
Nicole Liu @ my education/specialization
I graduated from the University of British Columbia with a bachelor degree in psychology. Although this seemed unrelated to my hospitality career, I strongly believe that using psychology to reinforce guest relations and add value to experiential marketing has become more prominent nowadays. The experience of studying psychology has opened up my mind so that I become more attentive in considering others' opinions and anticipating the responses. In hospitality terms, the psychology knowledge does apply to many departments such as human resources, sales and marketing, leadership and training for employees.
Having said that, I consider hotel management as my life-long career. Back in Vancouver, I returned to school for my hotel management diploma and I had a wonderful experience working at The Pan Pacific Vancouver, a world-class five star hotel. The knowledge and experience I gained from both the school and the hotel was priceless. I got to work in the housekeeping department as management trainee and I also had the valuable experience working at the front-line to provide the best service to our guests and to support my colleagues.
The MBA experience in Les Roches Switzerland is eye-opening and mind-changing not only because I had the great opportunity to meet and to get to know friends all over the world, but also because it made me a more dedicated hospitality professional that always aims for great teamwork and efficiency.
I believe that in order to produce quality results, we all should appreciate cultural differences and respect others' opinions. A strong leader may not be the one who knows everything, but the one who can support and motivate others, and at the same time generate and integrate fresh ideas from his/her colleagues.
Nicole Liu @ the perfect hospitality in my mind
I love cultures, traveling, great food and happy, energetic people. I am always fascinated by the different experience out there for us to explore.
And the desire to learn new culture and experience is somehow related with the changing hospitality industry as well.
I believe that a successful hotelier needs to understand the culture of the organization as well as the cultures of the hotel guests. Meaning, we are not only focusing on the "service standards", but being more aware of the guests' real needs and how to consistently meet their needs.
As a hospitality young professional, I know that "hospitality" sometimes have slightly different meanings in different culture. guests' expectations, service characteristics from hotels, and ways of handle confusions can be very different in diverse cultures (For instance, in a low context communication culture/low power distance culture, the "hospitality" is to actively communicate with guests' needs. however, in a high context communication culture/ high power distance culture, the "hospitality" may be to fully respect the guests and give them time and space to make their decisions).
All of these, are not really because of "inconsistent policy and procedures", but it lies in the cultural background of people. Before going ahead to set policies and procedures, the hotel has to review its target markets, and by looking at its target markets, we then can figure out the real needs of the guests, then we can start working on the customer value proposals and designing the organization structures accordingly.
We all know that there is never a "perfect" way of being hospitable, but every little step that helps us move forward is the desire to study and understand our guests - who are they, and what do they need.
The first trip to London already made me fall in love with this city
With my beloved MBA classmates
Les Roches in the wintertime
school trip - with my lovely MBA friends
with my MBA classmates: we are the young hospitality professionals