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By Kerry Painter, CFE
Where can
you learn the following:
•
The “green” movement is here to stay.
•
Your focus should be on “desired non-customers.”
•
Technology enhancements are your friend — if you embrace them fully.
(If Chili’s is doing on-line customer
surveys, why aren’t you?)
•
The last three feet of your organization’s staff line are the most powerful
tools
or an extraordinary delivery experience.
•
Homework for effective up-to-date management is to shop, eat in restaurants
and watch reality TV.
•
Strategic thinking is like sailing: You know your charted course is to get
to
the other side of the lake, but you
have to be willing to change and tact to
match the shifting winds to get
there.
•
This new young generation of workers coming to
us is “unfinished” and will
require a coach, mentor, teacher and
mommy, not a traditional boss.
•
The country’s hot new concession/ fast food item is hot sandwiches.
•
Assorted designer water bars are the wave of the future.
•
“It’s not personal, it’s business” is inaccurate. If it’s business, it’s
personal.
•
You shouldn’t manage activities but results.
•
People live longer and have fewer children in each family, so by extension
there’s more money to be spent on each
child. Are you getting much of
that money?
•
People come to our facilities to solve a problem and it’s your job to figure
out
that problem and build a business on it.
•
Blink is the new hot business book, if you haven’t looked on the bestsellers
list lately.
•
“Beautiful human behavior at every point of contact” is the new definition
of
customer service.
•
Experiences have a shorter lifespan than they used to. And, where can you
sit in a room where the combined number of
industry year’s experience tops
210 years?
Why, Cornell, of course, at the Senior Executive
Symposium. As controversial and strange as some of these ideas and theories
might seem, be assured they’re not considered out of the ordinary for some
very successful companies presently operating throughout the world.
What’s in Store
“Unorthodox thinking” describes the way you’ll start to look at the world
after you attend the Cornell Symposium. Each of the above disparate pieces
of information came from this year’s “Strategic Planning for Leaders”
session, but the beautiful thing about this educational experience is that
by the time this third year is again taught, the information will be turned
upside down, and different outlooks will be on the agenda. It’s timely and
fresh — exactly what top managers of today strive to find to recharge their
batteries.
Unlike any other training IAAM has to offer, Cornell
brings the opportunity to delve into big-picture thinking for long periods
of time. Most classes are a minimum of four hours, allowing students to
explore and really get to know the subject intimately. The professors are
worldly and well read, and the information presented is a stretch to grasp,
just the kind of learning a facility manager loves. The time you spend with
other industry leaders broadens your perspective and limitless thinking
skills.
Networking is at its peak at this school. I remember my
first year sitting with people who were considered icons in our industry. To
have my mentors now interacting in the same class exercise as me was really
stimulating and powerful. Who doesn’t want to see inside the thinking of the
IAAM president?
Since the symposium takes place at the Hotel School, be
assured there’s more than your fair share of extraordinary food and wine.
Dinners are extravagant, and the cooking school experience turns the most
mediocre cook into a world famous foody. Shouldn’t everyone make strawberry
smoothie lollipops to clear the palette between courses? Paired with
appropriate wines, you’ll quickly see what’s available throughout the
industry and you’ll be ready to go home and revamp the food offerings in
your facility.
A League of Their Own
Finally, Cornell in itself is an Ivy League experience you’ll relish for
years to come. Since the Senior Executive Symposium is so packed with events
and classes, you’ll have little time to enjoy the campus and surrounding
Ithaca, so here are a few pieces of information to get you ahead of your
visit.
The school prides itself that 40 Nobel laureates have
been affiliated with Cornell as faculty members or students. The campus is
so big that it has its own zip code. Cornell University’s colleges, schools,
and other academic units offer more than 4,000 courses, 70 undergraduate
majors, 93 graduate fields of study, undergraduate and advanced degrees, and
continuing education and outreach programs.
As you walk the campus you can’t miss the amazing clock
tower chimes, and although Cornellians may not know every word of the alma
mater’s six verses, they certainly know the tune, thanks to the 21 chimes in
McGraw Tower. Student chimes-masters climb the 161 stairs to the top of the
tower, where they play three concerts daily. Each includes a Cornell
standard. The Jennie McGraw Rag rings out each morning, the alma mater at
mid-day, and the Evening Song at day’s end.
The best place to buy Cornell souvenirs and clothing is the
big underground bookstore. Aside from the many restaurants and yes, bars, in
Ithaca, it might also be interesting to learn that Ithaca has extensive
documentation supporting the ice cream sundae’s creation in 1892. The
information is so specific, the city can almost pinpoint the exact hour the
first ice cream “Sunday” was served. While other cities may claim the
sundae, none can support its claim with primary evidence. This gives Ithaca
title to the first documented ice cream sundae in the United States. In June
all the restaurants and ice cream stores give free sundaes on Sunday.
So there you
have it — a glimpse of this year’s course content, a hopefully motivating
reason to register for next year’s sessions and a newfound strong interest
in becoming one of the 71 elite few who have graduated from the IAAM Cornell
Senior Executive Symposium. See you next June. fm
Kerry Painter, CFE, is general manager of the
Northshore Harbor Center in Slidell, La. |
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