Relationships and results are two key drivers for Sue Sanders, who admits that hospitality can often be a “transactional industry.”
“A personal approach and transactions are not mutually exclusive,” said the executive vice president/chief strategy and administrative officer for private hotel management and investment company Hospitality Ventures Management Group. With her deep well of experience in both human resources and strategy, relationships and results are exactly what she gets.
From her earliest days at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company as a corporate quality advisor then to a position as global director at Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide spearheading process improvement and leadership training across seven brands and six continents, Sanders’ corporate roles have uniquely prepared her to lead both people and projects. Years of guiding strategic planning, change management and organizational development as a management consultant led her to HVMG.
“Joining HVMG brought me back home; it married my experience with the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Starwood Hotels and Resorts and eight years of management consulting,” she shared, leaping on the opportunity to “put it all together” to grow HVMG alongside President/CEO Robert Cole and the executive team.
HVMG has transitioned in about 160 and out about 100 properties since 2001, Sanders noted. “We do have resorts and independents, but the bulk of our operations (80 percent) are premium-branded Marriott and Hiltons. Across the 60 hotels, 80 percent of our revenue comes from full-service operations.” Of course, with full-service operations comes a critical need to staff the properties. That’s one area where Sanders’ expertise is crucial for HVMG.
“Talent is very important to us as part of our DNA, the way that it makes sure that our culture is consistent across all the different brands,” Sanders explained. “We hire people to our benchmarks and our traits of success”— essentially, individuals who complement HVMG’s brand culture. “We're looking for the cultural match plus the skill set.” With Sanders’ team completing the upfront work to market the hotel and screen the candidates, HVMG then hands the qualified candidates to the hiring manager. “We believe our hotel should hire their own people,” she said.
It’s not just managed properties that benefit from Sanders’ dedicated approach to hiring. Under her leadership, HVMG has received the Atlanta Journal and Constitution’s “Top Workplaces” award five times in a row.
“You only get work done through and with teams and people; an individual might lead, but it takes the people in the organization to make things happen,” she said. “Most of my day is spent interacting with teams.” Given her affinity for relationship building, this is very on-brand.
Like many multifaceted leaders, there is no typical day for her. Sanders said she blocks time, multiple times a week, to focus on big blocks of work and the priority initiatives that have to do with the management company and or the hotels. One-on-ones with direct reports, frequent in-person and team meetings, interaction with the company CEO and others in the corporate office means that no two days are alike. “It is the rare CEO who is a subject matter expert across an organization, but rather knows how to align and lead people and teams to successful outcomes. I believe my track record of results in the latter with a sprinkling of subject matter expertise across the functions is why I was asked to take on this new role for HVMG.”
As she’s nurturing her own teams, Sanders is always working with an eye toward HVMG’s strategic priorities. Her organizational development expertise guides her as she strategizes how to move from today to a future vision.
She said she is in continuous pursuit of creating and improving competitive advantages in the eyes of company leadership and general managers, ownership groups and brand partners. Other priorities include driving aligned strategies and metrics centered around HMVG’s purpose and pulled through strategic initiatives to drive results; articulating results through property and corporate goals; and connecting the company’s leadership team, CEO and board of directors. “Meaningful change at any level can only be driven by people aligned around a common vision led through effective routines and processes,” she explained.
Making a difference is what drives Sanders, which she said for her is realized by influencing the development of leaders and creating solutions to elevate performance. And often, for Sanders, relationships and strategy collide.
“As a management company, HVMG is different from others in that we are willing to mold our internal practices, large and small, to accommodate our partners or owners.” This could be as simple as anticipating challenges, or in Sanders’ words, “looking ahead and seeing an obstacle and removing it.” Or it could be as daunting a task as getting a team invested in company strategy, though Sanders said that is a challenge that fascinates her.
“If you don't get people bought into whatever it is that you're trying to do, it is not going to succeed,” she said. “It will continue temporarily with positional influence, but it will not succeed long-term, if the people in the company don't want to do it. And so, you ask them, what is important to them, and how can you get their buy-in?”
Whether she is removing roadblocks or rolling out new initiatives, Sanders said that there is one thing she makes sure to do every day.
“I want to make sure that I have connected with someone in a meaningful way, every day. If there's a day where there hasn't been that opportunity, I make sure that I end it with a check-in with someone or a conversation with someone. I want to go to bed at night and know that, large or small, I've done something to make a difference."