 by Raini Hamdi, HOTEL Asia Pacific
If there is one hot seat in the industry it is the Asia Pacific COO position at Millennium & Copthorne. When Bill Barnett left Century International Hotels to take up the post in July, many wondered how long he would ask. Now they have their answer - three months.
The former Century vice-president of operations was roped in to oversee M&C's hotels in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. Kwek Leng Beng, chairman of M&C, seemed delighted to have lured him from Brian Deeson's outfit. “With his extensive experience in Asia Pacific, I am confident that he will be able to add value to our growing network of hotels,” he said at the time. “We want to take the group to the next level, and this appointment should help us achieve it.” So what happened?
The truth is, no one really knows. Or, they're not telling. One guess is that Barnett's portfolio had shrunk since his appointment: when he left he was in charge only of the group's five Singapore hotels. However, further insight can be gained from one insider who said the culture of allowing senior executives to innovate and change without fear has yet to be fostered at M&C's head office, as well as at its hotels in Singapore.
Shortly after he joined, Barnett said that M&C had made “a quantum leap”, but was only halfway there to establishing itself as a global hotel brand. He added M&C must keep acquisitions “disciplined”, alluding to growing pains that might result from too-rapid expansion.
Kwek's nephew, Vincent Yeo, will take over Barnett's duties. Yeo is no newcomer to the scene, but it suggests that only family managers can make it work. Not so says Kwek, who in a recent interview with Forbes magazine vowed to build a stable team to manage his growing US empire. The jury is still out on the Barnett case.
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