Interview with Mr. Jack Tuason.
· Mr. Tuason, before being part of hotel Industry, who are you back then? Personal background?
I’m just like every other college students. I’m just a regular average guy that takes hotel management in Las Vegas. I had multiple amounts of part time jobs, very tough positions, (he laughs) which are front desk, room service. I was also a security and I had to do this prior to graduating which help me out quiet but before that, I’m just like any other kid.
· When you were a child, have you ever think of becoming where you are right now?
As a child I’m really a traveler and I have this love for hotels, I love good hotels, I love staying in different hotels. My father Antonio Tuason had a very good friend, who was a hotel General Manager and see his lifestyle was very interesting to me so I can say that he is one of my influences and kick my interest in being hotel General Manager.
· How would you describe your personality?
I would say that my personality is energetic, I would say that I am a free-thinker, I don’t think like most people thinks. I usually thinks as the opposite as expected. I like to be very unique and different but in general I’m passionate about things but most important I get bored easily so I don’t want to do the same thing over and over. I don’t to do things I don’t want to do.
· What are the benefits of being in hotel Industry?
The benefits are you know, the benefits are the lifestyle type of job. If you’re a type of person that enjoys working in a unique environment cause It’s not a typical office. If you’re a type of person wants to have a different things happening all the time then the hotel industry suited to you. In hotel Industry, you worked in odd times sometimes in your busy schedules. You can be a trainer turned into a CEO, it’s the ability to adjust both in management and service styles.
· What are hardships in your profession?
Well, in order to move up, you have to do many things, you may have to move locations you particularly don’t want. But the real hardships is you may have to go in certain positions just to learn it even though you don’t necessarily want to, you know, you will deal with different people.
· How do you handle difficult employees?
Basically, I trained higher the right ways so I don’t think I have difficult employees. Secondly, you have to understand that management Is unique so you need to manage them individually so difficult employees will soon find out that they are in the wrong company if they don’t change their ways. It’s just the way you manage them.
· Have you ever fired someone due to erratic behavior?
I fired many employees due to improper behaviors. I mean cat fights, inflicting physical violents, theft, I fired those kind of employees.
· How do you motivate your staff to produce their best performance?
Well I tell them to go above and beyond. I usually try to reward them with upgrading their positions or increases their salary or maybe bonuses but the real motivations is their sensual to the organizations and if they don’t achieve their goals impacts the entire group.
· What makes you unique as a leader?
I think it’s the ability to think out of the box, the ability to make people to be passionate as I am, so I was to say that I’m influencing people.
· How do you decide important decisions?
Sometimes it’s a gut check and you’ll know it from past experience. Other times you have to evaluate the entire impact of a right and wrong decisions. I usually go with the greater opportunities and a bigger reward and I’m not the kind of a guy that is playing safe. I’d rather look for the opportunities than the negative possibilities or outcome but obviously If I think my opinion is not the one then I’ll ask for other opinions who are the real expert
· What do you consider to be the most challenging thing about being a manager?
The most challenging is to be able to be knowledgeable with the whole organization needs. What I mean is you need to understand what your managers have to do and be able to support and help to achieve goals but sometimes leaders rely on their managers and not knowing enough what they’re doing that things become bad before they support and change the course of direction. So I think it’s becoming highly involved and be able to motivate the team and also support when needed.
· What are the recent trends in management that you have come across?
There are no any trends in management right now. I think that probably things that are more suited for the talented manager, the talent to manage your whole team and be sure you have a balance team and making a succession planning, making sure there’s a growth in organization. There’s people lining up as your company grows. Its more on strategic thinking side or you can be purely task-based
· How would you describe your management style?
That’s a hard question for me to answer but my management style is I like to get involvement; I like people to be accountable and responsible. I like to have pressure but a good kind of pressure, I mean to submit the best work because they care about what they’re doing rather than because they have to. I like to be very intense. I have very high expectations. I want people to be resourceful, to be innovative, to come up with the problem solving rather than just pointing out problems. My style is very intense but I also know how to have fun in organizations.
Advice/Tips:
· Do you have any advice for upcoming manager like you?
I would say mentorship’s is one of the key in any organizations. Imitation is very good as well, I mean there’s a lot of managers who do well but you don’t need to copy them but there are aspects you need to imitate and start to develop your own style but for the first stage you must do what a great managers do.
· How be successful and effective leader like you? I think half of it would come from within but in the other half; you have to strive for it. Be sure of taking chances and being have a good work ethic and being dedicated and you have to be counted and be noted so I think taking safe course of action is what many percent of people do. So you have to do different, I would say take every opportunity, every interaction that has opportunity. Any situation is an opportunity. You don’t have to be mediocre or anything, its hard to be exceptional everyday but if you take everything that you do and just try not to be a mediocre in it, you’ll be exceptional. The way you walk doesn’t have to be mediocre instead you can have a balancing step, the way you speak doesn’t have to be very soft or loud it could be a perfect tone. The way you dress could be mediocre but dress professional. So in essence its very easy to be exceptional if you’ll just eliminate the mediocre things in our life.
· Do you have any motto or sayings just to inspire people?
I don’t have any. Well, Id rather to be me than you. (he laughs very loud) No, I’m just kidding.
“I usually say that good things in life are hard to do, there’s no easy things that worth the reward”, you should do difficult things, you should different things most probably the hard ones. So don’t only do the jobs because its easy but do things that challenge you in a position that’ll test you and you do that enough you’ll have bigger things in life come to you. You could get great reward if you do challenging things in life.
Mr. Jack A. Tuason, who is a member of the Board of Trustees at Enderun Colleges, teaches Principles in International Tourism and Hospitality. He earned his BS in Hotel Administration from University of Las Vegas in Nevada. Mr. Tuason started his career as front office manager of Hyatt Regency Monterey, and then director of rooms division of Hyatt Regency San Francisco. He moved to Pan Pacific Hotels and Resorts and was assigned to properties in Manila, Malacca, Kuala Lumpur, and Singapore. He then concurrently became director of HSAI Raintree and general manager of its property, Discovery Suites, from 1999 to 2005. He is the youngest general manager during his time. Mr. Tuason also founded Ambergris Solutions (now known as Telus International Philippines).
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