Who Is Looking After the Box?
- GAS
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 22 hours ago
Author: Lionel Anidjar
When everyone is thinking outside the box,
who is looking after the box?
That line has been sitting on my LinkedIn profile for years. It began as a slightly
cheeky tagline, a way to stand apart in an industry obsessed with innovation and
disruption. But over time, it has become more personal — almost a reminder to
myself. In the hospitality industry today, I sometimes feel pretty alone in asking this
question.
The Rise of the Asset Manager
When I graduated from EHL, the natural path for most of us was into operations. We
dreamed of becoming a general manager, an F&B director, perhaps one day running
our own property. The glamour was in the service, in the craft, in the pride of
belonging to a hotel institution.
Fast forward to today, and the conversation among graduates is very different. The
hottest jobs are no longer in operations but in asset management, real estate
investment, consulting, and tech/AI. Finance has become the gravitational centre of
the industry. Asset managers now set the agenda and, in many cases, lead entire
projects.
I have worked on enough projects “led by the accountants” to know what that feels
like. The spreadsheet becomes the master document. The area program bends to
the exit strategy. Feasibility studies shrink to yield forecasts. Hotels are seen less as
places where people live, work, and experience, and more as instruments of
financial engineering.
The Risk of Forgetting the Roots
Of course, asset management is vital. Investors need their returns, and financial
discipline is essential. However, the industry also relies on those who excel in
operations — the individuals who ensure a property consistently performs, day in
and day out. Without operational excellence, the strategic vision cannot be realized.
If knowledge of how hotels really work erodes, the entire industry pays the price.
Who will design the back-of-house flows if nobody has worked a breakfast shift?
Who will anticipate the staffing needs of a complex room mix if nobody has managed
a roster? Who will safeguard the quality of service if nobody has lived it?
What the Schools Teach — and What Students Value
Interestingly, leading hotel schools have not abandoned operations. On the contrary,
they continue to insist on it. Most curricula still begin with a strong operational
foundation — kitchens, restaurants, reception, housekeeping — often reinforced by mandatory internships. Only after this immersion do students move into finance, real
estate, and asset management.
The structure of these programs proves that operations remain central. The
challenge is cultural: operational training is often viewed merely as a rite of passage,
endured rather than embraced, on the way to a “real” career in finance. Yet it is
precisely these experiences — stewarding, housekeeping, serving banquets — that
ground future leaders in the realities of running a hotel.
My Own Rediscovery
I will admit that as a student, I did not always value those roots. I wanted to move on
to strategy, to the bigger picture. But years later, on projects where the guest journey
was sacrificed to the spreadsheet, I realized the value of what EHL drilled into us at
the start.
Those endless service shifts, the obsession with detail, the insistence on standards
— they were not just rituals. They were the foundation. Without them, I would have
been ill-equipped to challenge an architect’s impractical plan or to push back when a
financial model ignored how a hotel actually works.
And perhaps that is what worries me most: if an entire generation skips that
grounding, what tools will they have to resist?
Market Knowledge and Feasibility Beyond Excel
A proper feasibility study is not just a yield forecast. It is an understanding of the
market — demand drivers, competition, brand positioning, cultural context, and
sustainability. It is about walking the site, not just modelling the IRR.
When feasibility is reduced to spreadsheets, nuance disappears. I have seen it
firsthand:
Suites sized to maximise key count, but too small to attract the luxury clientele
the owner hoped for.
Spas that looked impressive in renders, but were undersized, with no
provision for staff or storage — impossible to operate profitably.
F&B outlets multiplied for revenue projections, yet sitting half-empty because
the local market could never sustain them.
Kitchens designed without enough back-of-house space, forcing compromises
on menus and guest experience.
Resorts designed with pools positioned in shaded areas, leaving guests
without afternoon sun and undermining one of the key leisure experiences.
Hotels planned without staff accommodation in destinations where labour
shortages are chronic, leading to higher turnover and lower service levels.
Projects where sustainability was an afterthought, resulting in higher operating
costs and missed opportunities to align with guest expectations.
None of this is the fault of finance itself, but of imbalance. When financial models
dominate while operational insight is sidelined, hotels risk being built to be sold
rather than lived in. A proper feasibility study must go beyond ROI: it must ensure
that the product makes sense in its market, that it can be staffed, maintained, and
experienced in ways that deliver both returns and longevity.
The Way Forward
The solution is not to pit capital allocation roles against operations. Both are
necessary, and both bring immense value. The real challenge is balance — ensuring
that the industry values operational knowledge as much as financial fluency.
The best asset managers are precisely those who come from and understand
operations. They can translate between the spreadsheet and the service floor,
making sure that numbers and guest experience align. This is where my work adds
value: by standing at that intersection, challenging assumptions, and ensuring that
investment decisions are grounded in the realities of how a hotel actually functions.
Investors should actively reward teams who bridge these worlds, because those are
the teams that create sustainable long-term value. For young professionals, the
future belongs not to those who choose either finance or operations, but to those
who can integrate both. The ability to read a P&L and understand a housekeeping
roster, to model IRR and walk a site with the eyes of an operator — that is what will
set the next generation apart.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
After all these years, I find myself unexpectedly grateful to EHL for insisting that I
polish glasses, clean rooms, and serve banquets before I was allowed near a
balance sheet. At the time, it felt old-fashioned. Now, it feels essential.
That grounding is what allows me today to stand in the middle of a project and say:
yes, the numbers matter, but so does the box itself.
Because at the end of the day, when everyone is thinking outside the box, someone
still needs to look after it.
