What is your impression on this city?

Well, the impression is very positive. Today I'm looking out of the window; it's even more pleasant because spring is now moving into town and the weather begins warm up.

Before working here, did you often visit Beijing?

I have visited Beijing a couple of times. My first visit was in 1998 and then in 2000. I must say I haven't been here for many years and only came back in 2009. I was very impressed with the changes the city has gone through, especially with regards to the 2008 Olympics. I had the feeling I am arriving at a completely different city, last year, I mean the airport, the streets, the buildings, everything. It was so positively different.

Before coming here you worked as General Manager of Hotel Adlon Kempinski. What do you think the main differences of these two hotels and what's your management philosophy?

Well, the Adlon in Berlin is a hotel icon; it's like the Peninsula in Hong Kong, the Georges V in Paris, or the Savoy in London, which are hotel icons with a long tradition and history. At the same time, in Berlin, the Adlon is considered the unofficial guesthouse of the German government, so we have a lot of state visits, dignitaries, famous people.

This hotel here in Beijing is only 17 years old, not a hotel of hundred-year history or similar. But it is for sure our flagship here in China as this is where it all started. We opened here in 1992. At that time, we were the first international joint venture and still today I think we are playing a very important role in the Beijing hotel market. This is not only a business hotel, but also a complex, because we offer hotel services, apartment & office services, and we also have 42 shops and showrooms as well as the Yansha Friendship Store. We are mainly focusing on business customers, but we also have corporate guests, meeting clients and leisure travelers.

You worked in so many Kempinski Hotels before and so which hotel impressed you most?

I must say that every hotel has its own story and its own history. Certainly the Adlon was a highlight in my career and it was my last post before coming here. The Vier Jahreszeiten Kempinski in Munich, which I managed, is also very impressive, because it is 150 years old and it is really the grandmother of all Kempinski Hotels. That hotel also left a great impression on me. But I must say that I am always enjoying the hotels I manage at a certain time. I, thanks god, don't have the manner to turn around and look back, I always enjoy what I am doing now. This is very important. I know that this job requires change, but myself and my wife don't have a problem with that, so we always enjoy where we are and we are always at home where we are.

What is your repositioning for this hotel? And how about the preparations for renovation of this hotel?

Yes, this is going to be a big step and a great project here for this hotel. We are planning to renovate the entire room inventory including our rooftop SPA, which is going to convert into an executive lounge penthouse. We are going to build a new SPA.

We are building mock up rooms at the moment and they are going to be presented to the shareholders in mid-June and hopefully, we will get the final approval and can start the planning no longer than 3 months. So ideally in late September, we will start the renovation.

The hotel will remain open with half of room inventory and the other 250 rooms will be out of service for a period of 6 to 8 months. We don't know the scheme at the moment and once this half is finished, we will move to the other side and take the new rooms back into operation. The good thing is that we can still operate and there will be no noise disturbance, because basically we are going to close down one half of the building while the other half still remain in operation.

Confronting the climate change, environment protection is more and more important for the world, do you take any measures to protect environment in your hotel?

Yes, first of all, I have to say we are in the deluxe hotel business here, so we don't believe in these environmental initiatives of having your towel for three days and if you want to continue using it hang it up in your bathroom and if you want to discontinue throw it in your bathtub. This is something we don't believe in and this has been an initiative some years ago and I know still some hotels do it but if you stay with Kempinski you have a fresh towel every day and you have your fresh bed linen. But of course we do a couple of things, we use efficient light bulbs, we have reclaimed water systems, we recycle rain water and we have a couple of years ago invested 20 millions RMB for ice storage system to reduce the power consumption during summer times for example so basically, are cooling units which we heavily use during the summer time, for the entire complex are based on the ice storage system, so this was a great step forward and of course we divide garbage and other things that we do but we do this in a very controlled way and well managed, but we are not a green institution or something like this you know, so we participate in those initiative and we always look for good solutions, but at the same time we are providing are deluxe services.

As an hotelier with 30 years experience in this industry would you like to share your successful experience with us?

I think one of my successes is that I like what I am doing; this job is my passion. I can motivate people. I can lead people. I think as a hotel manager, if you want to be successful, you have to know how to deal with both employees and customers. This is a people business after all; we are producing a service and we offer a certain quality.

Then you also have to be in a position to change, which is very important. We move people around, especially managers, managing directors and general managers, because the personal impact of a manager can make a hotel successful or not. You have to be initiative and always look for improvements and opportunities.

It seems that most of your working experience is in Europe and now is in Beijing. It is totally brand new for you, what is your feeling about this?

This life is indeed different, but by all means and not at all negative. I think managing a hotel no matter where you are is something you know or you don't know. It happens that I know how to manage a hotel and also know how to deal with people. Of course, I have to adapt myself to the country I am living and to the people I am working with. Now I am still in a phase where I get to know the Chinese people, where I get to know the Chinese mentality, but I think I can say after three months I have already adapted to a certain extent. I must say it is very positive. I arrived here with a mix of ambition, hesitation and uncertainty, because this is the first time working here. But I am positively impressed and I am getting very positive feedback, which is very nice.

What is your strategy of people management?

My strategy of people management is that you have to stand for what you are saying. I'm living what I stand for, and I think this is very important. You will be successful and respected in life, if people work for you because they accept your mentality, your way of communication, and your way of leadership. You have to explain to people what you want and you have to be the first one to execute. People will not follow a guy who happens to sit on the chair of a managing director without doing anything. You need to manage people with your personality, communication skills, as well as leadership skills. Being transparent, explaining to them what you want and with your own participation. This is very important and that is how I see my role.

You come here for 3 months, so do you have any measures that you will take for this kind of efficient communication?

If you want to have proper communication, it is key to have a good organization in place, so we change the organization, the reporting lines, and we enlarge some responsibilities. We initiated various meetings. It has to be a two-way communication. For example, we initiate direct line meeting and also town hall meeting, where I will give a presentation to the employees and they will hear it directly from me about what is going on in this hotel and what will happen in the future and why this will happen. Because usually, with every delegation, some of the messages are fading out and at the end only 50% of what you said is going to arrive to the employee. So it is very important that I speak to them once in a while directly.