Aik Hong Tan, Chief Investment Officer, Hotel Equities & Founding Principal, Greenwood Hospitality Group, interviewed by Lan Elliott

Aik Hong shares the key leadership skill he identified early on and the significant learnings he gleaned navigating downturns.  Following a successful career in Asia, he describes how he established himself in the U.S., then launched a new company.  He describes 3 keys to building high performing teams and the Churchill quote he keeps in mind when interviewing candidates.

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Lan Elliott 0:01

Hello and welcome to DEI Advisors. My name is Lan Elliott on behalf of DEI Advisors. We are an Arizona non profit dedicated to empowering personal success. And today's guest advisor is Akon Tan, the founding principal of Greenwood Hospitality Group and also the chief investment officer for Hotel Equities. Really pleased to have him on. Akon, welcome to DEI Advisors.

Aik Hong Tan 0:27

Good afternoon, Lan. Thank you for the opportunity to chat with you.

Lan Elliott 0:31

Absolutely. I've been looking forward to this for a little while. So why don't we dive right in? As I mentioned, you're the, you founded Green World Hospitality, and you recently added another role as CIO of Hotel Equity. So your journey continues to evolve. Could you share a bit the inflection points in your career? And if there was one, One or more factors that you think were instrumental in your success?

Aik Hong Tan 1:02

I, as I reflect back in my twenties, I was actually a junior manager at a property developer in Singapore. And, I was a few years past graduating from college. And I was, to be honest, very confident in myself at that time. And believed a lot in my own capabilities and technical skills. And then as I was watching my director, the person I was reporting to, he was really good with working with different people from within the department, different departments, as well as working with her boss and working with our clients. And I realized, began to realize that she actually getting big, she's getting things done, not necessarily because of her technical skills, but it's really her ability to make people comfortable understanding the goals that we are trying to achieve. And then working together towards it. And I was beginning to realize that, ah, first of all, it takes a whole team to get things done. And more importantly, it's actually all the soft skills, the interpersonal skills. And, my spreadsheets as good as they are, they don't get things done. That's, other folks buy in and work towards that. So that was like, as a junior person in the twenties, I began, it was a big aha moment for me. And then I also then had this opportunity to come into the U. S. when I was in my mid 30s. I was given a really tough assignment at that time. It was just after 9 11, and the Singapore group owned a management company, hotel management company in Denver, Colorado. And it wasn't making money at that time because the industry suffered a downturn and Singapore gave me a mandate when I came over. It's basically, you have six months. Fix it or close it. Oh, it was a fairly challenging situation. And I realized that I'm new to the industry. I've never been to the country. Don't really have a network of contacts to lean on. So I actually had to quickly learn about the business. What is the hotel business all about in the U S who are the different stakeholders and place and so forth. And that was do a lot. Thank goodness for Google. I could research a lot through that. But more importantly, I had to develop trust with the team that I was coming into. The unfortunate thing is as part of the restructuring many of the folks had to be let go. So those who were remaining obviously looked at me and worried about their job security and so forth. So I had to really rebuild the whole team dynamic, try to build their earn their trust again, try to learn what they, Establish a vision for what the company can be so that we can quickly get out of the crisis mode. It's the worst thing possible is forever be in a crisis mode and a sense of siege. So I have to build back that confidence in the group, in the team. And then also have to go around making sure all our clients. I got to get to know them again, establish relationship, to make sure that they understand that we are here, we will stay here, and I'm a phone call away if they have a concern or problem. And last but not least, really have to build up my new network of contacts in the whole industry. Attending the conferences and, leaning on people that I make friends with and, and lead. So in a nutshell, I realized that I learned a lot of soft skills. I was in my 30s. I stumbled around a lot, to be honest, and made a lot of mistakes along the way. And I'm sure folks that have offended people along the way too. And as I reflect back, that's a great learning. Although it was a very challenging time, but it was also one of the steepest learning curves I've ever experienced. So I think as to your question about what are some of the factors that contributed to my success I think from my standpoint is really having mentors in my life, people who really took an interest in my career. I, I'm fortunate enough over the, as I look back in my career, when I first started work and over time, I had bosses that really took a strong interest in me. They invested in me and they wanted to see my career succeed. Often they give me feedback that I don't want to hear, but I think I need to hear. And as I look back, those are the things that, you know people who love you are the ones who tell you the truth. Even though they may not, it is not what you want to hear. And that's really been good for me. Also learning how to be more relational. When that is not be transactional in how we relate to people. No one wants to be seen as a project. No one wants to be sold something You know, they want to know that you are genuine In your wanting to know who they are as a person and so i've learned over the years that's very important this is I go by the golden rule, right? I want to be treated the same way as others want to be Treated by me and last but not least i've learned that being humble You Understanding that there's a lot out there I don't know, and there are a lot of great, smart people out there that I need to learn from. And being authentic, right? Being genuine to yourself and to others. I think it shines through very quickly because we all can, I think through over the years, we can always detect a fraud from afar. So I try my darndest to be authentic and live to my own principles as best as I can.

Lan Elliott 6:43

Yeah, I think there's a lot of great themes you talked about. You touched on mentors and champions. And you talked about navigating new territory as being a really steep learning curve. Thank you. And you were already a fairly senior executive when you came over and I didn't realize you had six months to figure it out, make it, make or break in six months, but can you talk a little bit about coming over here? And you touched on it, but developing a network and being authentic, what's authentic in Singapore is maybe you're still you when you come to the U. S. But how do you navigate bringing your authentic self when you're in a very different place, a different culture, maybe that has different priorities? How do you bring that authentically? Because that can be really hard. It can really make people want to just try to blend in. And you are so wonderfully yourself. And I was wondering if you could talk about how you navigated that.

Aik Hong Tan 7:48

Sure. I think first thing is I, the way I look at it is we, I have to understand who my true self is, right? Understanding that this is some of the things that I hold true and very important to myself. the values I, I hang on to. And, honestly, it's my faith as well. I discovered one of the most challenging times is always I've got to lean back on my faith, understanding my identity as a person. It's not depending on the outcomes, not depending on performance. So I'm thankful for that. And I have respected that, to be honest, even if I have failed. In my six months, that would still not be, how I would be have been defined. So that the outcome wasn't the biggest thing that was worried about. So I think that was starting point, thankfully. Then the second thing is then I say to myself, how do I make people comfortable? How do I get them to hopefully want to know who I am as I want to get to know who they are? So building relationships, and I've been very fortunate, I must say. along the way in different parts of our industry. We are in the hospitality business, and a lot of folks are genuinely hospitable. And I'm thankful for that. And I think there's a joke in our industry that there's only three degrees of separation, so everybody knows somebody in the industry. So I got to know a few good friends, and then they start introducing me to others. And so that's a beginning to build that network. And I must say though, I pay a lot of conference fees, attended a lot of conferences. The first few were a bit challenging because I was lonely standing by myself in a corner. I think by the third or fourth one, you get to know a few people and then you build from there. So that helps. Of course, I have to somewhat assimilate. I must understand that the joke I always make is, if you talk about the weather, you talk about a sport. You usually can get people talking in America, so I've learned very quickly that those that are at least icebreakers, right? To get people to open up and then soon you talk about asking them about their families and their children. Everyone has a lot of pride. They love to show you photos of their children and so forth. And it's a good way to get to know someone

Lan Elliott 10:15

that's great advice and, the perspective of being, as we said, a senior executive before you came to the U. S. and then coming to the U. S. and as you said, standing in the corner for your 1st conference, that can be a little bit uncomfortable, but I love the idea that you push through. And as you said, People introduce you to other people and some of the most incredible contacts I've met have come because someone said, Oh, you should meet this person. And it's been really a great way to grow the network to wonderful people, not just more people. I want to go a little bit deeper into continuous growth because you brought up something earlier that I thought was really interesting. And that was how early you figured out that the relational skills, the soft skills. Working with other people to get things done was really important because I think a lot of young people, you go to school and you are learning knowledge. You're learning things, technical things, and you come out of school and then you start working. And you're again, working on technical things and you think that what got you here is going to get you there. But I love that very quickly, you saw that it wasn't just the technical knowledge that made. Your boss successful that she was able to work with other people. And I think it's such an interesting part of this continuous growth. And I'm wondering if there's a lesson that you learned recently, because you strike me as a continuous learner. Is there a recent lesson that might change your leadership or your strategy going forward that you've discovered?

Aik Hong Tan 11:51

Yes interesting you ask that because I was recently at a conference and I heard a, a keynote speaker. His name is Chris Singleton. His title of his talk was really the story behind the stands. And I don't know whether many of your listeners are aware of who Chris Singleton is. His mom and his eight other people were shot and killed in at a church in Charleston, 2015, when he was in high school. So he was a minor league pro baseball player when he graduated. But he actually took the pain and the tragedy, and over time he developed it into a, he found his purpose. in sharing a message of resiliency, forgiveness, and unity. And then what is so powerful about it is that it's saying that before you condemn someone's stance or disagree with someone's stance, please find out what is their story. Find out why do they have such a stance. In today's world, we're so polarized in our all different viewpoints, whether it's, politics or social, social issues and so forth. It's every time we hear something that we don't agree with and we are, we're all up in arms and ready to go to fight, go to war over it. I realized that I, myself, was very quick to judge, especially or dismiss ideas and positions that I don't agree with. And I found that, okay, maybe there's something I can take from what Chris has shared. Is to perhaps first understand where is the person coming from? Why is that person taking this particular stance or position? And that way it's like maybe I can understand where it's coming from and hopefully he can understand where I'm coming from. And there may be some interaction to maybe leading to a better idea, a better position, a solution rather than always thinking that I know everything first and then that person knows nothing. And therefore I feel would, should always prevail, especially in a case where I am the leader of the team and people will obviously defer to my position. And I'm very concerned that sometimes my position is completely wrong and I can lead us down a very bad path. So as I'm learning, and it's more about leadership, it's about motivating others towards a common goal. So really, I really want to get to know the person, get to understand why they believe in a certain way. And perhaps that's the beginning of a better relationship. So if you ask me continuous growth, I'm really trying to always understand the story behind the stand.

Lan Elliott 14:41

That is such a beautiful skill to develop. And I agree. I think there's so many times, especially today that we. Assume if we disagree with someone, they must not understand or they're just wrong. And I do think if you hear people's stories and you hear the why behind how they came to that idea, you can really start to see things. And I also love the idea that it might lead you down maybe certain different decisions, or maybe different things to consider that hadn't been part of your original pool of things you put into something. a decision that you might've made. So wonderful. I love that. Let's talk a little bit about taking risks because. You've already talked about a number of risks that you've taken, but you don't get to where you are without taking risks. And I'm curious, how do you think about that? How do you mentally take a chance on something?

Aik Hong Tan 15:43

So I guess the biggest risk I took was in 2009, we all remember 09, the global financial crisis, everyone talked about Lehman Brothers. I started together with a couple of partners, Greenwood Hospitality, in the middle of July, middle of 2009. At that time, I thought that it was the greatest opportunity to start the business because, there was a complete reset in valuation of real estate, especially hotels. And I, thankfully, I have a very supportive wife because I went to her and said, I'm gonna quit my job and start a company. And then she looked at me and said, you sure? I said, yes, we've saved some money. We're gonna make this work. In h on hindsight, I think I should have started it in 2010, because the first 12 months it was really challenging. Not a whole lot of things happening. Not much, not many deals were taking place as everyone's frozen. I learned a lot from the standpoint, there were a lot of roadblocks a lot of both financial business and everything. And over, over those times of difficulties I started to lean on, obviously again, my faith and my family, and my friends who are there to encourage me, who are there to basically say, Hey you can do this. And, we are here. You can always lean on us. And that was, at times I felt that I've bring financial ruin to my family. Things weren't going well and it's like, why did I just do that? But it was really resiliency, perseverance that I've got to dig deep and learn from it. And as I said, when I was doing the six month thing that I get, Outcome wasn't really what I was worried about. Just keep working the process. Keep on being alert to change opportunities, willing to pivot as necessary. Whatever, honestly, as they say, whatever business plan I drew up within six months is actually not valid. Gotta start all over again. So learning to be resilient, learning to persevere through. And I think in the end, we make our own luck, so to speak, as we see opportunities as they come. And it was actually very fortunate. Our first breakthrough was being able to acquired a Red Scout in Dearborn, Michigan. And convert it into an autograph, the eighth autograph in the system. And if that hotel is still within our portfolio today, it's been really a very successful hotel for us. And basically it established us in the soft branded space. We are one of the top management companies within the merit system or soft brands. And all thanks to that hotel. And frankly, it was as I look back, some of the reasons how we got to acquiring the hotel. I consider it divine intervention. It's not just myself alone but it was many things that came together that allowed us to actually be involved in that project. And it's a gift that has keep on giving. I'm very thankful for that.

Lan Elliott 18:49

I love the idea of resiliency. I think we all learned that living through the recession and you don't have to be in a hospitality very long to understand that. It's a very cyclical business, but I think that was a bit deeper than what we had expected. And I don't know if it prepared us for the pandemic, but it was definitely a skill that we had to learn. And I also love the preparation because You looked at when you started your company, you had built up a nest egg. You knew that there was a little bit of financial security to step off that ledge and away from your corporate job. And also recognizing an opportunity, which I think you saw this is a moment in time that, that may not come back around again. Good for you for taking that risk. Now, sometimes when you take a risk, it doesn't turn out the way you hope. But people have said that often you learn more from the setbacks than you learn from the successes. And I'm curious if there's a setback that you had that taught you a valuable lesson going forward.

Aik Hong Tan 19:57

Oh, absolutely. I have many, too many examples to share, but I will talk about one particular one. I was about 30 years old. I was actually a CFO of a infrastructure company in Singapore. Honestly, up to that point, my career was really one smooth. trajectory, been very successful, very good at what I was doing. And then the Asian financial crisis happened in 1997. And all of a sudden our company had loan covenant issues, and we had liquidity crisis. Immediately all the loans were being called back. As you're the number one finance person in the company, also know all the banks that are knocking on the door and say, hey, pay me back. It was the first time, honestly, in my career at that time in my life that I really had a major crisis in, and not knowing what to do. I was actually paralyzed at times and figuring out what am I supposed to, how am I supposed to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars overnight when there's none to pay. It was actually at that time that I discovered my faith and I leaned back on my family and my friends and began to realize that, work and life, both cannot be separated. It has to come together. And, there's a whole person whether it's the body, mind, soul, it's the way we all sit, and it has to be thick and tail. And that was the beginning of me saying that, okay, just keep working, keep doing the process. But, this is where you have to be resilient, you have to persevere. And it was, big blows of my ego. I always thought that I can solve every problem that people, things thrown at me up to that point in time. And, learning humility, learning that you really can't do it all by yourself. So that was what should I say? Looking back, it was the best thing that happened to me. It put me down to a point where I say, okay, you're not that good, number one. Number two, you really need. Meet God, meet your family, and also need to take care of yourself as a person. Because I was becoming, at that point in time, arrogant and hard to live with. My wife would say those were the few years that I was in my late 20s, early 30s. I was things were, I was riding high, I could, I didn't even take good care of those people that I went to school with because I think they were not worthy of my time. That was how a nasty person I was. So I'm, I was glad that God hit me with a two by four, and then I learned to be a human, a good human being again. Hopefully that I don't wish it on anyone.

Lan Elliott 22:49

Life does have a way of bringing you back down to earth over time. And hopefully that moment in time was not all of us in order to bring you humility, but I do think it brought a lot of humbleness to a lot of us to be able to say, okay, it's not going to keep going up. Our career doesn't necessarily go in one direction the entire time. And I love that you Were able to then learn the value of leaning on your family and your friends and your faith in order to center you because that's so important when things don't go the way you hoped and the message that your whole life is not your job and the outcome isn't who you are. I think that's really valuable. Thank you. One of the things that I know you do a lot is build high performing teams. I know, especially when you take over new hotels very quickly, you need to build a high performing team. And while a lot of leaders get really good at building teams, most people get to build a team and work with that team for a period of time. But you actually have to build multiple teams as you bring on new hotels, and then hope that leader will then go off and do a great job. So you can turn to the next thing. And I'm curious, how do you approach building these teams? Either when you're doing it from scratch or when you are inheriting a team and maybe making adjustments. What do you think about, what are you looking for when you're interviewing people to build a team?

Aik Hong Tan 24:24

I think the first thing is, in building any team, trust is the foundation and everything because that's the glue that brings it together. So as a leader you've got to focus on building up trust number one. Your team members need to know that you have their back. You will always be there to support them. I often joke with my teams, I say, You know my, what's my job description? They all look at me and I say it's DOR, Chief Obstacle Removal. So I look at it as my job is to remove obstacles so that they can be successful. Whether it's a policy, whether it's a process. That's nice. What is some circumstances that I may have to go speak with some people like the clients and so forth so that we can get the resources and tools in order to be successful. If you show and demonstrate that you really care for them and continuously are trying to help them be successful, you can begin to build trust. And I think the key to trust is, we all understand trust means you will keep your word, but I think I have another definition for trust. Trust also means we trust in each other to want to achieve what's best for the team as well as themselves. So that's important because when someone says something and that's, again, back to, I may not agree with that person, but I know where that person is coming from. They want the best for me. So I think that kind of level of trust if it's built and, Achieved the team will be high functioning, because the rest of it is being what can be worked out, once they all understand and then, of course, my, my goal is the leader is to articulate a vision or goal for the whole team. Where we're going. So that they can then understand that. Okay, this is the direction we're heading. And then the details can be worked out collectively to move towards it. So I would say trust and a clear vision of where we're heading directionally are two key ingredients. And then third, I will go back again, is building up relationship, which is related to trust. Because every one of us think differently and that's actually a good thing. We compliment each other and as the leader, I also have to be prepared to make hard decisions because honestly, sometimes certain members, either we inherited or new. may not fit the team and it can be detrimental to the performance of the team. And as the leader, back to my COR role, I have to make the hard decision, may have to make a hard decision removing that person. As far as the interview, when I look at who I do, what I look at when I try to interview people is the attitude, whether that someone's positive and then more importantly, can they handle adversity? Because, to me, we will have adversity in our life, that's like a given. How we handle it, and how we deal with situations that arise, tells me the maturity of that person, and the, what's that person made of. And I know this quote is not made made by Winston Churchill, but I think it was attributed to him. He said something about, people and teabags are the same, you know their flavor when you put them in hot water.

Lan Elliott 27:57

That is a great quote. And yeah, I think that's, I think that's true. What you're looking for is how are those people going to react when things go sideways and looking for positivity and looking for resilience. I think it comes back a little bit, but also I think the positive piece, right? Because generally it's. It's better if you work with people who believe they can find a way, or if it's not going to work, are okay, they understand that, fail fast, move on, and pivot, go do something else. But I think those are really great qualities and building trust. I think that's the beginning of everything. On teams for me.

Aik Hong Tan 28:40

Yes,

Lan Elliott 28:44

it can. You shared a lot of really great advice with our audience. What advice would you offer to your younger self? 22 year old, what would you want him to know?

Aik Hong Tan 28:58

For sure, as I think we touched on it. Number one is just don't just focus on technical skills. It's the whole developing relationship part. It's so important. And part of the building relationship is learning to be humble recognizing that, honestly, as a 22 year old, you really don't know a whole lot of things. There's a lot to learn and there's a lot of wisdom out there to gain from and, being humble allows you allows me actually to go learn it and get it from others. And then the last thing I would also tell myself is always remember the golden rule, treat others as you would like them to treat you. And make sure, and don't look at someone based on their title and their position and so forth, because in our line of work, we have housekeepers, we have general managers, we have owners, we have, capital partners make sure, I always try to make sure I treat every one of them equally. equally important because they are, valued by everyone, especially their family.

Lan Elliott 30:03

Akon, we are coming to the end of our conversation. And I'm wondering if you have one last nugget of advice for our audience, keeping in mind our mission is empowering personal success. What advice would you give to someone who's struggling to advance their career?

Aik Hong Tan 30:23

I'll say this maybe it's a common theme for me. Experiencing failure is inevitable and failure can be a great teacher. I actually learned more from failures than my success over the years. So I was the audience said, do not be too down on yourself. In my faith, everyone is a beloved child of God and each person is worthy. And personally, I rest on that identity and not let setbacks define who I am. I draw strength from my family, my faith, and those around me. And I've been reading this John Peterson's book on the 12 rules of life. I don't know whether you're familiar with that. I just recently finished chapter number, rule number three. It says, Make friends with people who want the best for you, would encourage everyone to be very intentional in developing relationships and a community that loves you for who you are, the journey to success doesn't have to be walked alone. So I would say surround yourself with those people that want the best for you and lean on them and get encouragement, especially during challenging times. And then I, as you can tell, I probably, I love Winston Churchill. I'm going to quote it, one more quote, this success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue to count, so stay strong, be resilient, set goals and work towards them.

Lan Elliott 31:50

Akong, that was a wonderful place to end. Thank you so much for your time and your wonderful wisdom and sharing that with our audience.

Aik Hong Tan 31:59

Thank you. It was enjoyable to me.

Lan Elliott 32:03

Thank you. And for our audience, if you've enjoyed this interview with Akong, I hope you'll go to our website, DEIAdvisors. org, where you can find many more interviews with hospitality industry leaders.