Transcript: Episode 159: 15-Day Career
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[00:00:00] Susan Barry: This is Top Floor episode 159. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/159.
[00:00:13] Narrator: Welcome to Top Floor with Susan Barry. This weekly podcast right up to the top floor features tangible tips and excellent stories from the experts and characters who elevate hospitality. And now your host and elevator operator, Susan Barry.
[00:00:32] Susan Barry: Welcome to the show. Gustavo Viescas is the president of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts for Latin America and the Caribbean. After starting in the finance department of RCI, Wyndham's timeshare business, Gustavo has more than 26 years of experience at the company. While finance roles make up most of Gustavo's background as president, he now also focuses on branding and operational excellence. Wyndham is experiencing growth in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly in the all inclusive segments. So today we are going to talk about how a former CFO has to flex his style to lead that expansion. But before we jump in, we need to answer the call button.
Call button rings
[00:01:24] Susan Barry: The emergency call button is our hotline for hospitality professionals and anybody else with a burning question. If you would like to submit a question, you can call or text me at 850 404 9630. Today's question was submitted by Lindsey. This is a question after my own heart. Lindsay says, as we head into hotel budget season, I just have to ask: why don't corporate teams or ownership groups just give us a budget instead of making us do it 10 times? I mean, this is so true to my experience. Gustavo, what do you think? What, what are some of the reasons for that?
[00:02:11] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah, that's, and you know, I sometimes I have the same feelings doing my regional budget for my corporate office, but I believe that is good to let the team doing their job, doing their own commitments, because if you should say, Okay, this is your goal, they are not being part of all of this. Then there is a sessions of discussion adjustment, but it's good to let the people be part of the process.
[00:02:41] Susan Barry: I agree. Sometimes I think that, uh, higher ups think if they tell you, you know, we want a four percent increase that you would have given them five, but now you're gonna ratchet it back down. And I actually don't think that's true. I think that hotel teams try to be as realistic as they possibly can. But, um, I think that's one of the reasons why the budget has to get done a thousand times over and over again.
[00:03:11] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah. Yeah. What is more, I like to give to my teams the guidance. Okay. We need to go there. Then let's work together how we are going to go there, but to set goals and expectations, we need to grow X on EBITDA, X on ROAMS, X on REPAR. That, that is good.
[00:03:29] Susan Barry: Yes. Without the expectations, it is an exercise in wanting to jump off the roof. So you spent most of your career in finance before becoming president of Latin America and the Caribbean. How does your finance background influence your leadership style in your current role?
[00:03:49] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah. As you know, Wyndham, it's a Public company on at the end of the line, there is a shareholder expecting for return that it's delivered in the form of money. My finance background gives me gives me the ability to understand the financial impact of all my decisions. The key here, the key is to use my finance background, not as a primary decision maker, but rather as a valuable support. In other words, my finance background shouldn't be my, shouldn't drive my decisions, but it's an excellent resource.
[00:04:35] Susan Barry: That's interesting. I know you mentioned that transitioning from finance to this broader leadership role required you to develop some soft skills. Can you talk about specific strategies or experiences that helped you shift that focus from just financial decisions to maybe more big picture or holistic leadership approach?
[00:05:03] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah, you know, there are some soft skills that are nice to have for a CFO, but are a must for a broader responsibility like the one that I'm facing now, now as a president, a CEO must to inspire and motivate teams. And I believe that there are two soft skills that were critical and it was really focusing in developing them. One of them, it's my communication skills. As a CFO, I was accustomed to speak in meetings with donors, with the team, but being alone on a main stage in a global conference in front of people, it's a different level. And my strategy to that was, was the pre-work. I feel comfortable that when I train my speech, when I work on it, and you know, even the most talented speakers do their homework before being in this stage.
So that's one of the other soft skills. It's more related to, to the emotional intelligence, which involved empathy, self-awareness and the ability to own my own emotions, right? It's really important, the impact of my mood, my behavior on the others in the team. And the last one that I would like to mention that it's not a soft skill, but under my current role, and I don't have the right answer, but I'm still trying to learn how to balance the short-term decisions with the long term decisions. It's a really, really, it sounds simple, but it's a really, really hard situation to define what is, what is good for the short term, what is good for the long term and how can I balance it in the best way.
[00:06:57] Susan Barry: Do you find that those things are often in opposition to each other, like the best short term decision is terrible for the long term or vice versa?
[00:07:09] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah. Yeah. So not on a 100 percent of the times, but it happened quite often. And I give you an example, uh, you have a bad year and you start cutting costs. Right? And because that you are cutting probably are investments in branding, in marketing that could probably hurt your future growth. And so all the examples that came to my mind, I see what exactly what they are saying. They are one against the other.
[00:07:38] Susan Barry: That's interesting. I think that you feel like the perception of you changed pretty significantly when you became president. How do you manage the expectations, the perceptions that come with having a such a high profile role, especially in a very culturally diverse region and industry.
[00:08:07] Gustavo Viescas: It changed a lot and it's related to the emotional skills that we have been talking a few minutes ago. When I first started in this new role, I wasn't aware about the impact of my words, of sharing my thoughts with the team that, that, that with the team could have. If A CFO is in a bad mood, probably the people who think it's okay.
[00:08:34] Susan Barry: They're used to it.
[00:08:35] Gustavo Viescas: The cfo.
[00:08:36] Susan Barry: Yeah. Yeah.
[00:08:36] Gustavo Viescas: However, if, if the CO is the president, it's in a bad mood. It's really impacted him. I have learned to manage my, my own bad moments, handle the pressure. I remain positive as a leader. It's important to constantly deliver a positive message, no matter what challenges, problems I personally or the company's facing.
[00:09:00] Susan Barry: I think that's a really hard task. I think that's hard to accomplish.
[00:09:06] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah, but you learn, you learn, you learn to hide your, your, your emotions, your bad moments and to show that it's key for keeping the team motivated.
[00:09:17] Susan Barry: Wyndham has been expanding rapidly in the Latin America and Caribbean regions. What do you see as the drivers of that growth? And how is Wyndham different? How do you differentiate Wyndham from competitors in the same region?
[00:09:36] Gustavo Viescas: You know, the first thing that came to my mind is the team. And I'm not because it's the right thing to say as a president, right? Because I do have a great team, that it's a fact, but the most important thing is that my team run and lead the region being in the region. We, we face the same challenges, the same problems. We live the same countries in which our franchises are that it's a really advantage. In addition to, to this, being here, being locally understanding what is happening in our markets. We also have the support of the global company, Wyndham 9,000 holders around the world, huge investment in distribution scale. So we have the best of those. The global scale on the local, on the local touch.
Another key key driver or something that different differentiate us from our competitors. If it's our flexibility, and it's something that our, our franchisees are always. Say to us, it's one of our core values. Of course, we as a global company, we have standards, procedures, policies, rules. However, in a diverse region like LATAM, we adapt, we understand, and we listen. Our franchisees, you know, I, I love the hotels in where, when you are there. You feel, you live, you know that you are in a specific city. Inside the hotel. And this happens when the hotel aligns with international brand standards but also incorporate local details. Such as servicing local dishes, decorating with local arts, telling the guests the city history through pictures, photos, books. These type of things really make the difference.
[00:11:38] Susan Barry: A thousand percent agree with you. Since stepping into your current role, I know that branding has become a pretty significant focus for you. Can you talk about or think of a particular branding initiative or campaign that has been particularly successful and why you think it worked?
[00:12:01] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah, yeah. There is just one, one brand that really came to, to my mind now. It's, uh, our Wyndham Ultra Brand. It's an pure inclusive brand. It's brand promises, all inclusive travel for all. And, and one of the challenges and milestones of this brand is that we launch it. In December 2020 if you remember, we were in the exactly we were in the middle in in the pandemic in the middle of the pandemic in crisis global crisis with tremendous impact on the hospitality industry. This brand was the third brand that Wyndham create and launch outside our corporate office in New Jersey. It was the first one. We run now, we have 25 brands It was the first one first one we launched outside of our corporate office. And it was created and launched and launched my by my team.
That's what one of the first milestones and the second one, the second one, as I mentioned at the beginning, we, we were in the middle of the pandemic and we were extremely concerned about launching a brand, something new when the people were thinking in the mindset was totally different. We soon realized that the people were, were eager for good news. They were excited to start planning vacations, thinking about it, staying at an all inclusive resort in a beautiful beach, drinking margaritas and enjoying the sunset. So it was a success launching that brand in that complex environment,
[00:13:42] Susan Barry: That is pretty impressive and amazing. I can only imagine the stress and pressure of trying to accomplish something like that at that time. I mean, I remember the stress and pressure of just trying to get through my everyday life and I wasn't launching a brand. As a leader, you have had to make decisions that might not always be financially optimal, but make sense. From a different perspective. Can you share an example of such a decision and the impact that it's had on the company's operations or reputation?
[00:14:21] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah, you know, I have a perfect example in and I love to play or to think things with my CFO hat and with my president hat. What are you say or what would be my decision three years ago, and which is my decision right now? And a perfect example is investing in when the marketing team needs to run a campaign just for branding, just for generating brand awareness. In a CFO mind, it's a waste of money, to be honest. I don't want to say the 100 percent of the CFO, but 80, 90 percent of the CFO, it's a waste of money. And in the mind of the president or CEO, someone who leads a company is the right thing to do. Branding is one of the pillars for the long term success and for the future growth.
[00:15:20] Susan Barry: So do you have an argument that you would make to your past CFO self to convince you that branding is important? Like I'm envisioning people listening to this and they're like, yes, I need to help. I need help. What do I say? What would you say to your past self?
[00:15:39] Gustavo Viescas: There are ways to measure the success of a branding marketing campaign that is not translated in instant money, but for sure it's money for the future.
[00:15:50] Susan Barry: Well, and big picture, if the business is doing well, branding is working. Like, you know, you don't have to only count clicks. If you're a successful and profitable business, you're doing something right.
We like to make sure that our listeners come away from every episode of Top Floor with some specific tips that they can try in their businesses and their hotels and their personal lives. What do you wish hotel general managers understood better about the financial and maybe operational aspects of running a hotel based on your experiences?
[00:16:35] Gustavo Viescas: I have a long, long list. Let's start with the, with the operational one. And I believe that this is my, my biggest wish is to make all our GMs, we run in Latin America, 266 properties. So I would like to make all my GMs understand the importance of the, and I call it, attention to the details with the purpose of delivering a memorable experience. And it doesn't mean that a memorable experience can also be delivered in a luxury property or in a resort in the Caribbean. It can also be, be delivered in city economy hotel. In all of our our our cities. Another key element of this attention to the detail and the memorable experience is a consistent consistency between price and product. If you choose $600 for a room in a mid-scale property, because Taylor Swift sold out the entire city, you will be receiving a great return. You will be showing a great day at the Aaron Red Park that day or that week. But in addition, you will probably be receiving a bad review.
[00:17:56] Susan Barry: Mm hmm. That's one of those short term decisions that hurt in the long term. Great in the short term, that extra $500, but not great over time. You know, that's a really interesting thing. I want to ask you a little bit more about that. Because I feel like there is tremendous pressure, particularly on the ownership, sort of investor ownership side, to squeeze every drop out of every demand opportunity. What would you say to owners to sort of help them understand that like this Taylor Swift money isn't real money?
[00:18:39] Gustavo Viescas: It's a natural discussion. So some of them understand and they do prefer to move in some way the short term for the benefit of the long term on some of them they don't. So I don't have one specific answer. I'm thinking about situation and it depends on the type of owner that you have in front of you. There is not one unique answer. It's case by case.
[00:19:06] Susan Barry: Also on the flip side of that, those once in a lifetime events are not your day to day customer. So maybe it's okay that they are treated a little differently than the normal traffic that comes through the property.
[00:19:22] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah. And going to our, when our, the first question, when we are doing next year budget, it's always good to remember that those one time events are not going to happen again.
[00:19:34] Susan Barry: But then the pressure's on to replace it, right? Or to figure out how are you going to hit the overall target without some magical Taylor Swift concert coming along?
[00:19:48] Gustavo Viescas: Let's bring another Taylor Swift to this.
[00:19:50] Susan Barry: Yes, she needs to be cloned. I couldn't agree more. Well, we have reached The fortune telling portion of the show. So now is the time to predict the future, and then we will come back later and see if you got it right. What is a prediction that you have about the future of all inclusive resorts in the Latin America and Caribbean regions?
[00:20:13] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah, you know something that is, is not a prediction, but the all-inclusive is here to stay. So it's a product really well received by the guests. So it's a fact that it will be growth. It will be growth, growth more and more in the future. I see more diversification in terms of products. Remember that 20 years ago, the all-inclusive was just all-inclusive. Now you have adults only, families, some of them thematic. We done a specific theme for, for child, for, for some of them more related to the night party. So you can find, we will see more and more the diversification. Personalized experiences, all the guests are looking for personalized experiences. We should focus on trying to understand more and more our guests.
And a really important thing it's the local connection and interaction of the all-inclusive with the local community. In which sense a sourcing food from the local community, not from international providers. Integration with the local community in terms of integrating the local art, the local culture into the resort experience through traditional cuisine, cultural activities. And the other trend that I see is a health and wellness focus. The all-inclusive was just food and beverage. It's a way, remember 20 years ago, there was a place for drink and eat. And now it turns more to the wellness, not just delivering food.
[00:22:03] Susan Barry: Oh, that's really interesting. I love the idea. You know, I think that's one of the things that maybe turned some people off to all-inclusives, cruises, things like that. It's that they feel like it's going to be a feeding frenzy. So the idea that more wellness is added to the mix, I think is really interesting, and I will keep my eye on that. If you could wave a magic wand and change one thing about hotel accounting, whether it's realistic or not, what would you change?
[00:22:35] Gustavo Viescas: It's not about the accounting itself, but you know, in Latin America, the way we report our records to the authorities, it's insane. They ask for a ton of details that we need to invest. technology people for, for letting them know what you are doing. So, and, and in the United States, it's totally different. So are you, are you change that? Are you change the pressure of the authorities in knowing and trying to know what's happening inside of us?
[00:23:13] Susan Barry: That's interesting because I think a lot of people look at the U. S., especially I'm thinking about tap like paying taxes and other countries will just be like, here's your tax bill, pay us. In the United States. It's like, we know what you owe, but we're not going to tell you. You figure it out and we'll see if you got it right. Or if you're going to jail, which one is it?
[00:23:36] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah, but. the talking about taxes. The taxes structured in most of the Latin countries is extremely complex. I live in Argentina. In Argentina, there are more than 100 taxes.
[00:23:50] Susan Barry: Wow.
[00:23:51] Gustavo Viescas: 100.
[00:23:53] Susan Barry: It's all relative.
[00:23:55] Gustavo Viescas: It's complex. It's complicated.
[00:23:57] Susan Barry: What is next for you and what's next for your company?
[00:24:02] Gustavo Viescas: For me, what's next, it's continue learning to be a better leader, a better father, and a better husband. That's what I like to do in the future. And I try to be better every, every day. For the company, I like to talk about my region, the Latin American, the Caribbean region, uh, keep doing what we have been doing over the past years. We, we, we success continue building our owners first philosophy and honoring our mission, which is to make hotel travel possible for all people. So that's what I see for, for my future years.
[00:24:43] Susan Barry: Okay, folks, before we tell Gustavo goodbye, we are going to head down to the loading dock where all of the best stories get told except for maybe no accounting people go there. I'm not sure.
Elevator voice announces, “Going down.”
[00:25:03] Susan Barry: Gustavo, what is a story you would only tell on the loading dock?
[00:25:08] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah. It's a funny story. I'm going to spoil in some way my, to tell the audience my age. Uh, I joined Wyndham in February, 1998. That, at that time it was not Wyndham, it was the name of a company was [unknown]. But the amazing thing, it was just for 15 days. At that time, 20 something years ago, everything was in paper. The company was, through an annual audit process and there was a room completely packed of all type of documents that needed to be organized. That was my job.
[00:25:54] Susan Barry: Oh no.
[00:25:55] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah. And I just joined the company for 15 days for putting that in order and that's it. And I stayed at the company for 26 years and counting.
[00:26:07] Susan Barry: Oh, wow. So there really was a job that was like, here you go, here's a 15 day project and then you're on your own? That's amazing.
[00:26:18] Gustavo Viescas: Yeah. And then at that time, something changed in the company. There was an open position and they told me, do you want to stay? And I say, okay. I was 19 years old at the time.
[00:26:30] Susan Barry: Oh, wow. Well, Gustavo Viescas, thank you so much for being here. I know that our listeners loved hearing that a CFO can turn into a sweet guy. And I really appreciate you riding up to the top floor.
[00:26:48] Gustavo Viescas: Thank you, Susan.
[00:26:50] Susan Barry: Thank you for listening. You can find the show notes at topfloorpodcast.com/episode/159. Jonathan Albano is our editor, producer, and all around genius. He even wrote and performed our theme song with vocals by Cameron Albano. You can subscribe to Top Floor on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen. And your rating or review will go a long way in helping us give you more of what you like.
[00:27:26] Narrator: Thanks for listening to the Top Floor Podcast at www.topfloorpodcast.com. Have a hospitality marketing question? Reach us at 850-404-9630 to be featured in a future episode.