Big plans from Swiss GM

By Ayesha R. Rafiq

A poor teacher at the technical college he attended and 30 years in hoteliering are what Claude Sheffer have to thank for his current position as the General Manager of Trans Asia hotel, a post he took up just a month ago.

As a teenager, Swiss-born Claude's first choice was a technical college. "But my teacher was so bad, that I ran right out of that. I hated him," he says, his face still screwing up in disgust some 30 years later, in memory of the teacher whose name he still remembers.

Claude like many hoteliers started out almost at the very bottom of the ladder, as a Captain in a Swiss Hotel after obtaining his degree in hoteliering at a Hotel Management School in France. But unlike many in the field, this big but gentle man had the quiet determination, still alive in him today, to survive in a cut throat competitive field, and make it to the top.

"When I applied to the hotel school, only 80 out of 450 candidates were to be selected and I said to myself, I will never make it. But that is why I am here today. Because despite the odds, I braved them and I made it," he says.

Having worked his way to the post of F&B Manager in roughly 15 years, he left to Hong Kong to further his career and then worked as the Assistant Director F&B to the Shangri La in Bangkok. After short stints in Kuala Lumpur, Phuket and a few other countries, he was invited to take over the post of GM at Trans Asia.

Just one month in his post, and he already has big plans for the hotel. Already millions of rupees are being channelled into creating two new restaurants at the hotel, as well as upgrading the pool, bar, buffets and basically every aspect of the hotel.

"My dream is to bring this hotel to the standard of any international hotel by the end of the year," he says confidently.

Some of the older restaurants will be replaced, he says, and at a disappointed groan from me, he gives me a brief lesson in hoteliering. "When you are young, you often want things the way you like them. But with experience you realise that what you want doesn't really count, it's what the customer wants, and if a majority of the customers don't agree with an aspect of our hotel, then it has to change. You have to be ready to open a new door for your customers whenever possible."

Claude tells me that the great thing about his job is the challenge it presents. "Twelve hour work days are a daily feature in our lives," he says without flinching, and it rarely leaves time for family and friends. "Very often those with families don't survive in this field, they often crumble to family pressure," he says, and then wistfully adds that his own family is in Malaysia right now, as they couldn't face another shift in the globe trotting his job makes inevitable.

The staff here are great, he says.

"There are some nice pearls here, worth keeping, like those of the staff who have been here since the hotel's inception," and Claude feels that with their support the hotel is really going to improve.

"At the end of the day, what I really love about this job is when I see a satisfied client, happy with our service and knowing that my staff and I helped bring him that happiness."

Claude believes that even though he is in the hospitality trade, the fact that at the end of the day it is a business cannot be forgotten, but what must always be remembered is that that business can always be conducted in the best possible manner.

Having been in Asia for the past 15 years, Claude finds it easy to identify with the Sri Lankan culture, which he likens very much to that of Thailand, a country he seems to have fond ties with.

"The people here are so elegant, so artistic, it is a pleasure just to watch them. But I have also learnt an important lesson in Asia. That it is not a person's ethnicity that matters, but with how much respect you treat them," he says gently.

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