Breaking the glass ceiling

Mentor to a strong workforce of 300, Roxana Jaffar takes on the role of a strategiser, a thought leader, a motivator, a change agent and a pragmatist at Dubai-based Holiday Inn Al Barsha. As the CEO, she works by the Triple P bottom line — defining their Profit by looking after the People and the Planet.

Roxana Jaffar enjoys her job of providing guidance and mentoring the staff. She is a follower of the ‘servant leadership’ concept, which means leading by growing the heart of a servant within and ensuring that all the heads below her lead with the same ethos. She makes sure that the team leaders treat their subordinates with love and respect and help spread the elements of trust, integrity and unity in the entire organisation so that even the lowest level staff work with complete dedication and learn to put another person’s needs before oneself. This should finally reflect in the service levels accorded to the hotel guests.

Corporate Leader

Jaffar started her career as an Asset Ledger Executive in Germain Monteil (UK), a global cosmetics company, on Bond Street, London, whilst she studied to become a certified corporate accountant. Soon after, a related opportunity came up with Dunkin Donuts (UK) and she switched jobs, becoming an accountant at a young age. However, soon after, Dunkin Donuts’ UK operations were taken over by an Englishman and she moved on to becoming the FCO and Director of Brian Perry’s Donuts (London). This led her to start her own business with her sister, where they manufactured and distributed donuts to outlets like Harrods, Selfridges, railway stations and airports. Jaffar reminisces, “At the height of our success, there came a time when we had to deliver over 14,000 donuts per night. Delivering them before breakfast was a challenge because they go bad quickly. This is when I learnt to strategise correctly and understand the merits of teamwork.”

Accidentally in a new trade

Jaffar says she landed in the hospitality industry ‘totally by accident’. She says, “The present owner of the chain, who is like my brother, wanted me to take charge of his hotel’s operations in Dubai. Adding to that, my husband helped to acquire land for the hotel. Moreover, food and beverage is my area of speciality. Hence, I ended up here. It was easy to adapt to the hospitality industry, however, I committed a lot of mistakes while learning in the process but never stopped innovating and challenging the norms. Today, our hotel houses not only 309 rooms with 54 suites and several conference venues equipped with state-of-the-art technology but also award-winning restaurants and bars — The Royal Budha (Thai), Gharana (Indian), Xennya Terrace (Rooftop Bar & Lounge), The Q, Retox and a nightclub called Bodega Garage.”

Remarkable achievements

Jaffar has been recognised as one of the ‘Super 100 Women Achievers in the Middle East and Africa’ in a coffee table book article, ‘Pioneering the fusion of social responsibility with business strategy’. She also received the ‘Global Inspirational Leadership Award 2015’ for her innovations and initiatives in the corporate sector. In the same year, she was conferred the award for ‘Best Woman in Hospitality UAE’ by the ‘Women Leaders of UAE’, in association with HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. This award is for ‘Outstanding Women Professional Leaders’ who have the vision, flair, acumen and professionalism to demonstrate excellent leadership and managing skills in an organisation, achieving results.

Evolving hospitality trade

Jaffar shares, “The hospitality arena has changed totally from the time we opened our doors in 2008. The total room inventory in Al Barsha was around 2000 keys then. Today, this small enclave in Al Barsha, as per Dubai Tourism, has listed 57 hotels with 10,065 rooms and Dubai as a whole has 697 hotels with around 118,000 rooms, all vying for the same market share. Granted the demand in Dubai has been up by 5.5 per cent over the previous year, but the supply was up by 6.6 per cent, resulting in a gap of 1.1 per cent in room nights, with over 12,000 rooms being vacant per night. Business has become ruthless, hotels are slashing their rates to attract more customers and the guest has become smarter in that they know how to ‘shop around’ to get the cheapest deal.”

Tech-savvy new generation

Guests today are from the digital age, with complete awareness about everything through the social networking sites and the numerous mobile apps. Hence, they are confident and not scared to voice their opinion.

Hotels today have to be very careful about how each and every guest is treated and treat any complaint as the hint to better their offerings. Further, in the present times, bookings are largely being done through OTAs, at a higher cost, that cut into our profits whilst OTAs’ growth has reached double digits. OTAs appeal more to the guests of the current times because they are technology driven and so they offer the comfort of making reservations instantly with the touch of a button on our phones. “Today, the walk-in guest syndrome is on the decline. Another competition that hotels have to now look out for is the rise in the demand for Airbnb – a smart method of serving, without the ownership of expensive real estate!” Jaffar says.

Her motto

The motto of “Our monetary profit should only be defined by putting the People and the Planet first” is cascaded down the line and even told to young millennial guests so that they can be the best judge of our best practices and forge a long-lasting relationship with us, Jaffar concludes.