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Mine host gives some handy hints
By David Maguire |
January 25, 2009, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
VETERAN hotelier Peter Alatsas is often featured in the pages of Shanghai Daily in photos shaking hands with his exalted guests who, invariably, include royalty, heads of state, captains of business and celebrities.
Alatsas, general manager of the Westin Shanghai Bund Center Hotel, has been five years in the city and has a long pedigree of managing luxury hotels in 24 years of working in Asia. Greek by birth but raised in Australia, educated in Canada and the United States, he can quite reasonably claim the cliche title of "citizen of the world," having lived in 12 different countries.
But over the past couple of years Alatsas has made the difficult segue from newspaper pages to some pages of his own, having written a book of essays based on his experiences and perspectives on the business of life, travel and management.
The second edition of "Everything New is Free, Thoughts of a Globetrotting Hotelier" has recently been released in hard cover.
The book is a product of his days in Shanghai - "I took the opportunity on my days off" - with the encouragement of his devoted staff and is a collection of disparate pieces melding his views and observations on life in general. The genesis came from a lot of material he had used in guest lectures at Fudan and Jiao Tong universities, among others, and the enthusiastic feedback he got from students.
"Judging from how well what I said resonated with the students and the quality of questions I got from my presentations, it encouraged me to share these learnings," he said last week.
"The book is not about any particular thing or story, it's a series of didactic essays born of experience and sharing insight and learning over the years.
"The background is the hotel business," he said, but the meat is not specific to his profession. "It's really about an expatriate with a global perspective and international exposure connecting with young Chinese. China's growing so fast, it's not unusual that they would take an interest."
Alatsas would lecture about general management, leadership, branding, the six sigma, and a variety of topics that were not specifically geared to hospitality but focused on fundamentals that apply to practically every business. But the book is more than that. It's a collection of essays, homilies, adapted philosophies, poetry and handy hints, such as his Five-Fold Path to developing a successful attitude, that are painstakingly researched, back-grounded and collated into a handy, quick-read guide.
"I am not a professional writer. I am more of an observer and the stories are very simple," he said. "They're around 300 words each to be read one at a time, or as a series. It's an ideal book for supplementary reading from an English teaching standpoint.
"It is also a trade book and I've also been told it's inspirational. A lot of people take it as a traveling companion to read four or five stories at a time. I get a lot of feedback, more from women than men, but perhaps women are a lot more sensitive to what I am writing," he observed.
And the motivation for writing it? "It's not about getting rich, it was always about making a contribution. The satisfaction is enormous and it's always good to be introduced as a speaker and have them add he's also an author," said possibly the only Western manager of a major five-star hotel in China doubling as a book writer.
Editor Tina Kanagaratnam describes the essays as "think pieces" and Alatsas agrees, saying "they're about capturing what moves someone or what's important.
"I see the book as an ancillary tool in many ways. I have a genuine concern to share information and to help people understand things about management, life and travel, the latter which I believe it is an antidote to ignorance."
Alatsas has taken the book into a second edition at the request of readers who wanted more detail. The new edition has 60 percent new content and the hotelier muses about a third printing.
A man who has forged philosophies about many things, and put them in his book for all to see, Alatsas is stuck on the idea that "if people can maintain a positive outlook, it's not the panacea that's going to solve all our problems, but it's better than a negative attitude."
The book is available on Amazon.com and Charterhouse at Times Square.
Alatsas, general manager of the Westin Shanghai Bund Center Hotel, has been five years in the city and has a long pedigree of managing luxury hotels in 24 years of working in Asia. Greek by birth but raised in Australia, educated in Canada and the United States, he can quite reasonably claim the cliche title of "citizen of the world," having lived in 12 different countries.
But over the past couple of years Alatsas has made the difficult segue from newspaper pages to some pages of his own, having written a book of essays based on his experiences and perspectives on the business of life, travel and management.
The second edition of "Everything New is Free, Thoughts of a Globetrotting Hotelier" has recently been released in hard cover.
The book is a product of his days in Shanghai - "I took the opportunity on my days off" - with the encouragement of his devoted staff and is a collection of disparate pieces melding his views and observations on life in general. The genesis came from a lot of material he had used in guest lectures at Fudan and Jiao Tong universities, among others, and the enthusiastic feedback he got from students.
"Judging from how well what I said resonated with the students and the quality of questions I got from my presentations, it encouraged me to share these learnings," he said last week.
"The book is not about any particular thing or story, it's a series of didactic essays born of experience and sharing insight and learning over the years.
"The background is the hotel business," he said, but the meat is not specific to his profession. "It's really about an expatriate with a global perspective and international exposure connecting with young Chinese. China's growing so fast, it's not unusual that they would take an interest."
Alatsas would lecture about general management, leadership, branding, the six sigma, and a variety of topics that were not specifically geared to hospitality but focused on fundamentals that apply to practically every business. But the book is more than that. It's a collection of essays, homilies, adapted philosophies, poetry and handy hints, such as his Five-Fold Path to developing a successful attitude, that are painstakingly researched, back-grounded and collated into a handy, quick-read guide.
"I am not a professional writer. I am more of an observer and the stories are very simple," he said. "They're around 300 words each to be read one at a time, or as a series. It's an ideal book for supplementary reading from an English teaching standpoint.
"It is also a trade book and I've also been told it's inspirational. A lot of people take it as a traveling companion to read four or five stories at a time. I get a lot of feedback, more from women than men, but perhaps women are a lot more sensitive to what I am writing," he observed.
And the motivation for writing it? "It's not about getting rich, it was always about making a contribution. The satisfaction is enormous and it's always good to be introduced as a speaker and have them add he's also an author," said possibly the only Western manager of a major five-star hotel in China doubling as a book writer.
Editor Tina Kanagaratnam describes the essays as "think pieces" and Alatsas agrees, saying "they're about capturing what moves someone or what's important.
"I see the book as an ancillary tool in many ways. I have a genuine concern to share information and to help people understand things about management, life and travel, the latter which I believe it is an antidote to ignorance."
Alatsas has taken the book into a second edition at the request of readers who wanted more detail. The new edition has 60 percent new content and the hotelier muses about a third printing.
A man who has forged philosophies about many things, and put them in his book for all to see, Alatsas is stuck on the idea that "if people can maintain a positive outlook, it's not the panacea that's going to solve all our problems, but it's better than a negative attitude."
The book is available on Amazon.com and Charterhouse at Times Square.
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