[4月团队成员故事]从机械工程师到收益经理，让我们一起来听听新叔的传奇故事——Jason Lee’s Story

In RMCC’s office, we have several roles dedicating to revenue management from Director to Revenue Analyst. Apart from all these common roles, we have a special revenue manager who’s responsible for the period after a new hotel is taken into RMCC but before it’s officially be handed over to a cluster revenue manager, which is known as the“Pre-opening Phases”. As a Singaporean who’s good at Chinese, in the office, we all cordially call him - "Xinshu”, meaning Singapore Uncle. However, it is estimated that only a few people know that he had worked as an engineer for five years before he formally became a hotelier. So, what made him take the leap and eventually chose the hospitality industry? Let handover the microphone to him and hear what he will say.

Q: Please kick off with a brief self-introduction.

A：Hello everyone! I'm Jason Lee, a Singaporean, aka "Xinshu" in the office. I got my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the National University of Singapore. After graduating, I spent five years as an engineer and then decided to switch to the hotel industry. Then I went to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas majoring in hospitality. After my second graduation, I did 10 months internship in Macau - serving coffees as a waiter in a casino and helping gamblers to exchange chips... It was indeed a humble experience. Then I joined Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts and became a revenue manager, working in Singapore, Malaysia and China successively. I joined RMCC in January 2015 and so far has had 8-year experience in the hotel industry.

Q：Wow! From mechanical engineering to hospitality, can you tell the story behind this?

A: Sure. My hospitality career wasn’t exactly typical. Back in the days, we have to serve a couple of years in the army – this experience offered us the time to think of what we wanted to do in the future. And I chose the most-taken route and that was become an engineer. But deeply in my heart, I wanted to work in the hotel industry. After saving enough money (and courage), I went back to college to study hospitality. My first official job as a hotelier was in Shangri-La Singapore, and they said “Engineers make (good) revenue managers.”… so here I am.

Q: Why did you choose RMCC/Hilton?

A: Because I liked the brand and I had heard so much about Hilton’s ambitious expanding plan in APAC, especially in China. And I am kind of Sinophilic, you know. I have always worked at the property level and have always wanted to move to the corporate offices because it is cool to be feared… I mean, to be respected, and you can see things from a different perspective. I read about the RMCC, and the whole concept of a melting pot of different cultures and revenue experiences sounds very exciting. Finally I got the job.

Q: As I previously mentioned, you’re responsible for the pre-opening stages. How many hotels have you helped take into RMCC so far?

A: I think it’s 15? I am still relatively new and hope to buy myself a cake when I reach 100.

Q: What do you usually do during the pre-opening stages? Which steps are necessarily to be taken? How long usually does this period take?

A: Building a revenue culture fundamentally and laying the groundwork for the revenue management afterwards. For the hotels in pre-opening stages, systems are usually not in place and sometimes the team is new – therefore we need to assist them to do a lot of system set-up and trainings as well as my favorite part – relationship building. It’s like working on a piece of blank canvas. Usually it will take 2 to 3 months because opening dates always get delayed… but we try our best to offer revenue management solutions beyond pre-opening set-up.

Q: What are the biggest differences between your current role and previous role as a normal CRM?

A: Current role is a never ending learning experience. Most of the time, we do not have systems and tools ready and we have to be inventive and think of ideas to drive revenue. We need to do a DD without a DD report, a BFM without a BFM report, we learn to be the one-stop shop for revenue-related matters i.e. new hotels may not even find themselves on the map – we need to find the solution... sometimes 24/7 via WeChat/WhatsApp (because they may not have the Skype for Business set up yet)

Another difference to the role of a CRM is, the measure of success for them is more tangible, i.e. AG, RGI, exceed Budget and so on…

Q: What’s your hobby in your spare time?

A: I do not have any unique hobbies… just chilling out with friends on weekends, go to church more often and some give-back-to society activities. Basically I try to thrive for the soul… oh, I also try to go home on time to learn how to cook… and walk the dog (yes, I have adopted a puppy). I have learnt a lot from my dog… he is always smiling no matter what you do to him… I try to gain some positive energy (and hopefully lose some weight) from him and yes, walking the dog is my new hobby now.

RMCC办公室里“卧虎藏龙”，除了收益管理之外，在业余时间里，大家都有自己的爱好和专长，如运动，跳舞，弹琴，摄影，旅行等。目前，RMCC公众号每月都会推出一期人物专访，带领大家认识和了解更多可爱的团队成员~ 下个月我们会采访谁呢？让我们拭目以待吧！

There are many talents in RMCC's office. In addition to revenue management, in the spare time, everyone has their own hobbies like sports, dancing, playing piano, photography, travelling, etc. Currently we’re launching a monthly interview program to let people know more about our lovely team members! Who will we interview next month? Stay tuned!

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