NEW YORK — In the first few months on the job, Aimbridge Hospitality CEO Craig Smith has led the company through some major structural and executive changes.
In a podcast interview with Hotel News Now, Smith spoke in further detail about what these changes — namely removing executive layers and bringing on Eric Jacobs from Marriott International to serve as the new chief global growth officer — mean for the company operationally and how it will affect the owners who partner with Aimbridge.
“We really wanted to get the company as close as possible to the hotel and the [general managers], and so a big piece of that obviously was de-layering the company,” he said.
The combination of Aimbridge with Interstate Hotels & Resorts was like putting together two buildings with floors that didn’t exactly match up, so there were some extra layers in the organization that created a little more bureaucracy and slowed response times, he said. One of his first goals was to make the company more general manager-centric.
As part of the restructuring, Smith brought the four divisional presidents directly to his team. It was important for them to have a voice on that team directly because if they aren’t heard at times, the company doesn’t get what it needs further down the line.
“It's been exciting to have them directly on my team now talking about what they need, what's going on in the field, but then also hearing about what the repercussions are on a larger scale on the decisions that we are making,” he said.
Aimbridge has to get closer to the end product, which is managing hotels, Smith said. Being as close as possible to the general managers, the hotel teams and the guests every day is important to the company.
“It’s a discipline thing,” he said. “You’ll find layers will grow, and you’ve got to cut them out. They’ll grow, and you cut them out. That’s all part of leadership. I’ve seen it over my 37 years in the industry, but you can’t lose sight of what’s the most important thing, and that’s the hotel. That’s where you drive success.”
Hiring Jacobs as the new development head was a huge win for Aimbridge, Smith said, adding that Jacobs is one of the best in the industry in development.
“I already asked him if he was closing any deals for us,” he said.
During the interview on June 4, Smith said Aimbridge would be naming a new chief financial officer later in the day. After the interview, the company announced the hiring of William Davenport, whose most recent role was chief financial officer with restaurant chain Velvet Taco. Prior to that, he was chief financial officer for Topgolf for a decade, where he helped it grow from nine locations to more than 80. He will join Aimbridge officially on July 8.
“It took us a while to find the right person, but I'm telling you I'm really, really excited this person is going to help us really do wonderful things with our finance and accounting department,” Smith said.
Helping Aimbridge Grow
Eric Jacobs jumped into his role as Aimbridge’s new chief global growth officer on June 2 just as the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference was kicking off. Most recently, he served as chief development officer for Marriott International’s midscale brands in North America and Canada.
While working on the brand side, Aimbridge had been a great partner, Jacobs said in an interview. It’s an exciting time as brand companies are relying more and more on third-party operators. With its size, business acumen and performance, Aimbridge has an opportunity to continue to grow and dominate in this space domestically and internationally.
Having spent time in both business development and operations, Jacobs said he understand the business model and the challenges that owners, investors and the industry overall continue to face.
Third-party management will be a big piece of how the brands grow globally, Jacobs said. Having that understanding of how the brands work and leveraging that knowledge will help him reach the company’s goals.
“I’ve been selling management agreements for those branding companies for 25 years, so I understand that the challenge — it’s different than selling a franchise because you’re responsible for that bottom line,” he said.
Providing growth for the brands and investors and driving great results means everyone wins, Jacobs said. It’s a net operating income-driven business, and operators need to focus on that.
“While I’m in charge of [business development], I think folks will know that I am the voice of that ownership group to make sure that we’re driving the best returns,” he said.
Assessing the team and talent is always the first step when taking on a new role, and coming in he knows it’s a strong team, Jacobs said. Aimbridge has a new C-suite, and the company will be able to establish what its true north looks like over the next six to eight weeks.
“I’m sure we’ll be spending a lot of time thinking about that and shaping that both for the internal customer and external customers,” he said.