Cranfield Business Leaders` Programme
Where do I take the business next? Inspiration on that question was what luxury hotel boss Andrew McKenzie was looking for from the Cranfield Business Leaders’ Programme. Indeed, "What now?", Andrew recalls, was his overriding concern for the group’s two successful luxury hotels - the Michelin starred The Vineyard at Stockcross and the four star Donnington Valley - a well supported golf club and a boutique Californian wine merchant business all wholly owned by serial entrepreneur Sir Peter Michael, creator of Classic FM.
"The business was established in 1991 with just one hotel, the Donnington Valley," Andrew explains. "During my ten years as managing director we had grown into a £15 million concern with four business units and about 300 staff. All this development came from exploiting on-site opportunities and organic growth. We had made a multi-million pound investment in the 111 room Donnington Valley hotel in 2006 and the business was in a pretty comfortable position. But when I signed up for the Business Leaders’ Programme I had some choices to make: whether to make major changes or just tweak things here and there."
Andrew credits the Business Leaders’ Programme for several ‘light bulb’ moments that helped him decide what those next steps should be. "My biggest gain from the course was a clarity of motive that I didn’t have before," he says. "I came away with a clear strategy knowing that I wanted to expand the business quite dramatically and possibly in new directions and with new structures. I gained the confidence to convince our stakeholders that acquisition was the way forward and the analytical skills to make a robust business case. And I had another more unexpected gain: the course really opened my eyes to some of the more novel ways of raising finance."
For Andrew the value to be gained from working closely with other course participants was a similarly welcome if unexpected bonus. "Working as I do in a private company can be quite isolating," he explains. "So I gained a great deal from sharing issues and concerns with other managers and discovering how very similar these concerns are across a very wide range of industries. Also feedback from my course colleagues has prompted me to make some changes to the way I engage with my senior team. I feel I’m much more able to take their ideas on board now while stepping away from some of the day to day running of the organisation."
Being able to step away means Andrew had the time in September 2007 to accept the post of Chairman of the Master Innholders, a UK wide group of prominent hoteliers who aim to promote best practice and management development within the industry. Membership of this prestigious group is by invitation only with current members including the general managers of leading establishments such as Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons and London’s five star Four Seasons and Hyatt Regency hotels. "My experience at Cranfield gave me the confidence to accept this role and proved particularly valuable in organising the themes for this year’s national conference. Leadership was the thread running through the event which was attended by more than 300 hotel general managers from throughout the UK and further afield."
Since the course Andrew has explored more than a dozen opportunities ranging from hotels to an internet travel company to grow the business. None so far has ticked all the right boxes. "I haven’t achieved my aim yet of growing the number of businesses in our group. In fact, the skills I picked up at Cranfield have helped me turn down some opportunities that I may previously have gone with," he points out. "Now I have a more analytical approach and a more inclusive style so I have used the other members of my team more in appraising opportunities. But we have clarified why we want to expand and sharply defined what we want to develop so it’s only a matter of time before we make the right investment."
Andrew McKenzie, Managing Director, The VineYard at Stockcross