Having spoken to a number of hospitality businesses in Ireland’s Ancient East, consultant and trainer, Anthony Beale, is convinced that there is.

I’ve been in the hospitality industry for over 25 years so I’ve witnessed many changes in how we deliver the product. A number of events have rocked us: recessions, foot and mouth, globalisation and, more recently, the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. Unfortunately, we lost the run of ourselves during the boom when, sadly the ‘get them in and get them out’ mentality was rampant.

However, the great operators of the past and today never lost sight of what being in the hospitality business is about – giving people a wonderful time and great memories. This used to be called ‘delivering service’ but today it is ‘delivering the experience.’ In my not so humble opinion they are the same. The core values of genuineness, sincerity, and wanting to always deliver your best are what the great operators have in common. Sensing what people want, having a strong vision, and being able to clearly communicate and lead were all skills employed by these leaders in their fields.

I recently interviewed 20 successful hotel, restaurant and gastro pub operators in Dublin, Meath and Louth about what they believed were the key ingredients of their success. I wanted to see if there were commonalities across the sector when it comes to creating a successful hospitality business. I’m happy to say that I found more similarities than differences and the exercise confirmed one of my core beliefs that ‘success has a system’ and that it leaves clues and can be predictable for anyone that follows what works.

There were stories of starting up on their own, to continuing in the family business and bringing it to the next level. It is amazing how many operators turned what most would see as failure into success. For example, Ross Lewis from Chapter One wanted to get into hotel management but failed the interview to get into Shannon – he has been enjoying unparalleled success for over 23 years. Conor Woods from The Bay Tree Restaurant in Belvedere House B&B in Carlingford dropped out of college studying auctioneering before the food industry got a grip on him.

Jon Paul and Charly Egan from the Black Bull Inn bar and restaurant in Drogheda, Patrick Corscadden in Bellingham Castle, Des and Stephen Buckley from FX Buckley’s, Vincent and Olivia Duff of the Headfort Arms in Kells, and Roseanne Donegan of the Monasterboice Inn all took on and built up the family name, taking their businesses to the next level. For other operators, it was a case of necessity being the mother of invention.

Michael Gavigan from The Central in Navan and Michael Hughes from the StockHouse restaurant in Trim were both badly hit when the property crash came. They needed to start again so they decided to carve out new careers in the hospitality industry.Click Here for Full Published Article