1. Playing the lead “CEO” Role has enriched my life!
During the start-up of the realization to connect my dream with the reality and build and brand
my own hotel chain I have taken the role of Chief Executive Officer. Looking back at the
previous successes accomplished and the bear traps I have almost stepped into I believe that
the following five points describe best how I see my function. Please note that I have started my
business after leaving The Netherlands with no more than a paid flight ticket and € 0.35 cents in
my pocket. No money and 3 sets of clothing.
1. Own the vision. Day and night I am breathing and playing the role as CEO. I spend a large
chuck of my time to, determine and communicate the organization’s strategic direction. Until
that's settled, making decisions about anything else at the business is difficult. And without this,
the company is merely a collection of people pursuing individual goals, guided by their own
values.
While other people are often looking from the sideline and “yell” an one-liner to have their
opinion heard regarding the shape and direction of my strategic vision, I am a strong believer
that in my role as CEO I must be able to describe it in a clear, engaging and exciting way for all
stakeholders. All the players in the organization should understand how this direction affects
their job and daily responsibilities. Everything I do, every breath I take, I take it as the leader that
does support this vision. During my career working underneath CEO’s and management teams I
have seen too many CEO’s and managers that allowed the strategic vision to be nothing more
than slogans on a piece of paper rather than guidance informing all key decisions.
2. Provide the proper resources. Only I can perform the task of balancing resources -- the two
most important ones being capital and people. I have learned that in this role I must make both
available in the proper quantities and at the right time for the company to succeed. In the start
up fase this included not having food on my own table, but rather pay my team and invest in my
hotel.
In my other jobs l had experience dealing with budgets and allocating resources, now, I
understand that was just the tip of the iceberg. Since I’ve seen that CEO's job involves keeping
a proper balance of resources for all the disparate groups and initiatives, according to the
company’s goals. Skill in making such decisions requires a deep understanding of all aspects of
the business as well as a clear vision. Not having the correct information, or not being up-to-
date with your (local) market is killing and expensive, believe me some weeks there was no time
to sleep for me. I needed to update my knowledge of the trends and of course the rules and
regulations of a new and strange Asian country.
Putting the right people in the right positions with the right training is probably the single most
important thing I did, when I saw that I could not stay awake for the sixths night in a row. After
the change of 2 full teams I now value the investment I did in terms of time, blood and tears.
With the right team, all things are possible. With the wrong team, nothing else matters.
3. Build the culture. Culture is the set of shared attitudes, goals, behaviors and values that
characterize a group. It adds up to how things get done in front of house and behind the scenes
of the hotel. Being a foreigner in a new country that never worked there before, the culture
shock was (and still is) unreal and frustrating. The work ethics and the different behaviors of the
entire team influences the entirety of the employee experience and thus the customer
experience. Every organized group of individuals develops a culture -- whether it's explicitly
recognized or not -- and for me it was a big challenge and necessity to open my mind to allow
the “strange” and other ways the Far East people. That entire different mentality and constant

2. new surprises that I observed and be involved in was and still is one of the biggest mileposts in
my career that I had to observe, respect and yet change to achieve the desired culture I think is
needed to maintain a healthy corporation.
The most critical part of culture is values: and mark my words, they are 180 degrees opposite of
the values and toolset I brought to this country. I need to ensure that my values where are
applied consistently from top to bottom, across all departments, still respecting and
understanding the ways of the host country. A good culture makes people feel safe and
respected, enabling my teams to perform at their best.
4. Make good decisions. As new a CEO I was often surprised by the breadth of issues
confronting me. One minute I where discussing a new room color, the next a human resources
issue -- and then along comes a legal issue. It's impossible for anyone to be an expert in all
aspects of the business, yet I find the challenge in being the CEO that at least has a little
knowledge about everything. I had no idea about all the (for me new) rules and requirements
that where needed to even start a corporation or let alone open a bank account. But since I
choose to role of CEO, my guests, team and outside partners expect me to be the person
tasked with making the decisions. Many problem require a solution that will end up affecting
multiple departments, and only the one with the helicopter view, me the CEO seems
empowered to take such an action. Everyone else can pass the buck from time to time, but the
certainly in this obedient part of the World, it takes “Sir” Nikki that needs to make the final call.
5. Oversee and deliver the company's performance. Everyone agrees that the CEO is ultimately
responsible for a company’s performance. To be successful in an Asian Hotel this means that I
must take an active role in driving that performance. This requires maintaining a keen
awareness of my competitors, the hotel industry and market. Being in touch with the core
business functions to ensure the proper execution of tasks.
One of my strengths is to serve as the interface between internal operations and external
stakeholders (guests, suppliers, government). On a daily basis I need to ascertain how different
stakeholders expect the company to perform, interpret this for internal teams and then be sure
the proper metrics accurately gauge performance. “You get what you measure” is an apt adage.
The nice aspect of being an actor playing the CEO-lead role is, that I can set the bar for the
level of performance to be reached. The credo of our service is: “Regardless of the what is
thrown in front of my feet, together with my team we solve any type of situation to make the
stakeholders happy and our Hotel Group shine bright”.
I am not the kind of CEO that is found to be content to sit back and let the job arrive at my
doorstep; after all, there are always tactical things that need to be done. I am the kind of CEO
that plans how I spend my time, according to the above responsibilities (and not just tend to
urgent to-dos). To successfully grow a company, it is my duty and responsibility to have that
clear picture of how to fulfill these functions.