Translator: Elie Vischel Reviewer: Denise RQ
H equals H.
Hospitality equals Humanity,
the new business equation.
Good afternoon everyone, my name is Zaher Baraky,
I'm here studying my executive MBA at Ecole Hôtelière Lausanne.
I know what you're thinking,
"With his white hair, he's a professor not a student."
But, the fun part of it, every time I go out to have my lunch,
in the school here, I always get the discount of the professors.
(Laughter)
And the interesting part is that I don't tell them,
I just keep quiet.
I hope they are not listening, than they will change their procedures.
I want to start about my story, and I promise you I listen,
that this is a true story, it's not a lie.
I want you for one minute to go with me; imagine that little boy.
A little boy spent his first few years, during his childhood, in shelter.
He lost his father when he was eleven years old.
It was a tough time during the civil war in Lebanon.
He realized at that time that he has to find a job to support his family.
He managed to find a job, based on his basic few skills,
as you can imagine at that age, eleven years old,
he managed to find a job helping a plumber in his own little village.
it was tough.
After a few years, he realized that he has to find and learn new skills,
which will allow him to find a better job, better salary,
where he can help his family even better.
He has started looking around,
and the only option at that time was attending a vocational school.
It was expensive, but thinking about it, it was not that expensive.
The fee per year equaled the price of a decent bottle of wine,
but for a family struggling to find food, it was expensive.
So his mother went around asking for help, from families,
literally begging to help her son go to that school.
She managed to do so.
He is very lucky, he had a strong mother to help him, and he attended the school.
It was a life changing experience for him, because he learned a lot of skills,
which allowed him to go and work
in the best 5-star hotels in his capital, Beirut,
and after a few years working there, he managed to learn new skills,
and meeting new people,
where they allowed him to go and work in London,
and spend there ten years working in the best hospitality places.
Ladies and gentlemen, that little boy was me.
Even I managed to achieve few of my dreams in my life.
Every single time I traveled to Lebanon, and I looked at the state of my friends,
I realized their struggles to find a good salary and a good job
to help their families.
I always ask myself, "How can I help?"
After working in hotels, I realized that hotels can be the solution.
Working between Beirut, London and Dubai in the best hotels,
I realized that these training centers are not used to the maximum.
As you all know, corporations train their staff for few hours a week,
but the rest of the time, these centers are empty.
Here my idea started to take shape.
What about if these hotels go to the local community?
Imagine a hotel in Nairobi,
a 5-star hotel: they have the facilities, training, a kitchen, a restaurant.
Go to the local community,
bring five or ten people from this local community,
and help them, and train them a few basic skills.
It can be computer skills, can be a foreign language,
can be even cooking skills.
Why not using their kitchens to help them?
Why not using their restaurants to teach them few service skills?
The benefits for these people will be huge,
they will be able to find a job in that place,
they will be able, as well, to go outside and find another job,
or perhaps, they can open their own business,
and once they are successful, they will ultimately help others.
We live in a world of shared economy.
All of us heard about Uber, about Airbnb,
these powerful systems of connecting communities.
How can hotels follow the same system?
By sharing their facilities with the local people
who are in need, who are unfortunate,
who don't have the chance like I had in the past,
and teach them a few skills.
Teach them how to fish instead of feeding them.
Benefits of hospitality are huge
as well, to mention a few; marketing.
Hotels will have a strong marketed story to tell.
They will have a big impact on society.
one of the other benefits will be the employees themselves.
These employees will feel more passionate about helping and working there, why?
Because they are training their families, their friends, their relatives.
people coming from the same local community,
from the same background, from the same struggles.
Think about it,
all the corporations around the world face one of the biggest challenges -
How to keep staff morale high, and how to keep them more passionate?
By doing so, hotels will solve one of the biggest challenges.
To illustrate my idea to you I made a simple calculation,
the figure you will see on the screen is the total number of hotels in the world.
I made an educated guess, I just took 10% of these hotels.
if these hotels, only 10%, follow this new business equation,
the result, ladies and gentlemen,
is 10 million new trained workers every year.
This is huge!
This is three times the population of my country Lebanon.
H equals H:
Hospitality equals Humanity.
Hotels care about their staff, about shareholders, about their guests,
but what about if they start caring about the local community,
people in need, people who are unfortunate?
What if I didn't have the chance to attend that vocational school?
What if I didn't have a strong mother who supported them?
I would have not been able presenting my story in front of you here,
I would have not been able traveling and working
in the best cities and places in the world.
Even though, I would have not been able to study here
in the most glamorous school in the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, I truly believe that hotels in particular,
and hospitality industry in general,
if they follow this new business equation,
they will offer a powerful solution for local communities around the world,
and help to improve many people's lives.
H equals H.
Hospitality equals Humanity.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that you will agree with me,
this new business equation will be the future of hospitality.
Thank you.
(Applause)