WHO’S WHO

Successfully Yours: Stephan Bringer

by Dr. Iain Corness

The general manager of the Woodland’s Resort is a young, fresh-faced, energetic Frenchman, Stephan Bringer (and to assist us all in saying his French surname, it is pronounced “Branjay”).

Stephan was born in France in a small town close to Paris. His father was the CEO of an international company involved in the textile industry, and in that position he travelled extensively. Consequently Stephan’s schooling was done through French international schools in France, Hong Kong, Belgium, Germany and Switzerland. “I learned English while I was in Hong Kong!” he said, laughing at the apparent bizarreness.

By the time he was finished his secondary schooling, he did not know what he wanted to do - but he did know what he didn’t want to do! And that was production line work. When he was 17 years old his father had sent him on a vacation job in a UK factory for three months. “He wanted to show me that life is tough.”

However, still being unsure, but knowing that he liked travel, he signed on as a crewmember on a large yacht. “After ten months I decided this was not a lifetime job for me, so I came home and decided to study.”

Still with travel as his stimulus, he did a two year diploma course in tourism, and at the end had job training experience at a major hotel in Brussels. That short period in the hotel was enough for Stephan to say that this was the career path he was looking for. With his father behind him, he was enrolled in a Swiss hotel management school, emerging three years later with the requisite qualifications in his pocket.

The qualifications were not enough to keep him out of National Service, which he had deferred, so he lined up for 12 months of military service. Boots? Battledress? Not for lucky Stephan, who found that he was to be the secretary to a French Admiral based in Brussels, and working with NATO.

After the (not very) military training it was time for Stephan to get his first real job. “I was quite lucky again, and I joined the management training program with the Intercontinental Hotels group.” His luck continued - he was sent to Bangkok for his first posting!

Management trainees started at the bottom and worked their way up. “I spent 12 months doing everything from cleaning toilets, to working in every department of the hotel. It was quite tough. I started with someone who only lasted 6 months and then quit, but it was still good fun.”

At that stage in his career he looked at the general managers who had worked for the international chains for many years, and decided that was what he too would aim for. However, there was a little more experience to be gained before that aim could be realised, and some of that came in a rush. “I was still young and energetic and they sent me to Cambodia as part of the pre-opening and opening team for the first five star hotel in Phnom Penh.”

He was in the food and beverage section and worked through the departments there. “It was an enormous task. You had to be very flexible as the staff were so green, but it was a lesson for life. The experience I got in one year would have taken five years otherwise.”

Phnom Penh was still a dangerous place and when an internal coup resulted in tanks rumbling down the street, the hotel group withdrew staff from Cambodia. Stephan was told he had two options - he could quit, or he could be sent to Saudi Arabia. Having a friend who had just done a tour of duty in Saudi and hated it, Stephan took option number one.

He was not unemployed for long, another major group was opening a hotel in Siem Riep, and they were quick to catch this youngster who had 12 months experience of Cambodia and of hotel openings. “This was even harder. Siem Riep was just a village. I was trying to find staff in the rice fields!”

After another 12 months in Cambodia, Stephan felt it was time to move elsewhere. “I was lucky again - a small hotel in Pattaya was looking for a young energetic person and I got the job as general manager.”

History will record that Stephan took the occupancy rates from below 50% to 85%. “It was hard work. I kept a low profile and worked with what I had, to do what I could with what I had in my hand. I contacted travel agencies to put Woodland’s on the map.”

I asked Stephan how did the post of GM in a relatively small hotel (though it has almost doubled in size recently) fit in with his ambition of being a GM in an international chain? The reply showed that the previous ambition had been replaced. “In a big group you spend a lot of time with reports and carrying out the orders from above. In this small hotel I’m almost my own boss.” He also enjoys a good relationship with the owner (K. Sutham Phantusak) which obviously heightens his job satisfaction.

Despite having come from a well-off family, Stephan has not had a silver spoon upbringing, and his father instilled a good work ethic into him. That three months on the assembly line when he was 17 was a deliberate ploy to help a young man find his direction in life. “You have to work hard if you want to get somewhere. You get nothing on a silver tray.” Stephan has learned life’s lessons well.

For a hobby, he goes jogging three or four times a week. “I don’t have much time for a specific hobby. Running you can do anywhere in the world.”

Stephan Bringer is one of the ‘new breed’ hoteliers, and is an extremely nice young man in all respects. He has the right attitude and will be very successful anywhere he goes.