“Hospitality is a challenging industry, but I love it,” writes F.H. Benzakour in his book, 12 Golden Keys to Hospitality Excellence. Manager and CEO of some of the toniest golf courses in the United States, Benzakour’s book is aimed to help new leaders in the hospitality industry grow their teams, their resorts, and their profitability – with heart. “One of the most important traits of winning leaders is their dedication to helping others evolve and advance by inspiring, enabling, mentoring, and training them,” he writes. And he has done just that, in over half a dozen golf resorts. Benzakour has won numerous awards and distinctions, including being named Top Private Club President/Manager of the Year by BoardRoom Magazine in both 2010 and 2011, and being named as one of the 20 Most Admired Golf Operators in the World by Golf, Inc., in 2009.
SoundFridge was proud to produce the audiobook edition of this important business book. It is slated for release on Audible.com and iTunes for later this month.
An immigrant story, driven to success
Benzakour’s story is one that inspires as it teaches. An immigrant from Morocco, he moved to the USA as an adult with a dream to work in the hospitality industry. As a busy father and husband, he finished his post-graduate studies at the prestigious school of hospitality at Cornell University – widely regarded to be the best in the world. He has spent 25 years taking some of the most well-known golf resorts on the East Coast of the USA from the red to profitability.
Benzakour believes that golf resorts, like all businesses, have a duty to be more than money makers. “Holding a golf outing to raise money for research for a cure for a killing disease, or raising money for the families who lost a loved one on September 11, or to raise funds for a family who just lost a child to suicide, so they can pay the funeral expenses. Those are the best times in the hospitality industry—when we can come together to help one another. I really enjoy doing what I do because of special days like that,” he writes. He recalls a heartwarming story after Hurricane Sandy in New York. He opened his golf resort to the community so they could “come in and take hot showers, recharge their phones, and eat hot meals—since the food we had in the refrigerators wasn’t spoiled, due to the big generator we had at the time.”
Benzakour’s twelve strategic, eye-opening approaches, include these and more:
• Over-Invest In People
• Celebrate Diversity
• Be A Student of the Obvious
• Be A Master of Game Theory
• Swim In Blue Oceans
• The Pareto Principle
• Innovate or Die
By employing these twelve dynamic game plans within the 12 Golden Keys to Hospitality Excellence, managers will advance to being winners in the hospitality industry.
