Hotel Investment Today talked to new CEO Craig Smith and Chief Global Growth Officer Eric Jacobs at NYU to discuss growth and the emerging internal reset.
NEW YORK CITY - One-on-one meetings at the NYU hotel investment conference with new Chief
Global Growth Officer Eric Jacobs and CEO Craig Smith told a story about the new
narrative from the world’s biggest third-party manager.
Jacobs said Aimbridge is focused on better identifying its
true north and what the company will stand for moving forward.
He also emphasized that some of their bigger opportunities will come from international markets where developers will need an
Aimbridge-like manager. In fact, potential in the global arena is a strength of both Jacobs and Smith and among the reasons they were brought on to lead.
Jacobs identified EMEA, Asia and LatAm as prime markets for growth and where owners don’t churn assets nearly as much, which requires them to seek out more
experienced and well-positioned managers.
We will find our competitive advantage and play there. We will figure out who we are and stay disciplined.
Craig Smith
Smith added that Aimbridge will pursue international cluster
operations, citing the U.K., Mexico as prime examples of markets that have this type of
potential.
Smith also said Aimbridge is looking for bolt-on acquisitions to keep the company's growth trajectory on target.
Internally, Smith remains focused on removing layers of
management to get the GM closer to the highest levels of management.
In a recent interview with Hotel Investment Today, Smith
stated, “We are setting ourselves up to be a turbocharged, GM and hotel-centric
organization where we are focused on each hotel, each owner and each brand. But
we’re going to do this by continuing to remove layers, and the removing of
those layers will increase our speed. It will take out bureaucracy and also
drive performance.”
When asked about what’s surprising him, Smith said it was
the churn of properties. Aimbridge response: get ahead of asset sales and “relink”
with new owners. They also like to bring deals to potentially friendly buyers when
they know assets are coming to market.
Bigger picture, Smith said Aimbridge will continue to
flatten its org chart and onboard new senior team members who can row in the
same direction. “We will find our competitive advantage and play there,” he
said. “We will figure out who we are and stay disciplined.”
Earlier this month, Aimbridge named William Davenport as its
new CFO, effective July 8. Davenport was most recently CFO of Dallas-based
restaurant chain Velvet Taco and was CFO at Dallas-based Topgolf before that.
He’s also had senior financial roles at Haggar Clothing Co., Neiman Marcus
Group, Brinker International and KPMG Peat Marwick.