Despite her poor showing for after only 48 days as the first female Minister of Economic Affairs, Christine Tsung's (
Tsung, a crony of President Chen Shui-bian, was named chairwoman of Taipei's troubled Grand Hotel (圓山飯店) on Saturday.
"Her world vision and expertise in business management will greatly help the hotel expand its international clientele," Grand Hotel's general manager Jack Niu (
"We look forward to taking advantage of her good governmental resources and interpersonal relationships in bringing in business," said Hu Heng-li (胡恆麗), a spokesperson for the hotel's union.
"Her performance at China Airlines Co (
Replacing Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫), Tsung's appointment is still pending approval from the hotel's board, which is expected to meet at the end of this month, Niu said.
The hotel's current strategy aims to attract organizers of international conferences, upper-crust clientele and leisure travelers from central and southern Taiwan.
Founded in 1952, the Grand Hotel was listed in the 1950s among the top 10 hotels in the world. Fierce competition from the entry of international hotels in combination with poor management by bungling bureaucrats, have cost the Taipei landmark its dominant market position.
Raking in a measly NT$1.6 billion in revenues last year, this year's revenues have, so far, dropped by nearly 20 percent, Hu said.
Average room-occupancy rates are at 70 percent according to hotel officials.
Righting the semi-state-run hotel's sagging business, outdated image, inefficient management and mediocre service will be major challenges for Tsung. But before any improvements can be made, Tsung's first challenge will be implementing internal reforms that will educate and motivate hotel employees to improve their performance, pundits said.
"It's important that she befriends hotel employees and earn their support in making changes," Ta Shee's Chou said.
Tsung should take advantage of the hotel's union to act as a bridge between upper management and employees, he said.
Citing the hotel's former general manager Stanley Yen (
Betty Yen (
One such problem Stanley Yen faced was an inflexible year-end-bonus agreement, which is written into the union contract, Yen said.
Although Tsung doesn't have the hotel savvy of Stanley Yen, her close ties with the DPP administration could make a difference, she said.
"Most of the time, hotel owners who recruit their cronies instead of professionals to run their business, end up in failure. But Tsung may be able to make breakthroughs if she's fully supported by the government to carry out policies," Yen said.
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
HELPING HAND: Approving the sale of H20s could give China the edge it needs to capture market share and become the global standard, a US representative said The US President Donald Trump administration’s decision allowing Nvidia Corp to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China risks bolstering Beijing’s military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US, the head of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party said. “The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development,” committee chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday in a letter to US Secretary of