HORSESHOE BAY, Texas — Crescent Hotels & Resorts held its seventh annual Commercial Conference this week at the Horseshoe Bay Resort, one of its Latitudes properties outside of Austin, Texas. The conference's Olympic-inspired theme—"Pushing Limits, Breaking Barriers"—proved fitting for Dawn Gallagher, the company's new president of hospitality, who was promoted to the role only a month previously from chief commercial officer.
"Everyone in this audience has pushed limits and broken barriers," she told the 200+ attendees during the opening general session, describing this spirit of determination as part of the company's DNA. She pointed out the classic image of the Olympic rings and described them as being similar to the company's culture, with each ring symbolizing different facets of the business. Importantly, she added, no one ring can move—up or down—without the others. "We're only as good as our weakest link, but we will make every effort to drive that weakest link up with all of us," she said.
Speaking with Hotel Management on the last day of the conference, Gallagher said the annual event is "a great way for us to connect" and "continues to strengthen who we are as Crescent and our culture across the line." The theme, she added, is meant to encourage attendees to "move forward" and take risks at their hotels. "Once we decide on what [the theme] is, we then build content around how to sell with more risk taking, how to be a better leader. How are you making sure that your voice speaks to everyone?" The sessions are meant to "retrain and refuel everybody so that they leave with their balloon full of helium, just ready to go into year-end."
One of those sessions, Matt Dunsmoor of Simon Sinek's The Optimism Company, examined business as an "infinite game" that does not follow the rules of traditional game strategy. While a traditional game has clearly defined competitors, established rules and an end goal, an infinite game—like a business—has a neverending number of competitors, constantly shifting rules and can continue indefinitely.
Hospitality, Gallagher said, can be finite in terms of fiscal periods and budgets. "But sometimes you have to look at things through a lens that says, How do I make this a point in time to then build a trajectory from there?" As a self-described "competitive person," Gallagher said she understands different types of victories. "You can win an inning and you can win a game, [or] you can lose an inning and still win a game," she said. Dunsmoor's session emphasized that leaders are one cog in a big wheel, Gallagher noted. "Everybody is important for what they're doing … So how do you make sure everybody is on the same page [in terms of] how to move forward?"
Going forward, Gallagher hopes to focus on the company's culture and maintain leadership's attention on the associates. "It's important for every voice to be heard," she said. "Everybody matters. Everybody has something to say. And … the strength of the organization is having a diverse background and moving forward in ways that may not feel comfortable for some, but it will get comfortable for everybody."
Gallagher also wants to revise Crescent's "silos" as part of an effort to "work together laterally and strengthen laterally to make everybody else better." In particular, she noted a divide between the commercial and operations divisions. Now that she is overseeing both divisions, she expects to see more cooperation between them.
She does not, however, expect Crescent to grow into a massive corporation. "We have never said we were going to be the largest organization in the industry," she said. Instead, she wants it to be the best from the associate level, from the guest level and from the ownership level. By maintaining a portfolio of about 120 hotels, she said, the company can maintain close relationships with everyone at each property. "We pride ourselves on making sure that we are an approachable organization for every level."
"Teamwork is more important than individual success," Gallagher said of her leadership philosophy. "Promoting how we work together as a team, how we collectively make better decisions as a team will strengthen us moving forward."
