“There are perhaps twelve CEOs from Sri Lanka heading major corporations in Singapore,” said Lakshman Perera, modestly omitting himself. Yet Perera is the only Sri Lankan general manager of one of the top 40 hotels in Singapore. At the 388-room award-winning Amara Hotel which he manages, the room rate starts around SL Rs 30,000 a night; there are eight restaurants and bars and a demanding clientele of high-flying business travellers.
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| Lakshman Perera |
“For our corporate clients we have to be two steps ahead,” said Perera, explaining one of the reasons for the success of the Amara Hotel under his management. “We have to provide guests what they want before they know they want it.”
I met Lakshman Perera by chance while staying at the Amara Hotel last week. He was on one of his daily rounds quietly checking on the smooth running of the restaurants when he stopped at my table. That alone indicated a man of exceptional dedication to his job, as in most large hotels in Singapore guests never meet the general manager.
Perera’s presence as the hotel’s team leader explained the dynamic professionalism of his department heads, all of whom showed agreeable friendliness and competence in dealing with guests. The manager of the hotel’s Vietnamese restaurant told me he had been recruited by Perera from a travel agency; one of the managers of the Alphabet Bar said Perera had plucked him from an office job in the hotel and promoted him to food and beverage.
During the few days I stayed in the hotel it was obvious that Perera encourages his team to care for guests. In fact, one of the guiding principles he has drawn up for the Amara brand states: “Our personality will be smart, friendly, out going, hospitable but efficient and prompt.” His own expertise resulted in him making the honours list for The Hospitality Asia Platinum Awards 2008-2010 “Most Dynamic General Manager.” Meanwhile the hotel under his management won top place in the Signature Deluxe Hotel Category.
Perera’s climb to the top in the competitive hospitality profession was the result of sheer determination. His father was a planter and he was schooled at Trinity, Kandy. At the time, career opportunities were limited in Sri Lanka and so he left in 1977 for further education in Canada. Taking part-time jobs (including working as a gas station attendant in temperatures below freezing) to finance his studies, he graduated from the George Brown Hotel School in Toronto. After a stint as a hotel management trainee in Toronto he joined the 1,500-room World Headquarters of the Sheraton Hotel in Boston, USA.
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With a diploma in Food and Beverage Management from Cornell University, New York, Perera moved to Australia where he married and became an Australian citizen. He worked in Hyatt and Shangri-La Hotels in Australia and Manila, eventually becoming Director of Food & Beverage at the Shangri-La Sydney. Then he received a telephone call from a former schoolmate, Susantha Ratnayake, now chairman of the Keells Group, who asked him to help develop the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo.
“I was happy in Australia but it was hard to resist Susantha when he asked me to return and give something back to Sri Lanka,” said Perera. He stayed two years as Director Operations and, together with Executive Chef Ranjith Morugama and consultant Dermot Gale, set up the hotel’s successful F & B outlets. Perera’s ambition was to become a hotel general manager so when he was offered a prestigious post at The Raffles Hotel in Singapore he regretfully turned it down so he could become general manager of the 300-room Amara Hotel in Saigon instead. He was posted from there in 2007 to head the group’s flagship property in Singapore.
Perera explained that he learned early in his career to adapt and to innovate. He believes in rolling up his sleeves and getting down to work, whatever the task. As the first non-European to run the hotel, he initiated the hotel’s quarterly “Art & Food” exhibitions with such promotions as French Art & Wine, and Chinese Art & Cuisine. During my visit, a stirring painting in the lobby of stilt fishermen was part of an exhibition by an artist with a Sri Lankan background, in this case Peshali Sar Anya, who is based in Singapore.
Hotels in Singapore are booming and, with the opening soon of a 2,500-bedroom casino hotel, finding capable staff will be difficult. “At present a lot of trainees are from China, because we can’t find enough locals,” said Perera. “Although Sri Lankans work so hard when they are abroad, and are very smart, it is difficult to get work permits for them to come to Singapore.”
Lakshman Perera is debonair and courteous, setting a good example to his staff. He even designed the new staff uniforms, including pin-striped suits for his F & B executives, to inculcate pride in their work. He remains ambitious and hopes to climb to the peak of his profession as CEO of an international hotel group before he retires. Meanwhile he is looking forward to his next assignment, a return to Australia as general manager of a top hotel in Sydney. |
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