As the company's retired founder remains in residence at The Manor at Elfindale, a three-time John Q. Hammons Hotels & Resorts executive is bridging the gap for the company's roughly 10,000 associates.
Phill Burgess, vice president of sales and revenue management for the privately held company, returned for a third stint at JQH Hotels in December 2010, after Hammons stepped down from the top post due to multiple cardiovascular, lung and pulmonary disorders. Longtime JQH veteran and Hammons' trustee, Jacquie Dowdy, now leads the company's operations as CEO and recruited Burgess back into the fold.
Burgess this morning spoke of Hammons' influence and its continuing hold on the once public company during an interview by Springfield Business Journal Editor Eric Olson in front of an audience of 90 at Hilton Garden Inn. The event was SBJ's last 12 People You Need to Know breakfast of the year.
"There are developers and entrepreneurs from the late 1950s that just really changed the country and the landscape, and he is one of those people," Burgess said, noting he visits Hammons regularly though the founder is no longer involved in the business.
Burgess said he tasks himself with teaching the company's employees Hammons' qualities of perseverance, tenacity, vision and compassion.
"He did not shy away from any challenges. During his half-(century) or more of developing, there's been tough economies and tough challenges, and he never gave up. He always believed that he could do it, and that's what he's entrusted in us," Burgess said.
Burgess, who has past ties to the publishing industry and currently is writing a book, requires the company's some 500 sales associates to read selected works, such as John Maxwell's "The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow" and Nathan Jamail's "The Sales Professionals Playbook."
It's a way of keeping the company's workforce educated, a tenant of former teacher Hammons.
"The key to success is your people," Burgess said. "Everything we accomplish is through our folks."
Burgess said JQH Hotels exceeded its $800 million 2012 budget, and the company - which operates 78 hotels in 24 states - is dipping its toes into uncertain waters coming into 2013. The company comes off a year in which a failed Colorado hotel of JQH Hotels was
sold at auction for roughly $22.2 million, and
litigation involving Atrium TRS LLC - which led a 2005 minority shareholder buyout of the company - is ongoing. Shareholder Jonathan Eilian has led Atrium group litigation that claims Dowdy violated a management contract by appointing herself CEO, and alleges she exaggerated Hammons’ and his trust’s net worth by $1 billion when refinancing a loan for a Rogers, Ark., hotel and convention center. Burgess declined to comment on the pending litigation.
"We're cautious about 2013. It all depends on the economy," Burgess said, declining to speak on any upcoming development plans but noting the company is optimistic with a budget exceeding that of 2012. "We're in great financial shape. We have lenders approaching us. You can't rule out development."[[In-content Ad]]
