Brother Act
Brothers Ryan and Jon Laskey manage two of the biggst hotels in Waikiki, and credit their success to father Walter’s lifelong leadership lessons
By Lisa Asato
E-mail this story | Print this page | Archive | RSS |
Del.icio.us
After a Punahou game with younger brother Jason
Queen from 1960.
Of the two brothers, Smith says, Jon is more of a natural athlete, able to pick up any sport right away. “I used to call Jon the Golden Boy,” he says.
He describes Jon as the more serious of the two and Ryan as “practical, pragmatic and a problem solver.”
“Ryan’s the guy you pal around with at a UH game and Jon is the kind of guy at Palomino’s after work talking about work,” Smith says. “That’s kind of the gist of it.”
Nowadays, Jon spends his time golfing and Ryan fishes. Barbecues on Sundays in Waialae Iki with mom and dad have become a regular thing since Ryan returned home a couple years ago after seven years at Sheraton Maui.
At work, the brothers see each other three times a week at least and just as often in their free time. Just the other night, Smith says, he met up with them at Kiki’s After Hours on Kapiolani Boulevard.
“I show up there, it’s Ryan and his girlfriend, Jon and his girlfriend, two of their best friends and myself, who’s known them 30 years almost, and Mr. and Mrs. Laskey were there, and it was a family affair. ... It’s not unusual to see them together as a family enjoying a social night out.”
Ren Hirose, who worked with both brothers on Six Sigma, a program for improving how things get done, says both brothers possess outstanding leadership skills.
“They’re great listeners ... they recognize their associates for their hard work, they’re very knowledgeable in their field even at their young age about the whole hotel operations,” says Hirose, the regional director of Six Sigma for Hawaii and French Polynesia, and area managing director for French Polynesia.
He added that they’re very well respected by their associates and peers, who “like the idea of these two managers who have worked their way up through the organization.”
He points out that at one time Jon was the director of Six Sigma for Sheraton’s four Waikiki properties: Sheraton Waikiki, Princess Kaiulani, Sheraton Moana Surfrider and Royal Hawaiian.
“That’s huge,” Hirose says, adding that directors worldwide each handled only one hotel. “That’s 500 rooms or more; he was one director for four properties - 4,000 rooms. There’s no comparison in any director in our company.”
Whether it’s golf or fishing, the Brothers Laskey still
compete as they did as boys
The brothers attribute their rise to many things, including entering the company at a young age, being willing to learn and take risks, and having a great support system. The owners, Kyo-ya Co., Ltd., says Ryan, “helped us get to where we’re at. They support us, they support the people that work for us” - department heads and managers who were willing to teach them new tasks; bosses who pulled them along, and employees “who’ve just been unbelievably supportive.”
“We couldn’t be successful without successful people backing us,” Jon adds.
They attribute what they’ve learned about leadership to their dad, Walter, whose leadership was apparent just in the way people reacted to him. He was resident vice president of Merrill Lynch of Hawaii and later a vice chairman of Bank of Hawaii.
The admiration, he says, is mutual.
“They’re such easy going guys in terms of their personality, and they’re so affable with their employees and people who are around them, I think that you might not ordinarily see just how success motivated they are,” Walter says. “It’s not necessarily something I taught them. I happen to be a very big believer in leadership skills. I think it’s often a misunderstood trait. I think the boys have a very good hand on it.”
With all the ongoing revitalization projects near their properties, Ryan says it’s a “really exciting time” to be a hotel manager in Waikiki.
“As you exit our garage, where all the construction is, that’s going to be a beautiful open block retail shopping area with nice buildings and open restaurants,” he says, referring to Outrigger’s Beach Walk project, which recently announced plans for a luxury Trump Tower. “Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center is under its redevelopment, they’re going to be opening up their breezeway. You’re going to be able to see our hotel from Kalakaua now with open gardens and waterways and a whole bunch of new restaurants in there. And across the street, the International Marketplace is under construction, so all these three projects are going to be done in the next year to 18 months.
“While this is going on, the Royal (Hawaiian) just renovated its tower, (Sheraton) Moana just renovated its tower, we’re undergoing our renovation now to finish in 2007, 2008. It’s going to be a brand new Waikiki with our brand new guest rooms, and we’re right in the middle of it all.”
So whatever happened to that sibling rivalry?
Turns out that the competitive spirit between brothers has turned into an asset at work, where they’re now able to advise each other when needed. As Ryan says, “You can ask a stupid question and expect a straight answer back because there is that relationship.
“There has to be a lot of trust among the people who run the hotels,” he says. “We rely on our managing directors or the other hotel managers. There always needs to be that trust where you can pick up that phone and call the other guy and say ‘This is what’s going on.’ Because we’re brothers, that trust is just elevated to a different level, so I can pick up the phone and talk to him about things and feel very comfortable he’s going to give me a straight answer.”
“And,” Jon adds, “the better part about it, because we’re brothers and we work for the same company, we don’t have to worry about sharing secrets of any sort. I’m supposed to know what he knows, he’s supposed to know what I know, and so we can help each other.”
Their dad says a lot of the competition faded when they started playing high school football together. “And when one of them went away (to college in Colorado) their mother and I were very surprised that they were always on the phone talking to each other.”
Ryan says: “When we were kids, I’d always think he’s my little brother, there’s no way I’m going to let him top me on this because he’s my little brother. But then when we became adults, we push each other a lot more. It’s good competition. I want him to succeed and he wants me to succeed. At the same time, though ...”
“I still want to be better,” Jon jumps in.
“Yeah,” Ryan agrees. “I still want to be better than him.”
Page 2 of 2 pages for this story < 1 2
E-mail this story | Print this page | Comments (0) | Archive | RSS
Most Recent Comment(s):
