This week, Chris, Executive Search Manager, and Neil, Commercial Director, from Ginger Executive Search spent time on the ground with two distinctive hospitality businesses, meeting General Manager Sunil Kanjanghat at Rutland Hall Hotel & Spa before visiting Kilworth House Hotel and Theatre and meeting General Manager Craig Routledge.
Two very different properties. Two different hospitality experiences. And exactly the reason face to face partnership matters within Executive Search.
Understanding More Than the Brief
A job description can tell us the responsibilities of a position. It cannot show us how a venue feels.
For senior hospitality appointments, that difference matters.
Our Executive Search approach begins with understanding the business behind the role. The standards it protects. The guest experience it wants to create. The structure of the operation. The personalities already within the leadership team. The challenges it is working through and the direction it wants to take next.
That is why spending time inside the venue is so valuable.
It allows us to ask better questions, see the operation first hand and build a much clearer picture of the person who could genuinely strengthen the business.
Ginger Executive Search is built around detailed briefing, mapped search, leadership and cultural fit, discreet market representation and close management throughout the process. Knowing the venue properly strengthens every one of those stages.
Visiting Rutland Hall Hotel & Spa
The first meeting of the day was with General Manager Sunil Kanjanghat at Rutland Hall Hotel & Spa.
Set across 70 acres beside Rutland Water, the resort combines hotel rooms, suites, lodges and apartments with dining, wellbeing, leisure, weddings and events. Blossoms Restaurant & Bar overlooks Rutland Water, while the wider property includes Four Roots Wellbeing and substantial event facilities.
Seeing that breadth first hand gives far more context than simply knowing the title of a vacancy.
A leadership appointment within a property like this needs to be understood in relation to the wider operation, its guest journey, the different areas of the business and the standards expected across them.
Meeting Sunil in person gave Chris and Neil the opportunity to understand the property from the ground up and listen directly to the people leading it.
Visiting Kilworth House Hotel and Theatre
The day continued at Kilworth House Hotel and Theatre, where Chris and Neil met General Manager Craig Routledge.
Kilworth House is a four Red Star country house hotel set within 38 acres of Leicestershire parkland. Alongside the hotel and its dining operation sits its own professional open air theatre, which hosts West End standard productions within the estate.
Its food and beverage offer brings another layer to the operation, including The Orangery and The Wordsworth, with The Wordsworth operating at two AA Rosette level.
Again, understanding that in person changes the conversation.
The right senior hospitality professional needs more than the experience required on paper. They need to understand the rhythm of the business, complement its existing leadership and be capable of contributing to the experience the property is known for.
Why Face to Face Still Matters in Executive Search
Executive Search is not about circulating a vacancy and waiting for applications.
Our role is to represent a partnership properly in the market and identify people who may not actively be looking for another position.
To do that credibly, we need to understand what we are representing.
Walking the property. Seeing how different areas connect. Meeting the leadership team. Understanding what matters to them. Asking questions that go beyond the written brief.
That knowledge becomes part of the search.
It influences who we approach, how we position the opportunity, what we explore during conversations and how we assess whether someone’s leadership style, experience and ambitions genuinely align with the business.
For us, venue visits are not an extra part of the Executive Search process.
They are part of doing the search properly.
Building Partnerships Before Building Shortlists
Thank you to Sunil and Craig for taking the time to welcome Chris and Neil and share more about their respective businesses.
The strongest searches start with a strong understanding of the partnership.
By investing that time at the beginning, we can go into the market with greater clarity, represent the opportunity with greater depth and make every introduction more meaningful.
That is what Ginger Executive Search is built around.
To discuss a senior hospitality appointment in complete confidence, speak with Chris Aspinall and the Ginger Executive Search team.
