A self-described "country boy" who grew up on a truck farm in Maui and is now a successful hospital industry consultant, shared insights into his trade with BYU-Hawaii business students during the University's entrepreneurship lecture on November 25.
Ron Watanabe, president and CEO of Ron Watanabe & Associates, Inc., has traveled extensively developing real estate and golf courses, analyzing hospitality industry businesses and brokering hotels. But he got his start working his way through the University of Hawaii as a night auditor at a Waikiki hotel.
"In those days they talked about visitor counts in the thousands," Watanabe recalled. "It took tourists 9-12 hours to fly here, and planes featured sleeper berths. There were fewer hotels, and the tourists stayed longer. Hotel rates started at about $5 a night, and you could get a first-class room for about $20 a night."
Even though his UH degree was in education, his part-time work experience "addicted" him to the hotel industry, Watanabe said. So, after serving in the Army, he graduated from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration.
"One of the great things about Cornell is that we were fairly well sought after," said Watanabe, who was recruited by Howarth & Howarth, "where I was able to learn the business of consulting through a CPA firm." He added his first assignment took him to Florida, but he traveled throughout the region, "opening hotels and doing marketing studies."
Over the years he worked for a number of other large consulting firms and earned several well-recognized industry designations, including CPA -- Certified Public Accountant, MAI-- Member of the Appraisal Institute; ISHC -- International Society of Hospitality Consultants, and CMC -- Certified Management Consultant.
"I found out there really is a career path in consulting," said Watanabe, who went out on his own in 1995. "Ron Watanabe & Associates is eventually myself."
Watanabe explained to become a consultant, "It's a good idea to work in the hospitality business and become well known. You also need to learn the discipline of consulting. One of the key things you need to do is learn communications skills: how to write a report and interact with your client."
"To qualify," he continued, "one of the things, at least in my area, you have to have is substantial courses in the financial areas. You need to have excellent analytical skills. Advanced degrees such as an MBA or a law degree will also help you. Then, if you have higher aspirations, the consulting background you learn will help you go on to executive management in other occupations."
Watanabe said his firm "provides competent, unbiased, professional advice and services to hotel owners, lenders, investors and operators on all aspects of the hospitality business." He added there are also many consulting opportunities in management, marketing and sales, and in the technology area.
"Whatever you do, you've got to be unbiased. After all, the only thing we're selling is ourselves," Watanabe continued. He added that among other services he also provides appraisal and valuation, asset management, development planning, financial and impact analyses, marketing studies, real property tax appeals, site selection, litigation support and expert witness testimony.
In reference to the last two services, Watanabe pointed out "when things are going well, owners and management usually get along very nicely. As things get bad, however, owners expect more from management. We've been seeing a lot more litigation. Recently I've been involved in arbitration where the management companies guaranteed owners a certain return. A lot of them are now claiming that 9-11 caused business to go down and it's not their fault."
Watanabe said he's also asked to go into hotels and review their operations. "A lot of potential owners are not familiar with the property," or "feel there's room for particular improvement. We go in and evaluate the overall performance of the property."
He added he's also been successful in arguing that "after the Japanese bubble burst a couple of years ago, a lot of hotel values on the books in the City Assessor's office are quite high. Over the past several years we've appealed about a half-dozen of these and have gotten significant tax reductions."
Given his broad experience in the hospitality industry, Watanabe shared a few keys to his consulting success: "You need to understand visitor markets and marketing, finance and accounting. You need to understand the law; there are all kinds of trouble you can get into if you don't. You also need to understand people: It's not a 9-to-5 business. This is a 24-7 business. It's very people intensive."
"But more important than these traits, you need to be able to choose your jobs well," he said, quoting Confucius: "Choose a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
"Consulting is an interesting and exciting business," Watanabe said.