Mr. Ryszard Majewski- Preserving The Spirit of Kurumba.


Maldives
PUBLISHED March 12, 2018

The Islandchief is honoured to have had the opportunity to sit down with the General Manager of Karumba Mr.Ryszard Majewski. As we got to know each other and discuss various aspects of the hospitality industry of the Maldives, We ask about the work philosophies in place at Kurumba, about changing traveller behaviour and challenges

faced by the industry.


How did you first venture into the Hospitality Industry? Were you in a different field before? 


I started working in the hospitality industry at the age of 14, on weekends and summer jobs. I found it quite interesting working with different nationalities, people from all around the world and then after school I went to travel around the world.After that I really didnt know what I wanted but I always knew I love travelling, so the hospitality industry  all about travelling, meeting new people and lot of experiences with different nationalities and cultures as I mentioned, so I went to the states. I furthered my

education in America before travelling around the world.


I have worked in five different continents now and what I loved about the job or what I love about hospitality is that you just meet different people every day and its not a nine to five office job every day it is a different challenge. I cannot sit in the office till 9 to 5 so this is perfect for me.

 

Tell us a bit about Kurumba Maldives and the sort of improvements you wish to make under your guidance.

 

Well I think Kurumba internationally, regionally and locally has a really good reputation. We are the icon of the tourism industry, of resorts in the Maldives, as everybody knows its the first resort opened all the way back in 1972 and the very first Italian tourists arrived here.  With huge support from the owners and the great team that I have here and especially the kind of guests we have here, this is kind of a perfect destination and  it is reflected well by how we have won so many awards throughout the years and this is all contributed by my team members. 


We have many projects that we have to do here or that we would like to do to improve because the market is so demanding, people travelling around the world they do a lot of shopping, compare resort to resort so Kurumba has to be in the market or on the market for the expectations of the guests.

 

What are your thoughts on eco-sustainability, what steps are taken by Karumba to improve its sustainability levels?


Thanks to our chairman and owners for supporting us, as they are very much into this kind of eco-sustainability. We have recycling plants here. For example our coconuts from our trees we recycle them into oil which we use for making products for the treatments at our spa, for any of the massages or for anything else. 


Furthermore we have compost recycling, all the leaves or everything from the garden we put it back into feeding our gardens. Finally the other thing is that all our plastic bottles and our crystal glasses, we recycle them and use them in our construction material. So only our food perishables for example and plastic bottles we take away from here but for the rest of the garbage are all recycled on the resort.

 

How do you try to inspire and mentor your team here?


Its all about motivation. We are always encouraging our team especially our managers to motivate the staff, to support them and listen to them. We also conduct a lot of training, as we have a strong training program here where we train the staff up whether they are new to the resort or have been here for a long time.

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How would you describe your role here at Karumba? What changes have you added since you came here? And what changes do you plane to implement in the future?


One of my main focuses installed today on a daily basis is to keep the staff hyped by doing different activities with them, engaging them with our guests and training them which I believe is very important. I think once you stop training people they start getting bored. So we always explore different methods for training. We have a training team here that we have hired. We have hired a Russian teacher, because Russians are one of the top three clientele that come here and it is very important that our staffs learn some basic words to

communicate with them.


The changes that we have made here include increasing the number of bars at the beach. We have opened a new Thai and Chinese restaurant last year which gave us a very positive effect. 


We also now have a new shisha lounge that we have opened up at around the end of last year. 


Share your work philosophy with us? What are the top rules that you encourage your colleagues to go by?


How we engage with the staffs is very important. I always believe in the philosophy "once you look after the staff, they look after you and automatically they look after the guests." This is a small village here and everybody is living 24 hours amongst each other. So you really need to make best out of it. You need to be the friend and you also need to be sometimes the manager and a leader so I think because of the environment we have here with the staff contributes to everybodys contribution here even if the staff have been here for 35 years or 6 months

 

So to top it off, what do you do aside from work while you are here?


For me this kind of island lifestyle is perfect as I love the nature, I am not a city person, I dont like the city life. I get uncomfortable when there are too many people and too much traffic and noises. I am a swimmer and I love the sea. I am a sporty person. I go to gym and sometimes I play tennis. These are the things that I usually do at my private time.

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