HOLIDAY INN CLUB VACATIONS

DEVELOPS ITS GENERAL

MANAGERS INTO BUSINESS
LEADERS
The path to a $1 billion business; 10 years, $2,500 degrees,
and curricula that matters.
ALIGNING STRATEGY WITH TRAINING
• How does a leading hospitality company plan to grow to a $1 billion
business in 10 years? It places as much value in the development of its
people as it does to the number of resorts.
• Scott Doggett, head of learning and development at Holiday Inn Club
Vacations, was facing a conundrum: “The CEO unveiled an exciting
but aggressive vision of becoming a $1 billion company in 10 years.
Our executive team agreed that talent would be a key success factor,
but we quickly realized that we would need many more savvy general
managers than we currently had in the talent development pipeline,”
explained Scott.
 ADVANCING CULTURE AND TALENT
• Scott shared that a talent development strategy quickly became a top
priority and pressing challenge. “Culture is a big consideration for us. As we
grow and open up resorts from coast to coast, we are looking for leaders
that can bring our culture with them to a new resort,” he explained.

• According to Scott, many of the managers knew the company well and
could be excellent candidates for promotion, but lacked key business skills
required to move up to the next level. And having recently surveyed
employees, he knew that higher education was the number-one employee
wish—and on the bucket list of many senior leader candidates. “We have
great employees who want development, and we knew that many of them
would need it to advance, so establishing a program was a win-win
situation,” added Scott.
 IMPLEMENTING THE TRAINING
PROGRAM
• Scott discovered nonprofit College for America (CfA) at Southern
New Hampshire University and was attracted to its competency-based
approach to learning, which he saw was applicable to workforce
needs. The company asked several of its top leadership candidates to
enroll in the program, including Kristopher Nill and Pete Saless, two
general managers (GMs) who started at the front desk. Scott said
CfA’s flexible approach to learning—which focuses on mastery of
competencies instead of grades and credit hours—is proving critical to
their ability to progress.
 THE TRAINING PROGRAM EFFECTS
Based on early successes, Scott expects its CfA program to benefit
Holiday Inn Club Vacations and its employees for years to come. The
$2,500 annual tuition cost of the CfA program makes education
affordable for Holiday Inn Club Vacations. In addition, Holiday Inn is
benefiting from the business skills that the trained managers acquired
and that will help the company to achieve its strategic goals.