Page 14 - MidWeek - Oct 27, 2021

14 MIDWEEK OCTOBER 27, 2021
STORY BY BILL MOSSMAN
Learning to value employees is just one of the many lessons learned by Richard “Doc” Kelley, the former president and CEO of Outrigger Hotels, who shares his thoughts on a host of topics in a forthcoming book.
principles such as “Hotel guest service is like a sym- phony” and “Ke ‘Ano Wa‘a” (the Outrigger Way) and re- flects upon the importance of people like Dr. George Kanahele in helping the hotel chain embrace the traditions of Hawaiian culture.
B
a multinational hospitality chain, he worked as a pathol- ogist at The Queen’s Hospital in the ’ 60s. Notwithstanding his busy schedule, he always found time to strike up a con- versation with just about any- one he came in contact with. Body tissues and fluids and diseases in general he knew, but what the man known sim- ply as “Doc” really valued was getting to know people and their stories.
workers during those early days of hotel expansion that he developed a weekly com- pany newsletter, called Sat- urday Briefings, to keep the lines of communication open.
efore Richard Kelley helped grow Out- rigger Hotels into
“We had just acquired the Prince Kūhiō Hotel and, all of a sudden, we had an ad- ditional 200 to 400 employ- ees. Because we were going to do more things remote- ly, I didn’t want to lose the friendship and closeness I had with them,” he recalls. “So, we started the newslet- ter and my wife was the one who worked on it. At first we
vey is this: If you treat your employees
“I made it a point to go down to housekeeping in the morning and have a cup of coffee with the housekeep- ers,” he says. “They’d begin
well, you’ ll find that they’ ll treat you well, they’ll treat your com-
takes
place Monday, Nov. 1, when the Hawai‘i Book & Music Festival hosts an on- line panel discussion. The hourlong session — which may be accessed at hawaii- bookandmusicfestival.com — begins at noon.
pany well and they’ll treat the community well,” says the former president and CEO of the company.
“I liked my job because I got a chance to talk to the patients, the nurses and oth- ers,” says Kelley, 88, who re- sides in Colorado these days but whose heart remains in the islands. “To everybody in the hospital, I was kind of respected as the guy who wasn’t the ordinary doctor.”
to ask me questions and I would ask them some questions, too. That’s how we got to know each other much better.”
Described as both memoir and business tutorial, Pad- dling the Outrigger pulls to- gether Kelley’s thoughts on a variety of topics, including his birth and upbringing in Waikīkī, the history of Out- rigger Hotels and his role in turning Hawai‘i into a premier global destination. He also muses on company
The book’s official launch
Kelley’s days in medicine were short-lived, however, after his parents convinced him to give up his profession and help the family’s bur- geoning hotelier enterprise. Thankfully, he was able to take that love for people with him and turn it into an essential part of the Outrigger brand.
did it quarterly, then we did it monthly and then we started running it weekly.”
It’s a lesson on mu- tual respect that Kelley hopes is not lost on to- day’s employers.
“What I hope to con-
In discussing his soon-to- be-released memoir Paddling the Outrigger, Inspiration and Insights from the Journey of a Lifetime, the chairman emeritus of Outrigger Enter- prises Group recalls being so fearful of losing contact with
But although the estimat- ed 1,650 newsletters he gen- erated from 1984 until the family sold the business in 2016 had “a great effect on people when the head of the company is talking directly to the employees,” Kelley never lost that personal touch with his workers.
(Above) Richard Kelley works the front desk during the early 1970s. (Inset) Born in Waikīkī, Kelley is the oldest child of hoteliers Roy and Estelle Kelley. (Right) As much as he loved work, Kelley still found time to enjoy one of his favorite activities: surfing. PHOTOS COURTESY COMMPAC