The hotel industry had a unique bit of news earlier this week with reports of Japan-based APA Group butting heads with the Chinese government over books written by the company’s founder and President Toshio Motoya. In one of those books, Motoya denied the massacre during Japan’s World War II-era occupation of Nanjing.
It’s an interesting case study on how personal beliefs and business don’t always mix well.
For those who aren’t up on the controversy, here are the quick bullet points:
- Motoya, already no stranger to publicly sharing his political and historical opinion, penned a book titled “The Real History of Japan,” which claims a massacre at Nanjing committed by the Japanese military was impossible and was more likely committed by a splinter group of the Chinese military.
- APA Group put the books in guestrooms and sold copies on property.
- The book popped up on Chinese social media, leading to an outcry over the more controversial claims and even condemnation from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
- APA Group released defiant statements from Motoya, promising not to back away from his claims or make the book less available on property.
I find this all interesting from a business perspective, in part, because I generally think it’s a good thing for a business to have a strong point of view and conviction to stand behind. But at the same time, businesspeople, especially those at the top, need to have the self-awareness to know when those beliefs diverge so much from the mainstream that they could be substantially detrimental to their businesses.
Reuters put some interesting numbers around APA Group’s decision to dig in their heels. Motoya has said he doesn’t expect to see a business impact from the controversy, as just 5% of their guests in Japan are from China.
But at the same time, Japan’s tourism industry has grown leaps and bounds, with 24 million inbound tourists in 2016, up more than 20% from 2015. Roughly a quarter of those tourists come from China.
That’s a pretty substantial group already, and the smart money would be on it growing further. If I held a substantial interest in the Japanese hotel industry, I definitely would want Chinese tourists on my side and not crusading against me, calling for boycotts.
So much of the chatter around hotels these days is centered on finding ways to differentiate yourself from the pack. Having a strong voice in the crowd, which APA clearly does, is in most cases a strong asset and not something to be discouraged.
It’s not at all uncommon for hotel executives, like people in any walk of life, to hold controversial opinions on any number of issues. I’m sure there are things I think and feel strongly that would run afoul of the mainstream line of thinking.
But I think it behooves us all to not build our brands (be it for massive businesses or as individuals) around the most divisive aspects of our personalities.
For all we know, Arne Sorenson might be a member of the Flat Earth Society, but he isn’t talking about it in The Wall Street Journal.
Think I’m wildly off base? Let me know via email or on Twitter.
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