First Six Sigma Council at Le Meridien

Barely a week after its doors opened to the public, Le Meridien St Julian's last month hosted this year's first Italy and Malta Regional Six Sigma Council. Area managers and general managers from all Starwood Hotels and Resorts in Italy and Malta came together for two days of brainstorming and teambuilding activities at the newly opened Le Meridien, located in the heart of the picturesque Balluta Bay.

Six Sigma methodology was embraced by Starwood Hotels and Resorts in 2001. It is the first and only hospitality company that utilises this approach with the aim to develop innovative customer-focused solution and transfer those innovations rapidly across the entire organisation, labelling them as best practices that can be implemented in any other Starwood Hotel to create a consistently superior guest experience. This has now become the way Starwood does business.

Ms Isabelle Vella, speaking on behalf of the owning company Bajja Investments Ltd expressed her enthusiasm about the opening of this new property and that it now falls under the Starwood umbrella. "We are thrilled with the launch of this new hotel. It was certainly a delight to host the first Six Sigma Regional Council at Le Meridien St Julian's in Malta."

Led by the region's master Black Belt Renzo Correzzola, this council saw the attendees discussing key strategies for this year, supported by the many and various projects that aim to improve the quality and consistency of guests' experiences enhance and retain associates' motivation and passion to exceed the customers' expectations and ultimately increase financial performance.

In more traditional terms, Six Sigma focuses on defect prevention, cycle time reduction, and cost savings. Unlike mindless cost-cutting programmes which reduce value and quality, Six Sigma identifies and eliminates costs which provide no value to all "stakeholders" (paying hotel customers, associates, hotel management and owning company), while strengthens and invests on those that do, effectively gaining a competitive advantage in today's business environment.

These solutions reflect the voice of customer (VOC) rather than what hoteliers traditionally think, or what our competitors do. They respond to insights from real data and address root causes, not symptoms or common beliefs.

Since the launch of Six Sigma, hundreds of Starwood associates have been trained in its methodology. Each geographical division has a team of Six Sigma resources - Master Black Belts, Black Belts and Green Belts - who work with the field to leverage Six Sigma in response to business issues and opportunities.

Ms Angela Saliba, Six Sigma Black Belt said: "It's a great pleasure to welcome the two Le Meridien Malta properties within the Starwood family. I am sure they will implement the Six Sigma methodology with great success, utilising 'best practices' to better the overall customer experience and financial growth for both properties, and why not, coming up with 'best practices' themselves that will be implemented in other properties in the region, like the Refer and Travel Programme which originated within Westin Dragonara Resort in Malta".

Le Meridien St Julian's opened on March 1, making it the second Le Meridien property on the island and the third Starwood property, together with Le Meridien Phoenicia and the Westin Dragonara Resort.