Zouk Club was launched in march 1991 and it is one of the oldest nightclub in Singapore. It was first started in a three dilapidated warehouse along the Singapore river. After a major renovation, it has change into a modern party night spot. In addition, over the years, it has been revamp a number of times to upgrade the sound and light system to create a great clubbing environment. It consist of four popular outlets namely, Zouk Main Room, Velvet Underground, Phuture and the Wine Bar in Singapore and a sister club Zouk KL in Malaysia. Furthermore, it has its own dance music festival, Zouk Out, which is the largest outdoor festival in Asia which attracted a record breaking of 30,000 people in 2010. It has also won the title of "Best Night Experience" by the Singapore Tourism Board 8 times and is ranked one of the TOP 5 clubs in the world by Britain's DJ Magazine.
Lincoln cheng, 64, is the founder of Zouk Club, who changed a rundown warehouse into a successful dance club in Singapore. Before starting his club business, he was a leading furniture supplier in Singapore and has worked with the government sector on several projects. In 1986 he sensed that there is a market demand for Modern designer's furniture therefore, he opened a high- end furniture store Abraxas, which introduce designer furniture such as Alessi.
However, he sold his business later on after seeing more and more people heading into this field.
The idea of starting up a club came from the underground dance club in Lbiza. He was caught by an unusual of dance music in Balearic house. From then, he was attracted to underground dance music and realized there was a lack of proper dance club with up to date music in Singapore therefore, he decided to venture into opening a club.
During the first three years, his club business was losing money. However, he did not give up and continued to stay in this sector. He brought in DJ Alfredo, a well known godfather of Balearic to play in Zouk every Saturday night and bought out business partner we do not have faith in him and became the sole ownership to do whatever he believed in to build his club business. Soon after all the hard work, he succeeded as Zouk had become popular in Singapore, securing many loyal patrons and had celebrated its 21 years of success in 2012.
Leadership Styles
Lincoln Cheng is a task and people oriented leader. He not only focus on getting his job done, at the same time he delegate his work and ensure that things is done productively. He works toward achieving his goal but also emphasis on building good teamwork and relationship with his employees. Besides listening to employees opinion, he train and develop them well to help improve and prepare them for the relevant skills needed. He understand that by treating his employees well and creating a positive environment will makes them feel motivated.
In addition, I feel that he also possess the following qualities :
- Confidence, Charismatism
- Humility, Warmth, Enthusiasm
- Integrity
-Creativity
Qualities and Reasons that he succeed
Confidence and Charismatism
Through an interview with Strait times, he said that one of his key to success is to" Stay true to what you believe in and yet evolve to always stay relevant and remain absolutely passionate what you are doing". Because of what he believe in , his positive attitude towards learning and determination to succeed, he succeed in bringing Zouk Club to a greater height just like what Simon Sinek mentioned, "When we are in groups, when we are surrounded by people who believe what we believe, trust emerges and our very survival and progress goes up”. As he always stay true in what he believe in, he is able to influences his employees to believe him and trust him, which made them follow and work for him. With his belief, he had also gain many patrons who shared the same beliefs as him.
Humility, Warmth and Enthusiasm
Another secret to success is to" please the customers by giving them what they want and lead to the next era of entertainment." This reminds me of what Simon Sinek once said "If you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business.” Therefore, he make sure that he always listen and get the customers' feedback so to understand them better and with that information, he cater his service and business to meet the customer needs and wants which allows a successful business. To be in an competitive edge of the industry, he sent his team to music conferences and festival around world to keep up with the trends.
Nevertheless, he also understand that his employees are the one who help him to succeed. He treats his managers and staff like own family members. He cares by spending time listening to their feedback to earn their trust and loyalty and reward them dutifully for great performance. When the business just started, Mr Cheng had got arrested and his license was restricted. However, he did not give up or neglected his employee. He paid the employees as promised and spent time wisely to prepare shop’s re-opening which made the employees stay loyal to him and also gain him many followers.
Creativity and Continuous improvement
As he is a perfectionist, he is always focusing of being the best. He renovated the club and made an effort is getting the best design for the club, such as using whitewashed walls which Zouk became the first white club in Singapore. He often came up with unusual ideas for the club and had set high expectation for himself where he spent lots of money on the sound system, installing the best equipment for his club to create the best experience for the customers.
He has also been looking forward for expansion and improvement. Till date, the club had won many award and has been internationally recognized. He even managed to open a sister club in Malaysia. Throughout the years, he didn’t stop and had continuously improve by sending his employees to different seminars and training which results in the management team often coming up with many unique events and parties such as ZoukOut to create a more distinctive experience for the guests, and gain popularity worldwide.
How did his leadership styles applied to the hospitality industry?
In the hospitality industry, the leader must be able to motivate employees, look out for opportunities, anticipate change, correct poor performance and thus, leading the organisation towards its goal. Mr Lincoln Cheng treat his employees well and use several rewards to motivate them which makes them pledge loyalty and are happy to work for him. Moreover, Mr Cheng will constantly encourage his employees and motivate them so that they will work together in a team to tackle problems and ensure good communication within the organization. Employees are the assets of the organisation therefore, it is important to treat the employees in order to achieve a greater height.
Mr Lincoln Cheng also anticipate change and keep a lookout for new opportunities by expanding his business coming out with fresh ideas for the club. In addition, he keeping up with the latest trend by inviting/hiring artists or popular DJ to keep the visitors coming back for more which is similar in the hospitality industry, the leader need to anticipate change and practice continuous improvement in order to reach guest satisfaction and have higher chance of repeat visit. Furthermore, he go the extra mile by listening to the customers feedback and correct any poor performance quickly. He is goal oriented and implement actions to lead the club to achieve his goal. For the hospitality to grow and to be in the competitive edge, there should be a leader like Mr Lincoln cheng, who try his best to understand customer's need, make improvement, and lead the team to achieve the organisation goal.
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