An Interview with Johnny QIN – Les Roches Graduate

Johnny QIN is an MBA 2020 graduate at Les Roches. Now he is a business strategy project manager working with Inspire Hospitality, a business consulting company providing advisory services to hotels and outfits specialized in creating guest experiences.

Before coming to Les Roches, Johnny had studied hospitality management, and worked at Beijing Four Seasons and Peninsula Hotels. 

Nevertheless, he was not satisfied with the transition from school to work. "The first half of the career path in hospitality may be based on the relevant experience and improved business capabilities; however, in the second half, overseas experience, especially that in Switzerland might become indispensable for competitiveness in future career development in international hotel groups.” That is why he decided to suspend work for further study.

"When you chose to study an MBA at Les Roches, it means you chose the lifestyle there."

1. Location of the School

Johnny believes that the lifestyle of a student is determined by the location of school. The Swiss campus of Les Roches is located in Crans-Montana, Valais, Switzerland, a superior environment for both study and living, which also provides a large number of opportunities to gain world-class experience. “Living and studying in the Alps for a year is a unique experience.” The campus environment strongly appealed to Johnny when he got to know about it.

In addition to the exceptional advantage in tourism resources, Crans Montana also provides hospitality management students with rich opportunities to practice in the pan-hotel industry: there are four golf courses, among which the 18-hole golf course is the field of the well-known Omega European Masters; Crans Montana is also a sheep-placenta activation treatment base and a world-renowned health resort.

2. Academic Experience

Besides the fact that the academic courses provided by Les Roches catered to his interest, another reason for Johnny to study here was the two overseas study tours as part of the MBA program. "The tour destinations were perfect: Shanghai represents a more diversified market in the Asia-Pacific region with almost all the hospitality brands and fast growth; Chicago, as a traditional conference city, has a lot of hospitality brands settled with solid foundations," said Johnny, "for a student majoring hospitality management in Europe, I would have the opportunity to thoroughly dip into the three major global markets within the one-year period of academic training."

"During the time in Shanghai, we visited 9 companies; we got to work with luxury hotels, boutique hotels, and experienced fine dining. We also had one-to-one sessions with leading figures in hospitality. In Chicago, we went to the headquarters of Booking.com, learned about "Circular Economy" at Loyola University, and studied the franchising model and the management and performance of hotel and commercial real estate across various business models.

3. Alumni Network

The alumni network was another key factor when Johnny chose the program and school. "I knew that Les Roches, and Glion Institute of High Education, another famous Swiss hotel management school, had also been acquired by Sommet Education. This meant that the schools have shared alumni resources," said Johnny. In addition to a wider alumni platform, the diverse backgrounds of his MBA peers also impressed him: "We had 38 students in a class, and only 3 were Chinese students. That was a truly global community. My classmates also had all kinds of professional backgrounds. Some of them had studied Architecture and started up their own businesses as influenced by the family business background, and some were already working as hotel executives. I really learned a lot from them."

Power of the alumni platform 

Johnny had already received an offer to work in the United States after he graduated at the beginning of this year, but he had to give up this chance due to the sudden COVID-19 pandemic.

After returning to China, he kept in touch with many alumni who were working in hospitality and looked for other job opportunities. In early August, Johnny participated in a joint alumni activity of Les Roches and Glion in Shanghai and met a key contact who would lead him to the opportunity with Inspire Hospitality.

Looking back at the study at Les Roches, Johnny feels that for him, the biggest reward is a broader horizon and more confidence. "As you have to contact with many people, you will become more tolerant and tend to think from different perspectives."