Seeing opportunity and potential where none apparently exists

Franz Gmeiner – CEO of the Orion Group

A ‘man of vision’ is a term often used to loosely describe a successful CEO. In the case of Franz Gmeiner, the erudite and articulate CEO of the Orion Group, the term is very appropriate. This executive is not only a man of vision but also someone who consistently and with tenacity actualises his goals. With significant commercial property holdings, one of his companies, Orion Real Estate Ltd, was listed on the JSE this year and has maintained a steady share price since then. This division owns and manages an impressive portfolio of 50 office blocks, retail centres, commercial properties, apartments and hotels. A fully-fledged facilities management and development company operates within the Orion Group structure.

Also in the group is Orion Hotels & Resorts, which has grown since its inception in 1999 to become a significant independently owned hotel group in Southern Africa. The portfolio currently includes five hotels – Orion Hotel Devonshire in Braamfontein, Orion Safari Lodge in Rustenburg, Orion Mont-Aux-Sources in the Drakensberg, Orion Promenade Hotel in Nelspruit and Orion Piggs Peak Hotel and Casino in Swaziland. The hotel group strives to provide quality service and an above average guest experience.

Other divisions within the group include the Orion Retail division that operates in the FMCG and fast food markets, and Orion Business Solutions, which provides HR, training and coaching services to the Orion Group and other corporate clients.

Founded in 1991 by Gmeiner, the group’s property assets have grown from an initial eleven-storey office tower in downtown Johannesburg to a property and business portfolio worth over R 600 million. In a 1982 article profiling Kemmons Wilson, the founder of the Holiday Inn concept, Fortune magazine wrote, "In every age, some businessmen recognize the opportunity of a lifetime where others see nothing. Whether one calls them mavericks, plungers, visionaries or geniuses, the crucial fact is that such people are rare." Gmeiner appears to have the rare ability to see opportunity and potential where none apparently exists.

He sees his predominant role as that of strategist, mentor and coach and his main activity as creating synergy between his strategies and action plans. He attributes his achievements and increasing success to many factors but places great emphasis on the human element. “Any business is only as successful as the people that work within that business. Our growth is a direct result of the expertise and experience of our management and staff. Our people are the stars in our constant quest for stellar performance. It is not always easy to find the right people but through our business division, Orion Business Solutions, we put a great deal of effort into selecting the right people. Team coaching was introduced into the organisation eight years ago. This philosophy predominantly focuses on what it is that motivates people and its core values, which are Honesty, Integrity, Generosity, Productivity, Recognition, Innovation and treating people with Dignity. Team coaching has been very successful and we have many excellent people evolving in the organisation.”

Gmeiner firmly believes in investing in human capital development. “We have many ways of motivating staff. We try to motivate them by creating an enabling environment and also by incentivising them. We also try very hard to align their needs with those of the organisation and the personal empowerment and development of individuals by training and other means is essential. In some cases, motivation also comes from the non-financial aspects of the job and I frequently just sit and chat to staff members to try to find out what it is that they envisage for their lives. Taking the time to communicate with people often really helps to change a person’s motivation. Sometimes people just lack understanding, others may have short-term agendas and their goals may not be compatible with ours but we try to make each individual understand that they are an important and integral part of the group.”

With an obvious ability to articulate his vision downwards through the organisation, Gmeiner makes a constant effort to facilitate and maintain an understanding of his vision and strategy throughout the business. He admits that it is not always easy to get everyone to readily support his vision for growth but substantial progress has been made in this regard. In addition, clarity, communication and clearly defined job outcomes are essential.

“Since Orion Real Estate became a listed company we made the decision to include staff in our growth and we are currently in the process of giving all our employees shares in the company. We see this as true empowerment. We visit each hotel and present the shares to the staff in a ceremony. The only qualifying criteria are that the staff member must have been in our employ on 1 March 2006.

Integrity and transparency are important to Gmeiner. He does not suffer fools gladly and is intolerant of laziness and dishonesty. He has good interpersonal skills and a noticeable rapport with staff members but readily admits that it is usually the staff member who performs well that feels comfortable communicating with him and those that do not obviously avoid him. “In terms of productivity, we still have a long way to go in SA,” he says.

He pays great attention to detail. “I do not just hang around in boardrooms – I go to every part of a hotel for example, and staff are well aware that I will be looking at the smallest details.” However, he is always willing to give someone a second chance if they admit that they have made a mistake. “Often, with the correct guidance, a previously underachieving individual will become one of our most valued employees.”

Gmeiner says that managing constant and rapid change in the organisation and in a wider context is a challenge that he, on the whole, enjoys. “Winners must learn to relish change with the same enthusiasm and energy that they have resisted it in the past,” says Tom Peters, an internationally acclaimed business writer and currently a source of inspiration to Gmeiner. “He is saying we should take whatever we know now and discard all of it because the business environment and world as we know it will change so radically over the next ten years that we wouldn’t even recognise it if we were to see it today. So the opportunity and the challenge therein lies in first of all recognising and seeing the potential change and how it will happen and then renewing your strategy. In line with Tom Peters’ philosophy, the Orion Group encourages creativity and creative thinkers. One of our guiding principles is, ‘Is there a better way?’ We are constantly analysing and challenging how we do things and we hope that we will find ways of improving what we do to ensure that our motto: ‘Our business is getting better every day in every way’, remains true.

“We started this business in 1991 with three employees and today we have 600 so the complexity of the organisation has grown exponentially and with it the challenges of day-to-day management. It puts a huge amount of pressure on the systems and the resources and some ventures have been successful and others have failed but we constantly try to learn from our mistakes and build on that. We try to ensure, as far as possible, that all new ventures and initiatives will be manageable in a consistent and sustainable manner.”

Gmeiner envisages significant medium and long-term growth for the group. Constantly looking for and maximising opportunities is clearly something he excels in. “We still have a relatively small base and have to take cognisance of the usual restraints in terms of growth but we are always alert to trends in local and global development and will maximise every possible opportunity,” he says. “I am very happy with what we have achieved in a relatively short time but there is always this constant challenge to look beyond the horizon. International expansion for several of our divisions is very much on our agenda at the moment and it will happen.”

Gmeiner has always known, from a very early age, that he wanted to be in business. He was born in Austria in 1958, and briefly attended school in Vienna before coming to SA with his parents in 1964. The family settled in Germiston and Gmeiner attended the local Afrikaans Primary and High schools. He gained valuable practical experience during his school years by working part-time in the family meat-processing business. He processed and marketed meat and cold cuts, he drove trucks, purchased stock and materials and developed one of his firm principles, that of ‘buying at the right price’. His ability and willingness to tackle any task is still evident today – Gmeiner does not hesitate to climb a ladder or get his hands dirty. Hospitality skills come naturally to him and he says that his early years enabled him to eventually take to the hotel industry like a duck to water.

After achieving academic honours for two consecutive years, he completed his high school education and proceeded to the Rand Afrikaans University in 1977. After again attaining academic honours, he graduated in 1983 and was placed in the TOP 10 category of achievers in the CA (SA) qualifying exam in 1983.

After several years as an accountant in the corporate environment, he joined TCG Chartered Accountants (SA) as a partner in 1985 where he remained until 1998. In this capacity, he was instrumental in growing the firm from a staff of six to 75, with four offices and international correspondent arrangements. The company was the first auditing firm in SA to be awarded ISO9002 quality assurance accreditation by the SA Bureau of Standards and it was listed as the 13th largest auditing firm in SA.

During these years, Gmeiner acquired properties as a sideline and in 1998, decided to sell his share of the practice and venture into commercial property on a full-time basis.

Gmeiner married Antoinette Gmeiner in 1990. Professor Gmeiner heads the Orion Business Solutions Division. The couple have three talented children and reside in Johannesburg. In his spare time, Gmeiner enjoys spending time with his family, travel, gym, hiking and gourmet cuisine. He also serves on the Board of the Johannesburg General Hospital. His personal goals include completing postgraduate research into certain macro-economic models and contributing some of his time and resources to further assist projects for the general upliftment of disadvantaged people, particularly children. Under his guidance, the current Orion social responsibility programme includes a children’s feeding scheme in Swaziland, donations to various orphanages, a computer centre at Laerskool Germiston and the funding of a lecture hall at the University of Johannesburg’s Hotel School.

Perhaps this dynamic achiever can best be summed up by a quotation from management and leadership expert Peter F. Drucker: “Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.”