Mims, who just joined the group a few weeks ago, was whisked off from Las Vegas to Singapore in one of the Sands’ private jets to be at the grand opening.
“It’s really exciting to be in Singapore again,” said Mims, who left Singapore six years ago after being transferred by Starwood to its corporate headquarters back in the US. Mims was Starwood’s marketing chief for the region.
“Singapore has changed so much, it’s continuing to become a global player. I am very excited to get back.
“I lived in Singapore longer than any other place since high school – I hope that will be the case again.”
In his new role, Mims, who will be based in Singapore, has a big task at hand – to coordinate and standardize the selling efforts around the world of four properties – Marina Bay Sands, Venetian Macau and Las Vegas and the Sands Casino Resort in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
His first priority, he said, is to “understand our positioning in the market and Asia and look at the opportunities we have for getting it right.
“What do our team members need and what are our customers looking for and how do we coordinate and create synergies between all our prioperties?”
He said his new role was a different play from when he was at Starwood. “Then, our regional headquarters was here, we had one property in Singapore and we covered more than 90 hotels in the region.”
With this role, he has 2,500 hotel rooms to look after. “That’s larger than any of our competitive set, it’s a different play in customers. What we have is a MICE play with hotels, casino and shops, and that makes us unique.”
He recognizes there are challenges, especially in delivering to expectations. “We opened a property unlike any before, we took on 8,000 team members – where did all the people come from? We have a tremendous opportunity to recruit great talent – we have awesome people now – but the sheer size of our property means a continuing need to recruit great talent.”
He said with the opening of the ArtScience Museum, “everything is now complete. How many hotels have a museum dedicated to art and science?”
He sees opportunities to cross-sell between Singapore, Macau and Las Vegas, for example, by rewarding customers who use all three.
Mims acknowledges that hotel marketing has changed over the years but the sale function remains the same – you still need sales people calling customers and customers consuming product.
One thing that’s changed is social media which is allowing companies to engage differently with customers. “In the old days, we had public relations which informed but now we have social media that engages,” he said. “Customers now create your public relations.”
