Ben Lancken

At Opal Aged Care, our purpose is to bring joy to those we care for. I lead the Customer Experience & Innovation team that supports the organisation in the areas of customer insights and analytics, customer relationship management, digital transformation, strategic project management and business process improvement.

At Opal, we're driven by the important social purpose of caring for our elders and we're re-imagining residential aged care through people, process and technology. The ultimate goal - to nourish our residents’ sense of belonging and deliver the highest quality of care so that they truly live with dignity, meaning and purpose

As Head of Transformation at Opal my core responsibility, together with our team, is to enable all Opal team members to deliver a consistent & person-centred experience for our residents and their loved ones. Our transformation program is reimaging residential aged care through people, process and systems. The ultimate goal - to nourish our residents’ sense of belonging and deliver the highest quality of care so that they truly living with dignity, relevance and purpose.

Working at the intersection of the Team Member & Customer experience, this role is responsible for developing and optimising the delivery of quality outcomes across our European operations to increase value to our customers and investors.

Responsibilities & Achievements Include:

• End to end operational management of hotel refurbishment in Copenhagen 
• Development and implementation of new restaurant brand & concept in Copenhagen & Hamburg 
• Development of a learning & development strategy for Europe aligned to business strategy
• Implementation of a global Learning Management System for TFE Hotels
• Led Europe implementation of large scale, enterprise wide ERP System implementation
• Project management & people support for opening of 4 hotels in Germany including recruitment, on-boarding, training & development of standards, procedures & systems
• Implementation and management of various quality control programs for the region
• Local implementation and monitoring of Work Health & Safety Strategy for the region
• Performance & development coach to Hotel General Managers and other business leaders.
• Local lead on implementation of various business systems in the region
• Interfacing with Design & Development teams to ensure operational requirements are considered in the design of new build hotel projects.
• Development of new F&B Concept guidelines to inform design of new hotels in the region

Reporting to the Director of HR and partnering closely with the Chief Operating Officer, this role was responsible for learning, development, organisational development, and talent strategies for our 3000 Team Members across Australia, New Zealand, Germany & Denmark.

Achievements include:

• Led the design and implementation of an award winning Learning & Development framework for the organisation called TFEME
• Implementation of nationwide apprenticeship & traineeship program leveraging government funding to offer qualification training programs for all team members.
• Design & implementation of TFE Hotels' global customer experience culture program, called Go MAD - Make a Difference
• Experience in 10+ Hotel Openings including recruitment, on-boarding, training & development of standards, procedures & systems
• Facilitation & project management of Project Aurora, a comprehensive, cross functional initiative to redefine the brand experience for each of our hotel brands. 
• Design, development and facilitation of a customised, global learning programs including: Change Management, Business Acumen, Leadership Development, Leadership Transitions & Customer Experience
• Design, management & facilitation of 3 Fast Track Management Trainee Programs.
• Led the design & implementation of a global talent management process for the organisation including workforce forecasting, talent mapping and identification of high potential talent
• Development of relationship recruitment strategy with Australia's leading hotel schools.
• End to end management of internal conferences - Global leadership Conferences, Rooms Division Conferences, Food & Beverage Conferences, Academy Boot camps
• Management of Company's annual gala awards night including the development of award categories, nomination process and event management 
• Creation of TFE Talks, an annual, TED inspired event showcasing a range of internal speakers with ideas worth sharing.

Led the turnaround of Travelodge Southbank, a 275 room economy hotel with an annual average turnover of AU$14 Million including:

• Restructured the hotel team to optimise efficiency and improve the guest experience
• Dramatically improved Net RevPAR through strategic review and restructure of business mix.
• Significant growth in corporate contracts through local sales blitzes and relationship management
• Developed business case for refurbishment of hotel that was funded by owners and commenced in 2014

Hotel Manager of boutique, heritage listed Apartment Hotel with 79 Apartments in central Adelaide.

Achievements include:

• 6% Net RevPAR growth and 5.4% growth in GOP & 93% Team Member Engagement
• Development of strategic partnerships to drive brand awareness and revenue including: Adelaide Fringe Festival, Adelaide Feast Festival
• Partnership with the SA National Trust to develop a book and tour to celebrate the history of the hotel
• Winner 2012 TFE Hotels' Hotel Manager of the Year. Award to the Hotel Manager who delivers the strongest results measure using a Balanced Scorecard incorporating Financials, Quality, Team & Customer

• Assistant Hotel Manager, Travelodge Hotel Docklands (Opening)
• Duty Manager, Adina Apartment Hotel Melbourne
• Duty Manager, Travelodge Hotel Melbourne. 

Strategic Hospitality Management, Innovation and Change Management, Strategic Financial Management for Hotels & Strategic Leadership

Asia-Pacific’s Number 1 hotel school (Taylor Nelson 2017).