Vertus Group’s hospitality vertical is branded as Jonas Hospitality. It is a family of brands that serve every segment of the hospitality industry and one of the key driving leadership forces behind this portfolio is Jim Rowe, Senior Vice President of Sales & Marketing for the Property Systems Group.
Jim is no stranger to both acquisitions and the hospitality industry. We sat down to interview him on both topics as well as the exciting launch of the group’s newest innovative brand, Jonas Unify, to get a better sense of why Jonas Hospitality is a perfect home for hospitality software businesses to thrive within.
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How did you join Jonas Hospitality?
I joined Jonas as part of an acquisition and that was the third acquisition I had gone through. In the previous two acquisitions prior to Jonas, I didn’t feel like they were cultural fits for me, so I moved on in both times. With Jonas, right from the get-go I felt like this was going to be a great landing spot for me personally and it has proved to be that.
Describe the culture at Jonas Hospitality.
From the top down everyone is extremely humble and it is basically an open-door policy. If you have an idea and want to see some changes or improvements, everybody is willing to listen to you. Everybody knows your name as well even though it’s a very large company. You don’t feel like you get lost in the shuffle. It’s a great place to learn, a great place to try to exceed your career goals and if you want to progress there are opportunities for you to do so.
What opportunities has our ecosystem given you?
Regardless of where you want to go in your own personal development and career, there are opportunities for you. There is encouragement and there are opportunities if that is what you strive to do. That is what I’ve done. I’ve taken opportunities as they presented themselves to me.
Right now, I’m extremely happy in the current role that I’m in, taking on more and more sales responsibilities in businesses that we acquire and I’m happy to help where I need to. Who knows, in two or three years I might have a change in mindset where I want to run a business and I know the opportunity will be there if I choose to go down that path.
What does our “culture of sharing best practices” mean?
We run our businesses separately, but because there’s so much experience within each company we try to come together as often as we can to say, “Hey how did you handle this situation?” There is a strong chance that one of the other Jonas businesses has already gone through, or is currently going through, the problem that you’re trying to solve.
Rather than everybody trying to reinvent the wheel, it makes natural sense to just to reach out to somebody and say, “Have you experienced this and if so, what did you do?” It doesn’t matter if it’s about hitting your number, keeping customers happy, or adding development, there is usually somebody you can turn to whether it’s a colleague, peer or someone you report to.
What unique software challenges does the hospitality industry currently face?
The hospitality industry is both large and small. It’s a very large industry, but everybody knows everybody and there are a lot of different companies so there is a lot of competition. It is difficult for hoteliers to understand who the right partner is when they are making a technology decision because there is a multitude of people they could go to.
In general, the hospitality industry has been challenged with going with either an all-in-one provider or looking for best-of-breed solutions where you’re bringing in multiple different companies. Both have their own set of pros and cons, but that is a conflict or a decision that many hoteliers have had to make when buying technology or making technology decisions in the past.
How can Jonas Unify help solve these industry challenges?
Whilst best-of-breed and all-in-one have their own pros and cons, the decision has often led to a compromise from the hotel’s perspective. What we’re trying to do is remove the compromise.
Jonas Hospitality has always been a best-of-breed solution provider. As we acquire companies, we don’t roll them up operationally but what we realized is we left a gap in the market where we weren’t rolling them up from a technological perspective. We were getting more and more interest in making sure all the Jonas solutions were talking together, making sure all the data is flowing back and forth, and also having a solution where a third-party could also feed into.
That’s what Jonas Unify is. It is creating this technology layer, not operational layer, where we can roll up solutions and provide centralized guest data. So, there are very direct benefits for hotels as well as indirect benefits for all the companies that are looking to sell to hotels to be part of a larger solution that is both best-of-breed and all-in-one.
Learn more about Jonas Unify.
What makes us an attractive home for hospitality software companies?
With everything that we’re doing with Jonas Unify, we are going to be able to solve many more problems together as a collective group and holistic solution than what many businesses would be able to do themselves. In our group, we oversee around 3,000 hotels. When a new technology solution is acquired, we could make introductions to 3,000 hotels right out of the gate that they perhaps would not have access to or relationships with.
What can business leaders expect from an acquisition?
Culturally there is nothing to be concerned about. Regardless of who you speak to, they are going to find time to answer your questions and help you work through your business metrics. You are never going to feel like you are isolated or alone and you also are never going to feel like you are just a commodity or a number to somebody. You are going to feel like you are a part of the Jonas group, but you are also going to keep your businesses identify.
We are not going to fold anything in operationally. We are not dissolving existing products or existing staff and we are not just trying to buy a customer base. We are actually buying a business that makes sense for us and we want to see that solution grow. I think that is the difference. With Jonas, we believe that the tortoise wins the race. We’re not out here making quick decisions because we want to sell a company in two or three years. We’re making investments and decisions based on our “Software for Life” policy and we are going to hold on to that business forever.
What excites you about the future?
I don’t know where the ceiling is and I think that is the most exciting thing. Especially with all the new potential acquisitions that we’ll bring in and also with everything that we’re going to do from a technology perspective.
With everything that is coming out with Jonas Unify and Jonas Hospitality’s Unified Platform that we’re launching, that is going to create a lot of great opportunities for hotels. The ceiling is very high so who knows where we’re going to be. We’re going to work hard. We’re going to have a lot of fun. We’ll make some mistakes along the way; we’ll learn from them and then we’ll all be in a lot better place in three to five years.
