Corporate compass – Hawaii-based hospitality group grows globally ‘The Outrigger Way’

In 1947, Hawaii was merely a destination of dreams—a novelty. There were only a few hotels, and planes were just beginning to make their way to what would become the Aloha State. Roy and Estelle Kelley had a vision, however, and opened a small walk-up hotel, The Islander.

This Waikiki landmark hotel came to be the first property from Outrigger Hospitality Group, a company that now boasts properties across the globe and is looking to add more.

As the company grew, it began branching out to different locations but always in premier beach locations, which Outrigger still does today.

“Why I love working for Outrigger and why I think people love staying with us is because our core is about being excellent stewards of the place,” said Monica Salter, VP, global communications & social responsibility, Outrigger Hospitality Group. “We don’t just put a hotel in a destination and try to get people to stay there, we think about what the sense of place of that destination is. What is the culture of that area? What was here before there was a hotel?”

Outrigger then shares that story with its guests and extends it to its team members—or “hosts,” as they are called—to ensure they always remain good stewards of the destination.

Jeff Wagoner, Outrigger Hospitality Group president/CEO, appreciates the company’s strong foundation, which was already in place when he came on board five years ago.

“One of the foundations is the ‘Outrigger Way,’” Wagoner said. “We talk a lot about caring for our hosts, guests and place with our values as our guide. I found that to be a really solid backbone for the structure of this company. As much as I felt there were things we could do that might be unique, creative and different to make our company better, there was an amazing foundation to build on. Once I got here, I got to look under the covers and was very excited about the future.”

The Outrigger Way, which is the company’s corporate compass, is modeled after a Hawaiian term called “keano w’aa,” which essentially translates to “the way of Outrigger.” It’s a tripod of caring for its hosts, guests and place.

“No matter if you’re in the corporate office or if you’re serving a Mai Tai to someone at the pool, we are hospitable hosts, and we welcome people, care for our guests and care for our place,” Salter said. “Everything we do is focused on that tripod of our corporate compass. Within those lanes, we have different arenas where our culture shines.”

In 2016, an affiliate of KSL Capital Partners, an investor in travel and leisure enterprises, acquired Outrigger, adding to the company’s growth. However, Outrigger never lost its foundation the Kelleys established years ago.

“That was definitely a shift for the company as a whole, but I think what’s amazing is that even with that shift, the company retained the feeling of caring,” Salter said. “It still feels like a company where we authentically care for our people.”

A place to thrive
Salter attributes the strength of the company’s culture to its CEO, who she calls “not only a visionary for the company, but the kind of leader who really walks the talk.”

Wagoner, who grew up dreaming of playing professional sports, found himself working as a front desk clerk at a Marriott hotel in Los Angeles. Although not quite a pro quarterback, Wagoner quickly learned how high energy hospitality can be.

“I learned that hotels are a competitive environment, and I enjoyed the hospitality piece of working at a hotel,” the CEO recalled. “The other thing I learned very quickly was that there were a lot of different opportunities and all kinds of roles within a hotel. If you work hard and you have the right attitude, there’s the ability to be able to be promoted into these roles over time.”

Wagoner, who was lucky enough to have been promoted in his first few years, fell in love with the ability to work with different employees within the hotel environment.

“He’s worked all the shifts—he’s worked the bell desk, made beds, parked cars, worked in F&B—so he really understands all of the intricacies it takes to make a hotel company thrive, and that the people are behind it,” Salter explained. “Now, I really do feel our corporate culture is led by Jeff at the top, and his passion for the industry is a thread for the rest of it and all of the elements.”

Outrigger offers a high-potential mentorship program through owner KSL Capital Partners, in which the company hand-selects team members to undergo training to enhance their expertise.

“We focus on diversity—in fact, 67% of the people we’ve sent have been women,” Salter said. “We do the best we can to elevate our team members in-house and raise people up from within. The last two GMs that we promoted went up the ranks in Outrigger. That, to me, is a testament to the way we’re bringing people up through the organization to leadership positions.”

Recently, Outrigger promoted Kiana Beimes to general manager of the OHANA Waikiki East by Outrigger and Ceci Hamao as general manager of the Outrigger Waikiki Beachcomber Hotel.

Beimes began her hospitality career in 2013 as an intern at Outrigger’s flagship Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort, and Hamao began hers as front office manager.

“Kiana wasn’t a GM before, and it would be very easy for someone to say, ‘I want an existing GM to come in this property,’” Wagoner said. “The property is getting ready to go through a $55-million renovation, so it’s a reason to say, ‘Let’s get a leader in here who’s done a renovation before,’ but I look at that very differently. When we promoted Kiana to this role, in my mind, we know the talent. They may not have experience, but we’ll figure out how to support them.”

During her time as a college intern, Beimes shadowed all operating departments and immediately developed great respect for the entire team. Three months later, she was offered a full-time position as front-desk night auditor. Beimes explained that it was a big role to step into, but she was able to grow her confidence and understanding of accounting procedures.

“I’m so proud to be part of Outrigger for its extreme focus on hosts’ growth and development,” she said. “We encourage internal feedback and often promote from within. Personally, this company has blessed me by enabling me to attend countless training seminars and networking functions, allowing my mind and impact to continually expand. I appreciate all that Outrigger does for our kama`aina [local]community. Our mission’s footprint is deeply rooted through sponsorships, collaborations and initiatives. There’s nothing better than seeing and feeling the spirit of Outrigger everywhere I go.”

Wagoner, along with Outrigger leadership, has a mission of supporting areas where its hosts may not have expertise just yet, to ensure they will in the future.

“I really do look at the talent, the skill set, attitude and desire, and not necessarily just the experience to say, ‘I’m comfortable making a move to put Kiana in her role because I know she’s going to work hard and has the right attitude, aptitude and ability to grow in the role,’” he said.

Salter agreed, noting that once people get their foot in the door in hospitality, they realize the depth of opportunity that’s available to them.

“It’s a microcosm of a world,” Salter said. “We’re like Goldilocks in the sense that we’re the perfect-sized company where you have all these opportunities globally. We’re also connected to a larger parent company that has opportunities, but still we’re small enough if you raise your hand to say you want a chance to do something, you will have the opportunity to do it. Colleagues have the hands-on opportunity to not only make a difference in the communities that we’re in but make a difference in their own personal lives. They’re the architect of their careers.”

Global growth
Outrigger is looking to grow to other premier beach resort destinations throughout the world with a direction on “barefoot luxury,” or places where people can feel comfortable and enjoy a beach destination that’s elevated but not stuffy.

The company is looking to Australia, the Caribbean, Mexico, the mainland U.S. (including California and Florida) and the Asia-Pacific region.

“We’re looking to unique locations around the world,” Salter said. “A lot of the properties we’re looking at now are in the Asia-Pacific region. In the last three years, we’ve purchased and renovated three properties in Thailand. We have two resorts in Fiji, and we’re looking for more there. We bought a property in Maldives a couple of years ago within the Seaplane district region, which we continue to look at. APAC is a hot location for us because there are so many opportunities there.”

With such robust growth and eyes on all areas of the globe, Outrigger is committed to honoring each unique location while keeping a few consistencies across its properties.

Each Outrigger property, regardless of location, will be located in a renowned beach location; have a must-see beach bar for both guests and locals to enjoy; offer a live music experience; have signature experiences specific to each location; and have conservation and sustainability efforts.

While those elements will remain consistent, it’s important for the company to recognize each place and its culture.

“One of the things that makes Outrigger Outrigger is that each property is unique,” Wagoner said. “One of the things we do when we go into a property is we study the land, culture and people. We want to be able to renovate or create the vibe and experience within each property based on what’s happened there before, and what it’s like there. Even though we’re a Hawaii-based company, we say ‘aloha,’ but in Fiji we say ‘bula.’ Rather than us try to force Hawaiian culture into every property, we want to embrace the culture of the local community.”

Conservation and connection
Founded on the idea of connecting humans to the land, Outrigger has a mission of preserving and enhancing the communities its in.

“Outrigger’s mission is to be the premier beach resort brand in the world,” Salter said. “You can’t have that with an ocean that is unhealthy. Our ESG [environmental, social and governance] initiatives, as well as our sustainability and conservation platform, really started with ocean health and coral reef health. What we look for in caring for the place is looking how we can help the ocean environment around us.”

Many Outrigger properties started with the Outrigger Zone platform specific to coral reef conservation. “What we realized is that is just one small piece of the larger puzzle for ocean health,” Salter said.
Now, Outrigger’s ESG initiatives incorporate the reduction of energy, reduction of water, reduction of waste, and it’s tracking greenhouse gas emissions for scope 1 and scope 2.

“Native Hawaiians were exceptional in this space in terms of taking care of the community because they had to,” Salter said. “They were very good at preserving the natural environment, and that’s how we see things as well.”

Outrigger showcases the natural environment with cultural pieces as well. For instance, in its Coral Kids Club, team members teach culture and conservation to the kids. Outrigger has found that, oftentimes, kids will take what they’ve learned back to their parents for actionable change.

“When you’re on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, ocean health, greenhouse emissions and sea level rise are all elements that are critically important,” Wagoner said. “It’s important that we’re good examples and lead the charge with climate change.”

When guests walk into a hotel, the design and aesthetic also make a difference in how they feel about the property. Conservation and culture are two elements in the ethos of Outrigger and how it wants people to feel with that sense of place.

“Before we do any renovation, we do a larger sense of place exercise to better understand the property itself, the history and the direction of how we can tell the story of that place,” Salter said. “There’s a lot of hotels you go into today, and there’s a picture on the wall, and you’re not sure what it means. Our hope in working with local artists is to help to tell the story of the place and support the community. We try to integrate education into the aesthetic of the property in a way that people feel inspired to make change in a positive way.”

A helping hand
The company experienced firsthand just how powerful nature can be, with team members directly affected by the Maui wildfires this past year. “The fires in Maui were and still are devastating for the entire island and the state of Hawaii,” Salter said. “It’s something we’re never seen before. It’s unprecedented in our time.”

With 105 Outrigger employees left without homes, the company not only worked to house them in its hotels but relied on its OutriggerCARES program for additional support.

The program, which launched in March 2020, is a global platform to provide support for its internal team, as well as offer resources and aid to the communities in which Outrigger operates.
Initially, the program was fully funded through its team members, but when the fires happened, Outrigger opened it up for the first time to outside contributors.

“We had so many people reaching out to us asking how they could help,” Salter said.

A month before the fires, Outrigger acquired two resorts in Maui. Unfortunately, one of them burned down. “The first thing we did was figure out how can we get those employees into our other hotels in Maui and make sure they have a place to stay,” Salter said.

Outrigger communicated to its team members and externally to partners and guests that if they’re interested in giving back to the people that lost everything, there’s two opportunities: to donate to a larger entity, the Hawaii Community Foundation, or to donate specifically to Outrigger hosts.

“It was so heartwarming to see all of the people who wanted to give back to the community and that care about our employees,” Salter said. “That was a testament to how our employees really care about our guests and so many repeat customers.”

People and place
Although inherently connected to Hawaiian culture and its principles, Outrigger has always done what any great hospitality company does, and that’s take care of its place and people.

“There are a lot of elements of Hawaiian culture behind it, but the reality is, it’s hospitality,” Wagoner said. “When you think about taking care of your people, guests and place, a lot of companies think like that. Yes, there’s a lot of Hawaiian culture, but it’s hospitality. When you look at the industry in general, as much as I’d love to tie the things we do in Hawaii to it, the great hotels that are hospitable—that’s pure hospitality. We have a lot of that built in here.”

Wagoner explained that the company is grounded and supported through its processes and has developed a multiyear strategic plan.

“The first piece of that plan is what we call ‘best-in-class,’ and we ask, foundationally, if we are running the company correctly,” Wagoner explained. “Do we have great service in our hotels? Are we a revenue generator? Once that’s done, how do you become an exceptional partner? Then, we also want to make sure the quality of our properties is right.”

Outrigger’s renovations are extremely important to the company and need to be done well, the CEO pointed out, but it can’t lose sight of the best-in-class piece.

“These were developed in a hierarchy to have them make sense to ensure we have a great future,” the CEO said. “If you’re doing all those things right, then you can grow. We really work with that strategy to get us to be the kind of company that can grow into the future and be successful.”

People, he said, are ultimately what makes these plans come to fruition and build the foundation for a company that lasts for generations.

“Outrigger is a company like no other that I have worked for,” Salter said. “The team we have here is so dedicated and passionate about providing great experiences for our guests and being good stewards of the locations we’re in. I wake up in the morning and go to the office, and it makes me feel proud to work for Outrigger because it feels like in a world where there’s a lot of hard things happening, we’re a pocket of good in that.”

Its people will propel Outrigger into the future, Wagoner explained, as they continue to care for each other, their guests and, of course, their place.

“When I look across our corporate structure and the talent we have at each hotel—GMs, our executive committees, room attendants, front desk clerks—I’m so proud of what has been developed here over many years,” he said. “Whether it’s The Outrigger Way and what that has done from a foundational perspective, or how we’ve been able to cultivate and have all these individuals stay on board with us and be a part of our fabric day in and day out, that, to me, is what this business is all about.”