Why I Moved from Finance to Building Cultural Competency to Drive Results in Hospitality - Seema Jain

Seema: So I am a first-generation, born in America. My parents came here in the 60s. And I think hospitality, when you do a workshop with me, you'll see that it's one of our four core values. So, hospitality has been embedded in my DNA since birth. I have seen my parents, what they do when a guest comes into the home, and how they take care of people. When you go to a hotel in India, the level of service is like a seven-star hotel. It's another level, right? So we are so accustomed to that level of service. For me, hospitality is above and beyond. So when I went into this industry, it was just seamless for me to do because that was already part of who I am as an individual based on my culture. Just what I've done my whole life. So it was very easy to get into the industry that I love because I already love to serve people and take care of people. And of course, coming with the Marriott background, that spirit to serve and can-do attitude was always there for us. So I think for me, hospitality is just how do I make that person feel so special? How do I take care of them to the level that they're not expecting and provide a memorable experience for them?

Josiah: Well, it's interesting you mentioned this because I've been thinking a lot recently about this connection. You know, we work in the broader industry of hospitality, but I'm interested in kind of the personal angle, too, because I feel like we're so interconnected. We're interconnected beings. And you mentioned growing up, you observed your parents providing hospitality. I'm trying to get better at providing hospitality just out of my home with my friends. I'm curious, was there any moment or example or even just a feeling you recall being young, observing them, of what that hospitable environment felt like in the home environment?

Seema: Absolutely. So, growing up in an Indian home, right? My parents came here in the '60s. I'm born here. I watched my mother and how she took care of guests. You cannot serve one item and one beverage. There's usually a large buffet. So, if you've seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding, that's pretty much, you know, the same in the Indian household. We're continuously serving, continuously feeding. Our joy is to watch somebody eat. So when you go to someone's home, you enjoy watching them eat the food. My parents will always ask me, even today, "So what did you make? How many items did you make?" It's all about, you know, how did we take care of that guest? We went to India recently last year, and it was so interesting. I went to one person's house. It was about 8 p.m. And we said we're coming after dinner. Nevertheless, 25 items were waiting for me to eat. Yes, you can imagine an Indian wedding, and I don't know if you've ever been to one, Josiah, but a typical Indian wedding could have 100 buffet items. It's nothing uncommon because food is another big part of our culture. So watching my mother, how she served the guests, it wasn't, you take your own tea. It was, let me pour it for you. How much sugar do you want, Auntie? I'll put it in the cup for you. I'll stir it, and I will present it to you. So it's very much like a royalty feeling when you walk into someone's home. And we do that for everybody. I don't care who the person is who walks into my home. I don't care what level they are. I don't care about any of that. They are human beings, and we have been taught that guests are like God. So we treat at that level.

Josiah: I love that example, and I'm curious in the context of a hotel or a restaurant, is there a recent hospitality experience you've had as a guest that stood out to you? And if so, why?

Seema: Absolutely. So, I just took my mother to India in October. We went to some very, very nice five-star hotel restaurants for coffee. That is a big thing in India. People go to a hotel for a coffee or a high tea. And the service level is impeccable, as you can imagine, to the level of, can you please serve me? Like, they will actually serve everything. It's almost, like I said, one of the top experiences that you can have. But, you know, if I drop a fork, there's probably four people ready to pick it up for me. If I drop my napkin or I go, there are so many people. And a lot of that stems from the fact, Josiah, that the labor is easier to get in India. So we will have fortified people hovering around us sometimes when we do have an experience at a hotel. I definitely enjoy my hotel experiences abroad. I enjoy them here locally. I enjoy them, and I appreciate what they offer. So yeah, definitely it is different. And like you said, if you've been to one, it's a very unique experience, which is the reason when people come from that country to here, they have a different expectation level, right? And sometimes we can't match it. It's hard. It is hard.

Josiah: I want to get into that, but just to set the stage, you are the founder and CEO of Seva Global. I wonder if you could tell me a little bit about the organization, and then I'd love to get into talking about your journey to founding this, because you have an incredible career in hospitality. But first, what is Seva Global? What are you focused on?

Seema: Sure. Well, let me give you your first cultural tip of the word Seva. So, as you're putting a company together, words mean a lot. And I really spent a long time thinking, what is that word? What do I want my company to be? So you said it beautifully, Seva. Seva is the act of selfless service. It is a Sanskrit word. And it is Seva that we do for our parents, taking care of the elders, taking care of marginalized communities. During the time of the pandemic, when this company was born, it was the first time in corporate history that I was able to go home for two or three months and take care of my elderly parents, who needed help. I will always remember that this company was born, it was sort of a silver lining for me that I was able to do something I loved. And so I wanted to remind myself every day, Josiah, that even though, yes, it is a for-profit company, this and that, what Sava did I do today to help this world and make an impact. We believe in that so much that we do a lot within Sava Global itself for donations or community work and giving back as well. So, Sava was born during the pandemic. It was born in August 2020. It was a tough decision. You know I worked for a great company. But truthfully, I realized everybody wants to learn about cultural competency. We work in a very diverse world today. The landscape is different than it was 30 years ago. If we really want to be effective and interact with people of different backgrounds, we have to understand who they are as human beings and what their mindset is like, and be open-minded to that as well. So that's a little bit about the company and how it started, but the journey was from way back when of how I'm actually a finance nerd, let me just tell you very honestly. And why is that? Because my father was a professor of finance, statistics and accounting. So fast forward to my turn to go to college, you can imagine I'm an Indian woman, and I had four choices. You can probably guess what those choices are, but doctor, lawyer, engineer, or business. These were my choices that I could have as a profession. So seeing that my father was in the business school in that area, I said, okay, I'll take my hand at business. He said, oh, I'm going to give you two choices. You can do finance or accounting. So I picked finance. He was very generous to give me two choices. And so I do appreciate the finance nerd in me, pro formas, discounted cash flow statements, all of that good stuff in health care. But in 1995, my parents decided to invest in hotels. And I'm like, yeah, that's great. Do what you want. Didn't think too much about it. And they decided to invest in the Hilton family and built a few hotels. So I said, that's great. You know, I'm doing my own thing. They're doing their own thing. But then, when I decided after raising three kids and they went back to school that I wanted to go back to work, I thought I better learn this industry. I don't know what an ADR is. I don't know what RevPAR is. None of the acronyms made sense to me. So there was a Marriott hotel down the street. It's a full-service hotel. And I took my hand to say, let me try something different. Let me try sales. it seemed to resonate more with my personality and I thought it would be a little fun to try out. So started in corporate sales at the Marriott Lincolnshire Resort right here in Chicago. And I realized quickly that when the 2008 recession hit, and I don't know Josiah if you remember that time, but it hit San Francisco pretty hard. I do remember. And when that hit, I had to think out of the box quickly. I had to think, how am I going to make my numbers? Because nobody's booking things anymore. So I learned quickly that if you're culturally competent and you can drive business that way, I will make my numbers. So I found a group of Indian travelers at a nearby local hotel, a competitive hotel. and it was an extended stay product, and I said, wait a minute, why are they at that hotel? Shouldn't they be at my hotel? So that's the hungry salesperson me trying to figure out what's going on. Sat in the lobby, I looked around, I followed the shuttle, where are they going? And I realized that they are going to my own account. So I called the travel manager, and I said, excuse me, why are they at this hotel? Shouldn't they be at the hotel I'm selling? She goes, well, you know, Seema, it's just really close to our office. It just made it easier. So I had to think, how am I going to get her travelers to my hotel? Well, I was very fortunate to have a very receptive GM. She was Polish. I'm Indian. We're working for this amazing company that is, you know, Mormon based and what a multicultural story right there. So she came to me and she said, Seema, what would you propose? I said, let's put some ethnic breakfast. This is 2008, okay? Ethnic breakfast, ethnic TV shows. Back then you didn't download and you didn't have all that capability. So they want to watch the India-Pakistan World Cup. That's great. Let's put it on. So we did all these things to invite them into our hotel, to make them feel at home. And by doing so, we were able to share shift all the business. So we moved from Rev Par 3 to Rev Par 1, we moved 2,000 rooms, and the story caught wind at Marriott International. They created a job a few years later saying, why don't you take your hand at trying this for all the 4,000 hotels that was back then? So I was a entrepreneur in the large Fortune 100 company, which was a great position to be in to create something for the company and help us welcome all guests of all backgrounds.

Josiah: What a story. And I feel like understanding others, especially those who may be different from us, understanding, learning, serving, and providing hospitality is just important across the board. I always love hearing how people come to understand and learn more about this. I think your journey is really, really interesting. Starting in a finance background, starting from the context of, hey, I have this hotel, I'm trying to serve these guests. I find that fascinating. A couple of things I'd love to follow up on if we could. I think you defined this in what you've shared, but I wonder if you could explain a little bit more about how you define cultural competency. What is this?

Seema: That's great. And that's a fabulous question. We always share that at the beginning of any of our presentations because we don't want to assume that people know. It is really the future of DEI. It is where we're going to be going. And many companies nowadays are looking at this very closely because they realize their employees, their associates, their vendors, their owners are all of different backgrounds. And we need to take care of them the way they want to be taken care of. But cultural competency is learning how to respect other cultures and find the positives in other cultures so that we can all effectively work together and operate seamlessly. So when we talk about cultural competency, it's like understanding if I have a Japanese guest or I have a Brazilian guest, what are important to them? Because it may not be the same things that are important to me. And I want to make sure I am understanding their needs, their cultural needs, their mindset, whether it's saving face for a Chinese guest that might be out there, all these different things. So our program always runs is understanding the human being first and understanding the core values before I can tell you what housekeeping should do, what front desk should do, all the different disciplines. You know, Josiah, living in America, we are a little bit of an ethnocentric culture, and we feel the world revolves around us. But the truth is, we're almost a minority, right? I mean, we're the only ones who really don't use a metric system at the same time, right? Which would be a lot easier if we all did that. But We have to realize that the world operates very similarly. If you look at Latin American cultures, Middle Eastern cultures, and Asian cultures, they have a lot more similarities, and we are unique. So, funny story, my cousins come from India, and they'll be like, why do you guys have accents? Because we don't have them. It's a perception, right? And I sit there and I think, you're right. And when people say we can't understand somebody they have an accent, I tell them, well, they probably can't understand you either. It's good reframing. Why do we assume? Yeah. Right? It's the way we have to look at things, that it's not all about us. Other people have a different perspective. And the bottom line is, we need to learn to respect those differences. and find the positives in each culture. There's enough people that can talk about the negative. That's not our job at Ceiba Global. Our job is to make you understand that there's good in everything and everybody, and we have to find that and adapt to that.

Josiah: I'm fascinated by getting into the details of how these changes happen. I love that you explained the meaning behind Seva Global, why you named the company that, and what that means. For those who are watching on YouTube or on LinkedIn, there's a great map behind you that is a little bit less US-centric. It's very global-centric. And there's also a flag. Tell me about the flag.

Seema: Yeah, so that's the ally flag. So, in one of our workshops, we have two people on my team teach the LGBTQ, to me that it's not just but it's all culture. So programs that we work on. We do a Jewish program. So when I do the LGBTQ workshop with my colleagues who are in the community, I'm the straight ally, and I bring a cultural lens to it, Josiah, because we're very fortunate in the USA to have same-sex marriage, to be okay, to feel relatively safe here, but not every part in the world allows that. And where I might not think of something, I want to pay attention to what others have to think. Safety may be a different issue. for somebody else rather than for me. So when we do this presentation, it's great because he is the main presenter, and I'm like his little sidekick assistant, but I do bring in the cultural aspect of, you know, in certain countries, it's still a crime. In certain countries, you can go to jail. If you're in the USA, you don't even know how fortunate we are to live here and be a little bit more open-minded about that. So I keep the flag up all year round, Josiah, because even though June is Pride Month at Ceva Global, we celebrate 365 days a year. So this flag never comes down.

Josiah: That's great. And it's always a little bit unfortunate where a lot of the conversation around many of these topics feels like it's limited to a day or a month, which is a start.

Seema: It is a start. And I'm very happy. Yeah.

Josiah: It's a start. It's moving in the right direction. But sometimes it kind of feels like it stops for 11 months out of the year, 364 days out of the year. So I think that's really cool. I wonder if we could talk a little bit around What's at stake here? I think you shared some of your own personal story. You talked about the very practical business elements of this, but could you speak a little bit more so our listeners can understand what's at stake and why they should be focused on cultural competency?

Seema: Absolutely. So there's the business impact to this too, right? So again, that finance nerd in me always looked at an ROI at the same time. It has to make financial sense when you do this type of topic. So we have two ways we can look at it. You can look at the corporate impact, which is when you do cultural competency, it can definitely generate great talent acquisition. This Gen Z that we have right now, that's 50% of our, you know, I mean, that's a large part of our upcoming workforce, and 50% are people of color, right? So even though they might be Mexican-American, Chinese-American, or Indian-American, they have some core values that they were in their home life-changing who they are or making them who they are today. So we want to be respectful to that at the same time. When companies do good work in this space, Gen Z notices everything. I have a daughter, she's 23, and she's the one who says, when we interview companies, it's not all about salary and benefits. It's about what are you doing with DEI? What are you doing with cultural competency? What's your social impact? They are actually interviewing the company as they should. So they're looking at a company from a more holistic, genuine, authentic than just here's the bottom line type of thing. So talent acquisition, and talent retention is huge. And employee engagement. If I know the Lunar New Year is coming up on February 10th, which is this year, and I have a large base of people who celebrate that, I want to recognize it at my company. And people feel good when they have their holidays recognized, whether it be Diwali, Ramadan, or Rosh Hashanah. It just people feel good. So that's one great way to look at it from a corporate angle. From a market perspective, it's the ability to gain new relationships and new customers by thinking about diversity. Once I did the India one, I was able to do the exact same recipe for China, Brazil, Japan. Instead of an Indian breakfast item, I might've had congee porridge, I might've had miso soup. I thought about each of them and what their needs are, what their needs are, and then cater to it as well. So I think the fact that you can grow your business by thinking with that cultural lens is huge. And of course, When I had a 20-fold ROI, I think that caught wind for C-suite very quickly. It's a really big honor when the CEO, our late Artie Sorensen, came to our class and really promoted it. Because if it starts at the top, that made a huge difference. That made a huge difference. We do work with a lot of CEOs where they bring this into their C-suite leadership meetings as well, trying to get people to understand that you can grow your business by being culturally competent. That's a little bit about how this is impactful. And the other truth is, Josiah, it's good PR when people do good work. But if you make a faux pas, you don't want that to get out either. So I try to help people by being proactive and helping them gain the knowledge. But of course, if they are having an issue and it's a reactive, I'm going to take care of them as well.

Josiah: I wonder if you could speak a bit more to what you found effective at building momentum for this in a large organization like Marriott. Many of our listeners today are going to be working at companies, probably a lot of them at very large companies. And how do you go from kind of creating this as a small program that you're running at a hotel to building so much momentum? You mentioned the 20-fold ROI, so that I mentioned that business case is useful. But were there other things that you found helpful in driving change in such a big organization?

Seema: So the first thing is, you have to remember, starting in a pandemic, people sometimes view this as, oh, it's training, it's optics, we can't invest in this, right? It took me three years to finally get to a great spot, and I know 2024 is going to be our best year ever I getting people to realize this should not be a one-and-done checkbox. If you're truly serious, you need to build a curriculum and a program. So now we are seeing that our customers are looking at more money spent into this, whether they want me to create an e-learning for them. Recently, last year, second half, we did customer events. Your customers are also working for multinational companies. They love this type of education. So why not help them? So put a multicultural reception at the end, give them an hour fun education and have a little bit of a different take on how you do a customer event. So I think it's now finally hitting people. We've been around three and a half years. It's a very niche product service that we offer. and having the team of over 60 years of hospitality, maybe 70 years of hospitality experience on my team, we're there to help them achieve success. It is got to come from them, Josiah. It's like me telling somebody, you need to work out. Well, that's not gonna happen unless they feel like working out, right? So our sale model is not a hard sell. We tell you what we do. When you're ready, you will come to us because when you do come to me, I know you'll be the perfect client. you are ready, and that's how success will happen. So we wait, we are patient, we tell what we do, we share it, and we let them noodle on it, and then they will come when they are ready, and that's the best client you want.

Josiah: Well, that's why I appreciate you sharing your story with us today. I wonder, to help people conceptualize this a little bit, to your point of you need to be ready, for those that are listening, what would you advise someone with regards to how they can start or continue down their road to building cultural competency? As you pointed out, maybe starting with themselves individually, but if you're a leader in an organization, what are some of the steps that you advise our listeners take to continue down this road or to start down this road?

Seema: Sure. So, I'm going to tell you from a business angle and from a personal angle. We tell a lot of people, just start with one presentation, right? It's not a lot of money then. You do one, whether it's your sales conference, whether it's your GM conference, whether it's your leadership conference, whatever it is. Let's see your audience's appetite. I don't want your money unless I know that people are going to understand and have takeaways. That doesn't do me any good. The goal for me is even bigger than financial. It's to know I made an impact in someone's lives. I just got a text today earlier from somebody I worked with 10 years ago. She goes, I still remember your presentation, right? And it's just great to know that we're so impactful that they remember the small things that we taught them. My goal is not to spend a lot of money, but to have mindful takeaways that don't cost a lot of money. So from a business, if they're not sure, try it out once. See what your team's like. If there's an appetite, I'll build the whole entree for them. Just the good old Indian mom way of a lot of different webinars and dishes and e-learnings put together. So that's the business side. From a personal side, what you can do today immediately We are now in a world of podcasts, correct? We're in the world of so much virtual. Read, look at cultural literacy and expand your cultural knowledge through books, through movies, through podcasts. There's so many opportunities to learn and you don't even have to leave your home. to do it. So that's one way they can in themselves and what I tell people a lot Desai is that if you have small children start the multicultural learnings today because they are sponges and they will easily easily adapt to so much especially before age eight. That's their most formative years. So instead of always giving them, you know, pizza and hamburgers and hot dogs, expose them to pho, expose them to empanadas, expose them to, you know, pierogies, different foods so that they can adjust quickly in this global world that we live in.

Josiah: I love that. And I'm going to include a link to your website in the show notes, but I would love if we could talk about a recent client engagement that you've had with Seva Global that maybe represents a dimension of this that you're most excited about. Could you walk us through a recent project and kind of what you did and what you learned or what your client learned through that process that might give us a glimpse into what's possible here?

Seema: Absolutely. So one of my favorite stories was last year, last summer, Atrium Hospitality, which is based in Alpharetta, Georgia, they approached me to do a webinar series. And it was three sessions, Indian, LGBTQ, and Jewish, all three in the summer. And I have to give a shout-out to Julie Campbell because she was amazing in putting this together. The best story was that after the Indian wedding webinar series or the Indian wedding webinar workshop, it was two hours. A gentleman who was listening on that call approached us. And he was with one of the hotels, a director of sales and marketing. And he listened to all my notes. Now, one thing is that I don't record my presentations. I do not give them out because, you know what, people won't pay attention. But if you tell them that it's not, they're going to pay attention, right? They're going to because they know they're not going to get this back. They get a takeaway. They get a cliff note version. But I really want them to pay attention. Well, he did such a great job that the investment of this workshop was like fifty-five hundred. He signed a contract the next day after my workshop for two hundred thousand dollars that he thought it was a lost turndown. He changed his entire strategy based on the tips and selling techniques we gave him. He sent this out to, and he signed this contract. He goes, he goes, you were just like a textbook. Perfect. Everything I did, it followed. And that is a win for our company. When we see these successes we know we've helped someone feel confident in a new market that they may not have been comfortable with. That's my day. That is exactly what makes my day. So. 5,500 to 200,000. I don't know, Josiah. You don't need to be a math expert, but I think it's a pretty good ROI.

Josiah: What a great story. What a great story, Seva. So I appreciate you sharing that. For our listeners, where would you point them to learn more about yourself, your company, what you're doing?

Seema: Sure, absolutely. So our website is out there, which is www.seva-global.com. And hopefully you can share that with the others. You can reach me at any time. My one thing is I'm very proud to be accessible. to all of my clients, to anybody. I pretty much handle still all the calls myself. I do like to consider myself a little bit more of a boutique business and very much proud to know each of my clients individually and what they're doing in their lives. So they can reach out to me, whether it's WhatsApp, text, email, phone call. I have a calendar invite they can go to. I am always happy to talk to anybody on this topic. And they don't, I'm not here to tell you do something. I just want to share what we do and be your cultural advisor, you know, and help you understand what other companies have done in and out of hospitality. The best way to learn sometimes is you step out of hospitality, learn what other people are doing, and you can share those best practices as well.

Josiah: Great advice. Thanks so much for joining us today. I learned a lot from you and it's a lot of fun. Good. Thank you.