Principles: Challenges Five enhances the effectiveness of today’s leaders and develops the potential of those destined to be the leaders of tomorrow.

Vision:Compass For Success
To successfully “chart the course” for individuals and organizations, one must be able to define the essential elements, that when properly combined, create successful enterprises. We define these essential elements as Values, People, Leadership and Environment.

Mission: Individual and Organizational Alignment
The integration and alignment of personal goals and professional needs enable the individual to develop a balance between personal values and professional obligations.  

Environment: Responsive and Substantive
To guarantee quality, we build our educational and consultative programs around the specific questions and concerns of our clients. Prior to our presentations and consulting assignments we quantify the existing conditions and work with the client to specifically identify the desired outcome. With this knowledge we then solicit the advice of our team of expert resources as we develop specific efforts that will ensure the successful accomplishment of the desired goals. 

Image: Expertise
Capitalizing on the combined experiences of our faculty of recognized leaders, we capture the essence of their insights and translate their knowledge into practical processes and programs that are geared to the issues and concerns raised by our clients. We connect answers to questions.

Motto: Impact
By providing insights that can be developed into tools, we enable individuals and organizations to improve. When individuals and organizations are clear about values and priorities, and can find avenues for integration and alignment, IMPACT is increased as is the effectiveness of the organizations served. Our process provides both personal and organizational development.

Our Clients

Challenges Five has served clients throughout Asia since the mid 1990’s. Our clients include major hotel groups, small independent hotels, the world’s largest travel agencies, world class convention centers, small regional hotel associations, new hotels under development, established hotels that have served clients for near a century, prestigious private members clubs and world class food and beverage operations.

Our clients are varied and many but they are universally, among the best of class and universally are uniquely Asia. A representative list includes the following:

• CRG JAPAN
• WHAT IF’ THE INNOVATION GROUP
• TZG PARTNERS INTERNATIONAL
• SK TELECOM
• CELEBRITY CITY HOTELS
• SKY HOLDINGS INTERNATIONAL
• DXCEL INTERNATIONAL
• PANNELL KERR FOSTER CHINA
• SHUNDE POLYTECHNIC
• BOX HILL INSTITUTE, MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA
• PENTAIR WATER
• HSBC NF INVESTMENT ADVISORS LIMITED
• WEYERHAUSER CHINA
• PACIFIC STAR INTERNATIONAL
• QUALITY LEISURE CHINA
• NISSAN HAWAII
• ERINA CORPORATION
• GOLDMAN SACHS JAPAN-ARCHON HOSPITALITY
• GALILEO JAPAN
• HAWAII CONVENTION CENTER
• PRINCE RESORTS HAWAII
• KARATSU SEASIDE HOTEL
• KINTETSU HAWAII
• MORGAN STANLEY JAPAN-PANORAMA HOSPITALITY
• YUDANAKA VIEW HOTEL
• HONG KONG HARBOR VIEW SEAFOOD RESTAURANT
• OHTA PUBLICATIONS
• TOKYO AMERICAN CLUB
• HONOLULU FESTIVAL FOUNDATION

Our Consultants

Our consultants are universally seasoned veterans of major global hospitality organizations and have all served in the most senior of capacities.

William (Bill) Hurley-Operations

Bill is a seasoned leader with a record of accomplishment in this internationally recognized Hotel Corporation. His experiences include successfully leading organizations through periods of rapid growth and expansion and he possesses a unique ability to create an environment/culture that encourages all members of the organization to accomplish their primary function—the acquisition and retention of customers. Bill is conversant in the Japanese language and has extensive business experience in Japan, Korea and other Asian countries.

During the final several years of his tenure with Starwood Hotels and Resorts, Bill was the Vice President and Managing Director of Sheraton Resorts Phoenix Seagaia, Miyazaki, Japan. He was responsible for all aspects of this major international destination resort in Kyushu, Japan. The resort includes 5 hotels, 99 holes of Golf, 30 tennis courts, the Ocean Dome (the world’s largest fully enclosed water park), the Miyazaki Zoo and a variety of additional amenities.

Prior to his assignment in Miyazaki, Bill spent thirteen years in Honolulu, Hawaii where he served as the Managing Director of the Sheraton Moana Surfrider, The Royal Hawaiian and the Sheraton Waikiki Hotels. During this period his responsibilities included establishing the strategic direction for the hotels, business development, budget design and administration, and employee relations strategies that enabled the hotels to attract the customers of the future while simultaneously maintaining the charm that has attracted repeat guests for as many as 40 years.

Bill is based in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Christopher (Chris) Bachran-Operations

Chris has more than 30 years experience in the hospitality industry having recently held the positions of President of Jin Jiang Hotels, Chief Operating Officer for the Asian Region for Radisson Hotels Pty, various positions for Sheraton Asia-Pacific Corporation. He also held the position of Managing Director of Faber Hotels Holdings Sdn. Bhd., until he was appointed as Group Managing Director of Faber Group Berhad. Chris also worked closely with the Universal Studios Recreation Group developing the feasibility and land-use program for a future South-East Asian park. Immediately prior to his appointment in China, Chris was the Vice President and Director of Development of Hektar Klasik Sdn. Bhd, a company that develops destination land-use projects in Malaysia. 

Chris is based in Shanghai, China

Paul Ma-Creative

Paul is a world renowned Creative Designer for destination resorts.  His creative instinct to generate a sense of rejuvenation and well being to the resort experience was realized in many projects in the Hawaiian islands, including Hotel Hana Maui, the Westin Maui and Hyatt Regency Maui, Westin Kauai (now Marriott Kauai) and Hyatt Regency Waikoloa (now Hilton Waikoloa Village), continually one of the most popular resorts in Hawaii.

The creation of value for a resort, embracing considerations of time and culture, has changed the resort experience from one of a fine place to visit to one of theatre and entertainment. During his tenure as Director of Design with Hemmeter Corporation, Paul designed guest experiences that flow between abstraction and reality, in a comfortable and easily grasped manner. This is achieved with a story that is believable and participatory. The story or “script” is central to every design element from the entry to the property, unpacking a suitcase or ordering a drink at the pool bar. The success of a Paul Ma design is in its thoughtful scripting based on a thorough understanding of guest recreational patterns.

Paul's scripting approach has also been used to design projects such as the Royal Pacific Resort at Universal Orlando and Ikspiari at Tokyo Disney Resort.

Paul has been extremely successful because of his intense approach to strive for, and achieve product differentiation in every project.  The goal always is to offer a unique script and set a framework of tangible experiential results that are created for the customer and not the designer.  He is attracted to projects where there is an interactive design partnership with clients where the dialogue and discourse establish the appropriate script.

Paul is based in Perth, Australia

Charles Saunders-Operations/Food & Beverage

Charles Saunders, a profit driven global hospitality professional leverages his solid financial and operations background with extensive culinary experience to create and execute innovative concepts and promotional campaigns that drive sales heightens market exposure and delivers constant revenue growth

His experience in establishing effective organizational infrastructures, operational controls and brand standards positively impacts bottom-line performance.  Charles is well known as a trusted and versatile leader skilled in the building rapport with customers and diverse business partners managing media relations and mentoring company and service oriented teams.

Charles career has spanned four continents, 14 countries combining for ten years each in: Asia, Europe and the Americas.

His core competencies are: 

• Passion for excellence in hospitality with extensive background in Hotel/Resort/Private Club operations: All facets of Food & Beverage including Banquet & Catering, Restaurants, In Room Dining, Retail, and both On-site and Off-site Catering, as well as Marketing & Sales, Public Relations and Human Resources
• Financial acumen to accurately forecast and budget and ensure departmental profitability
• Emphasis on hiring/orientation and training of brand standards to create a positive service culture and ensuring complete guest satisfaction.
• Mastered the entire skill set necessary to take any project from design boards to fully operational.
• Community minded and active in civic organizations, Charles is committed to the actualization of the balanced scorecard which is win – win for everyone: Ownership, Management, Employees and the Community.

Charles is based in New York, New York

Anthony (Tony) Cavanagh-Finance

Tony has enjoyed a long a successful career in the hospitality industry with a focus on finance and operational matters for hotels, restaurants and bars.  Dealing with pre-opening activities, setting up of systems, policies and procedures, revenue controls, results reporting, cash-flow, purchasing, goods received, staff planning, payroll controls and reporting, internal controls, balance sheet management, credit and receivables, financial analysis, inventory controls, safeguarding of company assets, budgeting and forecasting, monitoring of operating results against plan, assisting operational managers to understand financial reports and cost control, continuity and contingency planning, feasibility studies, return on investment, daily/weekly/monthly results reporting, EOM and EOY financial closing activities, bar and restaurant controls, menu planning, portion control, retail store operations, back of the house and administrative areas lay-out, capital expenditure planning, point of sale systems, front office systems, back office systems.

Much of Tony’s career has been spent with Starwood Hotels and Resorts where he has overseen properties in Hawaii, Australia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Qatar, Spain, Jordan, Israel, Syria, Turkey, Germany, Denmark, Portugal and England.

Tony is based in Honolulu, Hawaii

Prashant Nandha-Information Technology

Prashant possesses a dynamic personality with broad and international experience in company management, information technology, business process, six sigma training and a penchant for finding solutions through breakthrough thinking. He is known for his ability to take calculated risks in order to achieve “trail blazing results.”

Prashant is currently the Senior Director of Paradigm Shift Consulting, a group of companies with blue-chip customers such as the Crown Casino Sites in Melbourne and Macau, Mori Building Company in Japan, Starwood Hotels and Resorts Asia Pacific. Prashant leads a team of high achieving professionals providing niche market services especially in Hospitality IT, Leisure and Infrastructure Services.

Prashant, with his talented team, have successfully create a world leading leisure management software which includes an integrated spa & wellness, golf, membership, loyalty, point of sales solution. This solution has been described at one of the most powerful suite of programs with connectivity to multiple Property Management Systems and third party software available in the market today. Customers include the worlds largest 5-star wellness centre at the Venetian Macau. Business partners includes Micros Fidelio South East Asia and Micros Fidelio Japan KK.

Prashant’s prior experiences include Director of Information Technology for Phoenix Seagaia Resort, Managing Director for Envisage Fiji Limited, and Regional of IT for Starwood Asia Pacific.

Prashant is based in Tokyo, Japan