OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE
First EDAL Recipient Uses Certification for Career Transition
By Kenya McCullum A
s a hospitality professional for about 20 years, Snehil Bhatnagar, general manager of business de-
velopment at Kiwi Hospitality Cincinnati Central LLC, never expected to find him- self in the senior living industry. And then COVID hit. After acquiring a 300-room hotel property
in Cincinnati in 2020, Bhatnagar and his col- leagues grappled with what to do with it. It was fully operational and doing well until the pandemic, so the company was challenged with how to repurpose the building since tourism had ground to a halt. After doing some research, the company settled on con- verting the hotel into a senior living facility, which is expected to open in July 2023. As a result, Bhatnagar had to learn about
the industry to help launch Kiwi Hospitali- ty’s senior living brand, Silver Fern – and he turned to Argentum for help. By enrolling in the new Executive Director of Assisted Living Certificate (EDAL) Course, which is a 16-module program that provides cur- rent and aspiring senior living executive directors with the information they need to effectively lead a community, Bhatnagar was able to get the intensive education he needed to start his journey in the field. We caught up with Bhatnagar to find out about his experience in the program as the very first person to earn the EDAL credential.
What made you interested in earning the EDAL certification? What I like about the program was how intensive the course was. You have 16 mod-
ules that gave an in-depth knowledge of pretty much every side of how this industry works. You’re looking at marketing, you’re looking at sales, you’re looking at crisis management, you’re looking at operations. And it was so well laid out that it could give me an in-depth knowledge of how exactly this industry works and that’s what I was looking for.
Did the course feel challenging since you don’t have a background in senior living? It did. I was quite nervous in the beginning to understand how what I'm doing can be of an advantage, or what I can bring in with my ex- perience and my knowledge. Once I got into the course, I started relating my experience and thought, “Okay, this can work. I can do this.” So it was correlating very well. It was like something that I can merge together, and I can contribute to this industry.
Was there anything in the program that stuck out as something that will help you with the hotel conversion project? I think the most intriguing part was the cri- sis management, because you had certain information in there related to a health crisis, or if there’s a situation like the whole group is out at a mall and there’s a terrorist attack or something like that. It was quite intriguing that you covered all sorts of situ- ations – from flooding to fire to all the basic information that was quite intense and very good to know.
Change Agent Profile
Snehil Bhatnagar General manager of business development Kiwi Hospitality Cincinnati Central LLC
How does it feel to be the first person to earn the EDAL? I got an email from Argentum’s director say- ing, “Congratulations, you are the first person to finish,” and I said, “You must be joking, it can't be.” If you can educate more people like us out there, I’m pretty sure we can make a difference in this industry. It is not something out of this world. I think we have this ability in hospitality that we care for people. That’s in our DNA. I enjoy doing that and I have a passion towards it. I was scared to step into this industry, but the EDAL course laid it out to me in such a detailed format that it gave me a lot of confidence.
What advice would you give to readers thinking about earning this certification? I think they just need to follow their passion. I think what I would say to them is, “Just give it a try and just stick to it.” I'm pretty sure the way this material is laid out, it’s bound to make a mark for them.
What I like about the program was how intensive the course was. You have 16 modules that gave an in-depth knowledge of pretty much every side of how this industry works.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2022
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