Reimagining ICHRIE’s Future by Rebranding its Mission

Where, How, and Why It All Began

In 1946, at the Morrison Hotel in Chicago, a group of hospitality executives, educators, and government officials founded an association for “ . . . the upgrading of hotel and restaurant training programs at all levels” (The National Planning Conference on the Council on Hotel and Restaurant Education, 1946, p. 4). The association, initially named the Council on Hotel and Restaurant Education, has since been changed to the International Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education (ICHRIE). ¹

Out With the Old

As hospitality management programs face an uncertain future (Dev, 2020), it is time to reimagine the association’s future, which was founded 75 years ago to connect all hospitality educators, by redefining its mission and rebranding the acronym that is its name.

The 75-year old association, whose name explicitly only includes education, clearly needs to be reimagined in light of the changing roles and responsibilities of the hospitality management professoriate. There are four modifications that are “no brainers” to modernize the full form of the ICHRIE acronym. First, we need a broader definition of our context than just the “hotel and restaurant” sectors. Second, there is no mention of research in our mission; this should be corrected. Third, “Institutional” seems an outdated term. Finally, we need to include engagement with the industry as part of our mission. This redefinition of the organization’s mission, by rebranding what its name stands for, is the first step in reimagining ICHRIE’s future.

However, we all love the name of our association (ICHRIE) and are wedded to the acronym so we can keep the name but change what it stands for. There are some great examples of organizations that have preserved their “brand” or name and changed what the letters in the acronym stand for. In seeking to shed its British provenance and distance itself from being a purely fossil fuel company, BP rebranded from British Petroleum to Beyond Petroleum. In the higher education arena, AACSB is another example where the organization’s mission is enshrined in its “brand” or acronym that makes up its name: American Assembly of Collegiate Schools of Business. When AACSB decided to globalize and modernize its brand, remove reference to American, and change the outdated word Assembly, it rebranded itself by keeping the acronym AACSB and changing its full form to Association to Advance Collegiate School of Business. ² We could do the same with ICHRIE.

In With the New

A new definition of the organization’s mission, and an attendant rebranding of the acronym that is its name, must include elements that are up to date and fully define the scope of all that hospitality management professors do in order to position us for a better future. My proposed solution:

International Council on Hospitality Research, Instruction, and Engagement

This rebranded name specifies three interrelated parts (in order): hospitality knowledge creation, hospitality knowledge dissemination, and hospitality knowledge application. In this new formulation of the acronym, we bring research to the forefront of what we must do to raise our professional profile, broaden “teaching” to all forms of instruction, including advising, and explicitly include engagement with the industry by signaling that connecting with practice is an essential part of our association’s mission and the task of all its members.

Drawn as a virtuous triangle comprising three parts (research, instruction, and engagement), each one of the three parts reinforces the other two. Because we teach, we can engage better with industry to convey our knowledge clearly to practitioners. Because we teach, we make better researchers by focusing on asking questions to which our students want answers. We are better teachers because we research and have something new and interesting to share in the classroom. Because we do research, we can engage better with the industry since we are doing work that’s creating new knowledge with impact. And because we engage with industry, we are better researchers and teachers since we gather insights with intellectual and pedagogical value. In this way, research, instruction, and engagement support each other.

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