#2 - Future of Hospitality? 5-Pillars for Success

The 5 Pillars of Success for the Future of Hospitality?

As I’m about to press publish on this second newsletter, we’ve clicked over 2,000 subscribers after launching our first weekly newsletter to support this initiative, last week.

Thank you to each and every one of you for taking an interest in and supporting what we’re doing here to support hospitality business leaders like yourself.

I encourage you to share this newsletter with your connections and in your hospitality groups on this and other platforms. There’s a share button at the end of the newsletter.

My purpose…

…is to achieve 2 clear outcomes. Firstly, for us to survive the threats heading our way in the next 3-12 months AND secondly, for us to co-create the design of a (better) future hospitality industry that enables its businesses AND people to thrive in the future. Simple, right? :)

You and I both know that it isn’t simple to achieve either of these outcomes. However, the simpler and clearer the vision is, the easier it is for industry players to head in that direction.?

It’s like sailing across the estuary of a river and knowing that you’re heading for a specific point on the other side. There may be wind, tide, currents, rocks, reefs, other boats & other challenges to navigate to arrive where we want to arrive, and we’ll need to adjust the tiller, and sails, and lean over the side to counter the heeling of the boat, maybe start the motor which are the strategies we’ll adopt to reach our destination.?

I’m suggesting there’s a storm arriving in that estuary just as we’re crossing it and we need to survive the crossing in order for us to reach the other side and have the industry thrive.?

To survive we need to avoid ‘ostrich-like’ behaviour and make sure our heads are out of the day-to-day ‘sand’ and we stand up on our hind legs like ‘meerkats’, taking a peek at what’s coming around the corner (3-12 months ahead).?

My aim is to encourage strategic conversations to take place back inside your own businesses, within your leadership and management teams so that you’re spotting the strength of the storms ahead and creating strategic responses that reduce the risk of harm to your business and crew. And importantly to yourself, mainly your wellbeing.?

In next week’s edition, I’ll write more about the survival aspect, but you can also join me to hear more about this on Monday (20-June), in our now monthly (on the 3rd Monday of the month) Future of Hospitality? Industry Insights & Key Challenges (Insights Briefing for short) live video briefing which you can still register for here. If you can’t make the time, register anyway and receive the recording to watch in your own time.?

To thrive, we as an industry, and as business leaders who are mostly ‘meerkats’ rather than ‘ostriches’, will need to design the industry we want, or we will get the industry other vested interests want or we get one by accident that nobody really wants!?

To thrive, I believe that we need to be literally designing the industry of the future and I’ve suggested 5 Pillars that we can use as a framework for these conversations to take place.

Before we dive into the 5 Pillars, if you’re concerned about the survival ‘bit’ of this discussion and like any smart meerkat you’re peeking around the corner and you’re concerned about what’s coming, I have organised a free 2-hour workshop designed to address some (maybe all) of your concerns:-

“Learn Strategies To Make Our Businesses More Resilient In Volatile & Uncertain Times”

If you are concerned about how you’re going to deal with staff shortages, inflation, recession, supply issues & more, then this 2-hour workshop will help you develop some strategies to become more dynamic and more strategic in the way you move forward into the storms heading our way.

Now to explain the 5 Pillars…?

It is only my suggestion that the 5 Pillars that can support the Future of Hospitality? are:-

1. Leadership & Engagement?
2. Strategy & Customer Experience (CX)
3. Wellbeing & Life-Balance
4. Making a Difference in our Communities
5. Sustainability & Technology?

Remember, the vision (horizon) we’re focused on is to have as many industry players thriving as possible, which means we’ve got to have as many industry players survive the coming storms. The 5 Pillars become a framework to support strategic conversations inside our businesses.?

I’ll explain a little more about each of these pillars below. What I’d like to encourage you to do is imagine any element, subject or topic in the industry you can think of right now, and then choose which of the 5 Pillars this might sit within, be found under or be a part of. The purpose of the 5 Pillars framework is merely to make strategic conversations easier to have.

I also want to encourage you to consider that we’re talking about designing the industry we want to lead, to operate within, for ourselves and our people. The future will look different from the present.?

When I share the threats & risks we’re facing in surviving I’m talking about the next 3-12 months, on a rolling basis, so always considering the “next” 3-12 months, every month.

When I share with you industry designs for the future of the hospitality industry I’m talking about beyond that immediate survival period we’re facing, so 12 months to probably 2-3 years time. There may be some pillars we discuss that are further out into the future but most will fall into the period I’ve mentioned.

When I raise subjects, I may suggest that we’ve been good at something or maybe not-so-good at something. My reference point is the industry as a whole and not necessarily your own business or organisation. On a specific issue, you may be performing incredibly well despite the industry not being at that level, but it may also be the other way around. You will know.

Pillar #1 - Leadership & Engagement

The conversations I want to encourage here are all about our people, possibly our greatest resource and one that we’re currently discovering the pain we can experience by having systemic shortfalls of staff numbers.

We’ll look at best practice leadership and in the Future of Hospitality? Podcast (launching mid-to-late July) I’ll be interviewing leaders across the industry about how we can both lead better and engage our people better (now and) in the future.

We’ll look at the reasons millions of hospitality employees across the UK, Australia, US, Canada & NZ (and many more) walked away from their jobs to work in other industries and how we might re-ignite the passion of an entire workforce.

Through sharing examples of industry leaders' successes and also taking a look at how other industries both retain better and recruit, develop and engage their people, we’ll provide the content of strategic conversations to be had within our individual businesses?

Pillar #2 - Strategy & Customer Experience (CX)

One of the things that kept me involved in and attracted to the industry for 4 decades has been the way strategy, strategic marketing & customer experience play such a pivotal role in our industry allowing the creation of completely unique positioning within sectors, markets and geographic regions.?

Whether you’re a hospitality entrepreneur creating a brand you can create a managed group or franchise from or a business owner wanting to evolve an existing business, or indeed a large multi-site group grasping with how to be more dynamic & responsive after years of building business models that take local decision making away from managers who are more focused on execution and operational excellence than matching the offer to the local market & external environment.

We’ll look at how being more strategic can help us navigate the rapids and build for the future.

Strategy for me is part science and part art. Strategies must be data-driven but also require creativity too. The results from executed strategies must be measurable so we can tweak them if they’re not quite delivering the results we want.?

With Customer Experience (CX) many of you are delivering unique and amazing hospitality experiences. Some businesses though have ‘dropped the ball’ due to firstly the COVID restrictions and then the staff shortage issues and they’re finding it challenging to deliver the experience to customers they did a couple of years ago. Even the most basic human interaction between staff and customers is fundamentally changed without a friendly smile being visible from a member of staff.?

Pillar #3 - Wellbeing & Life-Balance

Wellbeing wasn’t a word bounced around the venue team never mind the boardroom when I entered this industry 40 years ago. I recall my first CEO in Bass in 1987 giving me a ‘character-building’ project which certainly tested my resilience.

Wellbeing is an issue for us but it’s also an issue for most industries too. However, if we can respond faster than other industries to give wellbeing the attention it deserves then we are possibly more likely to recover earlier than other industries from the systemic staffing shortages we face.

For me, wellbeing and life balance go together, hand-in-hand.

I’m currently seeking a large-ish multi-site group and also 50-100 individual businesses to run a pilot employee wellbeing program allowing a wellbeing measurement & monitoring system that was previously available only to C-Suite senior execs to be available to all employees. Get in touch if you’re interested in being involved.?

If we invest in this pillar I believe we can make significant improvements to both staff retention and be able to attract new talent too.

I want your wellbeing & life balance to be better too. When you can not only understand there is a benefit but also experience it yourself first-hand, you’ll want to share these benefits with your teams.

Pillar #4 - Making-a-Difference

Many of you already engage with your communities, and many more of you want to. Our industry has businesses at the very centre of every community, village, town or city. Your own community can mean different things in different places.

I want to encourage as many of you as possible to engage strategically with your communities. To give in a way that works for you engages your team and benefits elements of your community.

Focusing on giving back to the community that supports your business feels good, will make your staff proud to work with you and will do something positive for people outside of your business but within the community.

I’ll interview industry leaders for the podcast who are already doing this well and provide many examples of how to do it if you want to, but maybe you aren’t sure how to make it happen.

I’ll also share examples from my own perspective & experiences as this was something I heavily committed to in my own multi-site group and saw many good examples when I worked in larger multi-site groups.

To contribute to your own community, at a local level, is a gift you have the opportunity to give.?

Pillar #5 - Sustainability & Technology?

Becoming more sustainable is no longer an option. Our industry is going to be pushed into being more sustainable if we don’t lead the charge ourselves.

Whether it’s energy or water, materials, ingredients, fit-outs and more, we have the opportunity to tread more gently on this amazing planet we call home, but possibly more importantly it’s the homes we will hand to our future generations, that’s our own kids, grandkids and great-grandkids.

I will try to avoid the political and partisan views and focus on what’s good for the planet and nature first.

Technology is going to change the way our industry operates.?

Some talk of robots eliminating the staff shortage issues but I’d encourage us to be careful what we wish for.?

Let’s explore technology together. Technology that makes our businesses more effective and technology that makes our businesses more efficient. We’ll take a look at both, looking through some suppliers' eyes as well as those pioneers testing out various available technological solutions.

Diary Dates Coming Up…

Next 'Future of Hospitality? Industry Insights & Key Challenges' Live Video Briefing

• Monday 20 June - find out more & register here

Weekly Newsletter - invite your industry colleagues & friends

• Edition #1 - read here
• Edition #2 - this edition! - please share?
• Edition #3 - next week - make sure you’re subscribed to receive LinkedIn notification?

Next Free 2-hour “Strategy” Workshop?

• “Learn Strategies To Build Resilience To Survive Volatile & Uncertain Times”

Weekly Podcast launching July?

Next Week’s Newsletter?

Next week’s newsletter will focus on the “survive” part of our purpose here. So, I’ll do a deeper dive into our external environment and look at what we can do to mitigate the risks of systemic staff shortages, inflation & rising prices, recession & reduction in discretionary spending and supply chain failures & shortages of supply.

Inviting colleagues & friends

Please use the share button below to spread the word and build the community of meerkats looking ahead at what’s coming so we can collectively get through these challenges.

And most of all, please take of yourselves, your loved ones and those you work with.

David