The KUBE mantra is to incubate and accelerate start-ups in hospitality. We understand that in order to affect substantive change we need to reach a tipping point for the growth of start-ups. In technology, we are witnessing impressive growth in startups, meanwhile, for hospitality, we're not seeing that same growth.

So our question to you is: "How do we encourage a start-up culture in hospitality?"

Jacqueline Sonnabend
Jacqueline Sonnabend
Consultant/ Executive Coach at Ignite LLP

I love the hospitality industry! We are wonderfully social, entertaining, and creative problem solvers. Yet we haven't changed much in the way we do things, at least for the several decades of which I have been aware. My experience is that most of us are slow to change and so there should be a great need for and space for a start-up culture as long as we can learn to value it.

We can start to encourage a start-up culture by first accepting that our industry needs it in order to stay relevant and attractive to guests who are looking for “something new”, which is more congruent with their lifestyle and needs.

Then we can support new ideas and the start-up companies that are championing these ideas. We can add positive comments wherever we see new ideas posted. We can ask employees in our own companies to start thinking about, and sharing ideas on, what we can do that is fresh and new and different, and then using some of those ideas, even when we are not sure they will work. The greatest inventions have come to pass after mistakes have been made and learned from.

We can also offer resources to start-up companies who are venturing into uncharted waters, who are breaking the mold of what we think “hospitality” is.

Each of us has resources we can share, so our challenge is to break out of our own way of thinking to really embrace the new possibilities before us.

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