Design

Travel Avoidance

June 3, 2017By Mike Hohnen

I learned a new word the other day – a word that sent shivers down my spine. Not that i have not suspected that this development was inevitable but still, seeing it in print was a jolt. The word is ” Travel Avoidance”. A conscious policy by large companies to reduced travel and f2f meeting wherever they can.

In a report published by the Center for Hospitality Research at Cornell University with the title ‘Hospitality Business Models confront the future of meetings‘ Cisco outline how they have chalked up $400 million in direct savings and $150 million in productivity gains by switching as much of their travel/meeting actives as possible to ‘TelePresence’.

The report also mentions research by Gartner Inc. that video conferencing will replace 2,1 Million airline seats by 2012 representing a revenue decline of $3,5 Billion for the travel and Hospitality industries.

And Meeting review wrote this :

2010 has been the year that everyone suddenly started to take virtual meetings and events seriously, indeed the mainstream industry is even starting to see them no longer as a threat but instead as a way of extending the reach, the audience and, importantly, the revenues for their events.

See the full article here

So what to do?

The article suggest that Hotels should invest in video conference equipment so that they can offer this service to clients. I am not so sure that is the way to go. If we look back some years ago LCD projectors where very expensive and as a consequence only the largest companies had them – in the beginning.
Smaller companies would go to hotels and rent one. But soon the price of LCD’s came tumbling down and suddenly they where not so special anymore. Today we all have our own. And the fact that a hotel can provide one does not exactly constitute a competitive advantage

My prediction is that the same will happen with video conferencing – companies will get their own kits and virtual conference room in hotels will become obsolete.

A better plan might be to leap frog past that and take a look at the structure of the meeting market as it is emerging.

One way to do that could be to map it on a 2×2 matrix with number of participants on the one axis and the degree of interaction from monologue to deep dialog on the other axis .

That could roughly look something like this:

In the bottom half of this matrix there is mainly emphasis on one way info transmission, possibly with a few questions from the floor. This type of meeting is handled brilliantly by various tech solutions and there will be no stopping that trend developing even further. In that sense this type of meeting will slowly disappear from the traditional venues and move to virtual (also because participants are thoroughly tired of attending this type of meeting or conference).

But on the top half of the matrix where the focus is on interaction /participation and deep dialog, high tech solutions do not do the job very well. As Marchall McLuhan said the more complex the message the more complex a medium do you need, and the most complex we have is f2f.

Now if you are providing meeting facilities – go have a look at your breakout room, your standard meeting room set up etc. Are the facilities that you provide conducive to dialog or to monologue?

To me the gray cloud on the drawing represents yesterdays meetings, they will be taken over by high tech solutions and will not require f2f and the yellow cloud represents tomorrows meetings space where we solve the complex and tricky stuff through collaboration and involvement.

The reason i have the number of participant in the matrix is that i see a sweet spot in the 10 to 75 segment ( upper right corner of the matrix) because when you move to very large groups ( upper left of the matrix), and think dialog then tech shows its face aging ( Twiter, FB Etc)

When i presented this to one of my hotelier friends his response was, “but 80% of our meeting business today is Cinema- or U-table set up.” Yes I know i have seen that as well. But if you plot types of meeting on a bell curve then, at the top of the curve (mainstream) you will find the cinema set up and the U-table – fast forward a year or two and where is what was at the top of the top of the bell curve now?
Going down, fast.
At the beginning of the bell curve we now find Dialog, participatory meeting Art of Hosting etc. Where will that be in 2 years time? On its way up, heading for main stream status.

In summary it is going to be increasingly difficult for meeting facility providers to justify that they are providing value when it comes to ‘monologue’ meetings. It can be done better and cheaper with technology – and that type of meeting is a god case for Travel Avoidance”

Where they can make a huge difference and add value is by learning how to provide space and surroundings that are conducive to deep dialog in the broadest sense – and believe me that is not a banqueting room set up cinema style

D’Espresso – New York

June 26, 2016By Mike Hohnen

From the coolhunter:

The new D’Espresso on Madison Avenue (at 42nd) in New York has received more media attention than is generally awarded to a tiny coffee shop in this world of millions of new coffee shops.

The reason for the attention is the fun design by the Manhattan-based nemaworkshop, a team of designers and architects that has created numerous cool retail and hospitality concepts. Founder Anurag Nema took the idea of a coffee shop that looks like a library – giving a nod to the nearby New York Public Library’s Bryant park branch – and turned it on its side. The walls are not lined with books but the floors and ceiling are. Except that it is all an illusion, a life-size image of books printed on custom tiles. Pendant lighting does not hang from the ceiling; it sticks out from the walls.

See the photos here D’Espresso

Getting to grips with the Big Shift

April 21, 2016By Mike Hohnen

[lang_en]For a while now I have been talking to friends and colleagues about this gut feeling that I have, that what we talk about as the economic crisis or downturn is possibly not a traditional crisis and/or downturn in the sense that once it is over things will return to normal.

I have this very clear feeling that a fundamental shift in many of the ways that we have been used to conducting business and interacting with each other is underway. (see also my previous post are you a frog in the pot) And that when the dust settles things will not return to what we have known previously as normal but will have undergone a clear shift. This is not a passing storm but fundamental climate change.

In pursuit of that theme I have been hunting for signs that would support this gut feeling.

This has led me to The 2009 Shift Index published by Deloite and presented on the Harvard publishing website.

Her you will find the following resume of key findings:

The 2009 Shift Index reveals a disquieting performance paradox in the US corporate sector. On the one hand, labor productivity has nearly doubled since 1965. During those same years, however, US companies’ Return on Assets (ROA) progressively dropped 75 percent from their 1965 level.

How can firms be getting lower returns even as they’re becoming more efficient? The answer resides in the heightened competition among firms. Competitive intensity nearly doubled between 1965 and 2008, forcing firms to compete away the benefits of productivity gains, which were instead captured by creative talent in the form of higher compensation and numbers of consumers through increasing performance/price ratios and wider choice.

It’s little surprise to find also that the highest-performing companies are struggling to maintain their ROA rates and are increasingly losing market leadership positions. Taken as a whole, the findings portray a U.S. corporate sector in which long-term forces of change are undercutting normal sources of economic value. “Normal” may in fact be a thing of the past: even after the economy resumes growing, companies’ returns will remain under pressure.

To respond to this performance challenge, U.S. companies will need to let go of industrial- era organizational structures (and the reporting relationships, incentive systems, and managerial processes that go with them) and operational practices in favor of the new institutional architectures and business practices needed to create and capture economic value in the era of the Big Shift.

Companies must move beyond their fixation on getting bigger and more cost-effective to make the institutional innovations necessary to accelerate performance improvement as they add participants to their ecosystems, expanding learning and innovation in collaboration curves and creation spaces. Companies must move, in other words, from scalable efficiency to scalable learning and performance. Only then will they make the most of our new era’s fast-moving digital infrastructure.

So what does this Big Shift entail in pratical terms?

John Hagel one of the co-authors of the 2009 Big Shift index does a superb job summarizing what he essentially sees as a shift from push to pull on his blog Edge Perspectives

What obviously caught my atention was this:

From knowledge transfer to knowledge creation
Most companies today will acknowledge the importance of knowledge flows, but they tend to focus on transferring knowledge more efficiently, especially within corporate boundaries. While useful, this is ultimately a diminishing returns game on multiple levels. The greatest economic value will come from finding ways to connecting relevant yet diverse people, both within the firm and outside it, to create new knowledge. They do this best by addressing challenging performance requirements that motivate them to get out of their comfort zone and come up with creative new approaches that generate more value with fewer resources.

This correlates well with the experiences that we have using action learning as our primary developmental tool in helping managers and organizations tackle the changes that they are in. It is not our job to teach but to help them learn – and that is a very different story.

But I urge you to read the full unfolding of this thinking here under the following headlines:

From knowledge stocks to knowledge flows.

From knowledge transfer to knowledge creation.

From explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge.

From transactions to relationships.

From zero sum to positive sum mindsets.

From push programs to pull platforms.

From stable environments to dynamic environments.

Lots of food for thought, and now I realize that my gut was telling me something important and I shall continue to pursue this investigation.[/lang_en]

Hvis Gud skulle starte en fastfood forretning

April 14, 2022By Mike Hohnen

[lang_da]Begyndelsen er så klassisk, som den kan være. På samme måde som McDonald’s grundlægger, Ray Krock, i sin tid spurgte sig selv, hvorfor det skulle være så svært for en handelsrejsende at finde en god hamburger på landevejen i USA, måtte de to Bain & Company konsulenter, John Vincent og hans kollega Henry Dimbleby, konstatere, at de hver dag stod med det samme dilemma: Enten bruge tid på en sund og ernærende frokost, der var alt for dyr, eller snuppe noget hurtigt mad fra en af de traditionelle fastfood kæder.

En dag, mens de stod og kiggede fortvivlet ind i en sandwichmontre, spurgte John Vincent sin konsulentmakker, der tilfældigvis også var hans bedste kammerat fra skoletiden: “Du, hvordan tror du en fastfood forretning ville se ud, hvis Gud skulle designe den”? Det blev startskuddet til Leon

På menuen finder man salater, supper og wraps til frokost, og om aftenen lidt tungere ting som lam og makrel, men ikke skyggen af en sandwich. Der bliver brugt quinoa, broccoli, alfafa, kylling, hummus, koriander og kardemomme, som var det en helsekostbutik – og alt sammen til priser, der svinger mellem 30 og 50 kr. for en ret. Se hele menuen her.

Men tag ikke fejl. Bag det familiære hyggeimage er der en stålsat vilje til at gøre verden bedre: “Vi skal have gjort op med industrialiseringen af vores fødevarer,” siger John Vincent, “og det bliver først rigtig godt, når vi er så store, at vi virkelig kan sætte vores præg på udviklingen. Derfor er målet 2.020 forretninger inden året 2020 – med Guds vilje.”[/lang_da]

[lang_en]The beginning is as classic as it can get. In the same way as the founder of McDonald’s, Ray Krock, asked himself, why it was so hard for a businessman to find a good hamburger on the road in the States, two consultants from Bain & Company in London, John Vincent and his colleague, Henry Dimpleby, realised that every day they encountered the same dilemma. Either they had to spend time on a healthy and nourishing lunch or get lunch from one of the traditional fast food chains.

One day, while they were looking at a sandwich glass case with despair in their eyes, John Vincent asked his colleague who also happened to be his best buddy from the years of school: ‘Hey, how do you think a fast food restaurant would look like if God had to design one?’ That statement was the very first step in creating ‘Leon’.

On their menu you find salads, soups and wraps for lunch and in the evening more solid meals like lamb and mackerel – but no sandwich in sight. Ingredients used are quinoa, broccoli, alfalfa, chicken, hummus, coriander and cardamom – as if it was a health food store and with reasonable prices between 5 and 8 dollars for a meal. Take a look at their menu here: https://www.leonrestaurants.co.uk/

But don’t be mistaken. Behind this cosy family image there is a powerful determination to make the world a better place. “We have to make an end to our industrial foods”, John Vincent says, “and it won’t happen before we get big enough to influence the development. That is why the goal is to reach 2.020 businesses before the year 2020 – if God will.

Food trends for 2008

April 21, 2016By Mike Hohnen

This time of year we are all (including me ;-) ) busy trying to forecast what the new food trends are going to be.

I gave a speak on the subject at the UK CESA conference in november – presenting the new and creative concepts that I have encountered in the major cities. Among these a quite unique concept in Barcelona – made by Camper. Watch it here.

Here is an attempt from restaurant guru Michael Whiteman

And here you will find a less colourful attempt from the Magazine Restaurants and Institutions

One thing I have observed is that the new mantra for buffets and food displays is that less is more – simplicity and quality have replaced volume and variety in some of the best and most progressive concepts I have seen. Tappas and Sushi style bites have replace huge displays.

The photos here are both from the spanking new Renaissance Shanghai Hotel – note that the cokkie jars are there for quest to take their pick if the feel like a cokkie with their coffee.

What do you think are going to be the dominant new trends in the Food business this year?

4p's not what they used to be

April 14, 2022By Mike Hohnen

You may remember the 4P of Marketing ( Product, Price, etc) Increasingly there semes to be a shift towards a new set of 4P’s : Purpose, People, Planet and Profit – and in that order.

This is the message that comes through loud and clear in Mavericks at Work – it is the driving force behind a new town guide out in San Fransisco the Green Zebra. Closer to home – for me – it is also the driving force behind by most favourite restaurant La Chassagnette.

The restaurants purpose is to promote the Carmargue region in the south of France – as such the restaurnt is part of a larger project know as Heureuse Camargue – in their own words:
“In this natural and preserved landscape the women and men of “Heureuse Camargue” have consciously chosen to take up a challenge, an undertaking to the practice of organic agriculture, incontestably sustainable and respectful of a major ecological balance. We are committing an act of faith.”

La Chassagnette
If you are in the South of France this summer I recomend that you pay them a visit.

The throne room .. no kidding

December 4, 2004By Mike Hohnen

The toilets in higher-end eateries have become seriously designed conceptual comfort stations, with restaurants attempting to outdo one another. Relieve yourself at The Federalist in the XV Beacon hotel on Beacon Hill, and you’ll find a grotto atmosphere of cobblestones, discreet stalls with floor-to-ceiling doors, and white porcelain sinks raised off the counter so no spills dampen clothing or purses. With two-ply toilet paper rolling freely and waffled-cloth hand towels amusingly stacked like mini Mayan temples, the Fed has got to be Boston’s poshest public powder room, followed by The Four Seasons, with new restaurant Sibling Rivalry in the running. [Read more…] about The throne room .. no kidding

Fingerprint ID technology…

April 21, 2016By Mike Hohnen

Some restaurants and other hospitality companies have adopted fingerprint scanner systems to act as virtual time clocks for employees. The electronic system eliminates “buddy-punching,” when one employee punches in for another, and other kinds of fraud, the report says.

Fingerprint-identification technology by DigitalPersona, including a print reader and scanner not unlike this model, has been incorporated into the Digital Dining point-of-sale system

https://www.nrn.com/technology/index.cfm?ID=3159104253 [Read more…] about Fingerprint ID technology…