Fifty Shades of Green or why Airbnb missed an opportunity

Conscious Travel and Airbnb got some interesting exposure in this article published in the Sustainable City Network.: Hotel or Home-Share: Which is Greener? Despite the consistent misspelling of my name, mentions in such august company are always welcome! In keeping with the journalist preference for controversy, the author did her best to suggest that there is a real difference of opinion between two “experts” (in this case, Rachel Dodds and myself) who happen, in real life, to consider themselves kindred spirits. I was sent a series of questions as result of a post written three years ago 10 Reasons why Airbnb is an Awesome Travel Enterprise.

It’s good that tourism is getting more coverage in mainstream media these days- even if much of it is negative – because we’re going to have to either elevate the debate or deepen our thinking if our approach to sustainability is to have any effect and be taken seriously.

The press release on the subject issued by Airbnb listed several fatuous statistics that may fill out the copy but prove very little and tend to raise more questions than they answer. So if I were Airbnb I’d be questioning the utility of the study. Here are three examples (italics derived from the Airbnb release):

• In one year alone, Airbnb guests in North America saved the equivalent of 270 Olympic-sized pools of water whereas European guests in homes in Europe saved the equivalent of 1,100 Olympic-sized pools. Does this mean that Europeans define the size of an Olympic pool differently or that guests in Europe bathe less often in homes versus hotels than Americans, or that the plumbing in European hotels (as opposed to homes) is that much more wasteful (thanks, presumably, to Europe’s ancient and leaky infrastructure)???
• Proof offered for the statement that Airbnb hosts tend to engage in sustainable practices is the fact that nearly 83% of North American hosts and 79% of European hosts own at least one energy efficient appliance in their property and 89% of American hosts recycle at least one item type at their property compared to 94% of Europeans!! After 40 years of the “three R’s message” we’d be in real trouble if this were not the case! Nevertheless, these data do little to explain why Airbnb offers a “Greener” solution than hotels.
• Apparently “less than half of Airbnb hosts” (but we’ve no idea how less) provide single-use toiletry products for their guests, also reducing waste per stay. I presume the inference is that all hotels provide such items and all their guests use them. Many guests steal them thereby saving a purchase after they get home – what does that prove?

source: Inhabit.com

Significantly perhaps, no mention was made of the fact that Airbnb guest would be less likely to get their towels laundered as frequently as in a hotel whether they wanted them or not.

The article and the press release confirm the persistent feeling I have that this level of discussion suggests we are literally fiddling (with data) while Rome (the planet) burns and floating homes drift down the Thames.

The growth in international tourism is exceeding even the most optimistic of UNWTO forecasts and the continued expansion of a global middle class, particularly in Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and parts of Africa, is fuelling what I have called a ‘tsunami of demand”. In 2012, the number of international trips involving an overnight stay reached 1.2 billion while a number, estimated at between five and eight times that, travel within national borders. At a 4.0% annual growth rate, that volume will have doubled by 2030 – no wonder the natives of Venice, Dubrovnkik, Barcelona and Berlin are getting restless and even an editor at the Guardian is expressing concern – see, here.

The UK’s  Prime Minister, David Cameron, has proven that it is inappropriate to call any group of people on the move a swarm, but these travellers, motivated by choice not desperation, all need to stop moving at the end of the day and find a place to sleep. The impact of servicing that demand goes ways beyond the type of toiletry packaging, the energy efficiency of coffee makers and kettles or whether towels are left out to dry or stuffed in a washing machine.

So in my opinion, the Cleantech Group completely missed the point. And, sadly, their client also missed an opportunity to win some very positive PR.

Airbnb and the copycats that follow them(eg Homestay) or preceded them (eg Couchsurfing Homeaway and VRBO) simply ease – albeit slightly – the enormous environmental pressure associated with the future construction and maintenance of the hotels, airports, planes, and cruise ships and all of the infrastructural paraphernalia associated with mass tourism that’s being planned or is under construction to satisfy this demand. Just think of the resources deployed; the water and heat needed to make and pour the concrete, fill up the pools, keep the gardens and golf courses green; let alone all the rare earth that will be mined to provide the fancy electronic equipment deemed essential to support and entertain tomorrow’s “connected traveller.”

Airbnb hosts are more sustainable simply because they are making more efficient use of existing buildings and distributing leisure tourists more evenly within a destination. That’s actually a very significant contribution. They achieve some social good (especially if the income is taxed proportionately and equitably) by also distributing income more deeply into a community.

To use another expression, Airbnb is contributing in a small,  but useful, way to the need to de-couple growth from resource use that is vital if tourism is to enjoy any social licence to operate. See two articles by Jeremy Smith here and here, citing two academics (Gosling and Peeters), who have consistently supported environmental concerns with hard data. The study that Airbnb should have commissioned would look at the way a dollar, euro, yen or ruble spent by an Airbnb guest generates more net benefit to a host community than the spending that generates paper thin margins coveted by a relatively small number of international investors.

It’s research that The Travel Foundation and TUI to their credit have at least tried to address with the first-of-its kind assessment of local impact that looks more deeply at the impact of hotels on the community “ecosystem” or “Destination Web” as we described it several years ago. It’s because of the overwhelming magnitude of existing and latent demand that I stand by my statement made in 2012 that Airbnb does not constitute a huge threat to the existing hotel community but offers destinations one means of helping deliver better community benefits. But fortunately, other experts disagree as you can see from the following clip.

Given a global demand forecast big enough to make even an investment banker green with envy,  I still find it hard to believe that the mainstream hotel “industry,” with the thousands of MBAs it now employs at rock bottom wages, is seriously threatened by a bunch of ordinary people like you and me wanting to rent out a room to make ends meet – especially given that Airbnb doesn’t appeal to the high-end, liability-conscious corporate buyer.

What’s worse – this discussion actually distracts us from the most important conversation – how can the juggernaut called mass industrial tourism be prevented from destroying all in its path? How do we shift to a better model? How do we all work together to ensure that tourism is developed by and for communities at a pace and in a style that benefits the many not the few? I believe the peer-to-peer style companies like Airbnb should be leading that conversation and not spouting superficial statistics that undermine their fundamental value proposition and role in the emerging “new economy.”

So, what do you think? Can we have a conversation, a dialogue and not an adversarial debate?

A Final Thought

If Airbnb can scare the hotel sector by enabling every one of us to become a host, why aren’t the OTAs and DMOs quaking in their boots given what current technology enables? So if you are reading this dear Chip Conley, as VP Strategy of Airbnb, please make contact and lets discuss how Airbnb can really make a positive difference. I’ve been a fan for years, and I’d love you even more if you did.

• I hadn’t seen this critique of the press release before writing this post – Jeremy Smith was on the ball as usual.

Hacking History (Part 2) The Internet’s Third Power Shift

In the previous post, we considered how mega change happens and pointed to the thought-leaders, technologies and demographics that worked in combination to shift power from companies to consumers. That’s not news, or shouldn’t be, for most of you. What might be news, however, is the fact that we are about to see an equivalent shift in the relationship between corporations and employees and the emergence of far more fluid organisational structures to get work done. I am not confident that the current industrial structure supporting mass tourism can reverse an opposing trend – i.e., declining wages, deteriorating working conditions, less security… Hence the need to focus on an alternative.

 

The workforce has divided into two camps – those holding onto a job (employees) and those who, by choice or necessity, broke free or were pushed into becoming self-employed, free lancers, sole traders and volunteers or who joined or started social enterprises, collectives, NGOs, not-for-profits and worker-directed companies. The Internet has been awash with sites encouraging and showing people how to “follow their bliss,” “make a difference”, find “meaning and purpose” and “financial freedom” by running their own business. It’s also become clear that anyone with a smartphone can potentially execute a bright idea by pulling together creative, talented but virtual teams, deploying software rented from the cloud and crowd fund it from micro investors.

The internet initially shifted power in the marketplace and is now enabling a major political shift. Social media is being used to mobilise people on an unprecedented scale with a degree of spontaneity and surprise unseen before. Occupy Wall Street was spawned by the Egyptian uprising and within two-three years we witnessed expressions of public dissatisfaction in Iceland, Ukraine, Brazil etc. Less visible but more impactful was the explosive growth in online petitioning and crowd funding. Now the shift is moving into the third arena: the workplace and the Millennials are the push force. The 2015 Deloitte Millennial survey, is a must read for all employers and it will be a subject of a later post. Right now, two paragraphs from the front page summarise the core message:

Millennials overwhelmingly believe that business needs a reset in terms of paying as much attention to people and purpose as it does products and profit. 75% believe businesses are too fixated on their own agendas and not focused enough on helping to improve society.

The message is clear: when looking at their career goals, today’s Millennials are just as interested in how a business develops its people and its contribution to society as they are in its profits. These findings should be viewed as a valuable alarm to the business community, particularly in developed markets, that they need to change the way they engage Millennial talent or risk being left behind.

IBM’s annual survey of CEOs around the world, Leading Through Connections, the corporate world appeared to have recognised that human capital had become its most important source of economic value but do they really understand the full nature of change going within their workforce? They spend hundreds of millions measuring “engagement” but from the company’s point of view.

Preoccupation with developing meaningful conversations with consumers has blinded many companies to the plain truth that customers and employees share one thing in common – they are human beings!

If companies are having to become customer centric, then why won’t they be required to become employer centric too?

Failure to recognise this power shift constitutes a huge opportunity cost and will soon become the factor that separates success from failure. The Manpower Group’s talent survey shows that 36% of companies are having trouble filling staff shortages now – the highest proportion since the pre-recession boom year of 2007. Bill Jensen in Hack the Science of Engagement! cogently argues that companies need to ruthlessly examine just how self centred (as in employer centric) they really are and how out of synch with the motivations and aspirations of today’s workforce. Just look again at how engagement is defined:

“the extent to which employees are motivated to contribute to organizational success, and are willing to apply discretionary effort to accomplish tasks important to achieve organizational goals.” (Source: 2014 IBM Smarter Workforce Study.)

Jensen’s team asked several truly employee centric questions. First of all they assessed the degree to which employees were optimistic, happy , hopeful and harbouring dreams for personal growth and success. Despite all the challenges of making a living as a “worker” the results were remarkably upbeat.

The workforce is NOT disengaged from working on what matters to them… They are very engaged in their hopes and dreams!

 

BUT – and it’s a big but, they are extremely frustrated with businesses’s lack of caring, desire and willingness to be a vehicle for achieving their dreams and goals. Only 29% said they thought they could achieve their goals where they currently worked. But it’s worse than that. When you subtract from the total those workers in executive or entrepreneurial positions and environments, the 29% figure drops to 9.8%!

That means that 9 in 10 employees have dreams that they don’t expect to fulfil by staying with their current employer!!

So what does all this have to do with tourism and hospitality? It is no coincidence that when you look at the Conscious Travel compass of its eight principles and practices, the foundational four are Purpose, People, Place and Power. They work with the principles of Protection, Proximity, Pace, and Pull  to support the goal of building a visitor economy that enables all its stakeholder to flourish – to fulfil their potential as passionate, fully alive human beings.

PEOPLE is positioned as the second most important Principle and Practice in the Conscious Travel Model to remind us that for, a visitor economy to survive and flourish through the next decade, we must shift our focus from moving “product” to growing people. That’s because consumers are not mere consumption units (passenger nights, revenues per room) but people and people that talk to one another, and try to help each other. Consumers are also employees, shareholders, voters, investors, association members, family members, lovers, friends and, in short, human beings – all steadily, uniquely, consciously or unconsciously engaged in a lifelong journey of experience and self-discovery as described in the 1950’s by Maslow as a Hierarchy of Needs from survival to self-actualisation.

Companies that help individuals – be they customers or employees – move up that hierarchy, regardless of where their customer sits on it, will be the winners regardless of the sector in which they operate.

We have examples of both worst and best practices to learn from. The revenue battering trend of commoditisation  has caused many instances of poor labor practices, labour unrest, low wages, high turnover, zero hour contracts and pitiful levels of engagement. Some parts of the industry have grown by deploying an extractive approache more suited to mining. This comment was made by an industry analyst within the airline sector:

What we have is a race to the bottom in the mass market segment – ever restrictive ticketing conditions; customers forced to pay for anything extra; the slow and inexorable reduction in in-flight catering…This has been dubbed the “Gotcha” economy – that successful companies go out of their way to create conditions in the fine print that lead to consumers paying extra fees and penalties. (1) (2)

But the good news is that there are many excellent examples of leaders who have put their employees welfare first and as a consequence enjoyed higher profits and greater resilience. Pioneering leaders like Kelleher at Southwest Airlines, Chip Conley founder of Joie de Vivre and PEAK, Mike Dapatie formerly CEO of Kimpton Hotels, Danny Meyer successful New York restauranteur and creator of Hospitality Quotient, Ritz Carlton, Four Seasons and Fairmont are all examples of live up to the definition of a Conscious Host – a host who cares.

Conscious hosts create places that care simply because the people at each place (be it a B& B, a boutique hotel, the site of an activity, tour or event) genuinely CARE about their guest, the environment on which they depend and each other. They also care about the vitality of the local economy; the culture of the host community, the viability and responsibility of suppliers, and the needs of shareholders to see a return on their investment. So yes, Bill Jensen, Chip Conley, Danny Meyer I am with you – let’s Hack the Science of Engagement and talk about Passion instead.

When all the stakeholders associated with a place share a common purpose and can express their passion for their place through their work, profits will follow.

PS. An economist I really admire is Robert Reich who offers a more jaundiced view on employee prospects here. Why Wages Won’t Rise. I think he hasn’t fully appreciated the change that is occurring in the creative economy. The jury is out as to whether or when progress there will spill into traditional manufacturing. Another analyst is Jeremy Rifkin whose Zero Marginal Cost Society is a must read and far more optimistic. The three of us are boomers so what do we really know – it’s those of you born after 1980 like the founders of Airbnb who will surprise and delight us all.

PPS Breaking News: The B Team and Virgin Unite have weighed into the debate by publishing a synthesis of latest thinking on the topic New Ways of Working. It provided authoritative evidence that Conscious Travel is on the right track.

See also: Conscious Hosts Create Place That Care

(1) http://airlineanalysts.com/2012/09/19/a-race-to-the-bottom-low-cost-carriers-and-the- gotcha-economy/ (2) http://redtape.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/07/13710824-the-truth-comes-out-ceo-says- stupid-consumers-deserve-hefty-fees?lite

Why John Mackey and Richard Branson should break bread together

Richard Branson launches the Bteam on June 14th

Most of the public,  in the UK especially, has heard of Richard Branson – the flamboyant, fun loving, self-made, successful, philanthropic, provocative, charming entrepreneur;  Head of the Virgin Group, and sporting a well deserved reputation for generating publicity, supporting the underdog and championing good causes. In short, Richard Branson is an influential business celebrity and heads turn when he walks down the street.

John Mackey launches Conscious Capitalism in London June 12th

John Mackey, on the other hand, is a shy, serious, but passionate Texan who happens to have developed the most successful grocery business worldwide – Whole Foods. He comes across as an intensely curious, philosophic, serious entrepreneur whose experience has shaped some strong convictions.  John Mackey proudly takes his personal rice cooker everywhere so he can start his day with a highly nutritious but cheap (30cents) breakfast. He considers himself a committed capitalist but one fully aware of its deficiencies and on a mission to correct them. Very few heads would turn even if he were to walk down Sunset Boulevard. And yet he and his colleagues, as initially identified by Professor Raj Sisodia in Firms of Endearment, are having a considerable impact on the business community in US, Australia and now parts of Europe.

While, in terms of surface appearances and style, they seem poles apart, Branson and Mackey are united on the things that matter so I can’t help but think what magic could happen if they were to meet and work actively together. They have more in common than you think. Addressing their differences would move both of their agendas forward.

It would certainly make for a fascinating dinner party:

1. Both share a belief that the narrative associated with business and capitalism needs changing. Branson in his own colourful style thinks that business as usual should be screwed – see Screw Business as Usual – and focus more on doing good. Mackey, co-author of Conscious Capitalism,  wants to “liberate the heroic spirit of business” by helping business leaders become conscious.
2. Both believe that profit isn’t the end, it’s a means to achieving a higher purpose.  In fact, it is the passionate pursuit of a purpose designed to benefit both society and individuals that creates profit. Both – consciously or not – build on the work of such luminaries as Willis Harman, John Renesch (see my brief acknowledgment here ) and Paul Hawken, who suggested back in the late 1970s that business was the only institution with the capacity to address the problems facing humanity.
3. Both have recently committed to proselytizing this message. Richard Branson has formed a number of major initiatives such as Virgin Unite, The Elders and Carbon War Room that have all shaped his latest initiative – www.bteam.org.  John Mackey has teamed up with a number of other brands and created the Conscious Capitalist Institute and recently launched a book, called Conscious Capitalism. They both launched these initiatives in the same week but sadly their paths didn’t cross.
4. Both believe very strongly in empowering the people who work in their companies to take responsibility, experiment, and lead at whatever level in the company they work and take any and every opportunity to grow personally and professionally. They know the power of a nurturing corporate culture to unleash passion, creativity and innovation. As a consequence, they each embody many of the characteristics of a Conscious Leader and each endeavours to “walk the values talk.”
5. Richard Branson strikes me as more of a conventional motivator who prefers to delegate the details of execution to his team. John Mackey is also a great delegator and motivator but perhaps has a clearer, deeper idea of the “how” as well as the “why”.  The Conscious Capitalism text is rich in practical advice and applications that show how capitalism can be tweaked to become a true wealth generator as opposed to wealth spinner. Screw Business As Usual is more of an autobiographical tale, more anecdotal than prescriptive.
6. Both men have created enormous financial value for themselves and all their stakeholders. They enjoy high levels of staff loyalty and engagement from employees, suppliers and the communities in which they operate.  As illustrated in Conscious Capitalism, there is no doubt that the approach promoted by both men works – conscious companies are proven to outperform their non-conscious peers financial by several factors to one (See Appendix A to Conscious Capitalism).

So why do I hope these two men will have a private dinner soon to explore ways of collaborating – a virtue each claims to value highly?

The opportunity lies in exploring their different approaches.

The Conscious Capitalists, as described in Mackey and Sisodia’s book seem more focused on “the business of business” and ways to improve it than the context in which business operates. They recognize the environment as a key stakeholder but only one of several stakeholders and, as such, “conscious businesses refuse to accept trade-offs for the environment, just as they do for other stakeholders.”

Out of a total 300+ pages, only 12 are devoted to the environment as stakeholder and, of these, four are devoted to the Whole Foods approach to sustainable livestock production, animal welfare and seafood sustainability.  This view seems to ignore the fact that Nature is not another human stakeholder whose needs must be met – albeit after some trade-offs  – but an autonomous, self-regulating system of which humans are a part and that Nature operates according to its own laws regardless of whether you believe it to be conscious or not. Two paragraphs from the book distill the Conscious Capitalist (Whole Foods) approach:

We will save our environmental challenges in the same way we solve all challenges: by raising consciousness, encouraging creativity and innovation, and recognizing and rewarding virtuous behavior… (Conscious Capitalism, page 151)

 Conscious capitalism recognizes that our natural resources are ultimately finite and must be protected and conserved. But it also recognizes that our inner creativity and inner resources are infinite, provided we can learn how to activate and deploy them. As emphasized earlier, the most powerful form of human energy on the planet is a turned-on, fully alive and awake human being.” (Conscious Capitalism page 292)

While it is impossible to resist this noble aspiration, it has a similar ring to Adam Smith’s invisible hand that has remained far too invisible to have really helped. The big IF in this case being whether we can produce fully turned-on, fully alive and awake human beings fast enough.

The participants in the Bteam – many of whom, consciously or not, practice the four tenets of conscious capitalism (higher purpose, stakeholder alignment; servant leadership and development of empowering cultures) appear much more aware of and focused on the challenges of the environmental and social context in which they operate. I can’t say with certainty but I suspect, if asked, they would demonstrate higher levels of agreement with the statement that “the economy and society are subsidiaries of the environment” than might the Conscious Capitalists.

The Higher Purpose of the Bteam is specifically focused:

“Our vision of the future is a world in which the purpose of business is to be a driving force for social, environmental and economic benefit” 

Both groups agree that being driven by the profit motive alone is no longer acceptable.

The Bteam believes that profit will accrue from directly addressing the social, environmental and economic challenges head on. The Conscious Capitalists seem to believe that by setting a higher purpose, learning to serve all stakeholders, create empowering cultures and leading consciously, the conditions for tackling those issues will be created.

Because the Bteam has this external focus, they believe that business also needs to address accounting systems (pay for externalities), address the issue of destructive subsidies or tax policies, and help develop new corporate forms, hybrids and partnerships that deliver benefit to people and planet.

Given the magnitude of the challenges facing humanity right now, these are admittedly minor differences between two very noble endeavours.

The Bteam talks about a new leadership underpinned by a moral compass that is Fair, Honest, Positive and Creative founded on cooperation.

The Conscious Capitalists’ Credo states that “business is good because it creates value, it is ethical because it is based on voluntary exchange, it is noble because it can elevate our existence, and it is heroic because it can lift people out of poverty and create prosperity….But we can aspire to something even greater.”

Sadly the references to the excesses of greed expressed by many businesses is not acknowledged and thereby the power of Mackey’s aspiration undermined.

What’s Missing?

In this assessment of what unites and distinguishes Conscious Capitalism and the Bteam I became aware of one missing element that is perhaps implicit in both approaches but needs to be made explicit – and that, again, is MIND-SET, or Worldview.

Neither proponent articulates the need to see the world differently before we can be and act differently. It’s true that as we develop our consciousness, these shifts in perception will occur. Richard Barrett, founder of the Values Centre, and author of the New Leadership Paradigm,  whose pioneering and seminal work on values and corporate culture deserves far more attention than it is getting, has shown how our unexamined assumptions, values and beliefs shift as we rise in consciousness. We move naturally from seeing ourselves at the centre of our own universe to ourselves as an interdependent part of a bigger system of which we are each an essential part- in other words, from “I “to “We” and from “I am insignificant” to “I must be the change I wish to see in the world”.  When CEOs and investors truly embrace a perspective of utter inter-dependence and connection increasing their rates of  compensation at rates 10X the national average will be unthinkable and not in their best interest.

I believe that both the Bteam and the Conscious Capitalists will accelerate adoption of their respective agendas faster to the extent that they can reveal the ways in which the assumptions underpinning industrial-materialism simply don’t work anymore and that our understanding of complex, adaptive self-organising systems is infinitely more relevant and effective than a worldview that sees the universe as a machine that needs to be engineered/managed  or as a lumberyard of resources to be exploited and plundered.

It’s true – we’ve come a very long way in half a decade when such a comparison between two great thought leaders would have been impossible. So we mustn’t let these great ships of progress pass in the night. There is so much to be gained by mutual recognition and support plus healthy debate and exchange. The challenge now is for these concepts to rapidly move from the fringe to the “new normal” only then will it make sense for marginal differentiation to occur.

Where Does Conscious Travel Fit?  
Conscious Travel is currently a movement and a model that applies the principles of conscious capitalism to the provision of hospitality and travel services to create a less harmful alternative to mass industrial tourism. It will become a collaborative network of action-oriented learning communities that develop various Plan Bs suitable for their places.  The learning starts with the inner mindset of the host and their awareness of the context in which they live so that they can assume responsibility for both protecting and regenerating the landscapes and cultures on which they depend and generate a higher net return to all stakeholders.  By working up from communities that celebrate the uniqueness of their place while applying the generic principles that uphold conscious capitalism, conscious hosts will offer an antidote to the commoditization and diminishing returns that plague modern tourism. They  generate creative, resilient and truly sustainable economies around welcoming and serving guests.

Southwest Airlines, Joie de Vivre Hospitality (Chip Conley), Kempinski Hotel Group ( see Conscious Hoteliers Show They Care) and recently Intrepid Travel have been identified as Conscious Capitalists or have been associated with the Conscious Capitalist movement. Virgin Airlines, and Virgin Travel will presumably form part of the Bteam. While there’s plenty of room for other major Fortune 500 travel companies to join them, Conscious Travel is really focusing on the helping the vast majority of tourism hosts – the small,  medium sized providers – to follow the lead of these emlightened pioneers.

More Information

For the launch of the Bteam, see: http://bteam.org/leadership/watch-the-plan-b-kick-off-livestream/

For the launch of Conscious Capitalism in San Franciso, see: http://www.consciouscapitalism.org/cc2013/video#video_player

Related Posts

Screw Tourism As Usual

What is Conscious Capitalism?

Is Conscious Capitalism Business 3.0?

Tourism What’s The Point

Create a Culture that Inspires Employees and Transforms Guests

In an earlier post, Conscious Hoteliers Show They Care,  we described an example of Conscious Host, Chip Conley, who has has experienced enormous success in the hotel industry by creating places where employees LOVE to work and,  as a result, customers LOVE their experiences.

Chip Conley knows that the culture of a business can be its key competitive business advantage. If you get this right, you’re well on the way to seeing your profits rise and your costs decrease. Turnover will plummet; retention and engagement will improve and you’ll see more positive Trip Advisor reviews.

Chip Conley is as generous as he is proficient. There’s no need to procrastinate further as he is holding a FREE online event called the Enlightened Business Summit available here  from November 7-11.

And if you can’t wait, view his TED Talk on Conscious Travel TV here.

Conscious Hoteliers Show They CARE

The essence of what being a Conscious Host or a Conscious Traveller is all about can be summed up in two words:

they care

Conscious hosts create places that care simply because the people at each place (be it a B& B, a boutique hotel, the site of an activity, tour or event) genuinely CARE about their guest, the environment on which they depend and each other. They also care about the vitality of the local economy; the culture of the host community, the viability and responsibility of suppliers, and the needs of shareholders to see a return on their investment.

When all these needs are met and, none at the cost of another stakeholder, profit flows.

The evidence of the soundness of such an approach is becoming indisputable and is coming from a variety of sources. Those businesses operating with a culture of care for all stakeholders outperform those with a focus primarily on shareholders as discussed in the book Firms of Endearment.

Since the act of providing “hospitality” and “re-creation” is also essentially an act of caring, we should assume that those companies,  which are overtly engaged in the business of extending hospitality,  could and should be pioneers of a more conscious way of looking after all stakeholders. One goal of the Conscious.Travel movement will simply be to identify hoteliers who do really care in this way and bring them together.

As far as applying the term conscious is concerned, two hotel companies have already “staked their turf” in this regard: Kimpton Hotels and the small but perhaps better known Joie de Vivre group of boutique hotels, operated by Chip Conley who has become a leadership guru in his own right and poster child for the Conscious Capitalist movement – see his book called Peak – How Great Companies Get Their Mojo From Maslow and website of his consulting and training organisation.

Leaders of the two organisations have similar mindsets. They have shifted from an industrial mindset that focuses on products and efficient processes to one that:

• recognises that all companies are run by and for people who have physical, financial, emotional, social and spiritual needs;
• all people and the lifeforms on which they depend are connected and interdependent; and
• the encounter between guest and host occurs at a unique point in time and place and is uniquely shaped by each – i.e., the more an experience is infused with a “sense of place and occasion” the more value and meaning it will generate for the participants.

As Chip Conley states:

“Life and business is all about where you pay attention and most businesses neglect the fact that we are all humans. The minute we neglect to show deep human respect to each and every person who crosses our path, we lose a little of ourselves.” 

An earlier recession that occurred at the start of his career as a hotelier necessitated an innovative way of surviving. Chip Conley was prompted to draw on his college education by bringing Maslow’s heirarchy of needs to the business world and making theoretical psychology practical and uplifting for thousands.

Conley combined two powerful concepts to create a unique approach to service design and delivery:

First he applied Maslow’s heirarchy to the three kinds of people involved in his hotel: employees, investors and guests suggesting that each could aspire to more. Employees might start out wanting a job and the security that came with a paycheck but then graduated to wanting a career and finally a calling, a vocation or sense of purpose. Similarly, guests might be happy under some circumstances to have just a comfortable bed, but once they were assured of that would ascend Maslow’s pyramid and want more,  finally seeking a boutique property that reflected their own values and tastes. Investors also want more than a financial return – many want to enjoy a sense of pride or create a legacy. Conley’s genius was that he also took a long hard look at what he called the “Service Profit Chain” before combing both approaches into a powerful model designed to deliver maximum value to all stakeholders.

The following slide presentation – sourced from www.rypple.com – illustrates Chip Conley’s thinking.

PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow

The Kimpton Hotel Group may not have approached the act of becoming conscious hoteliers quite as methodically as Conley but have placed similar emphasis on employee care and ensuring their employees find fulfillment in their work.

Michael Dapatie, CEO of the Kimpton group, says that one of his jobs is to help his 7000 employees “connect with themselves”. Caring for his employees creates a “chain of caring” that runs down throughout the organization and makes a stay at one of Kimpton’s boutique hotels a “transformative experience” for customers. “If you grow the people you’ll grow the organization” says Dapatie.

Employees at Kimpton are surveyed to help determine their strengths and weaknesses, and “personality style”. By allowing employees to pursue their passions and interests within the framework of their jobs, the “caring” is expressed in loyalty to the company, an uncommon and highly acclaimed experience for the customer, and an organic, employee-driven effort to embrace core tenets of conscious capitalism: social responsibility, sustainability and environmental awareness.

Kimpton’s Earthcare program is supported by self-described “greenies” who become the “Eco-Champion” (pdf) for a particular hotel. They take their role seriously and help integrate the ‘meaning’ of the customer ‘experience’. Core corporate values match the core values of the employees, and the authentic message of Kimpton embraced by the customer. Their Corporate Social responsibility program is, in fact called simply “Kimpton Cares”  based on a belief that the company has:

“a responsibility to positively impact the communities in which we live. We strive to be conscious of our impact on the environment and to make a difference where we can. We strive to help and provide leadership for those around us, both inside and outside our company and our industry. Ultimately, we believe that when we are more successful in our business endeavours, we have more resources to make a positive difference in our communities”. 

Depatie provides further insights into Kimpton’s approach in a 3 minute video accessible by clicking here.