TGS - 20th March 2022
A tribute to a good friend & mentor, a new innovation & change tribe, an antisocial social network, and how playing with LEGO can make you a better manager...
Welcome to the March 2022 TGS! It’s almost Ramadan and, of course, time to plan for the spring and summer seasons. Q1’s drawing to a close and if you’re unhappy with what you’ve achieved so far, now’s a great time to adjust and optimize your plans. Need a hand? Drop me a message here or pop into my virtual office during the next TGS Office Hours on 28th March (https://fb.me/e/hDmMzge3Z or https://cutt.ly/BMC-X-TGS-OH).
thank you, Alan!
On Sunday, 6th March 2022, my good friend and mentor Alan Bostock passed away peacefully after a long illness. Alan, like me, was a consultant and a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality. Our paths first crossed in 2022 at the Bonnington Hotel in Bloomsbury, London’s literary heartland, where Alan could be found several days each week at a table in the lobby (there wasn’t enough office space to accommodate consultants), smoking furiously, and getting problems and issues sorted out or new ideas and projects off the ground. We met again many years later in Dubai, when we worked together to open the Bonnington Jumeirah Lakes Towers - a protracted and challenging project, where we’d start our days with a cup of coffee and a smoke on one of the terraces away from the madness and noise of the offices.
Alan was a quiet and patient man, a great hotelier, and a good friend. He seemingly had a solution for every problem and I cannot remember him ever being anything but calm, friendly, and diplomatic. He never “officially” mentored me, but I learned a lot just by observing him and talking with him. We stayed in touch when he left Dubai and enjoyed chatting about the latest news and gossip.
I was privileged to have met him - he certainly touched many lives in the best way and will leave many stories behind. Rest in Power, Alan.
innovation, change, and hospitality
Interested in innovation and change in the hospitality, leisure, and tourism industries? Come and join me over on Otolo, the global online hospitality platform where professionals connect, meet and share knowledge. I’m Otolo’s “Change & Innovation Ambassador” and run an online innovation group/forum on Otolo, which brings together people interested in changing the status quo, discussing innovation and how to nurture and manage it, discovering how even slight mindset changes can produce surprising results, and finding out how innovation and change can lead to competitive advantages while also making us better managers & leaders. There’s no joining fee and no set agenda, so if you’d like to become part of the tribe, just drop me a line here.
is BeReal the new Instagram? 400,000 daily users and rising…
What if I told you there’s a new social media platform out there that’s currently valued at USD $135 million, is backed by venture capitalist investors, including Benchmark, the VC firm backing Snap, Twitter and Uber, has 400,000 daily active users, and that you’ve probably never heard of? Meet BeReal, the “not another social network” social network.
BeReal is a social platform founded in 2020 by French entrepreneur Alexis Barreyat in response to the current social media landscape. On the app, users share their daily activities through photos with friends or people they don’t know (yet!). What makes BeReal different is that you’re only allowed to post once a day and only during a two-minute window. Every day at a different time, the app notifies all users simultaneously to capture and share a photo in two minutes. It's not like Instagram, where users can curate their feeds and edit their images. BeReal doesn't allow you to curate. There are no filters. It simply gives users a random two-minute window each day to post one photo. When you post, the app uses both your front and rear-facing camera, giving your friends a full picture of what you're doing in the moment. There is no way to lie about where you are or what you're doing. You can't project a picture-perfect image.
The appeal of BeReal lies in its immediacy. The posting-once-a-day model also means you only have to check the app once per day, and there's no anxiety over missing content because everyone you follow is only posting once a day, too. Therefore, it isn't a time suck the way that Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and TikTok currently are. Not only does BeReal build upon the photo sharing feed of Instagram, but it also incorporates the ephemeral nature of Snapchat by resetting your feed daily. Like Snapchat, the app holds your previous posts in "memories" that only you have access to.
So, should you download BeReal? I’d give it a whirl, if only to see what “gen Z social media” looks and feels like. It could also be fun to see what brands are doing with BeReal in the future, mostly because it’s so radically different from the more established social media platforms.
LEGO® Serious Play?
LEGO, hey? Small, colourful pieces of plastic, beloved by children (and surprisingly many adults, too) around the world - perhaps you, too, grew up playing with LEGO and building huge, often somewhat unstable contraptions. I certainly loved my LEGO pieces - I once build an entire spaceship (only to the drop it when I ran to show it off to my mum!). I find LEGO a fascinating company, not just because it created an almost universally loved toy, but also because it almost went bust at the dawn of the video game and Internet eras only to stage a spectacular recovery. LEGO made the common mistake of weakening its core value proposition by adding excessive product line complexity and pursuing brand-diluting diversification including children's wear, watches and theme parks. The Danish toy-maker was saved by a 35-year old ex-academic and McKinsey consultant, who focused on three strategic imperatives: restoring LEGO’s core values, controlling operational complexity and growing through brand-reinforcing innovation. LEGO is a great example of why companies still need missions and vision statements - clever and well-crafted ones, of course, and not the kind I ranted about in last month’s TGS (if you want to know why, keep an eye out for the April issue of Hotel & Catering News ME, where I’ll take a deep dive into the complexities of mission and vision statements).
Interestingly enough, LEGO isn’t just useful for creative play (or accidentally stepping on while you tidy your kid’s playroom), but also for leadership, communications, and strategy training and coaching and even for team building and personal development: Certified LEGO Serious Play facilitators and trainers work with more and more companies and professionals to solve problems, foster creative thinking, and learning how to articulate ideas through storytelling. Bricks can absolutely break down barriers. If you’re based in or around Barcelona or if you happen to pass through the cosmopolitan capital of Spain’s Catalonia region at the beginning of April, you can experience LEGO Serious Play in action thanks to Ian Gibbs, Marta Odriozola, Jessica Breitenfeld, and David Rigby from Smart Coaching & Training.
You can find out more about the event, which will take place on Thursday, 7th April 2022, here.
what’s the Sloth up to?
Thus far, March’s been a jolly good month for slothing up new business. I recently signed two great new F&B brands in the United Arab Emirates and welcomed back an old favourite: Please join me in a warm Sloth welcome to Burger Heist and Fresh Fit Kitchen and a flame-grilled welcome back to BokBok.
My UAE data protection law offers are still live until (at least) the end of May, so if you’re unsure how the UAE’s new landmark privacy law affects you or if you need help with getting fully compliant, hurry up and book an exclusive 1-2-1 consulting session, a website audit, or a full, 360 degrees, marketing audit.
If you’re looking to meet the Sloth in his shiny and stylish, virtual office, you can join book a slot for the next TGS Office Hours on Monday, 28th March 2022 here or else just keep an eye on my Twitter feeds and Facebook Events for future dates & times.
The Sloth’s man for all things graphic design and video wizardry completed a short “welcome reel” the other week, which (finally!) provides an answer to the pesky "What is it The Gluttonous Sloth actually does?" question.
What else is going on?
Metaverse? Schmetaverse! In the last TGS e-newsletter, I set down a few thoughts about the metaverse. Is it a lot of nonsense or the next online revolution? Missed last month’s TGS? You’ll find it here, but you can also read an expanded and restructured version of the article in the March issue of Hotel & Catering News here.
Registrations for the 2022 Hotel & Catering News ME GM Leaders Conference are still open. This year’s conference takes place on 23rd March at the Sofitel Dubai The Obelisk.
Meet the Sloth at the Fastfood & Café & Restaurant Expo 2022 in Stockholm: If you’re in or near Stockholm at the end of May, come and meet me at FFCR, the industry event of the year, which takes place on 24th & 25th May at Kista Mässan. You’ll get a complete overview of what the industry has to offer in Scandinavia and you can meet leading suppliers and small local up-and-comers or discover the latest innovations.
what’s the Sloth reading, watching, and listening to?
Per Capita Greenhouse Gas Emissions → Greenhouse gas emission charts usually show us the world’s largest emitters in absolute terms, but really only tell a story of population – China and India, for example, are in the top three emitters, but are also the two most populous countries in the world. How do emissions compare when we correct for population? This interactive map shows per capita greenhouse gas emissions measured in tonnes per person per year.
The F&B Metaverse → The Food Sheikh’s at it again and this time he’s talking about the F&B metaverse. A good read, which also complements the article about the metaverse & hospitality, which I wrote lats month and which you’ll find here.
The Revolution of Remote Work → During the coronavirus crisis, remote work became one of the most talked-about topics in business. Serge Chamelian, managing partner at h-hotelier, shares his experiences of working remotely with colleagues in Paris and Cannes, and with clients across Europe and the Middle East.
odds & ends
Mental Floss → Mental Floss is a super addicting online magazine with articles covering a really wide range of topics. Their articles are really well written, really well researched, and usually on topics that don't get a lot of airtime.
The Magic Button → The magic button makes everything okay...
