Michelin-Star CEO on Scaling Luxury Service
A Michelin-star CEO revealed strategies for expanding high-end hospitality without diluting the guest experience in a recent video. The approach focuses on creating scalable systems that empower staff to deliver customized service, rather than standardizing it. The CEO stated that luxury is about making a guest feel unique, and scaling that feeling builds loyalty.
- The CEO is Will Guidara, former co-owner of the Make It Nice hospitality group, which included Eleven Madison Park (EMP), the NoMad restaurants, and Made Nice. He and chef Daniel Humm purchased Eleven Madison Park from restaurateur Danny Meyer in 2011. - Under Guidara's leadership, Eleven Madison Park's ascent was rapid; after receiving its first Michelin star in 2010, it jumped to three stars in 2012, a rare feat in the guide's history. By 2017, the restaurant was ranked #1 on the list of the World's 50 Best Restaurants. - A core strategy for scaling service was empowering individual staff members to take ownership of specific hospitality areas. For example, an employee passionate about coffee was put in charge of the entire coffee program, fostering a sense of ownership and driving excellence. - To systematize personalized moments, Guidara created the "Dream Weaver" role at Eleven Madison Park. This person's sole responsibility was to help other team members execute creative, over-the-top hospitality gestures for guests, such as tracking down a specific souvenir or arranging a surprise sledding trip in Central Park for a family who had never seen snow. - His "95/5 rule" is a financial approach to scaling luxury: manage 95% of expenses meticulously while spending the remaining 5% "foolishly" on gestures that have an outsized impact on the guest experience. - Guidara and Chef Daniel Humm ended their partnership in 2019, with Humm buying out Guidara's share of the Make It Nice group. Guidara has since started a new hospitality company called Thank You, authored the bestselling book "Unreasonable Hospitality," and co-founded The Welcome Conference, an annual event for hospitality professionals. - The principles from his book, *Unreasonable Hospitality*, were featured in the FX series *The Bear*, and Guidara himself served as a story consultant and appeared in the show's third season. He has also hosted a Welcome Conference event in Chicago.
