I am the founding father of a $1 billion journey unicorn. Here is what rising up in lodge lobbies taught me about management

Those nights weren’t glamorous; it wasn’t something like Eloise on the Plaza. My household was entrepreneurial, and my summers had been spent in half-built resorts or on graveyard shifts at reception. I’d watch visitors arrive, examine their physique language, and see how a misplaced chair or a distracted look might unravel a whole keep. 

What regarded trivial was, the truth is, the system at work. And techniques, I realized, form individuals.

Details are technique

In hospitality, each operational element from the check-in circulation to service rituals and even cutlery alignment turns into the distinction between loyalty and churn. Leaders usually overemphasize imaginative and prescient whereas neglecting these particulars. But these particulars are your technique.

At Mews, the best way we run one-on-ones, the readability of our product roadmaps, even the rituals round code evaluations — all of these items create the rhythm by which we scale. The lesson is easy: overlook the small stuff, and the large image will ultimately collapse.

Friction creates reminiscence

There’s a delusion that frictionless design is at all times finest. But I realized early that what makes an expertise memorable is the anomaly: the sudden kindness at reception, the considerate deviation from the script.

Technology, together with AI, can and will automate repetitive work. But it can’t create the psychological security that makes individuals communicate up, take dangers, or admit errors. Data shows that belief and psychological security are the strongest drivers of adaptability. Efficiency clears the noise; management creates connection.

Growth is disorderly by nature

Hotel lobbies below building had been chaotic up shut. Tools are scattered, processes are half-finished. But zoom out, and coherence emerged. Startups work the identical manner.

Scaling Mews to unicorn standing hasn’t been neat. It’s a jumble of trade-offs, experiments, and tough edges. Leaders want the resilience to resist that messiness whereas defending the bigger form of the group. Long-term success isn’t outlined by clean quarters however by the consistency of type throughout time.

Strong opinions, loosely held

Hotels educated me to obsess over precision, but in addition to adapt shortly. Perfectionism for its personal sake doesn’t scale; respect for the craft does.

That’s why one in every of my core management ideas is “strong opinions, loosely held.” Have a standpoint, however be prepared to alter it with new proof. Curiosity and humility aren’t smooth abilities. They’re instruments that forestall leaders from mistaking floor calm for true stability.

Companies are organisms, not machines

I see corporations much less like machines and extra like dwelling organisms. Growth means absorbing new individuals, markets, and acquisitions whereas retaining your core intact. Like an amoeba, it’s essential to be semi-permeable: versatile sufficient to soak up, however disciplined sufficient to protect your coherence.

At Mews, that mindset has guided enlargement. The query isn’t simply whether or not an acquisition makes monetary sense, however whether or not it strengthens the organism or threatens its integrity.

The power take a look at

In the tip, what issues is easy: do individuals go away interactions with extra power than they entered with? That was true for a visitor strolling out of a foyer, and it’s true for an worker leaving a one-on-one right this moment.

Valuations, dashboards, and product launches are chandeliers. They matter, however they’re not the inspiration. Leadership is about constructing techniques that allow individuals really feel extra human, not much less.

I realized that in lobbies lengthy earlier than I ever sat in boardrooms. And it’s the identical lesson I carry now because the founding father of a $1 billion firm: shield the “why,” and design techniques that outlast you.

The opinions expressed in Fortune.com commentary items are solely the views of their authors and don’t essentially mirror the opinions and beliefs of Fortune.

Fortune Global Forum returns Oct. 26–27, 2025 in Riyadh. CEOs and world leaders will collect for a dynamic, invitation-only occasion shaping the way forward for enterprise. Apply for an invite.