Ron Kaufman’s Heart to Heart Interview with LUX* CEO Paul Jones

Thank you, Ron. Thank you. Great to be with you.

Mhm.

Correct.

Yep.

Mhm. Mhm.

Okay. Thanks, Ron. I must say I'm very happy to tell the story. I was in London for about 10 years with One & Only as president, and I decided to go back to Mauritius in 2010. On the way back, I was approached by this group to see whether I'd be interested in taking it on. Not knowing much about what the group comprised of, although I obviously knew some of the hotels, I found it quite intriguing. I thought that it was an opportunity to demonstrate what I've long believed, and that is that it's not about the hardware. It's all about what is commonly known as the software, meaning the people of the hotel business. They are the front-line people who deliver the service and create a special interaction with the guests. Very often I'd heard general managers, myself included when I was a GM, saying, 'Oh, you know, if only I had the brand new hotel, then I'd show you what I can really do.' And I was one of those GMs until the epiphany happened whereby I realized, 'Well, it really isn't about the hardware, and it is all about the software.' Meaning, if you have great people, if they are delivering wonderful service, which you and I have over the years interacted specifically on how to create that special service, then you can have hardware that's not absolutely brand-spanking-new or absolutely perfect everywhere and deliver an amazing quality, an amazing experience, and score very highly with the guests. Whereas, the other way around, if your people are not up to snuff and are not delivering that service, but your hardware is amazing, you will never make it, in my opinion. Hence, this group of hotels were aging. The greatest enemy of the hospitality business is obsolescence. There was a lot of that around as I went from property to property. Yet, having known Mauritius and being associated with Mauritius for a long time, I could see the people were there. The passion was there. They wanted something, but there was something missing, including leadership to let them bring that passion alive. I felt it was a great opportunity to move from working with great hardware in the case of One & Only and creating the service through the years and developing a signature style, signature service to go with the brand, but to do it again. And do it in such a way that we started with a certain element of mediocrity in terms of the hardware but then invest heavily in the people.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Yeah, and that was my first message to the distribution partners. I said, 'Listen, tour operators, travel agents, you know me, you've known me a long time and you know what we can do together as partners. We can deliver the magic in terms of the experience through the people, not necessarily at the beginning through the hardware. We don't have the money to build the hardware for that. But we will catch up.' And sure enough we did, and we got instant results. The distribution came out and said yes.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Okay. We decided that we didn't want a top-down exercise. We got our people together and we delivered a vision of where we wanted to be, and that vision was all about time. We said that essentially people can be cash rich but time poor. And we are the custodians of their time for quite a considerable length of time, and they pay us to take their time at a time when they are totally free, they're not working, they're at leisure, and they're with their partners, they're with their families. And this is so important to them because it's very precious because back home that time they don't have it. Nobody has time. They've been waiting all year for this holiday with the family. All the hopes are there. So we analyzed this and we came to the realization that we're in the time business. You are entrusting us with your time and we have to make the most of that opportunity that you've given us. We're the custodians of your time. And how do we ensure that we do the best job we can over the period of time that you're with us? In other words, we try to introduce you into the property, into the resort, or the hotel in a short space of time so you feel very comfortable as soon as possible. As soon as possible people are calling you by your name. It's very personalized and we ease you in so that your relaxation period is short.

Precisely. And then we say each moment matters. This was the line that we came up with. And we make each moment matter. The moment of modifying that when originally it was each moment matters, we recognized that. Then we realized about a year in, actually it's our responsibility. And it became we make each moment matter.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right. So you've spoken about the vision.

We make each moment matter. And then there's the five values. This is how we're going to behave and what our rules of the road are.

Purpose?

Yeah.

No, no. But the purpose of what are we really doing here? And what do we want everybody to do? And that is to help people celebrate life.

Yeah. And when we say people, obviously we're talking about our guests, we're talking about each other.

Our communities in which we live, all of our business partners.

Celebrate life.

Beautiful. I mean, it's a generative purpose of joy, of appreciation for how magnificent life itself really is.

Yes.

Sure.

There's no question. Sometimes we've had people who come. They don't get it straight away. And sometimes they display different behaviors, which get picked up. And then we're quite quick. And we say, 'Well, actually, this is not who we are.' But you know what? We recognize that everybody's different. And maybe some people won't get it first time. And some people have other strengths, which we also want. So we help people to bring them along because very often it might not be a natural behavior. We like to try and hire it to be a natural behavior. But sometimes it isn't. And then if we can transform, why not? Because we're helping those people also celebrate their own lives and lead a better life.

Without question.

Yeah. Neighboring property.

Yeah.

Well, first of all, to have others imitate or copy what we do, some of my colleagues they get bothered by it. And I don't at all. In fact, I take it as the highest form of flattery, praise, etc. You're doing something right. And the other thing is that I said, 'Look, to be a leader, you have to have followers.' So it amuses me to see certain industry leaders who may say they are leaders, but I say, 'Okay, to be a leader, you have to have followers. Who are their followers? Who's following this company?' I know that we're being followed. And from what you just said, of course we've got imitators, so therefore we are being followed. So I think we are. Of course, we watch our peer group. We watch what's going on in the industry, but through our innovation challenge, we want to be coming out with new things, new stuff, new ideas, and be a little bit disruptive.

Okay. Well, I think that we definitely hit on something with Lux when we created the brand. There's a certain form of luxury which is opulent, which is heavy, which is not light or bright. So we hit on that, and we saw that there was a demand for that. For something lighter than the heavy traditional luxury environment. You went the other way. And definitely there was a demand for that. So we've been successful. We're seeing other traveler groups. For example, there's a group which is known as the cultural purist. Now, this group is typically people who don't just want to go to a hotel and become a prisoner within the walls of the hotel. They want to explore and understand the culture. They want to visit the place. They want to get to know the people. They want to go back with a lot more than the experience of the hotel, even though it's a fabulous experience inside the walls. And there are those customer segments that enjoy 'I want to come in the walls, I don't want to go outside the walls. You're going to take care of me every moment.' That's your Lux customer. Now, you're describing another customer segment. They want to know what's the local food, they want to get into the ground. They want to feel the native experience.

Yeah. And this group tends to be more belonging to the sharing economy. This spawned other hospitality like Airbnb or if you go in the car, the ride-hailing industry of Uber. This more democratized economy, and they like to share. They like to meet people. They're more gregarious. They don't want to be precious about their spaces. So from a design standpoint, you design their hotel experience differently.

Oh, yeah.

Precisely.

With a different brand. And the other facet of this market is the cultural purist also tends to be another grouping which is called the ethical traveler. So we want to take the intersection of those, find that sweet spot right there of eco ethical, eco-sustainable, appropriate, and at the same time culturally genuine. Meaning, what are we doing for the community? And how are we promoting the community? Because there are travelers who are interested in, 'Okay, what's my dollar that I spend on this vacation? What is it actually doing for the community? Not what it's doing for my own experience.' So if we explain what we are doing for the community, and there are many things that we've thought about and can do. So we're definitely very keen on meeting the expectations of these two groups, many of whom crossover and they have both.

Oh, yeah.

Well, I think this is one word, and that word is transformation. And that's something that I believe would take us as a group to another level. Transformational experiences that we can offer for all our brands. So if we're talking about Lux, which is a group called the simplicity seeker, which is staying in the hotel, we can offer the Lux customer, the Lux guest, transformational experiences actually at the hotel. With our alternative brand, the cultural purist, the ethical traveler, we can do the same thing but differently. A lot of it would be outside the hotel. For example, I'll give you one example. We could take somebody who has a particular life skill and offer them the opportunity to donate some of your time to offer your skill to the local community.

Yes. So we are working on that as part of our second brand, and then that becomes transformational. For example, I use my son as an example. He was coming down to Mauritius. He said, 'Dad, what can I do when I'm in Mauritius?' I said, 'What do you want to do?' He said, 'I want to give my time to maybe an NGO or organization or people. How can I help people?' I said, 'Okay, fine.' So I introduced him to this organization that helps young people who have fallen into hard times, teenagers. And they provide them with a halfway house for a 6-month period to try and put them on the right road. So he gave a couple of days of his time. Actually, what he did is he set up a crowdfunding website for them using his skills. And donated that time and that skill, and through that website, they've raised money in order to fund that thing. So this is what we're working on.

Another brand.

Absolutely. And I think that in that lies its uniqueness. And that possibility. And when you donated your time, even if it's an hour, a morning, you feel so much more as a contributor. And a connection that can last for a long time.

It's important because a lot of time tourism in different countries, a lot of the local population are not touched. Or they don't receive direct benefit or they don't see it. But if one can turn this around and say, actually, you know what? It's there. I'm making it happen so that there's not just people spending money in shops or taxis or tourist attractions or hotels or restaurants, but they are really getting to the heart of communities. They're contributing there. And this really helps sustain the tourism because it's often a question: 'How does it benefit me?' For me being our native original community that's here, not just that my brother works at the hotel, but that our connection with that hospitality organization is enlivening and giving dignity to all of us and possibilities for the future. I think it's very important.

You know, I'm really not conscious of that. I'm not somebody who is conscious about creating a legacy. I definitely want to continue adding value to the company that I work with and to enrich the lives of the people that work together with me in the company and then in the larger community. And if through doing that, if people remember something good has happened, then that's great. But in all humility, I want to feel that I'm doing something that I enjoy. I'm very fortunate in life to have found a passion for the hospitality industry. So I'm very grateful. Every day of my life I'm thankful, and I work with some great people. I have a wonderful family, and in that my life is truly complete. I hope that I can motivate, inspire people to always be reaching out. We use this expression, 'Let's get going,' but it's more a question of get out and do stuff. Don't talk about doing stuff. Don't try and shortcut. When I was younger, I wanted to do things quickly. I wanted to be the youngest general manager, the youngest this. So I was always in a hurry. Now I meet a lot of people in a hurry, but they don't want to invest the time and energy into the detail and into the nuts and bolts.

Exactly. I really pride myself on the fact that I've done most jobs in the hotel industry. And that enables me to talk to everybody. Everyone and anyone at any point along the line, from a green field brand new, let's create something that doesn't exist, to let's resurrect something that desperately needs a new life, to let's notice what's changing in the world and bring forth something that converges so that everybody benefits. So learn the craft. And then the things I didn't know, spend more time on. I wasn't the greatest finance man, but I learned it from people I worked with. I wasn't doing a lot of design work, but I learned it with the different design people that we work with. You learn those things, but it takes time and patience.

My message always to younger people: you can be in a hurry. That's fine. I was. I did a lot of things very quickly. But do invest your time. This is not a 9-to-5, 5-day a week job. If you find that you want to run away at 4:00 or 5:00 in the afternoon, this is not the job for you. You're not in the right place. And if you're not going to get to where you want to get to on a 9-to-5 basis. And that's not just true of hospitality. That's in anything you choose to do. So if you're bored at 5:00, forget about it. You want to be falling asleep at 12:00 at night because you're so tired, exhausted from everything you've done since 6:00 in the morning to 12:00 at night that you really need to get to bed. That is investing in your future because you've used 18 hours to learn the craft, to really demonstrate your passion, your energy, and everything at your young age. That's what I did. It's not a 5-day a week. So if you find yourselves Saturdays and Sundays saying, 'Oh, it's the weekend. Hooray, the weekend.' A lot of people say, 'Oh, I'm happy for the weekend.' In hospitality, we don't know what the weekend is. We don't know what Easter is. We don't know what Christmas is. We don't know what all the holidays are because we never get to celebrate them.

Our guests become our extended family. And our poor families are saying, 'Ah, where are you?' I'm coming, coming, coming. So it is a big sacrifice and there is no doubt about it. But for me in this industry, hospitality, weekends, holidays were written out of the playbook. They were not in the lexicon. So therefore, you didn't miss it. You don't have it, you don't miss it.

Absolutely. I've always said, what is the secret of how to get people to come to work because they want to, not because they have to? And there's a huge difference between the two. I want to come to work. I'm happy to come to work. I believe in who we are and what we're doing.

Very nice. Very nice.

We sure have.

We're looking forward to the coming.

Well, Ron, it's been a long time and I'm looking forward to working together with you and learning from you. How you think we can take this? You can help us reach another level?

Paul, we have an event coming up where a whole group of your leaders are going to be coming together and one of the skills that I've developed from those 18-hour days over so many days including weekends and holidays is facilitating groups to discuss and create and prioritize and evaluate and eventually align and agree on a way forward. And bringing that talent to your kind of inspiration and the creativity of your team and the experience of your team is what I look forward to doing with you together.

Great.

Thank you very much. Paul Jones, a legend in the hospitality industry with lots and lots of great advice and wonderful stories.

Thank you.

Cheers.