Inside the Hyatt Journey - #NZCIO Summit
Jeff Semenchuk talked about ‘thinking outside of the box’ at Hyatt - getting outside and beyond the box.
Jeff shared 3 areas they are focussing on: experience thinking, innovation & technology and transforming culture. It’s on ongoing journey for Hyatt.
Hyatt are focussing beyond the hotel, to the customer experience with a brand and looking at new online booking companies like Hotels.com or Uber who how few physical assets but a higher market valuation than Hyatt who have been around for 60 years.
Jeff walked through the typical hotel staying experience, outlining some areas for clear improvement and opportunities Hyatt are exploring.
Interesting to hear about the 'demo hotel’ idea, picking 8 hotels to trial changes in - it’s something we did last year at our organisation by focussing on innovation opportunities in a fee specific parts of the business. This approach allows for rapid prototyping and almost instant feedback - the backbone of design thinking.
Really interesting to hear the design thinking and innovation work Hyatt have been doing around improving the hotel experience for women travellers. Connecting more with customers and adapting based on what women travellers tell them.
Part of the challenges involved with design thinking Jeff discussed was around shifting the culture - rolling out new experiences across hotels that traditionally have operated autonomously.
Also interesting to see how central the Net Promoter Score (NPS) is in how Hyatt measures performance.
Interesting to hear about practical experiences with design thinking and rapid prototyping on a global scale. Culture is still the lynchpin of effective and sustainable change.