Jens Mathiesen, president and CEO of Scandic Hotels Group, brought Scandinavian humility and common sense to the table as he steered his hotel firm through the COVID-19 pandemic, which began almost a year after he assumed the head role.
Speaking with Hotel News Now as part of its ongoing “Pandemic Reflections” series, Mathiesen said the original way of doing things in the hotel industry was to set out a plan and then execute it, but with so many variables in place, leaders must be ready to change on the fly, and be humble and intelligent enough to know when that change is going to upset the original strategy.
“The speed of execution on changes is even more important. … I am more focused on really changing stuff when needed. So, when things happen around me, I am more capable of changing today. And I think also as a business within hospitality, there is a large focus on how we can make the journey for the guest even more comfortable,” he said.
To do that successfully, Mathiesen needed his teams, who he said have always had a fairly free rein to innovate and make decisions.
“Invest a lot in the team and organization. … We have a lot of new team members that came on board, and we want them really to get on board with the Scandic culture and leadership culture, which is like from the Nordics with a lot of trust and empowerment. We have 20,000 team members, and it is like we have 20,000 decision-makers,” he said.
“It is a very empowered culture we have, which is also part of the reason we have succeeded well in the ramp-up,” he added.
Listen below for our full conversation with Jens Mathiesen.
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