In this episode, we delve into the topic of creating a more hospitable travel industry and positively impacting the post-pandemic travel experience. Join us as we explore the importance of ego, teamwork, and human interaction in providing exceptional service.
Kees Zorge, Omniboost Founder and CEO, shares what he believes is the core DNA of Omniboost and the impact we hope to make on the industry.
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Timestamps:
00:03:22 Leadership is about serving others.
00:06:28 Importance of servant leadership.
00:12:01 Accountability and empowerment drive success.
00:17:06 Leadership is about serving others.
00:22:02 No ego, focus on "we".
00:29:07 Servant leadership fosters collective innovation.
00:32:08 Building teams with freedom and hospitality.
00:38:29 Small acts of kindness matter.
00:43:14 Podcast promotes engagement and growth.
Connect with Omniboost: www.omniboost.com
Connect with Kees Zorge: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keeszorge/
Connect with Rob Napoli: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robnap/
Show Produced by: Niranjan Deshpande (Nick), Broken Frames Studio, www.brokenframesstudio.com
Creators & Guests
Host
What is Hospitable?
Hospitable is a podcast that discusses how to make hospitality MORE human through technology.
Hospitable focuses on discussing the leading challenges facing the hospitality industry and to explore the latest trends, technologies, and best practices that are shaping the industry. Each episode features interviews with hoteliers, restaurateurs, chefs, industry analysts, and other experts who share their insights and experiences on topics such as customer experience, sustainability, innovation, staffing, and more.
Hosted by Rob Napoli
00:00:01:24 - 00:04:59:21
Kees Zorge
Okay, So, ladies and gentlemen, Rob head of brands, commercial partnerships, sales operations, and OCD
Rob Napoli
Very much, especially when it comes to setting up and recording. So for those out there listening, it took us 25 minutes to get set up in three locations. All right. Well, I'm excited because I always say I'm excited when we get these things started right. This is another episode of Hospitable, Hospitable as a podcast powered by OmniBoost where we attempt to explore how to make hospitality more human through technology.
Rob Napoli
And it's really exciting because today we have Kees Zorge the founder, CEO of OmniBoost, which you've if you're listening this podcast, if you haven't listened to the first episode or the intro to podcast, take a listen. Get a little bit more idea of who Kees is. Kees and I met over three years ago because of where we are today.
Rob Napoli
So we're sitting in New York City. We're at the Belgian American Chamber of Commerce, which is where we have offices and 2020 was it you went to the program?
Kees Zorge
I think so, yes.
Rob Napoli
A 2020 Benelux catalyst program, all virtual, Kees, fortunately, unfortunately, you couldn't make it over here for the in-person. We did our I was leading a sales I think sales and selling in the US.
Kees Zorge
So actually you showed up being Rob with a tank top. And I definitely remember that a couple of well, participants of the guest list.
Rob Napoli
Were was I and the Tank Top during the Catalyst.
Kees Zorge
Workshop.
Rob Napoli
I share, I was in the tank top the first internal.
Kees Zorge
Session when we.
Rob Napoli
With Mickey, Yeah, I was concerned. I think I'm pretty sure that I would not have wanted to.
Kees Zorge
And then still you made quite of an impression.
Rob Napoli
That that I did.
Kees Zorge
You still wore the bun
Rob Napoli
Yes, I did
Kees Zorge
Bun was there.
Rob Napoli
The bun, the beard, all those things. So we met through the Catalyst program three years ago and immediately hit it off. Yeah. Very engaged session that we chatted afterwards. And since then, I joined the organization doing some consulting work, helping out here and there, doing some fine things, but also became a strategic advisor to the business.
Rob Napoli
And it was really fun to whenever you came to New York, we'd get together and we talk shop and strategy and business, and there something that always resonated with me that you held very dear to you. And it's actually what we did our podcast for the Bare Necessities, which is my personal podcast that I ran, that still do.
Rob Napoli
You came on. It was your first ever podcast.
Kees Zorge
Experience, lost my podcast virginity there.
Rob Napoli
So first ever podcast Kees you came on and we talked about this thing, this, this thread that really attracted me to you as the founder and your energy, which is a willingness to serve, right? So talk to me why, why has the willingness to serve or that servant leadership model, what about that struck you? And how and why has it become the ethos of your business leadership mantra?
Kees Zorge
It wasn't so much about the soft side of things or leading with anything, only with empathy or whatever, but I truly believe that you can only lead a squad of people, if you will, the organization or whatever you want to call it. If you are intrinsically willing to serve your team. What we call was in our leadership team.
Kees Zorge
You've been part of it is that we actually talk about your tour of duty. You cannot expect behavior, work, movement from people if you're not willing to do so yourself. So it's not so much about that. The results come, but if you truly want to lead people, you need to be willing to be there in the trenches with them.
Kees Zorge
It's good times, Work hard, play hard. Yeah. On the flip side of things, which was doing the leadership and the servant leadership and the lead by example, we still expect that the entire team is working on the job until the job is done. So you actually lead with the empathy part or help people out, but you also expect them to deliver whatever it takes.
00:05:00:00 - 00:10:26:06
Rob Napoli
Yeah. And when you talk about that tour of duty, I think it's really important. It's really easy for you to want to be in leadership, for you to grow into leadership, to you to become a leader. But I think one of the things you realize as leader is what tends to happen the farther away that you come from the front lines and the farther and that leadership path, you sometimes forget that connection to the tour of the action to what is it that your teams in place are set up to do right from from frontline to operations to back of house or back office to anything in between?
Rob Napoli
every employee at the organization, not any organization is looking to make an impact, right? They want to do their job. They want to do it well. So obviously.
Kees Zorge
Yeah.
Rob Napoli
And some people do it for they do it to grow. They take a job with the opportunity that they are going to use that experience to the next thing. And next thing some people find, their zone of genius and their passion and they stay in that role. Mm hmm. Some people are still figuring it out. And then there's also people that take jobs that they know they can do well.
Rob Napoli
And they do that because they can clock in and clock out and then have their life outside. And you need all those types of people in an organization. And I think it's really easy for leaders to forget and that everyone's like them.
Kees Zorge
True. So that's a mistake that I still frequently make. And luckily I've got a team surrounding me who's making me quite well aware that not everybody shares the same powers on whatever. I'm not. So what you were talking about in referencing is you need to take into consideration that there are different traits of people within your organization and also not necessarily stating that that the servant leadership model is the model.
Kees Zorge
I truly believe that all kinds of models will work. But right now we're having a discussion or the conversation about OmniBoost. And with regards to OmniBoost our DNA, I'm a firm believer in leadership as a service, a servant leadership doing better to just be aware that you've got different, different people. So what I needed to learn as a founder and me, I'm all over the freakin place, so at some point I need to respect reporting lines
Kees Zorge
For me, difficult work titles. Well, not the conversation that I really want to be in, but I do need to to understand that that's part of running a business. But simultaneously, OmniBoost is OmniBoost. And that's what I expect from my leaders, my leadership team, to convey and show to the entire team.
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I think that's really unique because there's different ways to lead and there's millions of manuals out there, and what works for one company might not work for another. Yeah, everyone tries to stand on a hill and my way is the way. But I think when you think about servant leadership, when done right, the idea behind it is as a leader, while you are involved in making really tough decisions and you're looking at the wider picture and sometimes you're looking not just what's happening today, what's happening tomorrow, what's happening one year, two years, five years, ten years down the line.
Rob Napoli
Mm hmm. It can be hard to remember what it's like to do the day to day and what it is. And so to me, servant leadership really comes down to we need to be thinking as leaders, three, six, nine, 12 years, I mean, 12 months down the road. And like, we're in the process of looking at how do we get through Q3 and Q4, Q4 to Q1, so on and so forth.
Rob Napoli
We can't forget what do we do, day to day that makes us unique. Whether we talk about the OmniBoost DNA, what do we do day in and day out that makes OmniBoost who it is. And one of those things is and we talk about our mission is to give creativity back to humans. Yeah.
Kees Zorge
And time.
Rob Napoli
Yeah. And the time to be creative reference. And I think that's a really impactful thing when we talk about this, this podcast, the idea behind it is how do we create, how do we make the hospitality experience more human through technology and for us, from our perspective, firmly as we want to make humans more, give them time back, lessening things that we can control, like financial reporting and reconciliation, and those things that we do with our.
Kees Zorge
Integration, data, unification.
Rob Napoli
All those things so that they can be more creative on how do we make the customers delighted. How does this help when the customer checks and checks on?
Kees Zorge
A funny thing is, is that at some point you actually you run the risk of forgetting to instill that feeling or keep that feeling within your own company. So you're totally focused on the customer side of things. And at some point you run the risk of forgetting the, your core strength of your company. That's your people.
Kees Zorge
Yeah. And I want to reflect back on what you said I was doing or taking the approach of the servant leadership. It doesn't state that at some points you can't make a tough decision. If need be, I'll make the tough decision. And at that point it won't be a democracy because a decision needs to be made. But then still excuse my French.
00:10:26:15 - 00:15:27:20
Kees Zorge
If I fuck up, I'll be there in the trenches and taking care of my the shit that I created. I wasn't expecting my team to be part of that.
Rob Napoli
And I think that's something I really we talk about a lot and I really I vibe with this a lot. Is that the idea of accountability and extreme ownership? Yeah. Is that sometimes it's really easy, especially the bigger companies. there's the adage that shit rolls downhill. Mm hmm. Right. And you can always pass the buck.
Rob Napoli
And I think servant leadership is really about whatever decisions that we make as a leadership team. If they don't get executed or they're the wrong decision that we own up to that and that we get in the trenches to help fix because we can't expect people our team, our employees are our lifeblood who are not involved in those decisions to always fix it, because sometimes they aren't the ones to fix it and correct.
Kees Zorge
And what we learned, what we heard about coming from our own team, that they were basically second guessing why we made a couple of decisions. I think they're allowed to be as a leadership team. More specifically, I need to learn to explain the ‘why’ as why we're doing things. Unfortunately, I'm not clairvoyant, so not every decision that I make is by definition the right one.
Kees Zorge
And I think our fuck up on more times. And then I would like to account for. But then still, that's the truth, that that's being an entrepreneur or being in business or leading a company. And what I also like what you were mentioning about the extreme ownership and accountability. Remember about we were here with Ramona, with Martin, and we had a conversation about accountability going up and down the chain.
Kees Zorge
Could book, by the way, extreme ownership that Ramona approached me. And then he stated like, Kees, it's so cool that you are willing to do the job and take meetings on our behalf and definitely guys we favored is. But if you do the handover, please do the handover correctly or just don't do the meeting. I was like crap.
Kees Zorge
So at some point that's when I like give me the feedback.
Rob Napoli
I think. But that starts with empowerment, right? And I think something that I talk a lot about in different panels and stuff that I do on the side, as having spent years in recruitment is how to attract and retain millennial and Gen Z talent. As we think about those that don't know out there, Amato is on our U.S. commercial sales team as well as the Europe sales team.
Rob Napoli
He actually leads a lot of our commercial clients in the outside, and he looks at the fact that he's willing to step up to you, me, whoever, and talk through those things and share. Hey, totally. I love that you're able to get in the trenches with us, but making sure if you do, just because you're the leader, you don't skip steps because it's that process of we don't hold each other accountable to the process and we just do things and come in and out.
Rob Napoli
We affect the flow of what our teams are able to do to our customers. And it's really important to think about OmniBoost. We're a platform, right? We are a source agnostic platform. We have a million different partners and we help partners connect to other partners so they can, at the end of the day, support hotels and.
Kees Zorge
Restaurants, but not yet a million. We're approaching, but.
Rob Napoli
A we're approaching, so we're helping these different customers delight the end user, which is in the hospitality restaurants. It's hotels, all these things, milestones. And it's really easy for us as the platform in the middle who is helping make sure that all these things get connected to save these teams time and give them creativity back to forget, like what the end result is.
Rob Napoli
So if we make a mistake and we hand it over and then it's not able to get fixed, there's a downhill effect to our partners and then eventually the end user and then eventually the customer who goes to whatever hotel.
Kees Zorge
The company immediately. So that's why I am so, so, so dreadful of leading based on authority or power. And yes, at some points you need to show some authority, but I try to use the word mandate then then the authority for me, authority has a negative ring to it and I totally agree with you. And the end result, what counts is delivering the hospital hospitality or the time or the essence back to the end user.
Kees Zorge
But if we do not take care of things internally, no way. And sorry and freaking hell, we're going to take care of the end result. Let's make our our customers happy.
Rob Napoli
Yeah. And that's I think if we look at today's day and age, when you look at there's a lot of stuff out there and obviously the bigger the company is, things change, right? Culture and service and reporting and leadership changes as you scale.
00:15:27:20 - 00:20:26:01
Kees Zorge
Well, you see me struggling with this now that the company is growing. I also understand that you can't be there day in, day out with a team, but at least be mindful and listen.
Rob Napoli
I think and I remember I've worked in, I've read mail companies do working in large organizations. And I love like where we're at as an organization. And the time that I joined very had a reason and a place. But I remember when I worked in some of the big organizations and so early in my career, whatever a senior VP or managing director came to town, the first thing they would always ask us is that as a sales and recruiting team, hey, we want that.
Rob Napoli
We want to be talking to your clients. We want to be there with you, but we don't want to lead. We want to inject into the conversation. We want you to lead. Yeah. And we kind of come in and be there as a support. And it was amazing because it was what I saw from a leadership perspective that I really admired from this company.
Rob Napoli
And it was my first boss, Kari LaCava, and one of my senior VP's Todd, who would always come in from Columbus. And it was that they wanted to make sure they're always with me in their trenches, asking my thoughts, asking my opinions, asking my feedback, and making sure that they were being present as they were looking at making the larger decisions when they had these global leadership meetings and they were doing the offsite.
Rob Napoli
So when they were going to those, they were taking into account what was happening day in and out, because we were working in a small market of Des Moines and we had markets like New York, Austin, Dallas, Chicago, all these big markets in Florida, whatnot. And we're a little Des Moines, but we were able to grow a huge business and people were like, Why is Des Moines doing X, Y and Z?
Rob Napoli
I think it's because the way our leadership for the Midwest was I with Bob Schwab back, I never forget some the lessons he taught me because he would come in and every time he came in he would work late just to see. He would say, and I would always be like, whatever I have tonight, canceling. Right. And I wanted to be there because I wanted to pick his brain.
Rob Napoli
And his thing was always just, what am I missing? Who are working late? Why are they working late? What are they? What is the output? What is the input, what is the effect on them and how do I give them tools, process things that allow them to still be high performers, but also knowing when they need a break, knowing when to give them time off, knowing when to say, Hey, I recognize you, I appreciate you, let me take you out to dinner.
Rob Napoli
And those are the little things that I think being a servant leader is just knowing that people that you have working for you, they just want to be seen. They want to be heard, they want to be felt appreciated. And that, to me is one of the biggest things I teach to leaders from corporate training to entrepreneurship, is just that your people want to be heard and as they get bigger, it's hard to give them an opportunity to be involved in what they're doing in day out.
Rob Napoli
Ask them, Hey, we want to put this process. Let's test it of this process, what is good and what is bad? What causes extra stress on you? What can we rip away that we don't need? And we don't need process for process, Any process that makes sense.
Kees Zorge
Yeah. So basically to fill minds. So our COO isn’t very happy with rule number three, fight the law. Actually, sometimes I quite like that, but yeah, okay. Definitely I agree with you. But like you said about doing the or working late or whatever, it’s, I won’t call myself a workaholic, but make decent hours. That’s what you get.
Kees Zorge
So whilst operating a company that's operational tooling being utilized in over 70 countries, it's the company I'm the founder, I wanna be there. I don't expect the team to pull in the same amount of hours or anything.
Rob Napoli
Yeah, that's really, really important, right? Is especially as a founder and CEO, right, this company is you're as what is a baby to you, right? Like you've got your two daughters, you have three children, your two daughters and your company in a sense. And it's really easy. And I see this happen a lot in my past where founders and leaders think that every member of your organization needs to work as hard as them, and especially if you're the founder.
Rob Napoli
No can never expect anybody to work as hard.
Kees Zorge
Or.
Rob Napoli
As, you.
Kees Zorge
No definitely not there as one thing, though. If we talk about culture and DNA, it's like the vision. The job is done until the job is done. I think I also made it abundantly clear to the team that blatant ignorance of our customers is a red flag for me. And yeah, that's the time when we're definitely having serious conversations.
Rob Napoli
And I think that that to me is why, why I wanted to record this episode and talk about this that OmniBoost DNA. And I also this was a really important episode for those who are listening to Hospitable and want to be a part of this journey with us is to understand about why we do what we do and this podcast isn't about us.
Rob Napoli
This podcast is about how does this industry as a whole, yeah, become more hospitable. And we as a culture have seen the way travel has changed post-pandemic. There's just a lot more tenacity and everyone's wanting to go out and there's so many things happening that can negatively affect the experience. Yeah, so how do we help positively affect that?
00:20:26:01 - 00:25:50:18
Rob Napoli
And we've had some amazing guests for those that that are listening. You've heard some of the great guests. We've got amazing guests coming on from leaders like Richard Walser, from Music, Jacob Messina. Stay in touch, Gary, on strawberry. We have architects that will be coming on to talk about how to design a space with technology in mind.
Rob Napoli
What is the idea like? Why? Well, I can't wait because we have some I won't say the names yet because I have to get him confirmed on the pod. But I have two really awesome architects that I know personally that I cannot wait to ask. Why do you design things in a way, especially hotels, and what is the feeling you hope to listen and the question I always want to ask them because they're thinking, Design look good, feel good, It's functional space.
Rob Napoli
How do you account for technology? How do you account for wires and cords? And how do you make that so seamless that you don't always know it's there, but it's there to support the staff. The staff can make sure that their guests have the best space.
Kees Zorge
And also it's appropriate analogy what they were doing. I think the best way is for people to be unaware of what OmniBoost does. And actually our biggest compliment is that people are actually totally unaware that we're taking care of interfacing and technology doesn't. That's the point. But we really have done our job really, really, really good.
Rob Napoli
Yeah, absolutely. But from a head of brand perspective, I want people to know what we're doing right as a brand. As a brand, right?
Kees Zorge
I totally agree.
Rob Napoli
But from the day to day, you go to one of the hotels that have OmniBoost and you ask anyone at the front desk, they probably don't know they have OmniBoost, And that's how we want it, right? We want them to.
Kees Zorge
Know that it's a no ego part of things.
Rob Napoli
And that's really important, too. When we talk about servant leadership and extreme ownership, there is a third component, and that's ego.
Kees Zorge
Yep.
Rob Napoli
And it's really easy to, especially as an American and people look at Americans like me, big energy, big ego, being being a Dutch founder. when I did the program, I always joke Now I started like, I know American, I talk big. I am big. Americans like to be large ask me have a little bit inflated ego That's a bit of our culture right is that we want to experience the world.
Rob Napoli
We want to share lens and more. So if you look at LinkedIn today, everyone wants to share successes and everyone looks like everything is great and gravy. But I think part of the extreme ownership is, that's bullshit. You go, Yeah, you want to highlight those, but you also need to make it clear that with all the good comes the bad right?
Rob Napoli
Course, I love this. I had a, a really awesome founder who asked me what I thought enjoyment, the word joy. And I was like, Well, joy is anything that makes you happy. And she said, I'm going to challenge you. On what does Joy mean? Joy is anything that provides you satisfaction because you can't feel joy without pain or loss.
Rob Napoli
You can't feel success without losing. And so joy is anything that provides that makes you harmful, anything that you do. And sometimes that's not doesn't make you feel great, doesn't make you feel tingly. It's that you are going in day in, day out, and you're finding things that make you feel accomplished.
Kees Zorge
Yeah.
Rob Napoli
And that's doing a great job that is doing the things that need to be done, that is knowing, knowing who we are. Those are things that we find joy in.
Kees Zorge
Yeah.
Rob Napoli
And you have to walk that line of how do we share that and share a little bit of ego and let people know what we're doing. But also internally was great. Externally to have an ego with it from a brand perspective, internally, we can't let that get to our heads because we can't. The farther the more we do, the farther we get away from why we started.
Kees Zorge
Out like the chain of thoughts that you're sharing right now. Because obviously ego has a positive way in a negative way. But if ego is determined in the way that you listen to either your employee, your colleague or customer, it will impact on the things that you're hearing because then it's an eye game. And, the approach that we like to undertake is the we approach listen, be actively involved.
And even if we're talking team to team member or one at once, it's never about the and that's what we see with bits. Let's be honest with some counterparts it's all about I, I think we made it well and quite clear that our approach is never about I. It's always about be. And it doesn't mean that we're a leper or doing everything that everybody wants us to do.
Kees Zorge
It's bullshit. We all take care of ourselves simultaneously doing the best job for you. We might. We might actually deliver something else. But you think that you're asking what will deliver the best at the best situation and optimal result for you? Because it's not about I.
Rob Napoli
Yeah, I think that it's really interesting is when you think as a listener to hear this by how we think as the companies that you resonate with the most are those that exude a bit of the the things that make you feel alive, right? When a shoe brand or clothing brand, whether it's the mission or whether it's the way it looks and feel, the way that they present it, and the type of style that you're going for and the way you want to present yourself.
Rob Napoli
And it makes you feel like it's a thing. I'm part of this brand. This brand is a part of me.
00:25:50:18 - 00:31:11:02
Kees Zorge
That's the reason why the word partnership is so much more than just a word. And, well, you've been with me yesterday on on the meetings. How thrilled were we being working together with the customer? And you could feel the energy flowing back and forth?
Rob Napoli
Yeah, it's very different. And I think that, again, when you're in that, coming from a seller or sales mindset, there's always a time when you do have to be and this is where expectations come in. And I always talk about at any time you come into an organization, any time you work with a partner and it should always be a place of we and setting expectations of what you're willing to do or not willing to do.
Rob Napoli
And it's setting expectations about what you can and can't deliver on. When you walk in to a partnership meeting or a sales meeting or any type of meeting with a goal that when we leave this meeting, we're better for it. And I challenge internally all the time, Why are we in these meetings? And the is what I've realized and through conversation with you is if the meeting that I'm walking into that we have the team on, it's there for a reason because we as a group come out whole with action, with inspiration, with a key message, with key learnings or Western direction.
Kees Zorge
So what we always talk about, if we want to do a one off, we would have become cabdrivers or something else, but not not in the vertical that we operate in. Yeah. It's a frikken hospitality.
Rob Napoli
Yeah. And that, that, that has its own uniqueness and I think every industry out there is very similar. And so I challenge everyone out there listening is as we look at these organizations, we have some, we have some, I will say this, we saw the coolest partnerships in the world with the partners.
Kees Zorge
We certainly agree.
Rob Napoli
And so the greatest company is and it's just fun to learn and see where they're winning or when they're losing, whether they're struggling or not and where we can help. And we can't.
Kees Zorge
A perfect example was, for instance, COVID. A couple of our partners were hit quite hard. So you can do one thing, only take care of yourself or take the hit together with a partner. But in the long term you both win. So that's an easy equation, isn't it?
Rob Napoli
It is, but sometimes hard. And I mean self-preservation.
Kees Zorge
Is.
Rob Napoli
When interest.
Kees Zorge
Short term type of reasoning.
Rob Napoli
Yeah, but we're humans, right? So I do think that this is where I think that that mentality and it's something that some people are born with, but I think it's truly learned through experience. All experiences, right? Is as humans, we have a basic need to self preserve, right? That's that is a basic human need. And it's why humans form tribes, right?
Rob Napoli
As we grow from a nomadic people into tribes, into cities, into the culture we have today, it's because we need that security of having a family, having a group, having a tribe. And so sometimes when disaster strikes and trauma hits, it's very hard to.
Kees Zorge
Take care of the tribe.
Rob Napoli
Exact. But it's very basic to to think self preservation first. But when you start thinking tribe first and this is where you actually look at history some of the most innovative products companies and things came after disaster because when the collective whole realizes that things need to change, true innovation happens.
Kees Zorge
Okay.
Rob Napoli
So, so I think that it's an amazing thing that we have to continue to preach and teach because it's really easy, especially in a world where we're remote work from home. And I love remote work and I love companies that operate and their employees out there that do it. But they're also people that when they work remotely, they feel like they're on an island, they feel lonely, and they need that ability to be back into the fold.
Rob Napoli
They need that ability to feel wanted, needed support. And this is where servant leadership, extreme ownership and accountability come in, because you can have employees all over the world doing amazing things together and having never met because they feel that they're heard and seen and supported. Yeah, that's.
Kees Zorge
Amazing. Also, we've got a couple of developers who really like to be on their own and focus on the stuff that they're doing so you don't help them, forcing them to be in the office. Other people's thrive on human interaction, so they want to be in an office that is, you need to take care of the perfect combination for alignment purposes.
Kees Zorge
It does help is you're actually see each other peripherally from my perspective for once a week.
Rob Napoli
Yeah, it does. I mean, being in New York literally and figuratively on an island, right? Sometimes I miss out on just the conversations that that naturally happen. Yeah. While you’re sitting at the desk are walking around and that is definitely something that you have to take into account as a leader and especially think about hospitality space if you have 50 hotels or 25 restaurants and yet all over the country or all over the world and people everywhere, you have to take into account different time zones, things, needs, wants and as leaders, this is why I love this and I think the hospitality industry does this really well, because the nature of the industry
00:31:11:12 - 00:35:14:06
Rob Napoli
is to take care of the guests that we serve, like the communities that we serve, that a lot of hospitality companies are hospitality companies as well due to this. Correct? Is that you have to take into account all those things. And this is where that servant leadership model really takes. And I actually got to interview Howard Behar, who is the president of Starbucks, and he wrote the book more than just a coffee or something like that.
Rob Napoli
Not about the coffee. And he was really big on the early days of Starbucks back in the day when they were kind of the rebels because they let everyone be who they were and they created those environments where you could come in and stay versus the coffee shop of grab a coffee and go, They wanted you to stay.
Rob Napoli
They wanted you to feel all alone. I talked to him about servant leadership. He talked a lot about understanding the basic human principle that everyone is unique and that as an organization it's your job to create processes and procedures and whatnot to make it work in a way and a structure, but then allowing those that may be outside the lines, giving them the guardrails, but giving them the freedom to do that.
Rob Napoli
And I think hospitality does that really well. And a lot of organizations are really starting to open that up. But it is something that when you look at like large corporate to start up and as you grow, there's there's different variations of that.
Kees Zorge
I think you actually need to find a proper cadence to read the proper mix. And it's and ladies and gentlemen, to be honest, Rob, not very long still will be alone years of building the team in the U.S..
Rob Napoli
That is very true. I and this this episode will drop. Well be well on our way to to really know we established the office here. We've got we got a physical space. We've got some really cool partnerships happening here and we'll be well on our way as we head into the end of the year and into next year.
Rob Napoli
So I definitely know that and excited about it, but I think it still holds that. It's amazing lesson as we think about the hospitality space and you think about how you're building teams and how you're scaling out and what you're building that while the product is amazing, right? We have amazing products. We have we have we have partners that have amazing products.
Rob Napoli
The product is amazing thing, but it's more than about the product. It's about the people that you serve and the people who serve you. And having that is a two way street and not a one way street. I think if we can continue to do that and leverage amazing technology that gives time and creativity back to humans, we're going to be well on our way to redefining and seeing an amazing, seamless experience as we continue to travel the world and go on business trips or go out to eat with family where we can focus on the moment.
Kees Zorge
Be in the moments.
Rob Napoli
And not on all the other things. Yeah.
Kees Zorge
I agree and I totally agree. Also, some of what you stated about the partnerships and the customers that we serve, you actually see the partnerships it really is five is because of the human interaction and the willingness to serve towards each other. I totally relate and agree with that.
Rob Napoli
Yeah, So I think that that is something that as we continue to evolve the podcast, evolve our company, evolve partnerships around the world that I'm continuing excited to, to lead by example. Yeah. And as you continue to follow OmniBoost’s journey that you understand that we are growing company, we aren't perfect and we will continue to by no means solve and creates and grow and reiterates.
Rob Napoli
And there's a lot of things internally that that the world doesn't know that we talk about, that we know that we want to focus on and things that we want to change and ways that we want to add more impactful ideas, more impactful initiatives, more impactful missions into the company. And that is something that I'm excited as a leadership team.
Rob Napoli
We get to be a part of the initiatives.
Kees Zorge
So we still need to take care of the Who Do you think.
Rob Napoli
We we do.
Kees Zorge
Need to continue to take care of duties. And yeah.
Rob Napoli
So there's a we have a tradition at OmniBoost that was started almost right after COVID, right when you first came back to New York City.
Kees Zorge
Even before?
Rob Napoli
Well, it wasn't before.
00:35:14:06 - 00:40:24:14
Kees Zorge
I was with friends in New York City. And then I saw a homeless person sitting out in the rain. Oh, I gave him a hoodie. And truthfully, at that time, things weren't going so well. So from a business perspective and yeah, it might have become a bit of a superstition. So it started out as a superstition, but things started to change from that moment on.
Kees Zorge
And then still, every time when I'm in New York City, I give the old hoodie to a homeless person that I bought on the previous trip. But after having read the book Book of Ideals, Morningstar is, I believe he actually was talking about, okay, why not seize the moments and just jump into action, go jump into gear? And he started a project to give me five project, and that resonated immediately with me.
Kees Zorge
So what we spoke about, I really want to we need to do something and give something back.
Rob Napoli
Yeah, and that's something that we're internally building and working on. It's super cool and you know, you can look at it one of two ways. It's just one hoodie to one person. It doesn't make a big impact for one person. It does, right? And it's the small and I think it's really three way.
Kees Zorge
Or.
Rob Napoli
Well, I think that it's.
Kees Zorge
Time.
Rob Napoli
Away or so. All the first time I got invited out to dinner when I was being on board with the strategic advisor, we have that interesting was there is like ten people from OmniBoost all here on a trip visiting New York City, doing some really cool things. We invited some other groups around that were part of this program and the Catalyst program and we went out to Koreatown and went to Korean barbecue.
Rob Napoli
Amazing experience. Most of them had never had it before, where they cook up the meat at the table. It's such a such a nice. And they were like, Well, Rob, you've been here before. Why don't you lay in inside? Shocking to the waiter with Mikey and we we're going back and forth like okay this is for five people so bump but we got okay we got a couple of big eaters at the table was next extra and we were there for a while.
Rob Napoli
Drinks are flowing, beers flowing, food's fine and they just bring out like fireworks.
Kees Zorge
Hey.
Rob Napoli
They brought out like five more trays of food and all of us looked down the table and everyone looked at me and I just, like, ran. And it's like I look, I was like, Is that for us? And they're like, Yeah. I was like, Is there any way we can send that back? And like, now we already pull it out.
Rob Napoli
Like it has to get cooked. And we all were like, Oh, so all of us walked out of there.
Kees Zorge
Well, what did you do?
Rob Napoli
Yeah, So what we did is we took all the food and, and so I asked if anyone wanted to take it back, like all the other towns. Okay, well, when I go, drop it off. So on the way back, as I was walking back to the subway, dropped off food to homeless people and was able to get rid of all the food.
Rob Napoli
By the time I got back to Brooklyn, I think I dropped off about six or seven people, six, seven different groups of people where they got to have some Korean barbecue and just more more of the fact that it was going to go to waste. So I might as well give it to somebody who needed it. And as those and it's the little things.
Rob Napoli
It's the little things. I think it's really easy to look at a problem and say, how do we fix it at a at a whole level? And that becomes daunting. And if more and more folks take.
Kees Zorge
Risks, most not so much about, hey, look how great we are. But it's it's the way how you approach things. We could also have easily stayed at the higher you throw it away or take it back, but you were considering other people. And I think that's the core or the key of the story is also what we like to see back within our company.
Kees Zorge
And that reflects back to it's not about I.
Rob Napoli
Yeah it's it's a collective all that we as humans need each other. We crave each other for great experiences, we crave acceptance and, and different things. And everyone's got a unique journey. Everyone walks their own journey, right? No, no One person's story is somebody, no one else's, because they are everyone walks their own shoes, right? So it's that uniqueness.
Kees Zorge
And that's also why it's so, so dangerous to immediately judge. You never know the background story.
Rob Napoli
Exactly. And I think it's a lesson. And as we look at it, coming from a hospitality lens and us being in the hospitality space, it's just.
Kees Zorge
A witness fatality.
Rob Napoli
I think we're we're house high tech. I think we're hospitality adjacent. And I like to think that we are in a space where we can create and make experiences more enjoyable, maybe not directly, but indirectly through the partners that we serve, that those that are.
Kees Zorge
I'm sure we do. I'm actually convinced we do.
Rob Napoli
I am. I am, too. And I think that that's just part of when you create a culture and you create a team and you create an environment, you want to make sure that you highlight those things as you're building it and taking into account what people care about and allowing people in your organization to lead initiatives are to bring ideas to the table.
00:40:24:18 - 00:43:38:18
Rob Napoli
Let them give them the space and the place to put the initiative in action and then try it out. Some things work, some things don't. And so when you allow that collective willingness to do really cool things and creativity, that's what breeds more creativity and more ideas and more success. And that's done within the framework of why you're here to serve.
Rob Napoli
It changes the game and what you're able to accomplish. And so that's something I think is really cool. And I want to leave this so in the podcast to challenge organizations out there to continue to make impact, thinking about how you can make an impact for those that work for you internally and what impact can you give them and opportunities, but also the communities that you serve, not just your customers, because your customers are involved in a community How do you continue to give back to that community?
Rob Napoli
How do you continue to serve that community? And how do we as humans just create more opportunities to be creative and create experiences together? And that's something that that's the idea of this podcast. You wanted to talk about a little bit of the DNA in that the value of OmniBoost as you follow along this podcast and along our journey, but also the journey of all the partners and cool people that would be on this show is that you understand a little bit where coming from and why we do things like this podcast and opening up these opportunities, opening these conversations and making sure that we hold ourselves accountable to the things that we
Rob Napoli
say and do internally and externally.
Kees Zorge
Certainly in our role, we need to hold each other accountable and do the proper reflection on ourselves as well. And once again, I also very much agree with you as putting the challenge out there and. It's not about us being saints.
Rob Napoli
Far.
Kees Zorge
We're nuts. No way. And frickin da da that. But you need to give it to good efforts. Be there for your people. Yeah. And with your people. Exactly. Your customers.
Rob Napoli
Exactly. And that's what makes a huge difference. So thank you for tuning in to another episode of Hospitable. You can find us at www.OmniBoost.com. You can get a touch with Kees on LinkedIn. He is very, very active and engaged and he's always down for a conversation. I'll make sure to link his LinkedIn in the show notes.
Rob Napoli
I'm Rob Napoli. I'm the head of Global brand and commercial. Those partnerships lead here for the company in the States. My LinkedIn links are below and I want to also just give a quick shout out to the Belgium Echo Chamber of Commerce for letting us, for letting us be here and utilize their space, even with people walking around in the space.
Rob Napoli
I know you can't see it because we're against the wall, but there's people walking by and letting us record this as they're trying to go out there Friday afternoon. So I appreciate them for that is exactly. It's about letting us be a part of it. So thank you for tuning in. And if you like this show, become a tier one is subscribe.
Rob Napoli
Follow us to all the things on wherever you get your podcast. Make sure to write us a review if you want to hook us up. If you have people you think would be a great guest on this show. If you have ideas, topics you want us to cover, let us know because we'll be back doing some more behind the scenes episodes.
Rob Napoli
The podcast continues to grow, so definitely let us know what you want to see. Thanks as always. Thanks for letting me pull you away from doing a million other things. Just sit down and have a conversation on camera.
Kees Zorge
Thanks for the conversation
Rob Napoli
Rob Awesome. Thank you. Everybody out there. Until next time, stay well.