Travel and tourism industry

Rick Steves developed a deep love for travel when he was a teenager and soon realized that he could fashion a career out of teaching others how to plan...

In 1999, Mei Zhang quit her lucrative consulting job to launch WildChina, a small travel company in her native China. Nearly four years later, the SARS...

Who knew they care so much about breakfast?

The six-month experiment reversed managers' opinions on hybrid work - and offers three important lessons.

Mario Batali wanted to grow up to be a banker in Spain. While studying business management and Spanish theater in college, he worked at a New Jersey restaurant called Stuff Yer Face and “fell addicted to the adrenal rush that happens during a dinner service.” He went on to become one of America’s most successful […]

The U.S. may be the world’s leading innovator, but it won’t be for long if investors, regulators, and the legal establishment continue to penalize companies for risk taking, says Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness. Recently, the council’s National Innovation Initiative, a leadership network of CEOs and university presidents, released a report in […]

The average worker takes 1.5 “bleisure” trips a year.

It seems to be a natural law that strength creates vulnerability. When an asteroid smacked the earth 65 million years ago, it was little rodents, not T. rex, that survived; and certainly the notion is woven through the events of September 11. Today, everyone knows that social capital—the relationships that bind communities—makes organizations strong. Well, […]

When a top management team gets argumentative or political, it is tempting for the CEO or other executives to cut off debate by simply making the decision. Sometimes, stopping the discussion short is necessary. But when the source of the conflict is mistrust among group members, a unilateral decision can be a costly mistake. We […]

A concise guide.

Travel companies will see the biggest changes.

It’s all about process.

To get at the roots of profit-destroying complexity, companies need to identify their innovation fulcrum, the point at which the level of product innovation maximizes both revenues and profits.

Answering customers’ calls in 42 languages, usually 24 hours a day, creates logistical and talent management challenges. But The Priceline Group’s Booking.com brand finds that the payoff is worth it.

Companies aggressively offer discounts, introductory coupons, and other incentives to lure new customers—and, often, those prospects oblige by making an initial purchase. But my research in the financial services, fast food, and automotive sales and service industries shows how these tactics can backfire. In one study, involving 300 new customers of a bank, 71% of […]

When I and three friends open-ed the first Outback Steakhouse in March 1988, in Tampa, Florida, we hoped it would be successful enough to spawn a few more nearby, and perhaps some other kinds of restaurants as well. Since then, our chain of Australia-themed restaurants has grown—to some 900 locations and counting—and we’ve invested in […]

Lessons from a luxury hotel chain.

Getting the right people on board—and then all enthusiastically pulling in the right direction—has bedeviled organizations since the time of wooden ships, when the most popular form of motivation left lash marks. Today’s corporate helmsmen may be more enlightened, but they still face the same challenge. How can a company transform its frontline crew into […]

Getting customers to make impulse purchases at the checkout counter has always been more of an art than a science. Now, though, the fast-food industry is combining psychology and computer technology to increase impulse buying. This new sales strategy exploits what we call the “spare-change effect”—people’s willingness to buy with change goods that they wouldn’t […]

Lilypad Hotels and Resorts may rebrand its boutique properties under the corporate name. Will customers and hotel managers buy in—or simply check out?