In an age when “innovation” often evokes algorithms, automation, or AI-generated experiences, it’s time to reframe the conversation, especially in the hospitality sector.
True disruption doesn’t always start with robots. Sometimes, it begins with a meeting room, a new leadership mindset, and a better way of working with people.
In fact, innovation in hospitality must begin with those who lead it. That’s why schools such as Glion create new programs such as the Executive Master of Advanced Studies in Hospitality and Business Leadership, challenging experienced professionals to rethink not just business models, but management styles.
Because at its heart, hospitality is a people business. And innovation without humanity is just noise.
Why Leadership Styles Matter More than Ever
Yes, AI is transforming guest journeys. Yes, blockchain might shape the future of transactions. But in an industry built on human interaction, the most powerful innovations often arise not from technology, but from a fresh way of leading teams.
Today’s hospitality workforce is changing. New generations are less willing to tolerate outdated hierarchies, rigid hours, or top-down leadership. They want purpose, autonomy, and creativity. To attract and retain talent, hospitality leaders must innovate their internal cultures as boldly as they innovate their brands.
This means embracing a more creative form of leadership: one that listens, experiments, and cultivates psychological safety. It means fostering team cultures where ideas can emerge from all levels, and where failure is part of the process, not a taboo. In my interactions with executive leaders, when we explore creativity in leadership, we begin by taking a creativity test. The results are often surprising: even senior professionals realize how their thinking has become conditioned. That awareness is the first step to change.
The Challenge of Unlearning
For many seasoned professionals in the hospitality sector, the most significant shift today is not about acquiring new skills, it’s about unlearning long-established habits.
Years of operational efficiency and managerial control can sometimes hinder adaptability. Yet leading through disruption requires a new mental posture: the courage to rethink assumptions, question routines, and stay open to unfamiliar perspectives.
This shift often begins when leaders allow themselves to become learners again: curious, receptive, and experimental. Whether it’s redesigning team dynamics, prototyping a new service flow, or reimagining leadership in a hybrid world, the challenge is not simply to adapt to change, but to actively shape it. The capacity to “unlearn” may well be the most important skill for the decade ahead.
Reading the Market: Innovation Through Observation
In recent years, we’ve seen legacy hospitality brands absorbed into vast global portfolios, a trend that raises critical questions about identity, uniqueness, and the cost of scale. Some brands manage to grow while retaining their soul. Others, despite their expansion, lose the very essence that made them desirable in the first place.
At the same time, digital-native businesses and asset-light models are rewriting industry rules. Platform-based thinking, experience-focused propositions, and agile decision-making are allowing smaller players to disrupt traditional hierarchies. These challengers often succeed not through resources, but through clarity of purpose and a deep understanding of evolving customer needs.
A useful lens for examining this shift is the Jobs-to-be-Done framework. It reframes the hospitality offering by asking: what problem is a guest really trying to solve when they book a stay? Whether it’s escape, connection, comfort, or self-reflection, understanding the emotional drivers behind consumer choices allows organizations to innovate with greater focus and meaning.
Technology as an Enabler, Not the End Goal
As the hospitality industry embraces a wave of emerging technologies – from generative AI to immersive experiences and robotics – the temptation is to view digital tools as the primary drivers of innovation. But this is a short-sighted view.
Technology should serve as an enabler, not the destination. It can streamline processes, personalize services, and unlock valuable data insights – but it cannot replicate the nuances of human connection. Automation might accelerate check-ins, but it won’t replace the empathy in a front desk conversation. Chatbots can respond to queries, but they cannot interpret uncertainty or build trust.
The real challenge for leaders is not merely choosing the right technology, but cultivating the right environment for it to thrive. That means making thoughtful decisions about where and how tech is implemented, ensuring it enhances – not diminishes – the human dimension of hospitality. Ultimately, it’s about creating organizations where creativity is supported, human skills are valued, and innovation serves both guests and teams alike.
What Comes Next
By the end of Glion’s new Executive Master of Advanced Studies in Hospitality and Business Leadership, participants leave not only with knowledge but with a new perspective. They’ve reconnected with what it means to lead in hospitality: not as controllers of processes, but as curators of culture and catalysts of innovation.
As we look ahead, the hospitality industry will continue to face labor shortages, climate imperatives, and shifting guest expectations. But our most powerful asset remains unchanged: people. And it is through new models of working, thinking, and leading that we will unlock the full potential of innovation.
Because in hospitality, the future isn’t just built by machines. It’s co-created by humans, for humans.
