As CEO of Radisson, you effectively have two core responsibilities. The first operates at headquarters level: defining the strategic roadmap and setting the growth agenda. The second is equally critical and far more operational: engaging directly with our 1,500 hotels worldwide, with regional teams and local leadership. This means visiting properties, meeting owners, and maintaining constant dialogue. That human connection, and the ability to influence teams across markets and operating environments, is one of the most rewarding aspects of this role.
You may visit a fully operational hotel, a property under renovation, a project still on the drawing board, or meet an owner to sign a new agreement. This diversity of stakeholders, geographies and project stages is part of the richness of our industry. Hospitality operates by example. I often say that the best way to assess a General Manager is to observe how people behave in the hotel. If the GM knows how to make a reservation, the team understands that this is part of the role. If not, they draw the opposite conclusion.
In a business with multiple hotels across countries and continents, and varying levels of organisational maturity, it is almost impossible to conceal poor practices. Everything you do sets a visible standard. You cannot behave one way and ask the organisation to act differently in front of guests. Hospitality is, by nature, a highly transparent industry when it comes to leadership, behaviour and influence.
We began this journey in 2017, when the group was still operating under the Rezidor and Carlson banners. At that time, our ambition was not defined by a specific room count, but by aspiration: to be top of mind for consumers, for people who want to work in hospitality, and for hotel owners. I believe we are delivering strongly against that ambition…
