Hospitality Mavericks Podcast Show

Peter Georgiou is the Founder and CEO of Supper, a platform which delivers exceptional food in London, from quality casual to Michelin starred, straight to your home or office by their custom-built fleet. They are now known as the luxury delivery company of choice for London’s finest restaurants and retailers. The idea started with a poor restaurant delivery experience one night with a friend, and...

With over 30 years of innovating and leading, Mats Lederhausen has a strong belief and commitment to a more long term and more impactful capitalism. Born in Sweden, Mats began his career with McDonald's and worked for The Boston Consulting Group. Now based in the US, he is now the CEO and Founder of Be-Cause, a platform for investing and building businesses with a purpose bigger than their product...

Paul Hargreaves is the CEO at Cotswold Fayre and Flourish, and author of two inspirational books – ‘Forces for Good’ and ‘The Fourth Bottom Line’. As a B Corp Ambassador, he often speaks to leaders who want to change the world through better business. It was powerful to learn more about his personal and professional journey that’s taken him to where he is today.  Paul joins me today to share...

What does winning look like for you this year? Today’s guest, Matt Rolfe, invites you to reflect on how you can work on yourself before you work on your team. Through his leadership coaching, Matt helps hospitality leaders and leadership teams achieve the results they want and deserve. His latest book, ‘ You Can't Do It Alone: Focusing on People to Scale, Develop, and Lead Your Restaurant ’, is a...

Creating a green and equal world needs to be a mission for all companies, not a side project. But it’s a courageous mission that can feel overwhelming, so there is a great book that can give you that much-needed direction –‘ Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take’ by Andrew S. Winston (Consultant on corporate strategy) and Paul Polman (ex-Unilever CEO). The aut...

Our guest today shares how hospitality is at the foundation of many great businesses. James Geier is the Founder and President of 555 International, an interior design and specialty manufacturing firm. With over 40 years in launching and running businesses, it was never his original intention to even own his own business, so it was refreshing to learn more about his mentoring approach to leadershi...

I’m super excited to speak with Thom Elliot co-founder of Pizza Pilgrims, who makes authentic Neapolitan pizzas in Central London and beyond. Pizza Pilgrims started life in 2011, after Thom and James drove a three-wheeled Piaggio Ape back from Italy on a 6 week ‘Pizza Pilgrimage’ of discovery to learn everything there is to know about pizza. I love their latest venture, the Pizza Academy, which is...

Roland Horne’s approach to the pursuit of mastery is fascinating. He entered hospitality because he was a disgruntled customer. Fast forward to today, he is the founder and CEO of the Central London specialty coffee chain WatchHouse. From day one it has been the company’s vision to grow and offer great coffee to great communities.  This was a truly remarkable conversation where we find out ho...

Mark Cribb is the host of Humans of Hospitality podcast and Director of Urban Guild – a local, independent hospitality company based in his hometown Bournemouth, UK. From his travels on the road, it’s been his mission to bring an inspired, energetic, creative environment to his hometown where the wonders of people and the world could be embraced and shared every day.  17 years on, Urban Guild...

What makes a place ‘special’ to work at? I’m excited to share with you a conversation I had with an expert in this field. David Dressler is a leadership coach, strategic advisor to purpose-driven entrepreneurs, author of ‘Ten Year Plan’ and one of the co-founders of Tender Greens – a successful and purpose-driven restaurant chain in the USA.  In this candid interview, David shares how to form...

How can you involve your people in building a better culture? Find out from Mel Miller, Director of Marketing & Business Development at Pathfinder Hospitality, about how they do this by operating as a people-first company. The organisation develops hotels and also manages hotels for third-party investors by leveraging its talented workforce, relationships with major hotel brands, and buying po...

Today’s guest is obsessed with solving business problems and helping organizational leaders rethink the connection between employee and customer experiences. He is the co-founder and COO of Nudge, an employee communications platform. Their recent report, The Deskless Report 2021, gives some fascinating insights into the state of the ‘deskless workforce’, which we uncover in this episode. Jordan al...

Hawksmoor is a British steakhouse and cocktail bar chain founded by Will Beckett and Huw Gott in 2006, after they set out in search of the perfect steak. Fast forward to today, they run nine steakhouses based in London, with a recent new opening in New York City. Will joins the show to share how they have built a business that they are proud of.   This is a truly enlightening conversatio...

I love speaking with guests who find different ways of building a business, and today’s guest is no exception. Carly Trisk-Grove is the Co-creator of OPOP (One Plate One Price), a social enterprise restaurant that offers a new model for casual dining. Carly is on a mission to find out how restaurants can be run for the benefit of the community they serve.  Carly shares how restaurants can be...

Today’s guests – with no prior experience in hospitality – have excelled in their food business. Born and brought up in rural Tibet, Yeshi Jampa learned to cook nomadic food outdoors at a young age. He found his way to Oxford via India, picking up exciting new flavours along the way. They cook the finest, freshest, most authentic Tibetan food this side of the Himalayas. After first being a ma...

“We don't need to be as busy as we need to be” – Anese Cavanaugh makes a great point in this episode to be conscious of where we spend our time and energy. Anese is the CEO of Active Choices, Inc., and author of several highly impactful books, which we explore more about on the show. Anese is also the creator of the IEP Method® (Intentional Energetic Presence®) and the Positive Energy Workplace™ I...

Calling in from India, Ashish Tulsian is the co-founder and CEO of POSist – the first company to provide a complete online POS solution for restaurants. Ashish kickstarted his entrepreneurial journey in 2007 by founding a telecom company right out of college. POSist came up when Ashish and co-founder Sakshi Tulsian started hunting for a software solution to automate their own restaurant but ended...

It’s time to build some robust changes. Today’s guest, Samantha Clarke, is on a mission to create the next generation of change-makers, carving out a happier way of working with more purpose, meaning and intention. Having been a previous guest on the show, it was fascinating to reflect on changes since our pre-pandemic conversation. Samantha runs workshops, talks, coaches, and is the CEO and Autho...

In this conversation, we get some great insights and advice on digital transformation from Nick Popovici the CEO and Co-Founder of Vita Mojo, In this conversation, Nick and Michael discuss the massive opportunity for operators to utilise data and implement digital tools to optimise performance across the business. The level adaption of digital tools in the industry  The power of data Who is l...

What’s it like to run a business with your closest family members? Brooks Kirchheimer, Co-Owner at Hearth and Hill, shares their approach to growing the business and building a unique culture that people want to support and join. Located in Park City, Utah, the independent restaurant has a revived take on contemporary American cuisine that's locally driven.  Before opening his own restaurant...

Brindisa has been the home of Spanish food in the UK for over 30 years. It was set up by Monika Linton in the 1980s to share her love for quality Spanish produce to the UK, and her aim has always been to bring excellent food and ingredients from the most remote parts of Spain to Britain and to champion selected smaller producers and their skills. It was amazing to learn how she structures her busi...

Dino Joannides is a Senior Executive with over 25 years of experience in sales, marketing and general management. He has developed skills in creating a number of high performance teams as well as key relationships with customers, partners and distributors. Currently, he is the Advisor and Senior Executive at Bizimply and rezexe. In this fascinating discussion, we explore the new culture of booking...

Tim Vasilakis, Founder and CEO of The Athenian street food brand, explains how he pivoted his business into a dark kitchen. Through their award-winning gyros, The Athenian has grown from a humble market stall to a small network of locations, earning the title ‘Deliveroo Restaurant of the Year 2020’.  In this episode, we discuss reconsidering the positioning of your business, the rise of dark...

As many of you know, ‘Good To Great’ by Jim Collins has had a huge impact on me and how I operate my business, so I couldn’t wait to have the ‘Good to Great’ Sherpa Dave Oakley on the show today. Dave helps leaders create breakthrough performance and cultures with his approach called LeadDifferent, and he is the CEO at DOC Inc. If you find your copy of ‘Good To Great’ is gathering dust on the shel...

In this conversation, the insights of Joel Robinson, Digital & Technology Director at Azzurri Group which operates the Zizzi, Ask Italian & Coco di Mama brands, will make you reflect on and revisit your digital transformation journey.  In this conversation, Joel and Michael dive into the definition of what digital transformation means and touch on these topics and their impact on busi...