What I've Learned Building A Career in Hospitality Leadership - Gilda Perez-Alvarado, Accor

Josiah: I'd like to talk a little bit about real estate because I feel many participants in the hospitality industry actually don't know that much about real estate, and I want people to understand the built environment and the role of it in providing hospitality. It's a big economic driver, it influences a lot. You built this career in real estate on so many different levels up to leading JLL as Global CEO. My question for you is what would you like industry participants to know about real estate or the built environment if they maybe have had no exposure to it? Why does some knowledge of real estate matter as a hospitality provider?

Gilda: Well, without real estate, it doesn't work. There are so many stakeholders, just to take a step back, there's so many stakeholders, all critical, none more important than the other, by the way, in hospitality. So there's obviously your employees, your guests, the owner of the building, the management of the hotel, but really super important, the community where you operate, right? So, you have to have an understanding of real estate because, again, this is where you're going to be planting your flag. You cannot move your location. Okay? The best hotels are curated for every single guest. By the way, that doesn't mean just the guest who is paying for the hotel room for that one evening or whatever the length of stay is, but also the community. Are they going to go, and are they going to become patrons of your hotel?
Are they going to dine in the hotel? Are they going to use it maybe for a meeting? Maybe they want to stay there, maybe they want to celebrate something there. So you have to know about real estate to know where to open. By the way, real estate is extremely important. About 40% of all carbon emissions come from the built environment, so you have to be sensitive to that. Honestly, there are so many applications. The community bit for me is something I feel very passionate about. A proper building or a proper collection of buildings can make or break a neighborhood. Okay? It can. So there are so many city centers that are dilapidated right now and it's very sad. It has a massive economic implication to the people who live there or work there or commute to that city center. The best development that I've seen right now, so world-class, we're working on at JLL, and here at Accor, we're working on several projects in the Middle East, but you take what's going on in Saudi Arabia at the moment, we're just experiencing a very big development boom.
Of course, it's not just putting buildings one right next to each other and saying, you know what? That's the community. It's place-making. So, you also need to take that into consideration when you're working with real estate. What are the uses around it? How are you going to curate the best community for it? If it's not attractive, people are not going to come into your building or your hotel, no matter how nice the room is, right? So there are so many moving pieces, and just from an investment perspective, we have to be mindful of the owner of the building, the investor who is giving us the keys to operate or manage their hotel. It's an investment at the end of the day. So we got to generate a very appropriate return that will help it get financed, that will dictate what the value is, so on and so forth.
So, I don't know. The reason why I got into it is because one, I loved hospitality, but I wanted something a little bit more scientific, something a little bit more tangential, and I thought real estate, is it the reality? And you've probably heard the story before. I discovered real estate because of an amazing professor at Cornell, and ever since then I've loved it. So if I could explain with words what I feel towards it, we'd been talking forever. But it is a great manifestation of place-making. That's what it is.

Josiah:
It's interesting to watch some of these new developments, whether it's Saudi developments or in other parts of the world. I'm in San Francisco. You recently moved to Paris. I'm curious, since moving to France, Paris and France in general is really interesting to me because you have all this history and have you observed anything about place making or about development or redevelopment within this context? Because I think a lot of our listeners are going to be in cities where you don't have all this real estate for brand new development. Have you seen anything in Paris that has stood out to you recently, as they've done a really good job with place-making?

Gilda:
No, listen, I think what stands out mostly for me in Paris is every time I look up and I look at a gorgeous building that is centuries old, I always say to myself, "My God, they're never going to build it like this again." And so that's where that sense of respect and knowing the history and me just thinking, my God, what this building saw or what happened here, that, I think, it's actually quite magical. So I would say it's just, it's the history of it and the fact that it's a very modern city with a beautiful legacy. But you take the other extreme, like what we were talking about, Saudi Arabia, where we're starting from scratch, right? So how do you develop an interesting place where people want to work, live, play at the same time? Because what we're all focused on right now, the concept of that 15 minute city as well, that is interesting. Sustainability.

Josiah:
Can you tell us a little bit more about the 15-minute City concept, for those who haven't heard it?

Gilda:
It's quite interesting. Basically, it's designed, it's giving you the livability factor, right? You need everything basically to be within 15 minutes of where you live. Right? And what it does, I think, is actually quite interesting. It makes a very big place just feel smaller, feel like a village, right? And it allows you to build that sense of community as well. So, there's way more to that. But again, it all goes back to the same thing of place making. You want to go to a neighborhood, 'cos you want to go explore it, you want to live it, you want to taste it, you want to know what happened there, you want to be a part of it. So, again, there's pros and cons of an amazing, gorgeous, incredible city that is Paris with all its history, and by the way, all the efforts that it's doing to make it more livable, to make it more sustainable, et cetera.
And then starting from scratch. And so San Francisco, I think that is San Francisco itself presents now one of our biggest and best challenges to date. How do we take such an important city, historical city, how do we make it sustainable for the next 100 years plus, right? How do we make it livable? How do we make it safe? How do we continue to enhance its beauty? It's got its history. How do we combine that with its future history as well? There's so much to do. And, just from a real estate perspective, it's a very valuable market. There's a lot of wealth in that market that needs to be preserved, and obviously it needs to be grown as well. So all of these factors are very important. And for a city to work or for a place to work, there needs to be a very good balance between the public and the private sector. They need to collaborate both sides. I think that maybe that's where a little bit of the disconnect is right now with many of the world cities.

Josiah:
I'm very excited to see the role of hospitality and what that can provide. In preparing for this interview, I spoke with some people that know you and your work and what stood out was this notion of being a global citizen. They said that you embody this, you talk about it. I'm curious to you from what we've talked about, place making, that local community is very important to you, but you also think on a global level. So what is being a global citizen in your view?

Gilda:
My gosh, listen, I think it's just this relentless quest to learn and grow. That's it. And to do it by meeting people. Right? So the beauty of travel is that we said at the beginning, the first eight weeks that I've been here at Accor, I've been learning, I've been listening, I've been watching. I'm getting the context so that I can understand why the organization behaves the way it does, right? When you travel to a new country, or a new city, or a new neighborhood, you have to do the same thing. You have to have that cultural context. And what I think is so great about it is that we get to understand each other. So I've grown up in many different places. My family is also from everywhere, by the way, at all levels is actually quite nice. And where you surround yourself with people who are very different from you, the first thing that you try to do is you establish what you have in common.
That's the basis of a relationship. So, when you're only with people who think and look like you, the first thing you think about is what differentiates you, why you're different. That's almost like, I don't know, in Spanish we say [foreign language 00:10:04]. It's like what drives you apart? When you're traveling, when you're meeting people from all corners of earth, many different backgrounds? Again, you learn, you have that ability to establish a connection very quickly.
So, I love that. I like to be put in many different settings and backgrounds and navigating it. I completely kick out about it. I like to learn about their food, family, what drives them, their history. Again, getting the context. Maybe it's a little bit childish, but it's like when somebody's reading you a story, when you're a kid and you're thinking about it, you're learning it, you're absorbing it. That's that pleasure that I get by traveling. It's great. And you know what? You go to any city, for the most part, in terms of where I have to travel for work and for fun? I always have somebody I can call and that is great.

Josiah:
So in hearing you talk across multiple domains from real estate to global strategy to being a CEO to taking time to invest your relationships. I don't know how you do it all. I feel like you have this insane work ethic. How do you think about time management now? Because I feel like you cover so much on a global basis. How are you currently thinking about that?

Gilda:
That is the number one requirement of what I'm doing right now. It's about filtering through the noise and all of this information. And by the way, it's not unique to me. It's shared across the world and focusing on what's important. And to be honestly, my most important aspect in life is my family. That's it. Number one priority. Then the rest of it, I think my brother gave me, we were talking about work-life balance, this was years ago, and he said, "If there's no work-life balance, forget about that. It's just one blend. Some days, some weeks you're going to work so much. The other ones maybe you're going to have a little bit more personal time, non-work time, but it's just a blend." And I've been super fortunate that I get to do what I love.
So for me, it will sound negative. It's like I'm playing all day. Right? I am discovering, I'm learning. Of course there's challenges. There will always be corporate emergencies that one has to deal with, fires to put out, et cetera, but it's part of the fun, right? That's part of the learning. That's part of the doing. And I had been part of an amazing legacy at JLL, and so when I left JLL, I felt like I contributed what I could have contributed. I gave it my 1000%, I gave it my all, and I left in peace feeling very happy and leaving my friends behind. But they're friends outside of work. So this was great.
And when I joined up where I wanted to be part of this legacy. I want to be part of the team that is writing the next chapter, that is thinking about what the future of hospitality should be like. I love people. I love speaking to everybody. I like learning from them. And so in terms of time management, it's not an issue. I love what I do. It's fun. I wish I had nine more lives and I wish I had 50 extra hours in the day.

Josiah:
Well, you're doing a lot with what you have and maybe staying on this theme of family a little bit, you talk about that being your number one priority. You've spoken before about how becoming a parent has been your proudest achievement among all the things that you've done in your life. I'm curious, how has becoming a parent changed the way that you look at the world?

Gilda:
Oh, it went from this to this. Before it was, maybe selfish is not the right word, but it was very me. How am I performing? It's all about you. When you're a parent, it's all about somebody else. So in this case, it's all about my daughter. She's my muse and she drives me, she inspires me. I want to be my best version. And even when we all have ups and downs and maybe times when you're like, "Yeah, I am not sure how I feel about this, or am I going to perform to the best of my abilities, where this is something very new." Before it was more that inner coach is like, yes, you can do it, you prepared, et cetera. Now it's more you got to do it for her. You got to make her proud. So I always think about this.
I want her to be proud of her mother. So that's my drive. I guess that goes back to me. So maybe that was a bit of a selfish answer, but from a sustainability perspective, by the way, it does make sense. It does make a lot of sense and changes the perspective. It's not about me wanting to live a very nice life. I had an amazing childhood. I'm having an amazing adulthood, but it's more about the next gen. So I want to make sure that when Hildita grows up, my daughter's name's Hildita, when she grows up, she has the same opportunities that I had. She gets to live in the same if not better environment than I did. And the same, by the way, for my nieces, nephews, and the rest of the children in the world. It's not fair.
And one of the things that I think we do wrong sometimes as corporations, for leaders, we're talking about the future and next gen and what we need to do down the road, 2030, 2050, et cetera. It's too late if we think about what we need to do then, by the way, and you're placing all the responsibility and burden on the next generation. Next gen is this gen. 2050 is now. 2030 is now. So, when you're a parent, I think you feel that burden much more on your shoulders as opposed to saying, you know what? It's for the next person to figure out.

Josiah:
I appreciate you sharing that. And I'm trying to think how to phrase this as a follow-up question because the number one theme of questions that I got from the Hospitality Daily community was how can female leaders build their career in hospitality? I'm hearing what you're saying and not seeing, it's just the next generation, it's now. So I guess maybe for female leaders who are looking to build their careers and maybe are a little newer on that journey, but again, to your point, here and now, what would be your advice for building their career if they want leadership and hospitality?

Gilda:
Listen, this is a very welcoming industry. There's so many women. It's an industry of care, right? The art of hospitality is the art of welcoming. And I think a lot of time we think about just service and it's not, it's welcoming. When you welcome somebody at home, your home or they will tell you that is what hospitality is. I think for women, this is an amazing organization. It's about people. It's caring. There's an art and a science. But by the way, just with any job, it's very hard when you're a mom. It's very hard when you're a woman. So you got to make sure that whatever field you go into it eyes wide open. And I know women work exceptionally hard, but it is not easy to balance. Going back to this work-life balance, this blend, it's a lot of responsibility in your shoulders. I think for me, my aha moment happened when I became a mom.
I was 39 and I got to experience the greatest power that we have as women, which is the ability to bring a life to this world. And I had never realized how strong I was, physically, emotionally, mentally. It is so much work. And so every time we talked about even maternity leave at work, and sadly it's the way it's categorized. Even my insurance is your handicap. It's a disability, for insurance purposes, right? But in reality, this is the biggest superpower we have as women. It's the biggest superpower. It's not a disability, it's not a handicap. It's the biggest superpower. And it gives you a different perspective. That's why we can be great leaders. We can feel for others. Okay, we're very good at adapting. You're good at bringing teams together, at bringing differences of opinion. By the way, the world is complicated right now. There's a lot of information, negative news, noise, so on and so forth.
And so you need somebody to sort through that, get people to work together. You need to inspire others. That's your job as a leader. You're the orchestra director and you got to make sure that everything sounds in harmony. I feel like women were very good at doing that. I like to say this, I learned a very important lesson from a student at the hotel school, the Hague. This was about two months ago, maybe three months ago, and he said to me, the leader of the future needs to have three things. It's IQ, EQ and AQ. And AQ being adaptability. You have to be able to adapt. You have to be able to work and live in a world that's constantly changing. And I feel like us women, we can do that very well. It's in our DNA. It's embedded in our instincts. And so for anybody wanting to be a leader out there, you got this. It's in you. The problem is a lot of us don't discover it until we become moms and we feel it. So there you go. That's my mom's speech.

Josiah:
I appreciate you sharing that and talking a little bit about adaptability, it's something that we can all take into our workplaces as a leader. You also have the ability to influence the organization to some extent, and you have been a leading voice for diversity, equity, and inclusion. I think something I've appreciated about how you've both led the companies you've led and been a voice for change is you've talked about some structural things that potentially others aren't talking about that get in the way of operating this way. And even things like business development, as specific as how we grow our business. Is it always all about late meals and entertainment? Are there other things that you think that are these structural barriers that need to be addressed that people aren't talking about that would get in the way of becoming a more inclusive environment?

Gilda:
I'd like to say, listen, if the rules don't exist, just right 'em. We need to come up with our own rules. So not everything is about a late night drinks or a game of golf or whatever. You're going to do business with people you like. You're going to like and trust people if you develop a relationship. So it's all about relationship building. There's no certain way to develop a relationship. It's not like there's only three ways and that's it. So, we just got to take the time to meet with other people in whatever ... By the way, if maybe you're into this particular hobby or whatever, you can take people into that. But the reality, honestly, the best way to effectuate change is to have representation in the boardroom. And I've said this many times, I did not appreciate how difficult it is to be a parent until I became one.
So for me to go to a boardroom and say, we need to do X, Y, Z for a parent just because I'm a woman, I wasn't a parent, I didn't know. And the same for somebody who may have a disability or is a caregiver with very specific circumstances, et cetera. We need representation in the boardroom. We need to hear that. So diversity, it's not about gender or the color of your skin, it's not about that. It's diversity and background. That's it. And we need to understand what drives you, what your circumstances are, et cetera, and bring that to the boardroom. And then we can effectuate that change that we need to make sure that everybody feels like they're part of the organization, that they matter, their voices are heard. But we need to make sure their voices are actually heard and not me saying what I think they want to hear is.