The Operating System Behind High-Performing Hospitality Brands: Critical Thinking, Culture, and Guest-Centric Design - Matthew Bell, Mollie's
Matthew Bell, Managing Director at Mollie's, shares the foundational ideas that shape his approach to building modern hospitality brands in this conversation with our guest experience correspondent, Danica Smith -- from applying critical thinking and experimentation to empowering frontline teams through an inverted-pyramid culture. Drawing on formative experiences and a decade leading operations at citizenM, he explains how assumptions are tested, how failure becomes learning, and why clarity...
Matthew Bell, Managing Director at Mollie's, shares the foundational ideas that shape his approach to building modern hospitality brands in this conversation with our guest experience correspondent, Danica Smith -- from applying critical thinking and experimentation to empowering frontline teams through an inverted-pyramid culture. Drawing on formative experiences and a decade leading operations at citizenM, he explains how assumptions are tested, how failure becomes learning, and why clarity of product and guest-centric design matter most when scaling. Bell also offers a first look at the evolution of Mollie’s as it expands from roadside motels into urban, design-led hotels and diners, revealing the principles he believes will define high-performing hospitality in the years ahead.
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Music for this show is produced by Clay Bassford of Bespoke Sound: Music Identity Design for Hospitality Brands
00:00 - Intro
01:55 - Early years: Nurture, Debate, Curiosity
03:13 - Critical Thinking in Hospitality
04:06 - Experiments, Failure, Learning
05:12 - citizenM Lessons
05:54 - Customer Is King
06:47 - The Inverted Pyramid
08:16 - What is Mollie’s?
09:56 - Roadside Roots to Urban Hospitality
11:10 - Opening in Manchester
14:02 - Evolving Rooms & Diner Experience
16:34 - Scaling Growth & AI
20:13 - Cracking the Diner Model
25:13 - Hospitality as Connection
