Rebecca Masri
United Kingdom
Uri Reznik
Germany
Jacques Haiat
Brazil
Alejandro Finkler
Mexico
Sebastien Bensidoun
France
Mario Fleck
Brazil
Lior Abehassera
United Kingdom
Elias Rumelis
Germany
Rebecca Masri, MBE
United Kingdom
Rebecca Masri is the founder of Little Emperors & Co., a private members’ hotel club.
Little Emperors is a private members’ hotel club, offering access to preferred rates and guaranteed benefits at the most exclusive hotels around the globe, handpicked by a team of travel advisors and luxury experts. With both a web- and app-based presence, we are the essential travel companion to both frequent jet-setters and one-off luxury seekers. We are turning more into a “tech” company as we invest more and more in cutting-edge technology to ensure a seamless booking process for our members using our app, and we also carefully use booking and search history to tactically suggest hotels and offers that are relevant. The focus for us is value – with our “lowest-rate-guaranteed” policy, our members can book easily, knowing that we ensure the lowest rates with the best benefits at all our hotel partners, and if there is a lower offer elsewhere, we guarantee to match it and add to it. Value is key to our business as we shift away from the traditional concierge model, which is service driven, and charge a low entry fee (£250 a year) to bring value in luxury to our members.
Q: When did you realise the pandemic was going to dramatically affect your business?
A: Working in travel, we were aware pretty early on that the pandemic would have a huge impact. When China was closing down, we started to see the immediate impact on flights, and then hotels, and then other countries.
Q: What was the single greatest challenge you faced to keep your business going?
A: I am not sure how to answer this. Given we are in the hospitality space, it is impossible to identify one challenge other than remaining hopeful. We have been adapting strategically to reflect a post-pandemic world, where consumer needs and demands have revolutionised exponentially. During these uncertain times, travel brands need to use their downtime wisely, establishing forward-thinking strategies to ensure they are equipped to springboard back. As we have learnt this year, only the strongest of brands will survive.
Q: What digital technologies have become lifelines for your business?
A: Little Emperors had already invested heavily in technology, giving us access to an enormous amount of data that helped navigate us through. We were already in the tech space, but the last year has given us the opportunity to invest even more in people, and our tech team has quadrupled in size. We have spent time understanding booking trends and seen the increase in booking and search history perfectly aligned with traveller confidence and freedom of movement. We have also been able to pre-empt the next move using our technology and custom-made Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system.
Q: How did you keep both employees and customers engaged?
A: Our industry has a lot of perks: work drinks, trips aboard, hotel lunches and dinners. With all of these removed, keeping the team engaged was incredibly challenging. I introduced Friday games night and quizzes, sent meals and gifts to their homes, and hotels got creative with online interactive training sessions, yoga, cooking classes-- you name it. Engagement is key to us, and the booking team within Little Emperors works on rotation and all have specific tasks, all of which are part of the booking journey. Communication whilst working from home is key, and the workflow has to be perfect. Keeping all our employees engaged is imperative to ensuring our workflow is seamless.
Q: In your opinion, is the world witnessing the end of the office as we know it? Has consumer behaviour changed forever?
What do you see as the most lasting effects for your business, specifically?
A: I am of the opinion that the pandemic has proven that our desire for human connection can never be replaced by digital experiences. This is something supported by Euromonitor International’s recent findings that 25% of people would abandon a business relationship if there was a lack of personal connection, and 69% prefer offline communication rather than speaking via technology. I do not predict an end of the office, but perhaps a hybrid, which companies are leaning towards. At Little Emperors, we are back to a three-day week.
Specifically for Little Emperors, I think one of the biggest impacts comes from the booking behaviour of the traveller. The nature of the holiday is undergoing rapid change as well. Offices are closed. People can travel for longer and work while on holiday. We are seeing a lot of extensions. As more people have the option to work from home, people are searching for attractive alternatives away from the cities for month-long stays. Hotels have a unique opportunity here to help users combine work with leisure at competitive price points. In addition, if 2020 has taught us anything, its that nothing is certain, and with so much uncertainty, rules change all the time. People are not planning in advance so much. Coupled with the thought that offices are likely to remain closed this year, people are not restricted to holiday days and can travel with less notice. Travellers are less inclined to book in advance. Right now, we have very few bookings for later this year. Despite more flexible cancellation policies, people want to wait and see what happens before they commit to booking, particularly with hotels that want a deposit up front.
Another trend we have identified is a shift towards wellness. The pandemic has underlined that health is the new wealth, giving rise to increased demand for highly tailored therapies and treatments with expert instruction. Clients are shifting away from pampering treatments and are moving towards more evidence-based medical treatments and health restoration programmes. The past year has had us thinking about health, and mental health awareness, and it remains in the forefront of people’s minds. Several of our hotels’ partners will have more wellness-focused stays, and include specific programmes tailored to guests, from detox, to retox, weight loss, digital detox and so on.
Uri Reznik
Germany
Uri Reznik started his professional career in 1994 in a market development position with Amcor Israel. There, he got his first insights into technical products and into establishing a sales organization in Germany.
After a short intermezzo in the hospitality business, he founded OR LASER, which developed into a very successful company and a leader in its field. His passion for technology and developing highly creative teams led him to leave his management position after the acquisition of OR LASER by Coherent, Inc. to devote himself to creating motivated teams that can change the way a company engages with technology and apply that to a number of start-ups in Germany and Israel.
In 1997, Uri founded OR LASER, a laser cladding and 3D-metal printing company with a unique technology portfolio that is used by the dental and medical industry to print dentures and implants in titanium and other bio-compatible metals like cobalt chrome and stainless steel.
The company became an industry leader and the equipment became a global success due to its small form factor and an unparalleled user experience. Numerous universities around the world use their equipment for education as well as research and development purposes.
In 2018 Coherent, Inc., the world’s leading laser producer, acquired the company, as they wanted to complement their product portfolio. Uri continued to manage the company until 2020.
Since then, Uri and his family have become involved in a few start-ups in Israel and Germany, developing solutions for eye vision testing by virtual and augmented reality, Lab 3D-printing solutions and prop tech solutions.
Q: When did you realise the pandemic was going to dramatically affect your business?
A: Not being able to present in person and shifting the complete interaction and communication to a digital channel was tough. People like to have a physical interaction with a product, especially when talking about capital equipment and investments in the hundreds of thousands.
Q: What was the single greatest challenge you faced to keep your business going?
A: Social distancing was one of the major challenges. As a family-owned business, we had already faced a few crises over the previous twenty years, starting with the dot-com bubble and 9/11, SARS in Asia, and then the financial crisis in 2008. I must admit, this time not being able to travel abroad and getting together with colleagues, friends and customers was probably the most challenging.
Q: What digital technologies have become lifelines for your business?
A: We started very early with a complete digitalisation of IT infrastructure and getting the data to the Cloud. The entire company has access to the Cloud-based document management system with interface to accounting and the customer relationship management system.
Online collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams have helped us in task management and face-to-face meetings.
Q: How did you keep both employees and customers engaged?
A: Trust, transparency and being there when needed has been most important. A coffee with the CEO can be nice in order to have a chat, but I feel people need to know that they are fully backed, and that they can always count on you.
Q: In your opinion, is the world witnessing the end of the office as we know it? Has consumer behaviour changed forever?
What do you see as the most lasting effects for your business, specifically?
A: The pandemic revealed to us many hidden facets of the business growth formula we had always followed. We realized, for example, that not everyone needs to be in the office every day, and that we are able to delegate much more responsibility, because people will demonstrate self-discipline if provided the right metrics and feedback.
Within an organization that includes product and marketing development, there is a lot at stake for creative tasks being undertaken, because I see a big burden if people and teams are disrupted. For good ideas to flourish, you need an environment that promotes social contacts.
The most lasting effect for our business is the least lasting effect, because we live in a world of constant change!
Jacques Haiat
Brazil
Jacques Haiat is an economist and entrepreneur who works in the capital market. He studied at the Hebrew School in Rio de Janeiro and is a great Zionist and supporter of Israel. He and his wife, Regina, have three children, Tatiana, Guile and Jony, and the whole family works together.
Q: When did you realise the pandemic was going to dramatically affect your business?
A: Since, in the first year of the pandemic, it was “forbidden” to speak about the crisis, our business did not really suffer. In the second year, there was no way to avoid it, but the situation is improving. Unfortunately, the Brazilian media causes a lot of upheaval in our country.
Q: What was the single greatest challenge you faced to keep your business going?
A: Our greatest challenge was the lack of working capital. In our country, the government had to lend a lot of money to companies and give a lot of money to the less fortunate in order for them to be able to eat.
Q: What digital technologies have become lifelines for your business?
A: Internet sales were lifelines for our business, but now they have decreased because there is a lot of competition, and now there are already an equal number of face-to-face sales. But Brazil is doing very well, even in terms of politics – many countries are eager to do business with us.
Q: How did you keep both employees and customers engaged?
A: While many others fired employees, reduced wages and hours of work, I set an example by hiring a lot of employees that other companies had laid off during the pandemic. They came to work happily and eagerly; some even started their own businesses. Even with the pandemic, I continued going to work but started to avoid places
with a lot of people.
Q: In your opinion, is the world witnessing the end the office as we know it? Has consumer behaviour changed forever?
What do you see as the most lasting effects for your business, specifically?
A: The consumer mode has changed; people no longer fill their supermarket carts, but now just buy what they need. Our strategy has changed in that, as a result of hiring more people, our production has improved, and we have begun to offer higher quality merchandise. Also, the government has started to help companies. Unfortunately, Brazil's problem is politics, but I am optimistic for the future!
Alejandro Finkler
Mexico
Alejandro Finkler is the executive director of Brokerage
House Vepormas.
Through its four business units, Bank, Exchange House, Leasing, and Insurance, Vepormás (BX+), a growing financial institution in Mexico, offers its customers simple solutions to their financial needs, with a wide range of financial products such as credits, leasing, trustees, insurance, investments, and stock strategy.
Q: When did you realise the pandemic was going to dramatically affect your business?
A: In March 2020, when the company began to understand the scope of the Covid-19 pandemic, we began to make decisions on how best to protect our employees, distributed face masks to all staff and requested that they be used at all times.
Q: What was the single greatest challenge you faced to keep your business going?
A: We realized we needed to reduce the capacity of the office and initiated work-from-home mode, starting with a 50-50 ratio. Today, 25% of our staff are at work in the office and 75% are working from home.
Initially, all offices were sanitized, especially if any Covid cases were detected. Our policy is that if someone becomes infected, all staff who had direct contact with that person are sent home to work from there for fourteen days; additional sanitization is undertaken and if necessary, samples are taken and sent to a laboratory.
All personnel working at the office are also routinely tested for Covid.
Q: What digital technologies have become lifelines for your business?
A: We created an app on which staff can follow up on the health conditions of their colleagues daily. We also encourage our employees to get vaccinated.
All work meetings are held by Zoom; another great challenge has been to keep in touch with each of our customers, and to continue to give them good service and attend to their needs. Zoom is a great help in that regard.
Q: How did you keep both employees and customers engaged?
A: Each of our executives working at home has the technology to perform any services a customer might need; we had to improve our online and mobile banking, which increased all our operations significantly.
In our business, it is very important to be close to the customer to be able to meet their immediate operational needs; because of this, each of our executives has the obligation of performing one follow-up call with each of our customers. Today we still can´t have in-person meetings, so we evaluate the number of hours spent on the conference platforms (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, etc.) to gauge their effectiveness.
Q: In your opinion, is the world witnessing the end of the office as we know it? Has consumer behaviour changed forever?
A: I sincerely don´t think the office era is over; I believe that eventually, when the pandemic comes to an end, many people will return to their offices. I also believe that the ones that will survive will adopt hybrid schemes between in- office and work-at-home and without a doubt, we’ll return to normality.
Sebastien Bensidoun
France
Sebastien Bensidoun is a French entrepreneur in the public markets and food industry. Since 1997, he has been developing and managing markets in the U.S., and he has been a co-owner of the Chicago French Market since 2009. His family enjoys a long tradition of developing markets in France and abroad. Sebastien travels extensively in Europe, Israel and the United States, and has been recently inducted into the prestigious Who’s Who biographical registry.
Chicago French Market is a European-inspired indoor food market for grab-&-go meals, fresh produce & specialty kiosks.
Q: When did you realise the pandemic was going to dramatically affect your business?
A: In February of last year, when rumours of lockdown began to emerge, we quickly realized that the situation would affect us. We work very closely with local authorities, and thanks to our good relationships in both the U.S. and France, we were able to gauge the practical implications, especially in regard to the new regulations about which shops would be allowed to remain open, what the operating hours would be, and also how much traffic we could anticipate in them.
Q: What was the single greatest challenge you faced to keep your business going?
A: The rapid decrease in people travelling to the city centers to work has led to a sharp decrease of our markets’ visitors, and hence the closing of many of our shops. At the beginning, we all thought this was a temporary situation lasting no more than a month or two, but we all know what the reality has been until recently. We take a great deal of pride in the fact that we were able to keep every employee on the payroll. However, we were not entitled to payroll protection plans in all countries, which incurred a cost that our company was able to afford thanks to great cash flow management in past years. In turn, this provided great reactivity during the reopening phase.
Q: What digital technologies have become lifelines for your business?
A: The city centers were deserted. In Chicago, we observed more than an 80% decrease in public transportation users and in our markets, our shops faced a decline in visitors from more than seven thousand to two thousand. So, we had to innovate by developing digital marketplaces and using digital technologies to improve logistics and offer new services to our shops and clients.
Q: How did you keep both employees and customers engaged?
A: We obviously reinforced our digital presence to maintain good relationships with our clients. Our employees remained in close contact with each other, whether they were working on site or from home.
We also accommodated our clients who were suffering a severe drop in their turnover by deferring rent payments or adjusting the rent to their turnover.
Q: In your opinion, is the world witnessing the end of the office as we know it? Has consumer behaviour changed forever?
What do you see as the most lasting effects for your business, specifically?
A: Even with a limited number of visitors and shops opened, we never fully closed, and now, we have been agreeably surprised to observe that 70% of our shops have reopened. Today, we are noticing our clients’ enthusiasm for physically experiencing our products, and this is especially true of the food products. This trend is back, and I believe it will last, but also, we understand that the growth of the home office trend means that we will not experience the volume of traffic in our shops at the level we enjoyed before the pandemic. Within this context, we will keep our organization flexible, in order to be able to adapt to any future regulations with regard to the sanitary conditions that may be imposed.
Mario Fleck
Brazil
Since 2020, Mario Fleck has been managing partner of Acnext Capital, an organization investing, both in Brazil and abroad, in the developmental stages of companies that show a great potential for growth leveraged by technology and innovation.
He was CEO of Rio Bravo Investimentos from 2009 to 2018, after four years as equity income director. He joined Accenture in 1976, when the company was still called Arthur Andersen, and became a partner in 1986. He remained there for 28 years, fourteen as president in Brazil.
Mario has been carrying out consultancy projects for national and international companies, he was a member of the GR Group, Bematech, Eternit, Cremer, Unipar, Levorin, Nossa
Caixa and Ferbasa.
In the Third Sector, Mario served on the boards of the Brazilian Symphonic Orchestra and the Committee for the Democratization of Informatics (CDI). He presided over AME Campos, was chairman of the EAESP Board of Fundação Getúlio Vargas and is a member of the Board of Hospital
Israelita Albert Einstein.
Mario is also active in the Jewish community, was president of Colégio Max Nordau, a member of the board of Colégio Alef, president of the Israeli Federation of São Paulo and vice-president of the Brazil-Israel Chamber of Commerce, where he is currently chairman of the board of directors. Additionally, he has held board positions at the Chaim Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and on the American Jewish Committee.
Internationally, Mario is a member of the Executive Board of the Chaim Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel and of the AJC (American Jewish Committee), Mario is Co-Chair of the Belfer Institute for Latin America.
Mario Fleck graduated in mechanical and industrial engineering from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in 1976 and in 2019 received the title of PhD Honoris Causa from the Chaim Weizmann Institute in Israel.
Married for the second time, Mario has two children and four grandchildren.
Q: When did you realise the pandemic was going to dramatically affect your business?
A: My business was not affected, as it can be done on-line.
Q: What was the single greatest challenge you faced to keep your business going?
A: Adjusting/adjustments to on-line communications.
Q: What digital technologies have become lifelines for your business?
A: Both Zoom and Teams have become vital for us.
Q: How did you keep both employees and customers engaged?
A: We made an effort to run a normal schedule of meetings.
Q: In your opinion, is the world witnessing the end of the office as we know it? Has consumer behaviour changed forever? What do you see as the most lasting effects for your business, specifically?
A: Specifically, I can see that we will all have to be more familiar with on-line services and solutions.
Lior Abehassera
United Kingdom
Lior Abehassera is a former investment banker turned fintech entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of Leasum, which offers fundraising portals for many different kinds of companies in the business of raising capital.
Leaseum offers fundraising portals for any company raising capital to invest in private equity, private debt, venture capital, real estate funds or direct deals.
Q: When did you realise the pandemic was going to dramatically affect your business?
A: When we onboarded our first Australian client, in early Q2, 2020, we realised that the pandemic was actually providing an unexpected business opportunity to hunt for clients all over the world and pitch them directly online. Today, we have clients on all five continents!
Q: What was the single greatest challenge you faced to keep your business going?
A: Communicating with my other co-founders initially proved challenging. Whatever people say, it’s not the same when you are not working in the same room. So, a key learning for us has been to follow a routine. We speak every day at 5 p.m., whatever happens, even if just for a short while.
Q: What digital technologies have become lifelines for your business?
A: Softwares as a Service (SaaS) have become so important. More precisely: Apollo, to find leads and create automated cold email sequences (with Sendgrid to do that at scale), Calendly to facilitate bookings of meetings, Zoom and Whereby to have these meetings, Pandadoc to generate personalised visual offers in seconds, ChargeBee to collect payments, and finally, Hubspot as a CRM—customer relationship management technology. And of course, Leaseum capital-raising portals, to streamline fundraising online in a secure and compliant way. When I read the “how to invest” sections of many websites, which are manual and therefore time-consuming, as well as complicated and confusing for both investors and administrators, I feel there is still a huge potential for SaaS like Leaseum to help in digitizing both big and small businesses.
Q: How have you kept both employees and customers engaged?
A: We did this by asking for and providing feedback, either good or bad. Communicating on what’s coming next, whether it is regarding the strategy, our next funding round, or new features and partnerships has also been important in maintaining engagement.
Q: In your opinion, is the world witnessing the end of the office as we know it? Has consumer behaviour changed forever?
What do you see as the most lasting effects for your business, specifically?
A: A large portion of workers will still be based in offices on a permanent basis, but I expect a hybrid model for a growing portion of others, who will be working remotely on some days and going to the office on others.
History often repeats itself. Human behaviour keeps adapting itself to its changing environment, and this time is no different. Flexibility and speed are paramount to keeping clients. Change quickly or die slowly!
In the fundraising business, many people still basically work with emails, a phone and Excel spreadsheets. That works. If I send a postcard to New Zealand, it will be delivered in perhaps two or three weeks. That also works. But if I send a message on WhatsApp to somebody in New Zealand, delivery will be instantaneous and free. Ultimately, technology in finance, or “fintech,” will make payments, investing and funding much easier for both companies and private individuals, contributing to the greater good of developed and emerging countries.
Elias Rumelis
Germany
Who said fashion must be one way or the other? Elias Rumelis and his independent label fight stricture ever since proving successfully that boutique fashion is not limited to mainstream paradigms. Combining forward thinking with urban toughness, Elias Rumelis enriches the fashion market with
high-end streetwear.
Elias Rumelis owns and runs his eponymous fashion label, Elias Rumelis, which specializes in out-of-the-box, boutique,
high-end streetwear.
Q: When did you realise the pandemic was going to dramatically affect your business?
A: Because of the very short notice for the lockdown in March 2020, we faced a lot of insecurities with our point-of-sales partners for our fashion line, Elias Rumelis. Nobody was prepared, and therefore we had to provide support in terms of longer payment targets, social media training etc. Everything was very hectic, but in a few quiet moments, I had the opportunity to settle down and create
a new label, ELI.
Q: What was the single greatest challenge you faced to keep your business going?
A: One big challenge was the fact that many of our business partners had no experience with social media. We had to convince them that with the help of social media, they could keep the business going. We also supported our customers wherever we could.
Q: What digital technologies have become lifelines for your business?
A: All industries are experiencing the enormous impact that technology is having on the speed of daily workflow.
For us, as a fashion label, visibility and a unique presence in social media is now crucial. We are proud that we have generated a fan culture within our community on social media accounts, but that means that for our business, having good community management, sharing insights and updates is absolutely essential, especially during this crisis. Any and all technologies that enable us to be connected to our customers—such as mobile phones-- are definitely lifelines.
Q: How have you kept both employees and customers engaged?
A: All employees and customers of Elias Rumelis are considered family. We are guided by values such as commitment, passion, speed and an open mindset, and supporting these values ensures the best possible outcomes for us in regard to promoting our products, branding, sales and word of mouth. The Elias Rumelis label represents fashion with high-speed developments influenced by an open mindset. Together with my employees, I ensure that the values I’ve mentioned influence our daily decisions, work and communications, especially communications
with our customers.
During unstable times, I feel you must offer security and flexibility. During the pandemic, we made certain to be available for our customers at all times, and we also gave our employees the flexibility to work from home in order to keep the business going.
Q: In your opinion, is the world witnessing the end of the office as we know it? Has consumer behaviour changed forever?
What do you see as the most lasting effects for your business, specifically?
A: We have learned several valuable lessons during the past challenging year. One was the proof that our proof that our employees are able to connect, be productive and committed through calls and virtual meetings working from home. We also learned that positive by-products of working from home include reducing environmental emissions and improving overall efficiency. This change in the working environment has had a huge global impact. But of course, our situation and ability to adapt to a work-at-home model does not apply to all industries or employees, so the future challenge will be how to change classic thinking about work environments and still continue to succeed in a growing and healthy but nevertheless aging economy. There are still some big to-dos, which include conceiving of flexible workspaces for the future. We’re also convinced that an office environment of some kind, where a team can work together and create ideas remains important.
Consumer behavior is influenced by economic and environmental changes or challenges. We have learned that online shopping is not a fad, but an ongoing development that has continued to grow quickly for all online retailers, and also for fashion labels such as Elias Rumelis.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally changed the world as we know it. People are living differently, buying differently and in many ways, thinking differently. The desire to shop locally is reflected in both the products consumer buy and the way they shop. Therefore, we are very happy that, alongside the big chains and online shopping venues, we also have smaller boutiques and shops as points of sale, where consumers can shop locally.
I believe that one of the major positive lessons we have learned is that we must be flexible, innovative and unafraid of change. This mindset ensures that, even in challenging times like those we have just experienced so dramatically, there will be a chance to continue our businesses successfully or to rethink old business methods and adapt them to better suit current needs. Elias Rumelis is especially known as open-minded and driven by flexibility; this had been our strength throughout the pandemic.
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