Irene and Rocco Forte to discuss intergenerational collaboration at GWS
International hotelier Sir Rocco Forte and his daughter, Irene Forte, will share insights into how intergenerational collaboration has helped the award-winning hospitality company embrace generations of guests, including the coveted millennials, during the Global Wellness Summit (GWS) next month in Italy.
Rocco Forte Hotels, led by Sir Rocco Forte, his sister Olga Polizzi and his children Lydia, Irene and Charles, are an example of how the next generation can have a significant impact on a long-standing family business.
Sir Rocco Forte is a British hotelier, philanthropist and chair of Rocco Forte Hotels.
Founded in 1996, the company operates 11 luxury hotels in key European destinations, as well as one in Saudi Arabia. Sir Rocco was knighted in December 1994 for services to the UK tourism industry and received the highest Italian accolade, the Gran Croce dell’Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana in 2005.
Irene Forte is the group project director at Rocco Forte Hotels. She oversees wellness offerings across the group and has launched her own skincare line: Irene Forte Skincare. In addition, she leads learning and development projects. In 2015, Forte was awarded government funding to create the Map My Future app to attract and retain a younger more technologically savvy workforce. The app has been available in the hotels since 2016.
“The success of Rocco Forte Hotels demonstrates how forward-thinking, intergenerational management is shaping the business of wellness for millennials and generation Z,” said GWS chair and CEO Susie Ellis. “They are a perfect example of reverse mentoring, where wisdom and experience are taught from the top down and technology and insight into new trends are taught from the bottom up.”
Deloitte’s 2017 NextGen Survey underscores the importance of next-generation leaders, “… who are more aware of the meaning and effect of disruption than the previous generation.”
According to the survey, family-owned businesses also have an advantage in times of disruption because they are agile, compared to other organisations.
“All of my children play key roles in developing the roadmap for Rocco Forte Hotels,” said Sir Rocco Forte. “Irene’s love of wellness and travel combined with her deep insight into millennials’ preferences has helped us really stand apart from other luxury hotel brands when it comes to developing our wellness portfolio.”
Irene Forte added: “For millennials, wellness is a daily, active pursuit, and this generation will soon surpass baby boomers in overall travel spending. When developing our wellness concept, we thought about what millennials look for when choosing a hotel. With this in mind, we want our guests to find wellness at every touch point when staying with us—whether it is in the spa, restaurant or even in the room.”
Other family-owned companies will share secrets of their intergenerational business successes during the 2018 GWS, including Technogym’s Founder and CEO Nerio Alessandri and his two children, Erica, a non-exec member of the board, and Edoardo who, while completing his studies in Business Administration at the Hult International Business School, has spent his summer working in the company’s digital marketing team.
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