Special RepoRt : Leadership
The Hoxton Shoreditch in London
“ I ’ ve always been a jack of all trades but really a master of none ,” Pasricha says . “ I ’ ve stood on the shoulders of several giants in my life and there have been a handful of people that have inspired me to do what I do today . I ’ ve learned that you really need to surround yourself with people that are way smarter than you are who can add value to your business in ways that you certainly can ’ t .”
A quick peek beneath Hoxton ’ s quirky It Brit aesthetic and “ anti-hotel ” attitude reveals the same dichotomy . “ Only hire ‘ seasoned hospitality professionals ’ is probably the worst advice I ’ ve ever gotten ,” he says . “ We don ’ t hire based on experience at the Hox and have pretty much adopted the Google philosophy at our business , where if you ’ re smart enough you ’ ll figure stuff out .”
But Pasricha ’ s no more interested in being the cookie-cutter rebel than he is an establishment scion . He ’ s the first one to admit that he ’ s hired senior staff from random meetings , but he doesn ’ t insist on working with outside whiz kids . Ennismore ’ s managing director , Stephen Lloyd , has a resume that ’ s purely bluechip , including a stint as vice president , operations for InterContinental Hotels Group . The restaurants in Hoxton ’ s properties are the brainchild of the team behind the ultra-buzzy Soho House flag . “ We couldn ’ t be more different — the core of their business is an exclusive private members club , while the Hoxton is inclusive and we like to think of us as more of a public members club — but our two businesses share similar values ,” Pasricha says . “ We work with them on concept through to pricing and design on all our restaurants .” ( Hoxton and Soho House are launching a standalone restaurant joint venture , as well ).
Armed with that blend of seasoned expertise and an outsider ’ s willingness to question , Pasricha ’ s ready to prove that Hoxton is ready to move out of the small pond of offbeat London locales ( artdriven neighborhoods such as Holborn and Shoreditch ) and swim with the big fish on the international scene . “ We ’ re doubling the size of our business every six months right now ,” he says . Openings in Amsterdam later this year and Paris and New York in 2016 would nearly triple the flag ’ s portfolio , and Pasricha has an eye on Chicago , Hamburg and Copenhagen , too .
Biting off more than a small company can chew , even with the Hoxton flag as Ennismore ’ s sole focus ? Of course not , according to Pasricha . “ Yes , I ’ m burning a lot of midnight oil and I ’ m hooked on real time information from ( productivity app ) Get Flow , but we ’ ll get where we need to go ,” he says . “ It ’ s worth it — hospitality is incredibly rewarding . You get to experience firsthand the impact of successful decisions in front of your eyes every single day , as news of bad experience reaches more than twice as many ears as praise for a good experience .”
28 HOTELS April 2015 www . hotelsmag . com