My guest on the podcast today is Marco Trecroce, Senior Vice President and the first ever Chief Information Officer of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. I had a chance to meet Marco in Toronto a few months ago, and on hearing about his completion of a 10-year technology transformation which obviously requires all sorts of internal and personal disruption, combined with the fact that the Four Seasons is known as the global industry leader of luxury hotels and resorts, not technology, I was intrigued and wanted to hear more.
Though Marco started his career in sales and then quickly became known as a specialist in turning around and restructuring travel and retail businesses that were losing money, on arriving at Four Seasons, Marco was surprised at a piece advice his new boss shared with him.
Slow down. Take your time.
Hear more from Marco by listening to the episode in the player above, or download and enjoy it on Apple Podcasts. If you’re so inclined, please leave us a review!
Takeaways from this episode:
- The discipline Marco learned as a quarterback growing up playing football was invaluable to him as a young person. Not only in developing discipline and leadership, but later, the ability to think quickly under pressure.
- Good sales people know there is a process to building relationships and selling. You need to take time to build respect and learn who the stakeholders are.
- When you’re working in businesses that are losing money, it’s important to analyze quickly and then make quick decisions to move at the pace of the market. You’re still taking the time to make calculated, thought out decisions, but you’re doing it quickly.
- On coming to the Four Seasons, Marco’s new boss encouraged him to slow down. Four Seasons is a global leader in hospitality, and it was more important to slow down and get to know people across the company and become steeped in the culture. This advice set Marco up to succeed in rolling out the 10-year project his team just completed.
- “Get to know the people, take the time to think through what you need to do, take the time to create a plan. Build relationships across the business with the various stakeholders.”
- You don’t need a large team to be successful in rolling out a large project. Marco utlizes what he calls “tiger teams” – a small team of highly competent leaders who can go into a room and create small teams that they lead and allow the project to move at pace.
- Long-term projects will be more successfully executed if your team bakes in the time needed to plan and prepare. Not only what needs to happen in the project, but the budget and resources needed, as well as any preliminary steps and buy in that needs to happen.
Links Mentioned in this Episode:
- Marco Trecroce – LinkedIn
- Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
- The New Power Base Selling: Master The Politics, Create Unexpected Value and Higher Margins, and Outsmart the Competition by Jim Holden and Ryan Kubacki
- The Selling Fox: A Field Guide for Dynamic Sales Performance by Jim Holden
- Disrupt Yourself Podcast – Episode 116: Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez
- Instagram Post – Jasmine Star
- Leave a rating or review on Apple Podcasts
