SINGAPORE - Media
OutReach - 12 March 2020 - Oliver
Jolivet has dedicated over two decades of his career to the business of luxury.
Attributing his uncompromising stance on brand building to his French heritage
and background, Jolivet believes that time and authenticity play big roles in
delivering a well-positioned luxury experience in the hospitality market.

Stepping into his role as the Chief
Executive Officer of COMO Group,
Jolivet pushes the status quo with exclusivity and novelty in experiences.
Under his wing, COMO Group - which owns COMO Hotels and Resorts - recently
welcomed the brand's first property in Italy. The COMO Castello Del Nero, a
12-century castle with medieval frescoes spanning 740-acres set in Tuscany.
COMO Group features hotels, from the Maldives to Miami, with each stay driving
values of sustainability, wellness and understated luxury. Extending beyond
hospitality, COMO's brand equity has grown to become a lifestyle aggregator of
sorts -- with COMO Lifestyle, Cuisine, Fashion and the Shambhala wellness
business. Underpinning these complementary lifestyle concepts is the vision to
grant loyal members with privileges and rewards across the brand with
membership cards.  

At the heart of it all, Jolivet carries the
brand further through empathetic and genuine relationship building with the
people who matter the most - the guests. 

Q1 -
What makes a hotel stay with COMO unique?

·      Everything is tailor made
for you and only you. The difference between a good hotel and an excellent
hotel is the service. In the end, it is all about our people.

Q2 - Why do you believe people are
willing to pay a premium for an exclusive experience?

·     
People pay a premium for something they will remember, for
something they enjoy. There is a big difference between a commodity business
and selling a luxury experience and it is not always scalable.

Q3 - How do you retain premium clientele
-- how do you entice them to continue staying within COMO Group's set of
properties?

·     
Recognition, recognition and recognition. It means your
attention to details must be the best.

Q4 - Anything exciting coming to the COMO
Group in 2020?

·     
New destinations and new experiences like the Film
Photography retreat in
Bhutan in partnership with award-winning photographer Michael Turek and Natural World
Safaris, the launch of COMO Club our brand new recognition programme, combining
all COMO businesses (Hospitality, Wellness, Fashion, Lifestyle, Sport), and a
new product line for COMO Shambhala, our award-winning wellness concept.  

Q5 - How do you maintain a point of
difference when compared to other boutique hotels
(locally/regionally/internationally)?

·     
COMO and its businesses are unique in the luxury landscape.
Since its inception,
shareholders stayed the same, which provides stability to the organisation and
the opportunity to think long term. It is a massive competitive advantage
especially when recruiting the right talents.

Q6 - What personal attributes do you
prioritize when picking key leadership roles within COMO Group's hotels?

·     
Resilience, innovation skills and intensity

Q7 - How do you source top talent for
all of COMO Group's individual business units?

·     
We are lucky to have an important pull factor and 80% of our
recruitment is coming from CVs
directly received from candidates.

Q8 - When identifying new locations for COMO
Group's hotels or other assets, what do you look for?

·     
The soul first. Although it's difficult to say. For a hotel
the location is important, you can always build around the content. For an
e-business it will be its disruption factor as well as its short-term
potential. For a sports business, it will be its ability to attract new
talent. 

Q9 - How do you maintain such a
consistent, high quality experience across all COMO Group's owned properties
(hotels, restaurants & retail)?

·     
A clear talent retention programme as well as consistent
training at all levels. The staff turnover is the lowest I have seen so far.
Our employees must feel good and this is always a priority for me. We are
aiming to accelerate in this direction to create a real competitive edge. 

Q10 - Which is your favorite restaurant
at COMO
Group's Dempsey Hill & what dish do you recommend?

·     
COMO Cuisine for their Tandoori Cauliflower

In
light of new developments - including a loyalty program through the COMO Club -
set to occur this 2020, Jolivet narrows down the point of difference that
elevates and keeps the brand in its pristine level - a focus on creating
unique, luxury experiences for its guests. With the understanding that
experience-driven and authentic stays are key differentiators in the
hospitality market, COMO Group builds concepts around the location and the
story it tells.

By aggregating lifestyle experiences across
a proliferation of touchpoints, COMO delivers heightened exclusivity and
quality.  Inspired by the destination,
the brand combines its intuitive and personalised approach to hospitality with
their other services -- fashion, elegant cuisine, award-winning wellness
retreats.

Helming
the COMO Group, Jolivet considers high resilience and an innovative mindset key
to nurturing the competitive advantage that is necessary to keep the brand
growing as a lifestyle aggregator while adding more business activities to it.  Recently Olivier Jolivet of Como Group was also featured on
Entrepreneur.com where he goes into detail on how to satisfy client needs.