Like many great things in our life, they seem to come round when you least expect it. I have spent more than three decades in hospitality, worked in every position quite frankly, ‘pilar to post’ and viewed this business from many angles.
In my time I have been witness to the good, the bad and the downright genius, have championed many restaurants, hotels, bars and dedicated a big part of my career to private members clubs. I have assisted to create and curate experiences for establishments such as the Ivy, Le Caprice, Soho House, Bentley’s Sea Grill Harrods, J Sheekey’s, Scott’s, The Birley Clubs in Mayfair such as Mark’s Club, Bath & Racquets, Harry’s Bar and personal favourites George’s & Annabel’s to name a few.
I noticed that every great business had particular tell signs, from a simple operating system, a visionary leader, a forward thinking idea and I slowly started to see repeat patterns. I also saw many buisinesses resistant to change and fall victims to technology and what I like to refer to as ‘analysis paralysis’. I started Armani Hospitality simply to help a friend in a precarious situation, word of mouth took did the rest and changed my life also.
We start with your unique story, someone once told me that a business idea was not worth anything if you could not describe it in a sentence. Armani Hospitality helps people tell their story to their audience and engage more of the outside world. In theory sounds so simple, that is because much like a proverbial diet, we all feel we know what we need to do in order to keep on the right side of the scale however, the practical reality of doing this consistently, is a tricky task.
Finding the drumbeat of any business became my obsession and the more I manage to find it and ‘hear’ it loud and clear, the more addicted I get to the process. Someone may say that I am simply lucky, that ‘the stars align for me’ to them I say, that the more I do it….well the luckier I get!
Mario Armani Managing Director
ARMANI HOSPITALITY 