17/04/2019

INTERVIEW: Marie-Laure Akdag, Founder & Managing Director at Marie-Laure Akdag Consultancy Ltd

news-main-interview-marie-laure-akdag-founder-managing-director-at-marie-laure-akdag-consultancy-ltd.1555353185.jpg Photo credit: 45 Park Lane

Manager of the flagship London address 45 Park Lane (Dorchester Collection) during its opening, Marie-Laure Akdag elegantly outlined for vendom.jobs a stunning comprehensive and deep career. Successively operations manager, development & marketing manager, vice-president of customer strategy in very prestigious groups and destinations, like the Crillon, the Savoy (Fairmont Europe), the Burj Al Arab and, more recently, Burberry, she now devotes her global luxury expertise to brands, to help them build their commercial and operational strategy in a lifestyle trend. 

Vendom.jobs – Can you describe your career to us? 

Marie-Laure Akdag – My career began in San Francisco where I was a university teacher. My husband convinced me to study marketing in Berkeley, where I also established a professional CV and I got, in a way, my first luxury retail experience working at Macy's and Nordstrom. Moved by a passion for travel and curiosity for foreign cultures, I oriented myself towards tourism. I accepted a job opportunity for a small tour operator in Berkeley and I quickly became operations manager, organizing business trips for groups. This position allowed me to expand my knowledge of the industry and build a network of suppliers, among whom hoteliers. The proximity with these passionate people made me turn to the hotel industry. We later moved to London, where I accepted my first commercial position at the Churchill (formerly the Intercontinental). With a manager who let me take initiatives, I made my first basic steps in commercial management. This experience had an enormous influence on the type of management and leadership I still apply.  

My experience in Europe and in the Middle East taught me to build strong, welded and motivated teams, able to carry out a sharp marketing strategy adapted to products, to markets and to the geopolitical environment of the moment. That obviously required of me a lot of adaptability and creativity, as well as a certain ability to take controlled risks to stand out in a very competing segment. I also acquired a global vision of the industry, from marketing to communication and income… as well as hotel international ambassadress during my promotional travels.  

The general manager who had hired me at the Burj Al Arab saw a managing potential in me. He convinced me to attend the General Manager Program at Cornell University. After that, I was given the opportunity to manage the opening of the 45 Park Lane (first boutique-hotel for Dorchester Collection). That was my first experience of an opening and management of a hotel team. It certainly was my career’s most enriching experience, the one I am most proud of. I learned how to trust collaborators who were specialists in their discipline. To have a capacity to federate remains essential to realize that kind of project. Our implication enabled us to stand out from the very beginning. Our customer surveys highlighted our skill in creating strong interpersonal relationships with our customers by offering tailored experiences.  

Later, I was appointed by Burberry to increase their team of major sellers dealing with the brand's most loyal customers and refine the service they offered, as well as oversee its CRM strategy. 

V. J. –  You worked with very prestigious and iconic hotels in Paris, London, Dubai, etc. Which are, in your view, these challenges’ similarities and differences compared with a mission within a renowned clothing industry?  

M-L. A. – I believe that the product, be it in the hotel sector or in luxury retail, must be as perfect and innovating as possible. We have the duty to recruit generous collaborators who love to help and who express an exceptional finesse and emotional intelligence to forge a bond with customers. We do not sell a luxury product, we create a dream around an experience. Consequently, training your collaborators is capital. Only then will they become your brand’s true ambassadors and earn the trust of your customers who will then come back to you and recommend you. These collaborators entirely belong to your brand: you must know how to keep them and make them evolve. Human dimension is key, especially in the digital era in which we currently live. The customer decides how he or she wishes to reach your brand, whether through a physical or digital interaction, and the access must be easy regardless of the means. Simplicity and efficiency are the main keywords here. If you aim at offering a tailored service, you must know your customer. A CRM can perform well, but you need the people behind it to make it work properly. On this specific point, the hotel industry is certainly more advanced than luxury retail, despite the difficulties introduced by the GDPR. It must be presented as an added value to innovation, discovery or even time-savings. 

V. J. – As you underlined, human factor is essential to a good customer experience. What behaviour is recommended when dealing with diverse, international customers? 

M-L. A. – One must consider the situation differently. What matters most today is to offer a genuine brand experience able to arouse, in the customer, a will to visit the store. In my view, this step is essential, as it allows a physical contact with the customer. In the hotel industry, many trainings focus on cultural differences, the art of living, the way to approach a customer according to his/her nationality, etc. The first approach is to generate an individual interaction with the customer, which can be adjusted in a second moment depending on the contact frequencies, a customer’s generation, geographical situation, culture, preferences, etc. One must know the customer’s personality in order to best interact with him/her, and this is where the digital part comes in handy. However, artificial intelligence without a human touch is useless. Nowadays, people promote experience over possessions, so it is important – especially with young people – to find connection points between your brand's positioning and the ambitions of the various customer segments. Your clients must be able to identify with some of your brand’s aspects in order to be willing to be a part of it, communicate with it and be its ambassadors. I believe this is the natural evolution of communities that created themselves with people who are alike and have the same interests. It is necessary that these tribes exist around the brand to reinforce its positioning.  

V. J. –  Do iconic brands like Burberry take advantage of their history in regard to younger generations? And if they do, how do they do that?   

M-L. A. –  Today, all is digitized and dematerialized, but there is also a trend of returning to our roots. Younger generations love vintage. They have the will to come back to a more physical, more artistic world. In my opinion, luxury brands have an advantage:  their heritage gives them a story to tell and this matches the need for these fast-evolving generations, thriving in a globalized world, to understand where they come from. They want substance, something fundamental that lasts. Whether it is in hotel industry or luxury retail, there is a heritage worth preserving without sacrificing connectivity. This idea is totally consistent with my previous words: the technology of the future relies in simplicity. Its purpose should be to free up time for us so that we can dedicate it to things we love. Of course, brands also have to reinvent themselves. In a world where everything goes so fast and people get bored so easily, creativity and innovation are the solution, with due regard to the fundamental values of the brand, in which people identify themselves.  

V. J. –  What advice would you give young graduates or professionals wishing to pursue a career in this sector?  

M-L. A. – You must be eager to learn how to be the best and to offer what is best to your customer because a customer only trusts experts. If I were a recruiter, I would prefer to hire a young graduate full of curiosity and with a real hunger for learning than somebody with experience but lacking this dynamism. You must enjoy exchanging with people. Once again, human qualities are of primary importance, they make the difference in this sector, be it in luxury retail or hotel industry. Working in the field of luxury requires that you love what is beautiful and perfect, that you push back your limits and enjoy making other people happy. You should seize opportunities when you have the chance, know when to take risks and work for people who also have all these qualities and who are committed in making you evolve.  

V. J. – What is your personal luxury? 

M-L. A. – Simplicity and perfection. I love simple dishes when they are cooked with the best ingredients so that the flavours carry me away or evoke memories. Likewise, I love a simple and timeless dress, perfectly cut out in a very beautiful fabric. My luxury is not something complicated, arrogant, or flashy. The attention and care given to an item, whatever it is, also reveals its preciousness. 

 

 

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