Fighting for Greatness with Customers

Copyright 2019. Neil Cantor. All Rights Reserved. Proprietary & Confidential
FIGHTING FOR GREATNESS
WITH CUSTOMERS
N E I L C A N T O R
S R C X , B R A N D & G R O W T H L E A D E R
G L O B A L F 5 0 0 B R A N D S & P E - B A C K E D V E N T U R E S

HELP LEADERS, TEAMS & ENTERPRISE FIGHT FOR GREATNESS WITH CUSTOMERS
C R A C K C O D E O N
E N G A G E M E N T
I G N I T E G R O W T H
R E V O L U T I O N S
P R O P E L A N E W K I N D
O F C O M P E T I T I V E N E S S

AUTOGRAPH COLLECTION
BIZ CHALLENGE:
Develop, launch and drive rapid
adoption of new global brand by
segment of independent hotel
owners and consumers who
historically have rejected affiliation
with global chains
BRAND
DESIGN
BRAND
PLAYBOOK
GUEST
EXPERIENCE
PLAN
DEMAND
CREATION
PLAN
KEY RESULTS
• New brand and business platform built and
launched in 180 days
• Operations on 3 continents and $230MM
incremental revenue in Y1
• Fastest growing, most accretive product in
Marriott’s history
• 15% higher guest sat and 40% more share
of highest value customer v comp set
• 38% more revenue per stay from highest
LTV customers v comp set
• Repositioned 40 independent hotels
I G N I T E G R O W T H W I T H H I S T O R I C R E J E C T O R S

5
REVEL ENTERTAINMENT
BIZ CHALLENGE:
• Build a portfolio of strong luxury and lifestyle brands under
one roof
• Establish Revel in the consideration set of travelers who
historically have rejected AC as a destination
• Develop important brand, revenue and operations
competencies within Revel to deliver brand at scale
KEY RESULTS
• Brand design, guest experience and demand gen plans developed, executed
• Revenue Ops, CX operations, Service Excellence Solution built from scratch
• Created revenue and programming partnerships with Amex, Food & Wine,
Ticketmaster, LiveNation
• 1B impressions, 1.8M visitations, 400K dB in opening months
• 130K room nights (RNs), $30MM in RN revenues (annualized pace), up from $0
• 57% more revenue per stay v comp set from highest value customers
• 20% share of the market’s cash leisure business (17 resorts in market)
• 80% bookings via high margin direct channels, 33% more than industry avg
• Multiple lifestyle brands developed, launched (Revel, Bask, The Grid, etc.)
• Awards: Top 8 US Hotel for Food, Best Spa, Best Nightlife, Best New Concert
Venue, Best use of digital, Top 10 hotel of 2012
D R I V E A D O P T I O N B Y N E W - T O - M A R K E T C U S T O M E R

DEVELOP MARKETPLACE FOR TRAVEL SERVICES ACROSS E2E JOURNEY

JOURNEY TO A NEW KIND OF COMPETITIVENESS WITH
CUSTOMERS
01 02 03 04 05
IMMERSION INSIGHTS STRATEGY DESIGN DELIVERY
SERVICE
EXCELLENCE
LOYALTY EXPERIENCES-
BASED
CREATIVELY
ADVANTAGED
• Profitable Customers
• Productive Talent
• Partner | Investors
• Key Moments
• Multi-Sensory
• Culture & Operations
• Customer Metrics
• Balanced Scorecard
• SOPs & QA
• Rate of learning
• Portfolio of Bets
• Scaled insurgent
PROPEL ENTERPRISE TRANSFORMATION

Rethink Short-Trip Mobility
LIGHTFOOT
2020
CLICKTOCONTINUE

REDESIGN HEALTH CARE DELIVERY IN RESOURCE POOR ENVIRONMENTS

1
0
ISS: Profiles in Creative Leadership – periodic
internal/external guest speakers and workshops with
practitioners of the skills and mindsets of creative
leadership
Innovation Days Theme: “Leading for Creativity” –
currently being socialized with strong reception
L&D Modules: Leading for Creativity – for associates
who wish to expand their skills and mindsets to lead
teams for creativity and collaboration
Creativity ‘Hub’ – centralized relevant resources,
content, blog posts and storytelling efforts meant to
offer exploration and inspiration
Innovation Days Program: Creative Experimentation –
Pop Up Space + Methods to practice the skills and
mindsets of creative
leadership
Podcast – candid conversations with some of today’s
most inspiring change makers and design thinkers who
believe in leading through creativity
Creative Qualities – a tool to assess, guide and track the
development of innovative and creative teams
OBJECTIVE:
Unleash Creative Competitiveness
Creativity–or the ability to effectively solve challenges in new and
meaningful ways–is what keeps organizations ahead in the marketplace.
Leaders need to empower teams to generate and execute bold ideas. This
Innovation Speaker Series will inspire and empower associates to explore,
experiment and discover how each of us can foster and accelerate creative
competitiveness within our company.
PROFILES IN CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
KEY ELEMENTS:
OUTCOME
S
Launchpad for ‘Creative
Competitiveness’
• Innovation Speaker Series
• Innovation Days Theme /
Program
Dynamic Resource ‘Hub’
• L&D Modules
• Creativity “Hub”
• Innovation Days Pop-up
• Podcast
Global ‘Consortium’
• Creative Qualities
• Scale Up to Continents
• Global Events – open to
enterprise customers, partners
and start-ups
Leaders of creatively competitive organizations need to be able to lead essentially from every direction: from the front,
from behind and from the side. It’s essential for them to seamlessly transition between different roles at different
moments in the continuing cycle of innovation: explorer, gardener and player-coach. The Innovation Speaker Series:
‘Profiles in Creative Leadership’ will inspire us to explore, experiment and discover how each of us can foster and
accelerate creative competitiveness, especially in a big, established corporate eco-system.
Selection Criteria:
All speakers should demonstrate a high ‘curiosity quotient’ and be visionaries that can easily demonstrate how they
nurture new ideas with a focus on speed of learning and rigorous experimentation. Speakers can cover whatever
subject matter they like provided their discussion shares their experience nurturing a creatively competitive
organization and leading for creativity as:
ISS: PROFILES IN CREATIVE LEADERSHIP
I M M E D I A T E N E A R - T E R M L O N G - T E R M
Set a new course and
inspire exploration
Empower experimentation
and discovery
Facilitate growth
and eco-System
their experience formulating strategically
purposeful questions in order to empower
their teams to think differently
they foster conditions in which
creativity can thrive
they lead and inspire others
without dominating
E X P L O R E R S G A R D E N E R S P L A Y E R - C O A C H S
PROPEL ENTERPRISE INTO MORE VIBRANT VERSION OF ITSELF

networked destinations
•Aligns with upscale consumer travel patterns, pain points and aspirations
•Corrects, focuses and expands development strategy; better positioning Ascend to grow share of wallet
•Differentiates with brand, targeted demand generation and profit savings benefits
•Levels playing field relative to other distributors via simple contracts and pricing, elimination of IDP
•Maximizes current fixed cost base, borrows partner capabilities to fill gaps
•Aligns with corporate objectives to drive midweek and upscale customer growth
•Scalable platform to multiple destinations – just plug in partners (traffic, destination curator)
•Requires “right” B2C partner – credibility, highly engaged audience, extensible equity
•Requires investment to activate market, grow connectivity with more distributors
“Ascend x________ Brand”
How It Works
Pros
“Ascend x _______ Brand”
“Its going to be a
beautiful weekend.
We should do
something.”
“Hey, a couple of
these look really
fun. Three are food
themed, and there’s
a cool boutique
hotel deal, too.”
Seven
Sensationa
lweekend trips
within 3 hours
WAS
HING
TON
IANSev
en
“Where can we go
without getting on a
plane or overrun by
soccer teams?”
“Ascend x _______ Brand” (cont.)
“What an amazing day!
This place was made
for us.”
“So much better than
the Westin. And no
TSA to deal with.”
“We’re seeing
double-digit growth
from ‘Dabblers’ and
‘Bucket List-ers’.
Hotelier
Partner (media,
credit card,
association, etc.)
Choice
Pros •  Aligns with upscale consumer’s planning, travel, stay and engagement patterns
•  Aligns with consumer trend wave of ‘purposeful fun’
•  Geographic focus provides more chances to grow share of wallet
•  Overcomes Choice limitations as a B2C company
•  Increases sales and marketing efficiency
•  New revenue stream for partner
•  Leverages fixed cost base
•  Mobile-first opportunity (acquisitions)
•  Requires “right” B2C partner - highly engaged audience; extensible equity
•  Scalability
Cons
“’Multi-Generational’
trial and ‘Active
Seniors’ repeat is
quadruple forecast.”
Cons
“Ascend x _______ Brand”
“Its going to be a
beautiful weekend.
We should do
something.”
“Hey, a couple of
these look really
fun. Three are food
themed, and there’s
a cool boutique
hotel deal, too.”
Seven
Sensationa
lweekend trips
within 3 hours
WAS
HING
TON
IANSev
en
“Where can we go
without getting on a
plane or overrun by
soccer teams?”
“Ascend x _______ Brand” (cont.)
“What an amazing day!
This place was made
for us.”
“So much better than
the Westin. And no
TSA to deal with.”
“We’re seeing
double-digit growth
from ‘Dabblers’ and
‘Bucket List-ers’.
Hotelier
Partner (media,
credit card,
association, etc.)
Choice
Pros •  Aligns with upscale consumer’s planning, travel, stay and engagement patterns
•  Aligns with consumer trend wave of ‘purposeful fun’
•  Geographic focus provides more chances to grow share of wallet
•  Overcomes Choice limitations as a B2C company
•  Increases sales and marketing efficiency
•  New revenue stream for partner
•  Leverages fixed cost base
•  Mobile-first opportunity (acquisitions)
•  Requires “right” B2C partner - highly engaged audience; extensible equity
•  Scalability
Cons
“’Multi-Generational’
trial and ‘Active
Seniors’ repeat is
quadruple forecast.”
In-A-Nutshell: Millions of locals to the DC area struggle each week to figure out where they can go to get away without having to get on a plane or overrun
by soccer teams. Washingtonian + Ascend offers extraordinary hotels and rare retreats in and around the DC region an unprecedented way to maximize
share of stays from these customers by combining Washingtonian’s authority as a travel curator and highly trafficked website with Choice’s powerful ‘go
pass,’ distribution channels, analytics tools and reservation platforms.
A collection of peaceful, practical
urban spaces whenever you
need to work, meet or relax
An advanced purchase pass
that increases share of
wallet and ancillary spend of
in-region heavy users
A unique collection of lodges
around the world committed to
sustainability, authenticity and
service excellence
National Geographic
Unique Lodges of the World
Go Pass Breathr
“Ascend x______ Brand” (cont.)
Other Example Concepts
A collection of peaceful, practical
urban spaces whenever you
need to work, meet or relax
An advanced purchase pass
that increases share of
wallet and ancillary spend of
in-region heavy users
A unique collection of lodges
around the world committed to
sustainability, authenticity and
service excellence
National Geographic
Unique Lodges of the World
Go Pass Breathr
“Ascend x______ Brand” (cont.)
Other Example Concepts
Ascend x Washingtonian
A unique collection of extraordinary
journeys and thrilling destinations, rare
retreats and unique experiences in
and around the DC area.
Elevate x CP
Beyond ordinary rewards, Elevate
x CP is easy, on-the-go access to
dozens of perks - information, offers,
events - rewarding your curiosity for a
destination and making your trip more
rewarding
Recapture Collection
Revolution Momentum
Un-Franchisor messaging platform
Simple Contracts
No FDD
Fair Pricing
‘Key Drivers’
Benchmark Calculator ++
Analyze, visualize and report performance
across channels. Manage demand,
understand acquisition costs and maximize
net revenues.
KEY RESULTS
• Grew market share 250 bps and LTR 4 bps, reversing material multi-
year declines in both measures
• Grew development pipeline 25% and deal value 170% year-over-year
• Repositioned 50 independents into upscale, soft-branded product
• End-to-end redesign of development sales and franchise services
• Cut avg. expected opening time 30%
• Identified $230MM (est.) in unrealized fee opportunities
ASCEND HOTEL COLLECTION
BIZ CHALLENGE:
• Optimize value of $200MM marketing, distribution
and operations platform
• Reverse material declines in operating performance,
unit growth rate and satisfaction among franchisees
and guests
• Breakthrough perception of Choice with respect to
upscale and lifestyle
TURN AROUND FLAGGING BRAND & BUSINESS

KEY RESULTS
• New brand design, guest experience plan, product / service
roadmap, halo moments, day part programming, etc.
• Enterprise alignment, activation and unit growth targets
realized
• Awards: #1 luxury Brand (JD Powers), World’s Best (T+L
500), Reader’s Choice (Conde Nast)
JW MARRIOTT
BIZ CHALLENGE:
• Position luxury challenger brand for accelerated growth
• Double distribution to 80 hotels by YE 2015
• Generate $600 MM in incremental room night revenue
B U I L D B R A N D F O R T H E N E W L U X U R Y C U S T O M E R

TRANSFORM E2E CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE TO ENTER NEW CATEGORY

RESERVATION
SYSTEM
eCHANNELS
SHARED
SERVICES
eCHANNELS
MIX
FREQUENCY
PROGRAMS
PRICING
OPTIMIZATION /
YIELD
MANAGEMENT
DIRECT
BOOKING
CREDIT CARD
RATES
INTERMEDIARY
CONTRACTS
GLOBAL
PARTNERSHIPS
%
REVENUE UPSIDE
PROFIT SAVINGS
15
CASE STUDY: AUTOGRAPH, REVEL, ASCEND
NETWORK of UNMATCHABLE ASSETS POWERED by a
PLATFORM that GROWS PROFITABLE REVENUE FASTER
KEY PLAYS
1. Field strong industry / non-industry
team
2. Capitalize for success (more PE, less
VC)
3. Have a defining, differentiating idea
that is VERY important to consumers
4. Leverage technology for the next
decade rather than the prior decade
5. Put customer experience at heart of
the operating model
Neil Cantor - 240.605.3985 - neilcan@gmail.com

Fighting for Greatness with Customers

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