Laurent Kleitman on Mandarin Oriental's Vienna opening

0:11Hello and welcome to The Entrepreneurs on Monocle Radio, the show all about inspiring people, innovative companies and fresh ideas in global business. Coming up on the show, we reconnect with one of our favourite guests of 2025 to check in on his highlights of the year. Highlights aside from appearing on this Vine programme, of course. What we say about Mandarin Rental in Vienna is that we composed an Asian symphony in Vienna, in a way, and bringing the Asian touch in hospitality into the heart of old Europe. And later, we'll hear from the leader of a sustainable fashion label that's expanding globally while navigating the challenges inherent to a commitment to positive impact.

0:51One of the main slogans of the brand is humanity in motion. So it's never a challenge when you speak about humanity. It's obviously a challenge when you try to understand what's happening. This is The Entrepreneurs with me, Tom Edwards.

1:14you're listening to the entrepreneurs now regular listeners to the show will be familiar with friend of the program and group ceo of mandarin oriental hotel group lauren kleitman since we last spoke to lauren back in september mandarin oriental began celebrations for a very special anniversary and expanded its portfolio with the opening of its debut property in Austria. Our Laura Kramer caught up with Laurent at our pop-up studio at the recent international luxury travel market in Cannes, and she began by asking him about the group's landmark moments of 2025. Pretty important milestone, 150 years of the Mandarin Oriental Bangkok, that we call the Oriental Bangkok, really, founded in 1876.

1:57So we're starting the festivities of the 150th anniversary of the Grand Dam on the Charpa River. So it's a huge milestone for us, really, in how we can conceive the property for the next 150 years, in a way. That's what really is about, the anniversary we're about to celebrate. And you also opened a new location in Vienna. Sure. So that's part of the legend continues. And we are now entering Austria with a beautiful property in the heart of Vienna. What a magnificent capital city in Europe. And just opened a week ago. And I'll do the ribbon cutting next week. So you see, this is still very hot of the press.

2:36A beautiful new hotel there. Well, tell us about it. What can visitors find there? Well, you know, I mean, Vienna is one of the most visited capital city. And so much linked to arts and fine arts and music. What we say about Mandarin Rental in Vienna is that we composed an Asian symphony in Vienna, in a way. and bringing the Asian touch in hospitality into the heart of old Europe. And just to show that old Europe has a lot to offer. So there's going to be here, I mean, a magnificent food and beverage offering. For once, we're not going to do a tea lounge, but a coffee lounge, giving the culture in Austria is very much around coffee.

3:13So we have deployed a range of creative recipes around coffee. So I hope you can come and visit us. Me too. And I love my coffee. Now, when you look at expansion, is it more about planting more flags or deepening the experience in the places that you are? How do you calibrate that? You know, this is when the brand is so loved by our guests and our fans, as we like to call them. I think our job is to make sure we have Mandarin Oriental hotels where they travel. So if you love Mandarin Oriental and you want to go to Rome, today you can't. And in a year or so, you'll be able to have a Mandarin Oriental in Rome.

3:51Same in Vienna. If you really love the brand, you need to be where the guests are going. So it's really planting the flag, but not any flag anywhere. It's really about the right destination and where we capture the essence of each destination in our hotels and then deepening the experience of our guests in the relevant location. Yes. And I wondered, how important is Providence for that? Because when you're building something new, how do you make sure that it has that sense of place, which you alluded to, but it also feels rooted, but also not generic, let's say. Interesting as a question, because this is the art of developing hotel.

4:28It's really about that fil rouge that makes sure you know you are in a Mandarin Oriental with a sort of authentic service culture, our legendary service culture that we brought from the Oriental in Bangkok and the Mandarin in Hong Kong. How that is really what is the point of difference across all our properties, more than or in addition to, of course, the design or the food and beverage we are famous for or the wellness offering as well. So it's that balance of who we are as a brand and where we are as a destination. I'm glad you brought up wellness because it has, in a way, become a little bit of a buzzword.

5:05But at the same time, the research shows people care about this. Of course, you know better than anybody. And I wondered, what does it mean for the Mandarin Oriental specifically, that goes beyond the green juices and yoga mats, let's say? You know, well, I mean, a couple of things. First, I want always to remind that we have invented wellness in luxury hospitality. I mean, the first ever spine hotel was in 1993 in Bangkok, in the Oriental at the time. So we, in a way, have been participated to the massive trend of wellness development in luxury hotel. But I must say today, guests want more than just a yoga mat, as you say, or a green apple.

5:45they want first of all the choice they want to have not just wellness but well-being offering throughout the journey and it's not just about the spa or not just about the fitness that you can provide but it's about the overall care you can you can show for their entire well-being so how do you care for their sleeping routine we have a new signature sleeping moment that we deploy along all our properties where we do have a new ritual in terms of beverage for a turndown service, a number of amenities that we bring to facilitate the sleep, which as we know today, sleeping is probably the most challenged activities we have to go through and the most deprived in terms of sleep.

6:30So there is a larger definition of well-being nowadays that goes well beyond wellness or spa. I love that. And also the way that you talk about it, there is a sense of fun to it at the same time, because I think sometimes we hear wellness and it seems very serious. And I wonder, do you think in hospitality, are we afraid of having fun in hospitality sometimes or should we just be leaning more into it? You know, there is truth in what you say about luxury hospitality sometimes being too stiff. what we're trying to provide the guest is a very relaxed, a very natural service. And giving the choice, I come back to that notion of choice, because nowadays in a property, they want to have the indulgence of a three-star meal full of butter if they want to.

7:20And at the same time, the best ever detox menu or vegan menu in the same property on the same day. So we have to adapt to this diversity of needs and to be more flexible. And in fact, to listen more to our guests, listen more to our guests, more than sort of give them what we believe luxury hospitality is, but by creating the experience they want from a luxury place that we offer. And I think that's important, of course, the listening part of what the customer wants. But what about local communities? And it's not just about the backdrop anymore, but how do they become real partners in the experience when you go into a new location?

8:02We want to work with the communities to create experiences. So everywhere we put new hotels, very much ahead of any setup, we get in contact with the communities. We recruit people from the communities. We train people from the community. We are the best allies of the community, The best example, perhaps, is our property in Beijing in Tiananmen, where we have renovated a Hutong area very close to the Forbidden City. And we still have neighbors. So we are still completely immersed in a community. The chief concierge is a man who lived and was born in this area and lived all his childhoods in this neighborhood.

8:43He's now our chief concierge in Mandarin Oriental Tiananmen, Beijing. This is the way we really embrace the community. And the best experience is when you have a tea ceremony, not a fake tea ceremony, but in fact you go to the place he used to go. He used to live when he was a child and you do the tea with him. And this is where we really believe we belong to the community and support the community. And you touched on talent there. It's such an important discussion. And I wondered, do you still believe in the traditional hospitality schools or is it more about instinct and attitude these days?

9:18How do you find the best talent then? You need both. You need well-trained students that come and work for us. We have a program called Rising Fan Program where we provide and propose 18 months graduate program in Mandarin Rental going through different functions and then getting to know the culture and getting to know the brand from within and then graduating and taking on more responsibility inside the group. So we need that, but also we need the attitude and the character. Very often I'm touring the hospitality schools, and the question I'm most often asked is about what would it take to be successful in hospitality?

9:54And while I say, I know I'm older than the students, but I hate giving advice because it feels like I'm a very old person, talking down to young people, which I'm not. And nonetheless, I answer the question by saying, I believe to be successful in hospitality, you need to love others more than you love yourself. And it's really about putting the other at the heart of your life. And having the joy of seeing someone else fulfilled and happy is what should fulfill yourself and create your sense of purpose in your profession. So if you love others, I think hospitality is a profession for life. I think it's a really good life lesson there, too.

10:34Not just in hospitality. It's really beautiful. You alluded to it earlier. Where are the new openings this year? Where are you taking us? So we're going to close the year with 45 hotels. We just opened Dubai downtown, our second property in Vienna. And next year, we've planned to open a beautiful resort in Mallorca, in Puta Negra, and a beautiful resort that will open in April 2026. Then we're going to return to Manila. You know, we're born in Asia, so very happy when there is a new Asian capital city on the map for us. And we'll close the year with our first alpine resort in Cortina in Italy.

11:10The entry of Mandarin Oriental in the ski resort and alpine resort. We're very happy to be coming to that market very soon. Oh, that's so exciting. And when you look ahead to 2026 then, where should we be heading? What's catching your eye in terms of the direction of travel, I guess, for the hospitality industry, luxury industry for sure? Well, I think everybody is probably saying similar things. And this is really a very favorable cycle we're in at the moment. the search for new experiences. But I would say one of the most important ones is the desire for more privacy, the desire for more generosity, the desire for new destination.

11:51We are well-placed at Mandarin Oriental to capture those trends. And how much is it about also discovering or helping somebody discover a new destination too? Because we have these established regions that we all go to that we love, but sometimes it's fun to be the leaders and to pave the way. Yes, absolutely right. We like to be in the destination you expect us to be, and we like to be in the destination you don't expect us to be. So, for example, our project in Japan that will open in 2027 is in a formidable area near Takamatsu, where we're going to have a resort in two different locations that you will have to cross the sea to go to the second one, and on the famous Sodoshima Island, where you have a wealth of art and museums.

12:35So this is a destination where there is no luxury offering. And we're very happy to offer a Mandarin Oriental to art lovers in this part of Japan, which is a beautiful region of the country. That was Lauren Kleitman, Group CEO of the Mandarin Hotel Group, talking to our Laura Kramer. You can find out more about Lauren's business by heading to mandarinoriental.com. Welcome to the land of wine, cuisine, fashion and the art of joie de vivre. France, the Monocle handbook, is the third installment in our series of hardback guides for the best things to do, see and discover in all corners of l 'Hexagone.

13:13Over 220 plus pages, Monocle's latest book showcases the crème de la crème of the country from the Atlantique to the Alps and the windswept Normandy to the sun-kissed Riviera. Plus, top tables in Paris, Nantes not to miss hotels, and where to splash out in Marseille, and plenty more to try from piste to plage. If you're looking to stay longer or put down roots, the book also spotlights the neighbourhoods to know and introduce you to the plucky entrepreneurs who have already made the move. France, the Monocle handbook is out now. Buy your copy today at monocle.com forward slash books.

14:00You're listening to The Entrepreneurs. Rania Masri is the CEO of The Giving Movement, a sustainable activewear and lifestyle brand homegrown in the United Arab Emirates. A seasoned luxury and retail leader, Rania joined the company only recently. The mother of two moved to Abu Dhabi 25 years ago from Canada and has since played a significant role in shaping the Emirates retail and fashion ecosystem. I caught up with Rania on a recent trip to the UAE's capital and began by asking her where the giving movement's focus on responsible, sustainable practices began. It's great to talk about this today because if you would have asked me maybe, I would say, five years ago when it was founded, it was not as important, I feel as it is today in the sense of the customer base, you know, linking their personal values to the brands that they engage with.

14:54Today in the region, there's a lot more attention to that. And the younger generation is really the one that's spearheading a movement that is not only about being conscious about what they wear and which brands they engage with, but also the whole idea of just wanting to be part of a movement that's kinder, kinder obviously to the planet, but most importantly to each other. You know, we've seen the world go through such, it's not the first time that the world's gone through such difficult times, but it's with the social media, everybody's part of all the wars and the famines and the misery that we see around us.

15:37So a brand that is very much rooted around the idea of giving back really took off. And it was founded in 2020 during COVID. It was a time where everybody was very engaged, engaged through social media. So the story really took off. It was a very simple brand that started just with T-shirts with a very big logo that said the giving movement. And everybody was wearing it very proudly. And just on that point about the consumer demanding more, actually, from businesses that talk about these kind of themes, how challenging is it when there is a singular moment? You mentioned wars and things like this.

16:18Obviously, there's been quite an outspoken stance on Casa, for example, which is pretty, very popular with consumers. But is that difficult as a steward of a business to know where to set those boundaries? Is that a challenge to balance? Or actually, if you come back to those principles, is it actually easier? Because you say, well, no, we're just not moving from our course. I mean, one of the main slogans of the brand is humanity in motion. So it's never a challenge when you speak about humanity. It's obviously a challenge when you try to understand what's happening. But I think all humans are connected in the fact that we just don't want to see humanity go through what it's been through.

16:57Now, as a brand, we had a lot of support here in the UAE, and we worked through Dubai Cares in order for us to support many charities, you know, regionally or globally. The brand was able to support, build a school in Delhi for orphans, and that was the brainchild of a lady called Lucy, and it's called Harmony House. and today we are actually we have two employees with us that have gone through and graduated from that school so from building the school to having graduates that came for an internship with us and that i stayed with us and that story just for me it just shows you that it's tangible results and it's not just you know where's the money going or what are we doing and how are we supporting that's amazing that's proper circularity right we talk about it in economic terms but that's Yeah, I mean, when I started and I walked into the office and I actually met the team and I had read so much about diversity and inclusion.

18:00And you know how how loose this term could be in many organizations. But a funny story, I'll tell you this. It was my first day in the office and I went to the coffee machine and I was putting my coffee. And this young man looks at me just very, very seriously and goes, do you want to hear a joke? and I'm you know this is like the CEO starting Thursday and I was caught off guard I'm like sure okay I remember the joke but it was a very you know the elephant and the and the mouse type of joke so I just not a classic or maybe it is a classic and he just and I just cracked up when he finished this joke and he just looked at me straight in the eye and just moved on and I said to myself, you know, what was that?

18:47And when I spoke to my executive team, I'm like, they said, listen, this happened. And they said, yes, this is Ahmed, and he's on the spectrum. I said, wow. Okay, so we're literally, you know, and then I started meeting so many different people. And to be honest, you know, I've worked for 25 years, and I've never had, you know, one-on-one interactions when they talk about diversity and inclusion, but really giving a platform for people to engage of all sorts of lives that warms my heart a lot no it's a lovely story well done well done um it's funny you mentioned your your kind of career and your duration you've obviously worked in some other kind of sometimes you've had lots of really interesting jobs do you i don't know it sounds you're so passionate about what you're doing now but do you miss i don't know media landscape so many interesting moves we've been having some kind of conversations with various players in that field do you look back sometimes and miss the rough and fumble of some of these areas or is it always exciting to see how you can build on your experiences with what's coming next how does it work yeah I mean this is what and again a lot of people that know me have said wow this was probably the missing puzzle for you and I think that I've built my career in a way it was actually very organic and natural but from working in luxury and working in retail everything at the heart of what I did was very much around brand and creating communities and then when I got the opportunity to come and work in Abu Dhabi the past couple of years in media although it was a first for me but it really revolved around the same things what we saw happen was a transformation on the way that people engage and communicate so at the end of the day you're trying to build a brand you're talking to a community you're not talking to and the same thing with news and media So I found it fascinating when I moved into that area that traditional media can no longer sustain itself if they don't partner with the communities, because this is where the conversation and the narrative is happening.

20:55So when I started talking to the investors that are behind today, the giving movement, I thought, you know what? I did the luxury bit. I did the school. I have my foundations in retail. I looked at what's happening in terms of how people are engaging with content today. And I really felt very close to a lot of the causes because when you're in news, it's not luxury, right? So when I found a perfect mix between what I love to do, which is building brands, working in fashion, homegrown, which I'm very passionate about, and then finding a message and a narrative that's actually very strong and real.

21:37then I found that it was the right you know I think it's that circularity that circularity and just on that it's funny because obviously there was a big rebrand at IMI so kind of recently and you were kind of in the vanguard of that is that just the perfect project for you is that the kind of thing where you're like I'm gonna roll my sleeves up yes like this yeah were there some attendant challenges because it was quite a big shift if you think in strategic terms An easy job? Probably not. Look, it wasn't easy, but I never go after easy jobs. I don't know what it is. I don't know if it's probably the city that I live in as well and the country that we live in from day one.

22:14I mean, I came here, I was 24 years old, you know, but from day one, it was all about building. It was all about trying to understand the ecosystem and trying to make something out of it. It was never an operating role. First, we worked with Inditex brands to launch them. And then, you know, Ralph Lauren was coming into the region and I led that. But my last stint with the Shalhoub Group, which is the largest retail luxury group in the region, was chief transformation officer. Within transformation of any organization, be it luxury, retail or anything, there are many pillars that you have to work with.

22:49But one of the main ones is culture and people. So when I went into that role and what excited me about the role, first of all, was the CEO, because I follow people. You know, and Rani Rahad was and is a very big name in the media industry. And he wanted to create something, a big foundation for media for the UAE. And I found the idea of the transformation a lot more interesting than just the industry itself. You know, how do we create a brand, you know, but how do we create a brand that resonates with the journalists and the people and the brands that are under that umbrella? but also that could play to the strength and to the power of the country that we're part of.

23:35I mean, the UAE, you see what's happening in culture today, but really you look at AI, you look at, you know, genomics, you look at everything. So media had to be the next frontier if you want to. And it's the same thing, as you said, it's story time, transformation. Absolutely. These things run through it. Well, let's come back then to getting movement and talk to us a little bit, Rania, about the next phase. expansion globally you know again the story plays super well here but it plays pretty well around the world how do you marshal that you know something travel in a slightly more circuitous way so you've got to be the steward of that journey is it difficult to speak to a millennial audience compared to your gen z audience compared to your bim holders whatever how do you kind of make sure you're marrying up all the threads keeping coherent keeping a hand on the tiller presumably that's another fun challenge that you like but how do you how do you give some strategic insights i mean look like every brand and you know this more than than anyone i'm sure you know you need to know your audience you need to curate your offer curate your teams your experience for that audience but what i love here and what i'm you know part of our strategic direction is to really come back to our roots and be very true to who we are.

24:55You know, you look at the teams will do competitive mapping and they'll look at the other players and you have huge players that are coming into the region or into the world. You have Lululemon that's been there for a while and then you have Alo Yoga and now there's Viore that's also coming. And the teams are like opening stores and Skims just signed a deal with Unas and they have a huge pop-up. but I don't look at that because I don't think that we're competing when it comes to our message and I don't think that we're competing when it comes to our DNA true we might be competing when it comes to the actual product but what why a customer or why a community will choose us is very different so I really want to double down and triple down on that and I think it's important that we don't consider.

25:41I mean, the money will come. The commercial part will come. The growth will come. You know, those are very simple. You open more stores and you, you know, have events and you perfect your product and you perfect your team. But what you really need to make sure is to always stick to what your promises and to what your values are. And here, it is a brand that was built on that. so it's very important that we continue on that promise and that we scale that movement so yes regionally here we are known maybe more in the UAE than the rest of the region although I was very surprised at how big the equity of the brand actually is because when my announcement got up I'm like is it about me or is it about the brand why is everybody so excited but yeah the region you know is very proud of it because it also has the Arabic element to it So I really want to feature, first of all, a lot of people in the community that are doing good.

26:40I want them to be our ambassadors. I'm not as interested to have models that look very nice in our outfits only. That's also good. But it's really about who fits these values. Who does our customer relate to? And that scalability is very possible across the world because everybody can resonate with that. So how do we take this to Europe? How do we take this to the U.S.? How do we take this to South Asia? How do we work with that same heart in commerce? That was Rania Masri, the CEO of The Giving Movement, talking to me in Abu Dhabi. And you can find out more about the business and its work by heading to thegivingmovement.com.

27:32And that's all for this episode of The Entrepreneurs. We'll be back at the same time next week. The programme's produced by Laura Kramer with audio editing by Jack Dewars. You can listen again and find out more about the show at monocle.com. And while you're there, why not subscribe to Monocle magazine, support our journalism, and read more about better businesses every month. You can also follow this show and catch up wherever you get your podcasts. If you'd like to be in touch with the team, email Laura on lrk at monocle.com. I'm Tom Edwards. Goodbye, and thanks for listening to The Entrepreneurs.

28:17K