Worried About AI? Try Unreasonable Hospitality.
Organizations are shifting from apprehension to full embrace of AI tools and services. Suddenly, individuals are realizing that what they do can be done by a machine quickly and efficiently.
AI can write emails, analyze data, and even generate a client strategy deck if you prompt it the right way. In other words, it can do most of the “hard” parts of your work. But the soft stuff? The listening, caring, anticipating, surprising—that still belongs to us. And it might be the only edge we have left.
We recently read Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara. On the surface, it’s about how he helped turn Eleven Madison Park into the best restaurant in the world—not by inventing new dishes, but by completely reimagining the guest experience. The book is technically about restaurants, but it’s really about people. And business. And leadership.
Here’s the core idea: the most powerful thing you can do for someone is to make them feel seen. That idea is timeless, but it’s about to become incredibly valuable—because while AI can do a lot of things, it still can’t deliver genuine human care.
And that’s the opportunity. If most businesses/brands start to look and sound the same thanks to automation, then the ones that feel different will stand out. The ones that make people feel heard, valued, understood—those will win.
At NICH, we talk a lot about “stickiness” with our own clients. The goal isn’t just to be just great at what we do (table stakes). It’s to make them feel like we’re part of their team. Like we care as much as they do (maybe more sometimes). That kind of experience doesn’t come from a chatbot or a workflow. It comes from culture.
And that’s the big takeaway from the book: if you want your people to create extraordinary experiences for your clients or customers, you have to create extraordinary experiences for your people. You can’t expect employees to go above and beyond if they’re not treated with the same care and attention. Hospitality starts on the inside.
So yeah, AI is changing everything – we all know this ad nauseam. But maybe that just makes the human stuff even more important. What Unreasonable Hospitality reminded us is that real value, lasting loyalty, and meaningful work will always be rooted in something technology can’t replicate: how we treat each other.
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Culture Edit Podcast
Ep. 093 – André Stewart - CEO, Café du Cycliste
This week’s guest is André Stewart, Co-founder and CEO of Café du Cycliste, an outdoor apparel brand with roots in cycling.
We chat about the Cote D’Azur getting hot, planning rides in the shade, the impressive ride scene in Miami, how the Café du Cycliste “Cappuccino” rides turn into an espresso, the importance of building community, how the US market is a big bet, what they look for in a destination for a store, and the new location in Paris. We also get into product development strategy, becoming B Corp certified, why they bootstrapped the business, and what could’ve been different had they brought in investors. We wrap up with his future vision for the brand, and of course, his favorite climbs in the French Riviera.