Will had a phenomenal impact on our teams from both Paris and New York. His enthusiasm and passion for hospitality resonated with everyone. He offered out of the box thinking and ideas, and he delivered his message with genuine authenticity and emotion. He inspired so, so many of us, and we are grateful to have had the opportunity to connect with Will and his unique experience. Already the wheels are in motion at Hermes for Unreasonable Hospitality!
Will Guidara
Restaurateur, Entrepreneur, Author of Unreasonable Hospitality
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Will Guidara
Biography
Will Guidara is the co-owner of Make It Nice, a hospitality group that currently includes Eleven Madison Park, the NoMad restaurants, and Made Nice.
A native of Sleepy Hollow, New York, Will has been immersed in the restaurant industry since the age of thirteen. A graduate of the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University, Will began his dining room training at Spago Beverly Hills and attended culinary school in the north of Spain. He then went on to various roles throughout Union Square Hospitality Group, previously serving as general manager of Eleven Madison Park. He is also the co-founder of the Welcome Conference, an annual hospitality-driven event held in Manhattan that brings together the best minds from the world of hospitality for a day-long discussion.
Humm and Guidara purchased Eleven Madison Park, and under their leadership, the restaurant has received numerous accolades, including four stars from the New York Times, three Michelin stars, and was given the highest ranking on the list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants in 2017. EMP has also received seven James Beard Foundation awards, including Outstanding Service and Outstanding Restaurant in America.
Will went on to open the food and beverage spaces at The NoMad Hotel with Daniel Humm. At The NoMad New York, they have received a three-star review from The New York Times, one Michelin star, and a James Beard Foundation award. The duo then opened The NoMad Bar, which has earned a top spot on the World’s Best Bar list, followed by Made Nice, a counter-service restaurant located in the NoMad neighborhood.
His latest book, Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect, teaches the essential lessons in hospitality that can be applied to any business.
Will and Daniel have also co-authored four cookbooks together: Eleven Madison Park: The Cookbook, I Love New York: Ingredients and Recipes, The NoMad Cookbook, and Eleven Madison Park: The Next Chapter.
Will Guidara
Featured Videos
Will Guidara
Featured Keynote Programs
Giving More vs. Less
Why Hospitality Is The Greatest Tool In Problem-Solving
Too often, when we’re faced with a pernicious problem in business or our lives, we fall back on the tried-and-true: push harder, be more efficient, cut back. Imagine, that instead you asked yourself: what is the hospitality solution? What if you forced yourself to be creative, to develop a solution that worked because of—not in spite of—your dedication to generosity and extraordinary service? These are usually harder to execute, and coming up with them will definitely call on your creative side. But they’re almost always a win. During times of struggle – particularly in today’s economic climate – people tend to operate from a place of fear. In this talk, Will makes the case for why this is the perfect time to root your decisions in hospitality and give more, not less.
Why Hospitality Is Today’s #1 Leadership Skill
We know that people and teams excel at a high-level when they feel in community with each other – aligned and connected. In the corporate workplace, this used to happen organically but in today’s post-pandemic world where most work is done remotely, the conditions of the game have changed – which means leaders must change how they’re playing the game. Today’s leaders need to be skilled at very intentionally creating the conditions for their teams to come together, to genuinely connect – and that’s what is at the heart of hospitality. Leaders who know how to take a collection of individuals and make sure they operate as a team will create more connected, inspired, effective, and happy employees. By applying ideas honed over the course of his career operating the world’s #1 restaurant, Will helps others do whatever it takes to be better hosts, and thus better leaders.
Unreasonable Hospitality
How Giving People More Than They Expect Can Get You To #1
Will Guidara took Eleven Madison Park from a middling Brasserie to the best restaurant in the world when he realized something revolutionary – in a restaurant, the food, the service, and the design are simply ingredients in the recipe of human connection. When Will encouraged his team to be present with their guests, take what they do seriously without taking themselves too seriously, and employ a “one size fits one” strategy, magic happened. In this talk, Will shares why these lessons took EMP to #1, and how an unreasonable approach to the pursuit of human connection can help you win – and give people an experience they’ll remember forever.
How To Build A Brand Centered On Unreasonable Hospitality
For most of America’s history, we functioned as a manufacturing economy; now, we’re a service economy—more than three-quarters of our GDP comes from service. So, whether you’re in retail, finance, education, healthcare, computer services, communications, you are in the business of serving other people. Making good products is no longer enough, serving efficiently is no longer enough – now, it’s how you make the people you work with and those you serve feel that matters most of all. In this talk, Will will share why he believes our world is on the precipice of becoming a hospitality economy, and how every business can choose to be in the business of hospitality, by transforming ordinary transactions into extraordinary experiences.
Will Guidara
Featured Book
Unreasonable Hospitality
by Will Guidara
Essential lessons in hospitality for every business, from the former co-owner of legendary restaurant Eleven Madison Park.
In 2006, Will Guidara and Swiss chef Daniel Humm were placed at the helm of Eleven Madison Park. The establishment, a brasserie with an identity crisis, was in desperate need of magic. In 2017, Eleven Madison Park was named the best restaurant in the world, legendary for its memorable, over-the-top, bespoke hospitality as much as its food.
How did Eleven Madison Park pull off this radical transformation? The answer is simple - its world-class hospitality. Guidara's team would send a family who had never seen snow to Central Park with a sled on a snowy night or track down the cab that a guest had left their iPhone in to retrieve the device. And his hospitality extended beyond the dining room and into the kitchen, where he encouraged his entire restaurant team to learn continuously, tap into their own passions, and think like owners no matter their roles.
We can all transform ordinary business transactions into an extraordinary hospitality experience. Through sparkling stories of Guidara's journey through the restaurant industry, featuring the industry's most famous players like Daniel Boulud and Danny Meyer, Guidara urges us all to find the magic in what we do--for ourselves, the people we work with, and the people we serve.
Will Guidara
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