Innovation Hackathon for Luxury Hospitality

Designed and delivered a 2-day innovation sprint for Mandarin Oriental, bringing together hotel leaders from across the globe to prototype new growth ideas using startup methodology.

~50 leaders across functions and geographies

10+ ideas advanced

2-day hackathon format

Hong Kong headquarters

The Ask

Mandarin Oriental is one of the most operationally excellent hotel groups in the world. When your culture is built on flawless execution and zero tolerance for error, the idea of running quick experiments, testing half-formed ideas, and learning from failure doesn't come naturally. The group's leadership wanted to open a new channel for innovation thinking without disrupting what made them great. Designed and ran a Techstars Startup Weekend format hackathon at their Hong Kong headquarters, bringing together roughly 50 participants: managing directors from properties in different countries, headquarters leaders across sales, housekeeping, operations, and a mix of rising talent. Sold the engagement, designed the program, and delivered it on the ground.

Target Customers

Managing directors from properties across countries, headquarters leaders across functions (sales, housekeeping, operations), and rising talent from across the organization.

What We Did

Over two days, took participants through a compressed startup journey. Teams formed around problem statements, ran customer discovery exercises including getting out of the building to test assumptions with real people, built rough prototypes, received coaching from mentors, and pitched their ideas to a panel. The room was unusually cross-functional: a managing director from Asia Pacific sitting alongside a housekeeping operations lead from Europe forced teams to see problems and solutions from angles they wouldn't encounter in their day-to-day roles.

Key Insight

The real challenge was shifting the mindset of an organization that had spent decades perfecting its standards. In luxury hospitality, consistency is the product. Every detail matters, every process is refined, and improvisation is not celebrated. The frame that worked was "small bets": disciplined experiments that could test new growth avenues without betting the house or compromising the brand. Ideas reflected the unique vantage point of the participants. One team pitched a vertical farming concept letting hotel chefs grow hyper-local produce on site, turning sustainability into a guest-facing differentiator. Another tackled how properties are presented and sold to distribution partners, identifying friction that was costing the group bookings.

Recommendation

Operational excellence and exploratory innovation can coexist within the same culture when framed correctly. The format gave the organization a shared vocabulary for innovation and a repeatable toolkit (customer discovery, prototyping, pitching) that participants could apply locally at their properties.

Outcome

Over ten ideas were selected by leadership for further internal development. Participants returned to their properties with a concrete innovation toolkit they could apply locally.

Have a similar challenge?

Let's discuss how customer discovery and rapid validation can help your team.

Schedule a Call