Inspiring a brighter future, Together. THE ANDPURPOSETHEWHY? PG. 11 SFO to JFK, and the TWA Hotel August 2022 ISEXECUTIONEVERYTHING PG. 15
04 SFO, Harvey Milk, and Mint by JetBlue 08 The TWA Hotel, JFK Airport, New York 11 The Purpose and The Why? 2
CONTENTS 12 WantPeopleWhat 15 Execution Everythingis 18 About Authorthe 3
On a recent trip, I had the pleasure to experience JetBlue and the TWA hotel at John F Kennedy Airport, New York, the only on-site hotel in one of the busiest airports in the world. There were many learnings, and here are my musings from that experience: How things make us feel is the most powerful reason of why we return, if we advocate, or not, what we tell our friends, and the likelihood of us being repeat customers at that resort or similar. I find it hard to comprehend that over the past 12 years I have averaged 70,000 air miles a year, 2 of those years grounded because of the global pandemic, and my record year in 2019 racking up over 150,000 miles in 12 months winning the dubious honor of elite status with American Airlines, an indication that I had spend too much time in the air and too much time away from home. With that amount of travel under my belt, I have come to realize that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be, and without the lure of a new or interesting destinations, airline travel is one of those things that in the absence of a great experience, I would prefer to stay home, and use Zoom for meetings.
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SFO, Harvey Milk, and Mint by JetBlue
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I arrived at the Harvey Milk Terminal at SFO, not the first time but a reminder how pleasant an experience it actually is, and probably the best airport experience I have witnessed in my “flying career”. Helped by my TSA Pre-Check status I sailed through security and onto the other side and the pleasant walk to Gate 8 where today my JetBlue was departing. As always, I had scheduled a bit of extra time to visit the American Airlines Admirals Club, grab a coffee (or two) and my usual yogurt and poppy seed cake - always emails to check and respond to, much easier in the tranquility of the lounge. freshen up, and on to my gate. Thing is, I realized, that given the beauty, spaciousness, cleanliness of this new terminal with all the premium food offerings and coffee shops, unlike other airport experiences where the lounge was an oasis from the jungle outside, the Harvey Milk Terminal is an excellent and pleasant experience compared with most, if not all. The Harvey Milk Terminal is not only full of convenience but also connections to the past, the man himself, an iconic connection to San Francisco, the city, its history and culture. Whether its your home airport or you’re visiting, there is much to explore, learn, and connect with giving the experience meaning and purpose.
Ciara came to introduce herself whilst still on the tarmac, welcomed me aboard, asked if I needed anything and went through the menu with me. She explained that I could choose any three items from the five-dish menu, went through the wine list, and range of handcrafted cocktails. It was an afternoon flight, I’d been at my desk since 5.00 am that morning, so I opted for the Al Pastor Margarita – Corazón Blanco tequila, pineapple, chili, and lime. She came back with a real glass cocktail glass as she poured the delicious liquid out of the cocktail shaker –“did you just actually shake that cocktail?” I asked, she just smiled and said, “Of course Sir.” I was impressed with both the service and the cocktail.
I then boarded and sat in the JetBlue Mint class I was well looked after by cabin crew Ciara and Kim, and treated to the delights of Pasquale Jones, the curated menu courtesy of the Delicious Hospitality Group formed by Chef Ryan Hardy and wine aficionado and sommelier Grant Reynolds. It was unlike any in-flight food experience I had ever had. A pair of food entrepreneurs with the NYC connection, a great story of innovation and growth, and clearly a lot of care and attention had been paid to the menu, its construct, the recipes, ingredients, and the overall food experience.
Up in the air, dinner arrived on an array of smallware’s to the extent that I’d never witnessed on a plane before. Escarole Salad, Roasted Chicken with eggplant caponata, and pine nut crumble, and Flat Iron Steak with roasted fennel, and spicy chili breadcrumbs accompanied with a glass of Vine & Supply Pinot Noir, a minority owned winery in the Willamette Valley, OR I liked the way that everything had a story to it. It reminded me how important connections are, the power of storytelling, the impact of careful curation, and the experience of carefully prepared and presented food made from the best ingredients. After dinner, I settled down with my complementary JetBlue Mint headphones, free WI-Fi, and watched the mini drama series, The Tourist. As we landed nearly six hours later, Ciara passed me a card thanking me for my custom, and a handwritten message: 6
The note from Ciara was a nice personal touchit made me feel both appreciated and valued. 7
The TWA Hotel, JFK Airport, New TheYorkTWAHotel
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It was nearly 10.00 pm local by the time I arrived in JFK Terminal 5 and on to the walkway to the TWA Hotel – the only hotel in the limits of JFK, the other airport hotels two or three miles away.
Stepping off the elevator, I was faced by a tubular tunnel walkway furnished with a bright red carpet with the bright red TWA logo above enticing me to the hotel lobby a 100-yard dash away and with 50s music piping out to help keep the rhythm with by roller bag and backpack in tow. Arriving in the futuristic lobby, music still piping out, I walked down to the check-in which was the same design as the check-in for a flight in almost any airport in the world. I grabbed my TWA key card and headed up to my room, 323, to unpack my bag and settle in for the night.
Having traversed more ubiquitous red carpet I got to my room and read up on the history of the hotel – a habit I’d always followed no matter where I was in the world, and an inane need to understand the context and history of my surroundings and latest location.
The TWA Hotel is a hotel at John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York City, that opened in May 2019. It utilizes the head house of the TWA Flight Center, designed in 1962 by the architect Eero Saarinen. The TWA Hotel project added two buildings on either side of the existing head house. It contains a total of 512 rooms, as well as conference space, several restaurants, and an aviation history museum.
In front of the Sunken Lounge – an airport lobby style seating area with I assume one day waiter service overlooking the vast windows and outside on to the hotel’s tarmac was a TWA emblazoned 1958 Lockheed Constellation, otherwise known as “Connie” now converted into a cocktail bar experience. The thoughtfulness, the design of this place, the attention to detail, and overall experience were all very cool. On my travels I have seen several examples of corporate campuses and how they have achieved similar homages to their businesses and brands, but never quite to the extent that TWA had here.
erazone,aatransportedbeenintodifferentworld,differenttimeadifferentaltogether.
The following morning, I headed down to the lobby, camera in hand, to explore the TWA experience. Back down the redcarpet tunnel that apparently back in the day was part of the film classic, the Marathon Man and out into the open, arched roof expanse with all its nostalgia, quirkiness, and quite clearly a homage to the TWA of the 50s and 60s, Elvis followed by The Beatles, the occasional Frank Sinatra, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, Bill Haley, and the Chordettes to name a few.
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But one thing I was trying to work out was the Purpose, and the Why?
Everything about this place, I sensed that I had
On the main concourse level, two circular bars then I spotted a family contorting in their game in the Twister room, shopping, what looked like a library and quiet space, then a TWA memorabilia store if you wanted your branded knick knacks. Museum artifacts were dotted around including on one of the upper decks a range of flight attendant uniforms through the ages of the airline.
The white floors, the myriad of staircases weaving around the cathedral like arched ceilings with the now familiar ubiquitous red carpet parked on top. Breakfast was in the Paris Café or as a grab and go from the Food Hall downstairs, an Intelligentsia coffee bar in the lobby by check-in.
It seemed that at every turn, every corner there was another surprise, and all connected with and a homage to TWA and what for many was considered the golden era of air travel.
Trans AirlinesWorld was a major U.S. airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with a fleet of Ford Trimotors nicknamed the Tin WithGoose.American Airlines, United, and Eastern, TWA was considered one of the “Big Four” domestic airlines in the United States. Howard Hughes acquired control of TWA in 1939, and after World War II led the expansion of the airline to serve Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, making TWA a second unofficial flag carrier of the United States after Pan HughesAm. gave up control in the 1960s, and the new management of TWA acquired Hilton International and Century 21. In the face of stiff competition, regulation, and global events, TWA filed for bankruptcy for the third and last time in 2001.
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Understanding the Purpose beyond design is critical. Who is the reactionswhataudience,aretheyouwant to stimulate, and how do you want them to feel as a result of the curated experience are all crucial factors for sustainable success.
The Purpose, and The Why?11
One of the shining examples I had the privilege to witness firsthand was the Nike World Headquarters in Beaverton, Oregon where every building is named after a Nike athlete, every feature of the campus is connected to Nike’s history from the Japanese Gardens to the Boston Bar, the Tiger Woods Center, the on-site museum, the retail, the all-encompassing Nike experience leaving no doubt whatsoever whose campus you are on. Airbnb in San Francisco and how they had weaved in their global vacation listings into building replicas in their meeting rooms dotted over the headquarters. Dropbox, eBay, LinkedIn, and Salesforce being other notable examples. The NATO Headquarters in Brussels offering food and beverage, retail, even a duty-free shop, duty free car sales, doctors, dentistry, pharmacy, and an on-site leisure facility for the families of the NATO representatives.
There’s often a big difference between what you think people what and what they really want.
This lady in question had the best of intentions in her attempt to provide the best possible food experience she had encountered but missed out on the obvious connection of what her people actually wanted but it’s also about what they need too.
I recall an instance where a client was a massive fan of France and she wanted the employee experience (including the food) to be a French experience. She went to great lengths to hire a team of French Chefs creating beautiful and authentic French dishes every day at their headquarters and manufacturing facility but couldn’t understand why the participation was so low. The answer turned out to be quite simple, 70% of her workforce were Polish and wanted sausages and soup!
How you’d design and build the experience at a university versus a law firm would be vastly different. A tech company with a large Millennial population would look different to a financial services firm with a large Japanese population. An investment bank versus a retail bank. Then location: what you would design in the center of Paris would be likely very different to that you would design in the South of France. Contrast between Shanghai and Santiago. Between San Francisco and St. Louis. Between Montreal and Toronto.
What People Want 12
Understanding your audience is absolutely critical, and this isn’t just a one and done but must be revisited regularly to confirm resonance. For the likes of the TWA Hotel, I can’t imagine that the offering needs to change too much as this is probably a stopover for people and families who are passing through on their way to another destination. Although fun, it’s not the sort of place that you’d go for a two-week vacation despite all its amenities (including a gym and a rooftop pool). The TWA is designed for its audience, and each audience is different.
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How many times have you been let down with the execution? Walked into a hotel, a restaurant, a shop, made a purchase, and the execution has dinted your overall experience of how you feel as a result of that experience? The execution and ultimately how it makes you feel is THE critical factor that will guide your behavior if you become a repeat customer, and even if so, how often, and do you become a silent or proactive advocate, or a detractor?
We arrived at our table complete with designer seats and perused the menu, made our choices, chose our wine, and ordered – the Sommelier looking down his nose at me ordering a Sicilian Red to go with our fish and poultry choices –after all I am married to a Sicilian. The food arrived, fantastically presented, the wine poured, we ate. As we finished our meal, and there was apparently another booking afterwards, we paid our bill and left. Was it good? Yes. Was it great? No? How did we feel about this overall experience? It was pompous, it was overrated, all the seats looked great but were as uncomfortable as hell. The experience didn’t live up to the self-professed expectations, and it was expensive. Did we ever return? No.
Many years ago, a new restaurant had opened with a big splash in the town I lived in. A famous designer, a world-renowned chef, in a trendy part of town, long waiting list, and all the towns’ dignitaries had either been or booked. Not that I was one of those. I was but a mortal foodie, but I managed to get us a booking. So, it was one of those nights that deserved getting dressed up, and as we arrived it was hard not to be impressed by the look, the feel, the ambiance – dimmed lighting, cool music piping in the background, we sat at the bar for a pre-dinner drink. I popped to the bathrooms, located downstairs, they must have spent a fortune on the fixtures and fittings, a range of expensive aftershaves courtesy of the establishment.
Execution is Everything15
Design is the Foundation Who is your target audience, why does design matter, and how can that design contribute to the overall experience – physical, contextually, and experientially? So is the Experience
As the saying goes, “the best made plans of mice and men often go astray” a warning to those dreamers without firm plans, expertise, and wherewithal to execute the vision.
Personal Service How people make you feel is so important in creating lasting memories. Great service and really bad service stay with you for a lifetime. Ciara on JetBlue made me feel special.
Beyond the physical design, what is the overall experience you want to create, and why? What is the purpose, outcomes, measurements of success?
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And the Execution
So are Emotional Connections
And how it makes you Feel How does the overall experience feel after the event? Does the client come back for more, want more, or do they yearn for more?
In addition, creating those emotional connections so that your people can feel who you are, what you stand for, your purpose, vision, mission, and values.
Have I been on newer, more luxurious aircraft than on JetBlue? Have I had better meals than the one served up courtesy of Pasquale Jones and the Delicious Hospitality Group? Have I stayed at better hotels than the TWA? The answer to all those questions is yes, so what did I learn from my trip from SFO to JFK, and the TWA hotel?
My Trip: SFO to JFK, and the TWA Hotel
History is Important As is context. Sharing with your customers, your clients, your employees, your history is an imperative step in creating context and connections to your experience.
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Melanie is considered a global thought leader in design strategy and innovation and leads 4xi’s Design4Life©practice with a focus on People, Place, Purpose but also on the overall Experience, and Execution too. Melanie is an Architect by trade and has applied her expertise on transformational projects across all sectors. This publication was published by 4xi Consulting. For more information about 4xi Consulting, please visit us at www.4xiconsulting.com, email us at Allhello@4xiconsulting.com.rightsreserved2022©
Barbara Boden Managing Partner & Co-Founder
There are many examples of how design covers one or more parts of this equation but how many truly embrace all these elements combined to produce the sum of your aspirations and totality of outcomes you desire for your customers, or employees? NO PART OF THIS PUBLICATION MAY BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN CONSENT OF THE PUBLISHER. 18
at
Simon Elliot Managing Partner & Co-Founder is the way that we look at experiential design 4xi.
Simon Elliot is Managing Partner and co-founder of boutique consulting and advisory firm, 4xi Global Consulting. He is the Chair of WORKTECH Academy for North America, a Fellow of the Institute of Directors (London) and considered a global thought leader in the future of work and how we’ll work tomorrow. Now based in the San Francisco Bay Area, Simon has lived, worked, and traveled globally having visited 6 or the 7 continents and led business and projects in the UK, Northern Europe, Australasia, Asia, South, and North America.
Melanie Corey-Ferrini, NCARB, FCSI Architect, Design, Strategy & Innovation
Barbara Boden is Managing Partner and cofounder of 4xi. Formerly global head of amenities at JP Morgan Chase & Co, Barbara is considered an international thought leader and expert in the creation of best-in-class experiences in the world of Basedwork.in New York, she has run operations globally from the Americas to the UK and Ireland, Europe, and India, the Philippians, and across Asia and Australia.
EXECUTIVESimonPUBLISHERElliotTEAMSimonElliot Managing Partner & Co-Founder Barbara Boden Managing Partner & Co-Founder Tony Johnson Leadership Advisory Council Chief Experience Officer (CXO) DinaMARKETINGO’Reilly Strategic Partnerships & Project Management Office Hannah Spearman Graphic Design & Creative ServicesPurpose,Design4Life©People&Place | Experience & Execution DP3E2
About the Author:
4xi Global Consulting & Solutions is a boutique advisory firm focused on a people-first approach to changing experiences for GOOD. Whether for people at work, in education, at rest, or at leisure, 4xi leverages the tenets of a hospitality focus to drive impact, facilitate change, and make a real difference. SPx: Strategic Consulting & Special Projects | HQ: Fractional Expertise On-Demand | Design4Life©: Environmental & Experiential Design | Evolving Experiences©: EX and CX | Sustainability Simplified© | TRUE NORTH© Strategic Partnerships Learning Academy | Explorers Innovation Directory & Lab Learn more about what we do: Inspiring a brighter future, Together. SAN FRANCISCO | NEW YORK | SILICON VALLEY | PHILADELPHIA | DALLAS | NORTH CAROLINA | ORLANDO SEATTLE | LISBON | SANTIAGO | LONDON | TOKYO w: www.4xiconsulting.com e: hello@4xiconsulting.com
