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Kimberly Grant has become well-known for her innovative leadership approach within the hospitality industry, while also following traditional paths to customer acquisition and guest satisfaction. Her unique take on brand management and diner experiences is due in large part to her vast experience spanning over 30 years across casual and fine dining. By combining the lessons learned from consumer and staff feedback in various environments, Grant has crafted a creative vision for the hospitality brands she works with that encourages growth without abandoning the core tenets of each company’s story.
Grant’s take on operations combines years of experience in both financial and personnel management. She can bridge the gap between the economic goals driving a business and the resources needed for brands to be able to succeed. To do this, she helps each company define the tenets that most directly and impactfully align with those goals, giving her and other leaders the room to explore new ideas as long as they fit within those precepts.
By emphasizing priorities, Kimberly Grant’s teams become more effective in determining the steps needed to achieve results-oriented goals. Encouraging feedback and brainstorming across all levels of the organization, Grant believes there are no bad ideas, just less refined ideas. Instead, each proposed tactic or task can be measured up against the core tenets established from the start, giving innovation a framework for intentionality and achievement.
“A lot of companies have mission, vision, and values, and everybody in the organization can spiel those off really easily,” Grant explained. “But that doesn’t help with decision-making or helping to identify priorities. A lot of companies have way too much going on, and they’re unfocused. They’re all over the place. As a result, they’re not as effective or as results-oriented as they could be.”
The tenets Grant institutes as part of her leadership approach become the core principles that guide decision-making and keep the organization aligned with its strengths and objectives. New business ideas must meet specific criteria aligned with revenue potential, company values, and mission. This ensures the leadership team remains focused on growth and avoids distractions while allowing for innovation and relevant novel ideas to come to the forefront.
However, Kimberly Grant stresses that operating tenets should not be so rigid that they limit agility when market conditions change. Applying innovation in these instances has helped her brands to flourish even during difficult times. In one example, she led a brand to transform its candidate sourcing techniques during a competitive, post-COVID -19 job market. Without sacrificing the values most important to their hiring process, the company changed how it presented its job listings to appeal to a broader talent pool. The result was more successful hiring that demonstrated a value for natural talent and a willingness to learn supported by demonstrable company resources in training and continuing education.
With innovation also comes agility for Grant, who also believes in setting milestones with change in mind. Remaining flexible in response to industry trends as well as internal demands can help leaders stay on track with newly implemented ideas. By establishing milestones with clear goals and key performance indicators, Grant and her teams can know exactly when to reassess strategies and implement changes before too much time and competitive advantage is missed.
This flexible, innovative approach to leadership has enabled Kimberly Grant to lead a variety of companies, from casual to fine dining, from bespoke experiences to Fortune 100 companies, to define and experience their own successes. Regardless of the market, Grant’s prowess for hospitality management comes from her ability to outline exactly what excellence means to a brand and how specific objectives can be achieved.
In each engagement during her career, Grant has underscored the value of people and investing in teams to galvanize them around a common goal. She achieves this through teambuilding exercises encompassing advanced training exercises and slogans that unify employees under a common message and framework.
This approach as evident during her tenure as the global head of restaurants and bars for Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Rather than attempting to redistribute or recruit new teams, she believed in the talent already on staff and their potential to exceed expectations once those parameters were set. To this end, Grant built a strategy around the concept of being epic, which served as an acronym for excellence, passion, innovation, and creativity. This epic ideal became a cornerstone for the F&B division from the top down, impacting every aspect of the guest experience.
To make these epic experiences happen, she prioritized training programs and fostered a positive culture among staff. Grant’s philosophy is that everyone wakes up wanting to be the best at what they do, regardless of their role or the price point of the service they provide. One important aspect of this was leveraging the talent within her team rather than relying on third parties to design new concepts or introduce change.
“If you hire a consultant or a third party … the social impact it has on your culture is that you don’t necessarily trust [your staff],” Grant noted. “When you show that you believe in them, they get really excited about it, and you get better work out of it, and then they own it.”
By empowering her staff to collaborate and innovate, Kimberly Grant cultivated a sense of ownership and pride within her team. This boosted morale and led to the creation of unique and high-quality dining experiences.
