Stephane Lacroix

Trouver le Cap is a strategic consulting firm dedicated to owners, investors, hotel groups, and executives who wish to reposition, relaunch, or enhance the value of a hotel asset.

The approach connects brand strategy, customer experience, commercial performance, distribution, reputation, and operational reality to transform a hotel into a clearer, more desirable, and more profitable proposition.

Interventions focus on asset repositioning, strategic audits, launches and pre-openings, offering architecture, go-to-market, marketing & sales performance, upgrading, and aligning owner ambition with field execution.

It provides the right level. It avoids the "marketing consultant" trap. And it establishes Trouver le Cap as a response to an owner's challenge: creating value, not just communicating.

Rejuvenated Customer Experience Management for 5-star hotels=> strategy, training, and Sales and Marketing assessment, measurement / mystery shopping, customer journey mapping, digital/technology transformation. Set recommendations in order to repair and elevate, by defining a customer strategy, customer experience mapping. Accompanied private investors, funds and investment banks in hospitality Merger & Acquisition operations. Assisted international & regional hospitality / airlines groups in the strategic management of their brand portfolio, sales and marketing organization. Created / Rejuvenated Brands=> standards of service and product / customer experience journey / training (hospitality and luxury retail) Luxury Attitude training for retail and hospitality. Created and developed new fitness brand and concept. Each recommendation and program were designed to create clarity of commercial focus and frontline engagement, re-frame customers' problems, reveal unmet customer needs, re-think the entire CX ecosystem. Created trainings to make clear links between CX principles, digital posture, revenue objectives and all employees. Trained my clients to make customer satisfaction a daily topic at the C-suite level. Set customized training programs (grooming, attitude, empathy, creating dialogue, cultural diversity, social interaction etc...) => creating tools to evaluate employee daily performance against role-specific CX metrics changed attitude toward customers and services. Showed my clients how to measure campaigns impacts… to understand metrics, to monitor performance and changes, plus ways to understand Voice of customer, customer engagement (NPS) / loyalty research to understand how to attract, retain and win back customers. (Main clients: Previous employer, Regional hospitality players, Boutique Investment banks, private jet companies, luxury retail distributors, start-ups)

VP Marketing From 05/2008 till 07/2010 Brand Management

• Developed and implemented action plans to align properties with brand strategy.

• Collected all local best practices, consumer insights, competitor trends, and issues and communicated back to corporate and operational teams.

• Advocated for brand strategy and initiatives within the region; inspiring all functions and hotels to understand how to activate the Sofitel brand to customers.

• Assisted in new openings and cultural immersion activities for properties Locally executed the Brand strategy in market; served as an extension of the Corporate team's focus on execution, but with an understanding of local specificity.

• Identified brand strategy execution challenges at the local level.

• Provided comprehensive brand voice and expertise in owner and development meetings.

• Collaborated with the Global Procurement team on sourcing and developing ordering process for all signature products.

• Educated VPs/ GMs on brand strategy (short and long term).

• Partnered with GMs to conduct reviews of audits and to develop action plans to help remedy any missed standards.

• Acted as a resource to GMs regarding brand standards during openings, property visits.

• Addressed non-compliance with brand standards with the Executive Committee and ensured the committee understands Brand standards.

• Worked with other VPs to validate that brand voice is correctly pulled through marketing, sales, and other promotional materials.

• Provided brand strategy guidance to marketing and public relations teams in the region; worked with appropriate local PR channels to enhance brand awareness.

• Conducted Brand Immersions for operations / Reservation Centers and Regional Sales Office in the region. Architecture & Construction

• Participated in meetings and had frequent communication with construction and Design teams to ensure product being developed is on strategy.

• Provided insight on design and décor of properties to ensure product looks on-brand.