Voices of CGS: Jannes Soerensen
An Interview with Kepler Hospitality Group Founder & CEO Jannes Soerensen
The Common Ground Summit is more than just a three-day event; it’s a vibrant community that embodies the values of “place” all year round. Our members act as leaders and ambassadors of these principles, sharing their experiences and expertise as they journey into the world and return to Kauai each year. This collective knowledge and willingness to share drive the programming at the Common Ground Summit. As we prepare for another year, we are excited to introduce you to some of the voices you'll hear in November and the people who have helped shape our event and community.
Common Ground is a regenerative hospitality group working to create a regenerative future by harnessing the connective power of food to bring people together. Their commitment to place-based innovation and collaboration inspires their work, but they're not building this regenerative future alone. Rather, Common Ground is acting in community with people who are also leading the way in changing the face of the industry. People like Jannes Soerensen, Founder & CEO of Kepler Hospitality Group.
The Summit is an exchange of experiences and knowledge, a chance to learn from people around the world. We are grateful to have someone like Jannes in our community contributing to that exchange.
What experiences and insights inspired you to establish both Kepler Hotel Group and Kepler International Hospitality Academy?
The hospitality industry was not a world I had encountered growing up, and especially not the high-end, luxury aspect of the business. My childhood, as the son of a headmaster and a social worker in Berlin, was not one of Michelin-starred restaurants, five-star hotels or exotic, far-flung travel.
When I entered that world at the age of 20, just out of school, I was equipped with strong curiosity, trust in the goodness of others, a sense of optimism, and no particular aspirations beyond my first apprenticeship role as a lowly pageboy.
Over the next two decades, the industry taught me valuable life lessons, truths and insights that have taken me on a journey of personal discovery and towards a philosophy of management and hotel-keeping that differs from what I encountered when I first started out. Creating Kepler Hotel Group was my response to what I saw as a need in the industry: a hotel company that inspires, makes a difference, is a vehicle for good and change, and inspires respect for what it puts back, not what it takes out.
My luxury hotel journey, which has encompassed some of the best known five-star luxury hotels across the world, began with a focus on the clients, progressed to a focus on the staff, and has culminated with a focus on purpose. That does not mean guests and employees are less important; rather, my views have evolved.
Hotels have the opportunity to encourage and inspire. As an industry we have to challenge ourselves to do something meaningful, not creating but solving important problems that affect us all. Our impact must extend beyond the four walls of the physical buildings we occupy and the beds we sell. We have to question and share our whys and not rely on the outdated consumer-driven models of the whats and hows.
The definition of luxury is changing. For an ever-growing proportion of hotel guests, luxury today means something different to the opulence and conspicuous consumption of the past, which is still seen today. It is clear to me that more and more travelers care about their impact. They make educated choices about how they live, behave and consume. They seek a new travel model—one that fully understands their needs, enables them to connect, allows them to transport their life choices to wherever they may be, and even helps them to elevate those choices.
Today, these luxury travelers continue to value recognition, comfort, and a sense of belonging. They are still looking for new experiences and connection, but at the same time they are increasingly concerned with sustainability, the environment and their impact on the world. They are thus faced with social and moral dilemmas.
At home, they can live as they choose and actively participate in solutions to the climate crisis. Yet when they travel, they are so often placed in situations where they are constrained from living their life as they want to—from what they eat, to how and when they exercise, to where they sleep. They are offered services and amenities that do not speak to them as individuals or reflect their sense of responsibility to their own well-being and that of the planet.
Luxury hotels today are still a reflection of monetary success; they are the reward for a financially accomplished life, the idealization of that success. They are palaces of conspicuous consumption, and I think they no longer offer what today’s travelers require. In fact, they are promoting a lifestyle that clearly needs to change.
We need radical innovation in the luxury hospitality industry.
Our customers are demanding it. We have an opportunity to change the perception of what a successful life looks like and what its luxurious rewards are. We can demonstrate that the important shift to sustainable lifestyles is not a restriction, but the better option.
Luxury city hotels have to lead the way. If the best hotels in the world’s great cities happen to be fully sustainable, happen to promote healthy lifestyles, change the very idea of what luxury is, and model human-to-human organizations, then this will have a halo effect not only on the industry, but on society at large. It will inspire a new generation of travelers as a whole.
Kepler International Hospitality Academy (KIHA) is an extension of this vision and a vehicle that we created to develop and evolve the expertise today’s industry leaders require to redefine and deliver this new type of elevated luxury in hospitality.
Fundamental change requires a community effort, and we need to spread the message and inspire and do our part to re-educate the industry to be prepared for this ever-changing world.
How does your work interweave with the Common Ground Summit?
I have found the Common Ground community to be one of forward thinkers, can-doers, and questioners of the status quo who are passionate about change for the better. In their many different fields and businesses, participants are seeking solutions for the benefit of all.
Interacting with this community has opened my thinking further, has challenged and stimulated me. I see so much in common with what I am trying to achieve with Kepler—with community, creating a sense of belonging, the production of food, styles of leadership, and the emphasis on our environment. It is truly inspiring.
In the current competitive landscape of the hospitality industry, what innovative strategies has Kepler Hotel Group implemented to differentiate itself and provide exceptional guest experiences?
Kepler Hotel Group is in the nascent stages of its life, and the intent is to create a distinct category that will stand out in a crowded market. With a values and service philosophy that pioneers a customer-centric, emotions-driven style of sustainable hospitality, its strength is “operationalising” the ability to listen, understand and act.
We aim to be the natural home for the luxury traveler who already lives a sustainable lifestyle and had, until now, nowhere to stay without making compromises. And, we have an opportunity to inspire and elevate the thinking of other guests who have perhaps not yet committed to that journey of sustainability, encouraging them to continue to effect positive change once they leave us.
We will do this not only through the hotel itself—the materials we use, the food we serve—but also in how we work with our community and suppliers and how we can continue to motivate our guests and influence their lives by the lifestyle we portray.
Although attuned to its guests and with ecology and planetary well-being at its heart, Kepler Hotels will not be “eco-hotels” with all the visual attributes that are typically ascribed to that category. There will be a timelessness to each hotel. Interiors might be simple in design and will have an innate authenticity and honesty.
We call it generous simplicity, the opposite of excess.
Materials will be natural as much as possible. Every aspect of the hotels will have the imprint of humanity. All food served will be exclusively plant-based, healthy, and balanced both nutritionally and visually.
Ultimately, it will be the quality of service that draws people to Kepler Hotels. Guests and staff are equally and genuinely considered as individuals, thought about and cared for.
Could you discuss the role of sustainability and social responsibility within Kepler Hotel Group?
Sustainability in hospitality has to-date been a largely tokenistic exercise. At Kepler Hotel Group, I feel we must discuss sustainability and social responsibility as the foundations of the business, not an element of it. There is no other option.
As mentioned, a good company should be sustainable in the long term and you can only achieve that if it’s beneficial for stakeholders and shareholders alike, and in tune with its environment. Luxury hospitality needs to take a stand; it should be the epitomization of a life well lived. We intend to, at the very top of the market, demonstrate a lifestyle that is responsible and really sets an example.
What can we expect to see from the next generation of hospitality leaders?
In the near future, automation and AI will remove many of the technical aspects of leadership. Hospitality leaders will need to understand it and control it, but will not need to do it.
Hospitality leaders will be facilitators, helping people determine where to focus and uniting them behind that goal. With an overload of information and data besieging us, it is the role of the leader to select what is important, decide what to concentrate on, set the tone and create the vision, all while inspiring people to join them on the journey.
I don’t see future hospitality leaders necessarily coming from the operational side of the business (ie. chefs or waiters or receptionists). To become a humanitarian leader, we need people who work in human businesses, and I can see many different routes into hospitality leadership. The value of a good leader is their understanding of human beings and capacity to elevate their path, and that has nothing to do with placemats, cutlery or Quality Assurance scores.
At Kepler International Hospitality Academy, we train today’s hospitality leaders quite differently. We expose them to new business models required to address the world of today and tomorrow. We teach them to understand the connection between the choices they make in everyday life (their personal practices) and their professional performance as a leader.
They will need to understand how deep change in business requires reflective and visionary leadership, capable of influencing all stakeholders.
At the Common Ground Summit, we talk about bringing our "whole selves" to the experience.Beyond your work with Kepler, what lights you up? What other passions are you bringing to the Summit?
Kepler is an expression of the way I live. I have long been passionately interested in the well-lived life, now all the more pressing as I have a young child. There are so many elements to this. Doing good plays a huge role; discovering mind, body and spirit plays a huge role; being part of a community and trying to demonstrate by better example—all are equally important.
What makes you curious?
The awareness that I know so little and that there is so much information out there. We live in this world that is so endlessly fascinating and stimulating. I have been on a digital detox for a while now, and I have noticed how quickly my attention span has lengthened and my concentration has improved as a result. I now sit down at night and read lengthy newspaper articles and books without the constant urge to reach for my phone or look at my email.
I realized that this overload of information, all fed in snappy, bite-sized chunks to supposedly feed our curiosity, meant that, like so many people, I had become scattered in my approach and had trouble focusing on anything for a prolonged amount of time. So, re-engaging with the written word on paper and slowing down has helped me to absorb more.
How does the Summit community enrich your work, your experiences?
The joy of interacting with the Summit community is all about being exposed to different opinions and understanding the world through diverse points of view, cultures and stories, and realizing how everything is connected. Yes, we are all trying to achieve our own ambitions and aspirations in our own industries, but though they might seem dissimilar on the surface, there is so much we have in common.
Interacting with the Summit community has changed my perspective because when you work in hospitality you are very well connected within a worldwide community that knows each other well, but we don’t often venture out beyond that community. It has been eye-opening to connect with people who have nothing to do with hospitality but can really teach you principles around human connection and human impact.
At Common Ground, we talk about being in community with “place” as a foundational element of a regenerative future. What does it mean to you to be “In Community with Place”?
The renowned conservationist and ethologist Jane Goodall recently advised to turn the saying “Think Globally, Act Locally” around. She said, “Think locally, and then you have the courage to act globally. If you only think globally to start with, you won't have the energy to act.”
I wholly agree. When we think globally, we always end up in these doomsday scenarios. It seems too difficult and unachievable.
Whereas, “In Community with Place” is how I live. There are so many things I cannot influence globally and shouldn’t waste energy worrying about. It’s not that you should be oblivious or unaware, but it’s really the place you connect with, and the community you have within the place you spend most of your life, where you can really have the biggest impact.
It is this community you should focus on and engage with more deeply.
Digitalisation and the opening up of the world have changed our lives: having a Zoom call with someone in New Zealand, whilst shipping something from India by Amazon and eating foods from South America. The rest of the world is now readily available in many different ways. But, to be grounded, you need to take care of, be aware of and appreciate the place and the community where you spend 90% of your time.
It’s important to focus on what’s in front of you. Stoicism teaches us that we cannot change the past, we cannot influence the future. We can only Iive in the now, and that is where we can effect the most lasting change.
What is your vision for your community?
My vision for my community—the hospitality community—is that we can lead by example and become positive contributors to a changing world.
We should define what a good life lived well looks like.
Common Ground Summit is an immersive gathering designed to change the way you approach connection to place. Join us and Jannes for a 3-day regenerative leadership summit featuring curated conversations, authentic experiences, ridiculously good food and meaningful relationships.
