Sims Foster is co-founder of Foster Supply Hospitality - a group of rurally independent small hotels and restaurants based in New York's Catskills Mountains.
In this conversation we get into facing up to the inevitably of hundreds of tiny failures, finding thought partners, the importance of the practice room, how the hospitality industry could rethink the ways it trains talent, and why local matters.
Show Notes
05:00 Introducing Foster Supply Hospitality (and a rogue refrigerator)
08:00 Why the Catskills is such a storied region, and how it’s changed so dramatically in the past few decades
15:00 Starting in hospitality: from dishwashing to digging into data
25:00 Bringing a music sensibility to the hospitality business - and the importance of the practice room
33:00 Facing up to the prospect of constant tiny failures
36:00 The future of training in the hospitality industry
45:00 How Sims assesses new hotel and restaurant opportunities
50:00 Underrated factors that make or break a hospitality company
54:00 The colossal financial failure - and making a recovery
63:00 Seeking out thought partners… and working with your life partner
70:00 Recognizing crisis, and moving forward
77:00 The importance of doing business for local good
