Being a leader in a food and beverage industry requires plenty of persistence and endurance. These leaders are not afraid to change the status quo and take higher risks. Undertaking risks to accomplish the vision is what helps in turning a business into an empire. Moreover, the leaders have to ensure customer satisfaction and the efficient working of the established restaurant.
One such pioneering leader in the food and beverage industry is Carlo Cisco—the CEO and Founder of SELECT. Carlo began his entrepreneurial journey at the age of 18, when he founded an event planning and promotion company. Traversing between wealth management to merchant processing, he held various positions whilst working for successful ventures. His passion for the financial markets made him work in equity-trading in New York City.
On his journey to be a successful tycoon, Carlo joined Groupon for its launch in Japan. Following that, he began a restaurant search and discovery engine going by the name FoodFan. Despite the site gaining traction splendidly, the founder then decided to transition into his current business—SELECT which was founded in the year 2014.
The Élite Services
SELECT was founded with the vision to transform lifestyles and thereby improving them by offering a comprehensive range of services. The company is known to be a private membership community and concierge service providing access to exclusive events, insider pricing, and VIP perks at over 1.6 million locations and online. The membership is widely known as the SELECT card—a black card, concierge, and membership community that offers unlimited benefits with premier brands and venues. The card has exclusive benefits at more than 1.6 million venues such as premier hotels, restaurants, lifestyle brands, and retailers.
The black card also provides access to a large network of exclusive events. The benefits offered by SELECT are significant, tangible, and happen at the point of sale. The on-going benefits consist of offers which provide discounts on the full bill and/or free drinks at the renowned restaurants and on the lowest online rate at over a million hotels and resorts (which is applicable globally). These deals are applicable on exclusive pricing with industry-leading brands namely BMW, Hyatt, TUMI, IHG, and Bose amongst the other popular ones.
An Optimistic Leader
At SELECT, Carlo intends to bring about a creative approach helping in maintaining a positive and result-oriented culture. The first step towards building a successful entrepreneurial business as claimed by Carlo is recruiting the right stakeholders—both employees and investors. He has set the objectives and worked for the spanning of products, marketing, and customers’ experience proficiently.
Carlo has been the backbone of SELECT from raising the majority of all the capital to leading other prominent initiatives. With the help of an incredible team, he succeeded to build the vast empire of SELECT. The company has created a program that unifies the best-in-class venues and the high-income customers. Consequently, with collective efforts of Carlo and the employees, the company has contributed in the development of the industry. He strives to achieve more for the development and membership to flourish with the team by his side.
A Three-Way Method
Several industries have been severely affected due to the on-going global pandemic. Sharing his experience, Carlo says, “COVID has had a brutal impact on the food and beverage industry.” He was disheartened to know about the challenges faced by the partner restaurants of the company. SELECT was also impacted financially. Despite the hard times, Carlo and his team overcame the obstacles and increased the rate of renewals as memberships became due. Additionally, the graph of new registrations soared from August through December.
To get over the inability to host in person events, Carlo scheduled to launch events digitally for the members on a selective range of topics spanning business, cocktail making, cooking, and fitness. The company also focused on added benefits that were valuable from the comfort and safety of your home, with an emphasis on things particularly valuable during COVID such as take-outs and delivery benefits, a new business benefits category, and a variety of COVID-friendly lifestyle benefits.
Dismayed at the sudden change in the lives of the company’s stakeholders, Carlo was prominent and dedicated to making it better. The founder listed out some of the crucial lessons he learned amid the on-going global pandemic.
Managing Company’s Finances: As a leading company handling the finances efficiently will help in fulfilling all objectives.
Happy Customers: Focusing on the customers’ needs is a must. The company should cater to the needs of the clients for providing them with a better experience. Adjusting to the customers’ demands and acting according to them, will eventually help to improve the revenue and margin.
Lending a Helping Hand: To aid people who are in need is one of the selfless conducts. People will always remember who helped them in their hard times.
Futuristic Approach towards Industrial Development
As the food and beverage industry is ever-trending, Carlo makes sure the company lives up to it. For instance, he recalls the Omakase restaurants gained popularity a couple of years back. Due to the absence of these restaurants from SELECT, Carlo instantly added over a dozen Omakase restaurants.
Carlo has a good eye for spotting opportunities, and he plans to make the SELECT a credit and debit card. His goal is to make credit card rewards more significant and impactful in our daily lives. The SELECT credit card will combine SELECT’s existing benefits such as 30% or a free round of drinks, which occur at the point of sale, with an elevated cash-back program for non-partner purchases. Carlo consequently wants to generate the best rewards program in SELECT.
Nick, who is an extremely valuable member since the inception of the company, puts forth, “SELECT has been an amazing investment for me and it’s been far more beneficial than any credit card I’ve ever owned.”
Read Full issue: The 10 Prominent Food and Beverage Leaders to Look for in 2021
