Who makes the top 30… and why
There'll be some hearty back-slapping going on in hotels, restaurants, bars and catering firms across the nation this week as Caterer readers discover whether or not they've made it on to our list of the top 30 movers and shakers in UK hospitality.
Recent years have been hard on the sector. Wars, terrorism, Sars and foot-and-mouth have all taken their toll on revenues and consumer expenditure. In such uncertain times it takes a special breed of individual to make an impact. It is this special breed we have sought to recognise this week.
Our aim in compiling this list was twofold. First, we wanted to shout about the sterling work being done by our readers. Second, and more importantly, we wanted to emphasise how crucial continued innovation and graft is to the future of hospitality in the UK and beyond and to offer role models to the next generation of chefs, hotel managers and entrepreneurs.
If the issue in your hands makes just a few junior workers raise the level of their ambitions, it will have been worth publishing.
Of course, we make no claims that our top 30 is a definitive list. Though we like to think that we know a thing or two about the industry we cover in Caterer, we fully expect the list to elicit a stream of correspondence taking issue with our choices.
How much easier our task would have been if a simple equation had existed for us to apply. Unfortunately, the qualities we sought to measure don't lend themselves to scientific scrutiny. In the absence of any formal methodology, we harnessed our editorial team's combined knowledge of the sector to inform our choices.
From the outset we determined not to include the chief executives of hospitality's biggest and most powerful companies by default, but rather to list only those who are currently challenging the way the industry works and pushing out its boundaries. We were more interested in individuals with the capacity to change the hospitality landscape than in people running monolithic enterprises that progress through sheer momentum.
All those who made our top 30 have the following qualities in common: flair, imagination, stamina, vision and determination. Whether all will still be in our 30 when we revisit it this time next year is anyone's guess, but one thing's for sure: if they're not, it won't be for want of effort and application.
