Words from Philippe Bourguignon
The next Global Spa and Wellness Summit will take place in Aspen, Colorado. This is not a random choice. The Summit has entered into a partnership with the Aspen Institute to attempt to go beyond the day to day of our industry, take a global view at our industry, and relate it to the global world today. We often have a tendency to look at ourselves and discount what the world is telling us. This year we will attempt to understand what the world is telling us and what it means for us.
I learned a lot via the Aspen Institute personally over the years, including many new ideas and ways of thinking. For the Summit it will mean thinking on a global scale. The fact that the Summit is returning to the US after many years abroad is also significant.
So, what is the world telling us? We are not at the beginning of a new millennium, but on the threshold of a new civilization. The Gutenberg millennium was the kingdom of the left-hand side of the brain, of reason and logic. In the new millennium the right-hand side of the brain will prevail, together with intuition, paradox and freedom. The consumer society is becoming the information society, our mass society is shifting towards a society of individuals, and our standardized society is moving toward a hybrid society.
With soon (2050) two more billion inhabitants on our planet, almost all of them from Asia, Africa and Latin America, the most formidable challenge of all times face us: food scarcity, climate, immigration, etc. The relative demographic weight of the population in the richest countries (most particularly Europe and the United States) will drop by about 25% – to 12% of the total world population by 2050. At the same time, the unprecedented transfer of wealth from West to East now under way will accelerate in the foreseeable future: emerging markets will outstrip a number of mature ones.
Traditional economics are challenged: the American model of a credit consumption-led economy may be coming to an end. So too has the Chinese model of an economy built on export-led growth and an undervalued currency. The two main pillars underpinning the western world democracies – (1) robust economic growth raising living standards for all in the US, and (2) the welfare state and income redistribution in Europe – are shaking; and the scale of the challenge now facing most Western countries is of monumental proportions.
The combination of too much debt and too little growth is pushing countries into a classic debt trap. Fiscal pressure will stress economic conditions for an extended period of time. And policy-makers will face difficult trade-offs between the need for fiscal restraint and the demand for maintaining social safety nets: Political volatility will prevail. As a result, the worldwide phenomenon of “indignation” which seems to be brewing everywhere can only increase. 2011 will be remembered as the year of rising global indignation.
The connectivity and the complexity we have engendered in the global landscape transcend our ability to comprehend, model or manage events. Many limitations constrain our ability to interpret complex issues, particularly as we tend to attribute single causes to interconnected events. This is literally overwhelming the capabilities of politicians and business executives to make sensible and well informed decisions…it’s very, very tough.
To summarize, we have a remarkable central tension underway – on the one side, a very positive trend, huge innovation and technological advancement – human innovative capacity is at an unprecedented height – and on the other hand rapid social change and transformation. And this tension is occurring within a very complex environment, where many of our traditional structures and assumptions are eroding.
If you translate all of this and what it means for our industry, the summary is simple: The main challenge for the spa and wellness business is to adapt to austere financial conditions while serving more sophisticated customers asking for more and different, with a shrinking pool of talented staff.
What is the answer? Innovation through Imagination.
This is going to be the focus of the next Global Spa and Wellness Summit. How can our industry face all those challenges thru innovation, and can we use imagination to become more innovative?
I personally believe that true innovation means not only questioning the consumer, but also sharing an idea; an idea you think is good for you and may be meaningful for others. Innovation does not stem from experience, but from a vision of what we wish to experience tomorrow. That is how the companies I have been associated with were founded: this is how Walt Disney created Disneyland, Paul Dubrule Accor, Gerard Blitz Club Med and Pierre Omadyar eBay; same for Miraval … and so many companies today. None of them would have been launched based on a market survey. Yes, I strongly believe that the path to follow is imagination.
To use our imagination, we should never move in a straight line. We should get off the highway and take the side roads, even if we don’t know exactly where they lead. An encounter, a discovery, a new idea, or simply a moment of happiness may await us there. We should bring our own reflections to things, rather than simply doing what the market is telling us to do.
“Imagination rules the world. The vice of our modern institutions is that they do not speak to the imagination.” The author? Napoleon in 1815. Is spa and wellness speaking enough to the imagination?
“Innovation through Imagination.” Nothing could be more exciting for the board of the Global Spa and Wellness Summit. We will make sure that the agenda reflects this excitement. So many difficult things around us, a difficult environment, a challenging world, so much uncertainty…it is time for imagination!









