A corporate reorganization at Scandic Hotels aims to boost the Stockholm-based company’s capabilities in digitalization, branding and marketing.
A new, 12-member executive committee includes the new position of chief information officer: Anne Hellenius, who is joining the company, will have responsibility for digitalization and developing the guest experience with the help of IT and new technologies. Responsibilities of the chief commercial officer were divided between Niklas Angergård, who is joining Scandic as chief customer officer and will be responsible for brand strategy, marketing and the loyalty program. Jan Lundborg was promoted to chief commercial optimization officer, overseeing sales and distribution.
HOTELS talked to Scandic CEO and President Even Frydenberg, who explained how the reorganization will help the hotelier take advantage of opportunities in an increasingly digital travel industry.
HOTELS: What was Scandic missing, and why are you making these changes now?
Even Frydenberg: Scandic has experienced tremendous growth. We doubled the size of our company over only five years. However, our organization had become complex and not optimized to achieve our goals as a result of this fast expansion. The market is evolving, the business models are changing, and customer and guest needs are changing. That is why, in November, we started an overview of our organization and ways of working. The reorganization of our executive committee and the appointment of the three new senior executives is a result of this overview.
H: What is Scandic’s goal in this reorganization?
EF: These changes are being made to strengthen Scandic’s long-term position. The objective is to become more agile, digital and data-driven. We will do this by creating a more guest-centric organization, providing more efficient support to our hotels and ensuring that we deliver on the ever-changing guest and customer expectations. The three new people joining our executive committee have relevant and solid experience, and the right personal qualities to help lead us on that journey.
H: Scandic already has been operating in a digital environment for some time. What are the priorities for the CIO?
EF: The markets we operate in are digitally mature and we of course run a modern hotel business that already is highly digitalized. But there is an increasing focus in the commercial area — in sales and distribution as well as in brand, loyalty and marketing. Adding the role of chief information officer to the executive committee is an important step in empowering the IT organization, increasing the focus on digital development and continuing to build our data capabilities.
H: Why the division of responsibilities for chief commercial officer? What are the new priorities and goals?
EF: We believe the commercial landscape in the hospitality industry has become so complex, with an expertise knowledge span that is too wide for one person. We needed someone to fully focus on how we best optimize the sales and distribution channels. We also required a senior commercial leader to fully focus on the guest journey with our brand, loyalty and marketing initiatives to make sure we meet and exceed those needs. With this change we are strengthening the commercial expertise and elevating the guest focus on Scandic’s agenda.
H: How much of this is driven by disruption from OTAs?
EF: OTAs account for around 17% of our bookings. Almost two-thirds of our distribution comes from our own channels. This is because we have a strong brand and a leading position among corporate clients and organizations. We also have the largest loyalty program in our market, Scandic Friends, with 2.3 million members. Given that, we don’t see OTAs as competition but rather as another important distribution channel. They need us and we appreciate that they help us in reaching customers abroad who we cannot reach easily through our own channels.
H: Can you elaborate on the steps that you took to arrive at this announcement?
EF: We started our organizational review in November 2017 with the help of a consulting firm that helped us with scoping the work, interviews, workshops and planning sessions. The implementation phase is now in our own hands.