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Sensei plays to science of wellness

Larry Ellison, co-founder, executive chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle Corp., was recently referred to by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff as the master of relevance. And what could be more relevant right now than wellness and retreats to help people live longer, healthier lives?

About 12 years ago, Ellison met Dr. David Agus, who was devoting his career to the study of self-care and preventative health science. Agus is a physician and scientist, professor of medicine and engineering at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine and Viterbi School of Engineering. He is also the founding director and CEO of USC’s Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine.

It was that chance meeting where the two found common motivation to eventually create The Sensei Way, which applies data-driven health knowledge and utilizes technology to develop a fresh philosophy on food, health and lifestyle. Essentially, it uses three simple paths to improve everyday living: move, nourish and rest.

It also just so happened that Ellison owns nearly all of the Hawaiian island of Lana’i, where Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts has been managing his resorts at Manele Bay and Koele. The duo decided to implement The Sensei Way to create a wellbeing retreat at the Koele property. They have a vision to grow this brand not only in resort settings, but in private clubs and communities. They have also launched Sensei Farms near the retreat, which grows food using modern, sustainable practices and technology.

Brand positioning

The Sensei Lana’i, A Four Seasons Resort, originally opened in November 2019 before being shut down by the pandemic. After another short-lived re-opening to locals in July, the property is, in fact, reopening today. Four Seasons manages the rooms, while Sensei is in charge of all wellness components.

That’s where Kevin Kelly comes in. The CEO of the Sensei brandwas consulting on the project before the private family office venture asked him to come on full-time.

“Consumers are going to want to go to places that are more serious, capable and have more evidence and science behind their practices. So, I think that bodes well for us.” – Kevin Kelly
“Consumers are going to want to go to places that are more serious, capable and have more evidence and science behind their practices. So, I think that bodes well for us.” – Kevin Kelly

Kelly was president of Canyon Ranch from 2001 to 2009, where he played a prominent role in tripling the size of the company, created brand extensions and built the Canyon Ranch hotels. He was also a co-owner of Two Bunch Palms, and converted it from an old hot springs property into a wellness resort outside of Palm Springs, California. He then created his own brand, Civana, which was a more democratized, affordable wellness brand launched outside of Scottsdale, Arizona.

Now he is charged with getting the Sensei brand up and running under the most challenging of circumstances, as well as finding additional resort development opportunities and brand extensions – until now, from his Los Angeles-area home.

Global wellness

Kelly told HOTELS his role is to turn Sensei into a global wellness company, “period.” He has three avenues to explore: experiential resorts (developed or managed), urban clubs and community developments; content development to make sure information given to users is backed up by good science and solid evidence; and technology to connect the data and systems.

“If you think about wellness, it is a collection of biomarkers, the physical aspects of well-being such as how we measure our heart rate, meditation and stress management, our caloric intake and so forth. Then we measure the emotional outcome,” he explained. “How do we use technology to more fluidly connect those data points, and then give proper, easy, digestible feedback to our customer? So technology plays an important role, both guest-facing and also behind the scenes via systems.”

Ultimately, the goal is to shift from information collection to behavioral change. “You educate, empower, you create experiences, you create tools for people, they absorb them and they decide which of those experiences, knowledge, tools they want to use,” Kelly added. “But fundamentally, they come away and make some behavioral changes towards healthier living… One of our primary delivery systems is leisure hospitality.”

And once consumers feel more confident about travel, Kelly expects pent-up demand to flood the market. “Consumer are going to want to go to places that are more serious, capable and have more evidence and science behind their practices,” he said. “I think that bodes well for us.”

Bigger opportunity

While Kelly wants to grow the Sensei resort platform (he expects another resort deal outside Hawaii in about six months), he thinks potential also lies with clubs and private communities, where people could use The Sensei Way as part of their daily, weekly or monthly recalibration.

The ancient art of Polynesian body walking, Lomi A'e, which uses powerful bare foot stepping to open the body and release sources of tension and pain, is on the Sensei Experience menu.
The ancient art of Polynesian body walking, Lomi A’e, which uses powerful bare foot stepping to open the body and release sources of tension and pain, is on the Sensei Experience menu.

He cited research that suggests how 60% of more affluent people are rethinking their priorities in a COVID-informed world and 63% to 66% are measuring wellbeing by how hopeful, joyful and energized they feel.

“This has the potential to be a fundamental culture shift for many, many people, particularly if you’re a boomer and you just lost a year,” he said.

Like everyone else, Kelly is trying to anticipate whether or not the company is still trying to catch a falling knife. “Where is the market going to be? Where’s the price point going to be? How long is the ramp-up?” he asked.

That said, he wants Sensei to get about three owned properties under its belt to better control the experience, and then look at growing selective management deals. “In the long run, third-party management is how you’re ultimately going to grow the fastest,” he said. “But we want to anchor it so we establish brand protocols and standards first.”

The Sensei Way

Movement is how people interact with their environment, nourishment is what fuels them, and rest is how they recover and grow. The Sensei Way dictates that each path is connected and enriched by the others, forming an essential balance that requires commitment, calibration, devotion and consistency to one’s self. These are the tools each Sensei retreat guest hopefully learns and takes home.

When guests arrive at the Koele property they can participate in a thermal mapping program where a scan discovers any constrictions, tightness and misalignment, Kelly said. That information is then passed along to all fitness personnel on staff. “We can then visually use that to both show the customer, but also show the massage practitioner. So, that’s one area where we’re literally using technology to accelerate the use of information.”

At the same time, during hands-on treatment, massage therapist might recognize, for example, a restriction in a guest’s shoulder. That therapist can use an internal app to pass along the information to the guest’s guide as well as other practitioners.

The Guided Sensei Experience starts at an already reduced US$1,610 per night for double occupancy, which includes a Four Seasons hotel room, personal Sensei guide to assist guests beginning with pre-arrival and throughout their stay, and US$1,200 in daily wellness credits toward the Experiences Menu of spa services, one-on-one wellness and fitness consultations, and sport and island activities.

“We want the dominant amount of money to be for people to explore wellbeing,” Kelly said. “So, 75 cents on every dollar you give us goes to you picking something from the wellness menu. It’s about three times the norm. So, that’s a huge difference, in addition to the free connecting flight over from Oahu to avoid big crowds. We are really committed to get people as deep, a wellness experience, as we can.”

A new Select-Choice Experience starts at US$650 per night, double occupancy, and includes overnight accommodations and à la carte options from the Experiences Menu.

Both options, which can be combined throughout one’s stay for greater flexibility, include access to up to 12 complimentary wellbeing classes each day that range from exploration of the surroundings via small-group, instructor-led hikes to yoga, fitness, meditation and more. The choices available in the Experience Menu include treatments in a private spa hale; fitness, yoga, and meditation instruction by experienced practitioners; nutrition and mindfulness sessions; as well inspirational activities such as exploration of the surrounding tropical grounds by UTV, ocean sports, oceanfront golf, tennis, archery, ropes course, horseback riding, sunset cruises, and more.

Short and long term

Launching a new brand in the middle of a pandemic, Kelly has had to adjust on the fly while opening and closing multiple times.

“The first thing is, how do we keep our people enthused, connected, keep the morale up?” Kelly said. “How do we talk to them as honestly as we can? So, that’s one variable. Second, how do we protect the health of the guests? Where are our protocols? Now, Four Seasons has done a great job with their care program with Johns Hopkins, but we also have a leading medical mind in Dr. Agus who also looks at it, so we have a double layer of review.”

“Larry Ellison does not do something to create a one-off.” – Kevin Kelly
“Larry Ellison does not do something to create a one-off.” – Kevin Kelly

Kelly said the resort is adjusting class sizes and gone to more one-on-one instruction, as well as reducing utilization rates to account for additional cleaning time. It helps that spa treatments are done in individual, 1,000-square-feet spa hales (Hawaiian for “home”).

Because there is COVID-19 testing on Lana’i, management has to decide how often to test the staff. “We’re also looking at that next line of protection,” he added.

What Sensei won’t do, said Kelly, is turn COVID into a program gimmick. “The science is the science, pre-COVID and post-COVID,” he said. “We’re just going to deliver it in smaller groups or one-on-ones with a little more sensitivity or compassion to what people have been going through, because people have been battered.”

More personally, Kelly said he is trying to practice what Sensei preaches. “I’ve been taking an hour a day to walk. I can walk to the beach (in Los Angeles). Usually that’s five miles there and back. I also have a small kettlebell and a jump rope – a little gym in my garage.”

He is eating right and said during the mid-September interview that emotionally he was in a good place.

“But we’re extremely busy. Ironically, I’m on the phone at least six and a half hours of Zoom meetings every day. So, we’re still putting in eight- or nine-hour days… We’re very focused with the whole team on sharpening other parts of the business. We have the benefit of knowing this year’s operating capital is in place, and that gives us a little more comfort. We still have to spend the money wisely and we have to be accountable and we have to deliver, but that gives us a little bit of an advantage.”

When asked what it is like working for Larry Ellison, Kelly said he works much more with Agus on the resort programming, languaging and marketing side. “When you sit with Mr. Ellison, he wants to get to the point. He’s as brilliant and concise as you would think he is as someone who literally helped shape the culture technologically. He normally wants us to be precise, having done our due diligence. Give it to him in clean bullet forms, and be able to answer any questions he has. He’s able to absorb, respond, contribute and give direction because he often listens, asks a few questions, and then gives you very clear direction. I find it to be extremely refreshing and effective that way.”

Fundamentally, Kelly concluded, the mission of the company is to guide the world toward greater wellbeing. And to be even more clear, he added, “Larry Ellison does not do something to create a one-off.”

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