‘The best business decisions arise when lateral thinking collides with strategic planning’ – Claire Zammit Xuereb

“From experience, I have seen how bringing creativity into business scenarios has been a sure-fire way to shake things up and kick-start new ideas that would never have occurred to us had we stuck to some predetermined rulebook,” says Claire Zammit Xuereb, Group Hospitality Director at AX Hotels Malta.

Sharing her views on how embracing creativity in leadership helped her business rise above the challenges posed by the pandemic, Ms Zammit Xuereb says that she learned the importance of fostering creativity in the workplace from her father, mentor and the founder of AX Group, Angelo Xuereb.

“As such, I’ve always endeavoured to keep creativity at the forefront of all my business decisions. And during a year in which we faced a flurry of unprecedented challenges created by the pandemic, I truly believe that it was the AX Hotels team’s ingenuity for coming up with out-of-the-box solutions that ensured our hotels and restaurants were able to, not only survive, but evolve and grow.”

These included new and innovative F&B strategies, such as delivery services from their main restaurants and curated dine-at-home experiences for special occasions from Michelin Star restaurant Under Grain, as well as laying the groundwork for new projects, including acquiring plans to begin the development of the Verdala Boutique Hotel in Rabat.

The Director explains that “all this work would not have been possible had we stuck to the script.”

Ms Zammit Xuereb adds that uncertainty is part of the process, and while it can be frightening, “it can also be tremendously thrilling. Projects may not pan out as you’d hoped, but I’ll tell you something. You’ll always learn more in trying and failing, than if you never tried at all.”