General manager

Two 'General manager' stories April 2012 - December 2012

Former Apple execs Pascal Cagni, Tony Fadell, and others talk Apple at LeWeb (Video)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sMmme6wvJCw#!]

The LeWeb conference is running Dec. 4 through Dec. 6 in Paris, and father of the iPod and Nest creator Tony Fadell sat down yesterday to talk about Nest, product design, and the company’s future plans to bring Nest to 500 retail shops starting with Canada. Of course, as usual, Fadell’s former employer Apple was a topic of conversation. Fadell talked a little bit about what he learned from Steve Jobs in terms of product design, and he talked about his time at Philips compared to Apple and Nest.

Another interesting guest that made an appearance is Apple’s former Vice President and General Manager for Europe, Middle East, and Africa Pascal Cagni. He resigned in May. Pascal talked about his time at Apple and his former role at the company. He also talked about his working relationship with Jobs, his continued admiration for the company, and secrecy at Apple. The full video is below:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=dzSrB-b5yNs]

Historic Hotel Bel-Air goes 21st Century with iPads in every room

The lavish Los Angeles Hotel Bel-Air recently reopened with redesigned rooms and made sure to toss out its old, clunky receivers along with the outdated interior design. The 70-year-old hotel replaced the telephones with Apple’s booming iPad, so guests no longer need to use a laminated binder menu and corded handset to order their caviar and wine. Room service now occurs via the iOS tablet included in their room, and the hotel hopes to have 50 percent of orders placed through the new addition.

However, according to USAToday, 75 percent of guests are actually now ordering room service with the iPad:

[…] the 75% statistic is noteworthy because it’s an indication of how rapidly people are embracing newfangled tech offerings in their hotels – especially at a time when more hotels are undergoing renovations and considering installing new customer technology.

Some higher-end hotels already are using the iPads to replace the old-fashioned paper brochures that describe the hotel’s features such as spa offerings, restaurants and local information. A small-but-growing number, however, are taking it further. They’re letting guests conduct hotel business once done over the phone, such as requesting a special pillow or extra towels, making restaurant reservations, booking a spa treatment – and ordering room service.

“People view it as a way to make their life easier,” said Bel-Air General Manager Denise Flanders. “They put down exactly what they want. It’s the luxury of saving time.”