I don’t remember the valuation of the deal. I don’t remember most of the presentations. I don’t even remember many of the people who were in the room. But more than 20 years later, I still have a candle from the hotel.
I was in my early 20s working as an investment banker on a transaction in Paris. That may sound glamorous, but I barely saw the city. Instead, I spent my days in windowless conference rooms, reviewing spreadsheets and legal documents, and operating on too little sleep.
Every evening, though, I returned to the same hotel. And as I walked through, someone would always greet me by my name: “Welcome back, Ms. Chang.”
The staff anticipated what I needed before I asked. The room was always exactly as I expected it to be. There was a consistency, warmth, and ease that stood in sharp contrast to the intensity of my workdays.
More than two decades later, I still have a candle and room spray carrying the hotel’s signature scent. I use them sparingly because every time I smell them, I’m transported back to that chapter of my life.
Not because I was happy—I wasn’t. I was exhausted, stressed, and working 100 hours a week. But I felt taken care of. I felt known. And that’s why I believe hospitality may be the most underrated business discipline today.
HOW DO WE MAKE PEOPLE FEEL?
At a moment when nearly every executive conversation revolves around AI, automation, productivity, and efficiency, we’re asking important questions. How do we move faster? How do we scale? How do we do more with less?
But we’re spending far less time asking a question I think is more important: How do we make people feel?
Hospitality is often mistaken for something that belongs exclusively to hotels, restaurants, and travel companies. I think that’s a mistake.
Hospitality isn’t luxury. It’s the discipline of making another human being feel understood, cared for, and valued. The organizations that do this well create something remarkably difficult to replicate: trust.
I’ve spent my career across investment banking, media, healthcare, consumer products, and now longevity. The more I work, the more convinced I become that many of our biggest business challenges are, in fact, human challenges.
Whether they’re customers, employees, or patients, people are usually looking for the same thing: confidence that someone is looking out for them.
At their core, people want to know they’re being taken care of. This isn’t just good customer service. It’s human psychology.
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs suggests that when fundamental human needs are unmet, people struggle to reach their highest potential. We often think about this concept in our personal lives, but I believe it applies equally to organizations.
When people feel secure, they contribute more. When they feel supported, they take risks. When they feel valued, they invest more of themselves. That’s true for customers, employees, and leaders.
A SAFE SPACE TO SPEAK UP
Across multiple leadership roles, the feedback I hear most often isn’t about strategy, finance, or operations. It’s that people know they can bring me difficult problems. They know I’ll listen. They know I’ll be honest. They know I’ll challenge them when necessary, but they’ll leave feeling supported. I think that’s hospitality—not in the traditional sense, but in the human sense. When I look back, I realize I’ve spent much of my career trying to recreate that same feeling for other people.
The best leaders I’ve worked with didn’t necessarily have the highest IQs or the most impressive resumes. What they did have was the ability to create a space where people felt safe speaking up, making mistakes, asking questions, and growing. They anticipated needs before they were vocalized.
In an era increasingly defined by technology, that capability is becoming more valuable, not less.
AI will transform how we work. It will automate tasks, accelerate decision-making, and improve personalization. It will make businesses more efficient in countless ways. But there’s still a difference between anticipating someone’s needs and making them feel appreciated.
There is also a difference between personalization and hospitality. Products can be copied, features can be copied, and technology advantages eventually disappear. However, people rarely forget how you made them feel.
I still have about half the candle left. I’m preserving a reminder of how powerful it is to make someone feel cared for.
The companies that succeed in the AI era will remember what it means to be human. And that’s why I think hospitality may be the most important business discipline we’re not talking about.
Melanie Goldey is CEO of Tally Health.