Running a venue in New York City means dealing with chaos on a daily basis. Between demanding clients, tight deadlines, and complex logistics, strategic planning can feel like a luxury most hospitality leaders can’t afford. But Gianluca Sardo, president of the Glass House, learned that without solid planning, you’re just putting out fires instead of building something sustainable. His decade-plus experience in hospitality and venue management taught him three key lessons about making strategy actually work.
Align Strategy With Operational Reality
Too many business plans look impressive in PowerPoint but crash when they meet reality. Gianluca figured this out the hard way during his early leadership roles. These days, he starts every strategic conversation with a simple question: what can we actually pull off? “A good strategy is grounded in execution,” he says, and that means getting input from everyone who’ll be doing the work. At the Glass House, this translates into something pretty straightforward. He doesn’t lock himself in a conference room to dream up strategies. Instead, he talks to the operations team, sits down with HR, and gets input from finance. “I work across departments from event production to HR and finance to ensure each strategic initiative reflects what operations can actually accomplish,” he explains. The goal is setting targets that push people without setting them up to fail.
Build An Agile Framework With Metrics That Matter
Annual planning made sense when business moved slower. But in hospitality, things change fast. A global pandemic can shut down events overnight, or a viral social media post can triple demand in a week. Gianluca learned to build flexibility right into his planning process instead of treating change as an emergency. “Strategy cannot be static. Our planning is structured in quarterly cycles with clear KPIs around client satisfaction, revenue growth, cost control, and execution quality,” he notes. This approach lets his team pivot when they need to without losing sight of bigger goals. When you’re tracking the right metrics every quarter, you can spot problems early and adjust before they become disasters.
Empower People To Drive The Plan Strategy
The fastest way to kill a strategic plan is to hand it down from the top and expect people to follow it blindly. Gianluca’s approach flips this around completely. Instead of concentrating all the authority at the executive level, he builds leadership skills throughout the organization. “That’s why I build leadership capacity at every level, delegating decision-making, clarifying accountability, and promoting cross-functional collaboration,” he says. This means the person coordinating events understands how their work affects revenue targets. The finance team gets why operational decisions matter. When everyone sees how their piece fits into the bigger picture, execution becomes much smoother.
The real test of any strategy comes down to whether the people doing the work believe it makes sense. Gianluca’s experience taught him that you can’t just tell people what to do and expect great results. They need to understand why they’re doing it and how it connects to something bigger. At the Glass House, this plays out in how teams handle everything from client meetings to budget reviews. Whether someone’s managing logistics or reviewing financial reports, they know how their work drives strategic success. “Strategic business planning isn’t just about charts and projections. It’s about creating a roadmap your team believes in and can execute confidently.”
When strategy aligns with what’s actually possible, when planning stays flexible enough to handle surprises, and when teams understand and believe in the plan, something interesting happens. Success becomes predictable instead of lucky. “When your plan is purpose-driven, operationally grounded, and people-led, success becomes not just possible, but predictable,” Gianluca explains. His advice to other leaders struggling with strategic planning cuts straight to the point: “Let’s plan smarter so we can live stronger.” Sometimes the best strategies are the simplest ones. Figure out what you can actually do, build in room to adjust, and make sure everyone understands why it matters.
Connect with Gianluca Sardo on LinkedIn to explore smarter strategic planning for real-world operations.
