How LuxGroup® can turn personal influence into shared leadership while protecting the culture that made it distinctive.
By Dr. Phạm Hà, Founding President & CEO, LuxGroup®
The next stage of growth
A founder’s ability to make things happen is often an enterprise’s first operating system. The founder spots an opportunity, persuades a partner, resolves a customer problem and commits capital, sometimes in the same afternoon. That speed can build a business. At LuxGroup®, it helped turn a travel company founded in 2005 into a house of specialist brands spanning journeys, cruises, hospitality, gastronomy and culture. The next stage demands a different capability: enabling other leaders to make sound decisions with similar conviction, without requiring the founder to be present at every turning point.
The hidden cost of being indispensable
Founders usually become indispensable for good reasons. They know the customer, remember the history behind difficult choices and hold relationships that cannot be transferred by an organisational chart. Problems arise when teams learn that the safest route is to wait for the founder’s opinion. A manager may have a profit target yet lack authority to change a product. Two businesses may share a customer yet need the founder to settle how they work together. Decision quality then depends on one person’s availability, and the organisation loses the chance to develop judgement elsewhere.
Influence travels beyond the org chart
Formal authority explains who can approve a budget or appoint a manager. It rarely explains how a proposal gains momentum. A respected captain, a trusted sales colleague or a long-standing partner may influence whether a new idea succeeds. Their knowledge can expose practical flaws early and help others commit to change. LuxGroup’s leadership must understand these relationships before redesigning decision rights. A map of actual influence can reveal who carries trust across teams, whose concerns are consistently overlooked and where cooperation depends on a personal introduction.
Give accountability its matching authority
“A House of Small Giants” promises specialist businesses room to excel. That promise requires a precise answer to a simple question: what can each leader decide? A cruise leader might control service design and routine operating expenditure while major vessel investments remain a group decision. A destination management leader might adjust itineraries and supplier relationships within agreed quality and financial boundaries. The appropriate limits will vary, but the principle should remain constant. Holding someone accountable for revenue, service or employee development makes sense only when that person can influence the decisions that produce those results.
Reserve a clear role for the parent company
Decentralisation does not mean that every business should operate alone. The parent company should make decisions where a group perspective creates value: allocating major capital, protecting the brand’s standards, developing senior talent and managing risks that cross business lines. It should also ask whether an investment in one company is more valuable than improving an existing asset elsewhere. These responsibilities need explicit criteria. Otherwise, group oversight can become unpredictable intervention, and local autonomy can become a reason to avoid cooperation.
Use capital to express strategy
LuxGroup’s opportunities will compete for money and management attention. A proposal for another vessel should be considered alongside improving utilisation of the current fleet, developing a stronger distribution channel or investing in staff capability. Each proposal needs to show its initial and continuing cash requirements, expected returns, operating risks and the person responsible for execution. The discussion should also ask how the investment strengthens the wider group. Capital allocation is where the ambition to be the best, rather than the biggest, becomes a practical discipline.
Build trust before demanding collaboration
Connected businesses can offer guests a richer journey. A private tour, boutique cruise, regional meal and encounter with Vietnamese art may reinforce one another. Yet collaboration can create friction when teams have separate targets and unclear ownership of the customer relationship. A shared purpose alone will not resolve those questions. Leaders need to agree how referrals work, who remains responsible when something goes wrong and how each unit benefits. Trust grows when these arrangements are fair, visible and followed consistently.
Listen to the people closest to the guest
Frontline employees often notice a weakening experience before it appears in a monthly report. They hear the question guests ask twice, see the handover that causes delays and know which promise is difficult to deliver. Their observations are a source of operational influence. Managers can make that influence useful by inviting specific examples, acting on recurring problems and explaining decisions back to the team. People First® and HEARTS™ gain force when employees can improve the service they are asked to provide.
Make room for constructive disagreement
A growing company needs more than agreement among its senior leaders. It needs a way to test assumptions while decisions can still be changed. Before committing to a major expansion, a leader should be able to question demand forecasts, cash timing, staffing and the effect on service quality. This calls for clear evidence and respectful challenge. The person raising a concern should not have to choose between protecting the business and protecting a working relationship. Good governance gives disagreement a place in the decision process.
Lead change through the people affected
Moving toward a holdings model will change how some leaders experience their roles. Greater authority may be welcome, but it also brings clearer accountability. Shared standards may improve consistency while requiring teams to change familiar practices. The founder and group leadership need to understand these concerns before announcing a new structure. Start with a small number of decisions, define the new responsibilities and review what happens in practice. A working example can build confidence more effectively than a comprehensive chart that has never been tested.
Develop judgement, not dependence
Delegation succeeds when leaders learn how to decide under uncertainty. LuxGroup can develop that skill through regular discussion of real choices: why a pricing decision worked, what a guest complaint exposed or why an investment was delayed. The founder’s experience remains valuable when its reasoning becomes accessible to others. Asking managers to present alternatives, assumptions and risks gives them practice in exercising authority. Over time, they can become sources of judgement for their own teams rather than conduits for instructions from above.
Measure what power produces
The effects of a new governance model should be visible. LuxGroup can examine how long important decisions take, whether unit leaders meet their commitments, how often issues are escalated and whether cooperation improves the guest experience. Financial performance, cash flow, guest satisfaction and employee retention remain essential. The measures should help leaders identify where authority is unclear or capability needs strengthening. An increase in local decisions is useful only if those decisions protect standards and produce better outcomes.
Keep power answerable
As leaders gain authority, the organisation must strengthen its ability to question how that authority is used. Purchasing decisions should be explainable. Employees and partners should know where to raise concerns. Major investments should have a documented rationale and a later review against their original assumptions. Senior leaders need feedback about how they treat people as well as what they achieve. These practices matter especially in a purpose-led business: Delivering Happiness® must apply to the way value is created, not only to the experience presented to guests.
Preserve the founder’s greatest contribution
The founder’s most enduring contribution may be the ability to build an organisation that no longer relies on the founder for every good decision. LuxGroup’s belief that Luxury is Culture® gives its businesses a common direction; disciplined decision rights, capable leaders and mutual accountability can give that belief continuity. The aim is for each small giant to bring its own expertise and initiative to the group while strengthening the whole. When authority, trust and responsibility grow together, personal influence can become an institutional strength.
