Sims Foster is co-founder of Foster Supply Hospitality - a group of rurally independent small hotels and restaurants based in New York's Catskills Mountains.

In this conversation we get into facing up to the inevitably of hundreds of tiny failures, finding thought partners, the importance of the practice room, how the hospitality industry could rethink the ways it trains talent, and why local matters.

Show Notes

05:00 Introducing Foster Supply Hospitality (and a rogue refrigerator)

08:00 Why the Catskills is such a storied region, and how it’s changed so dramatically in the past few decades

15:00 Starting in hospitality: from dishwashing to digging into data

25:00 Bringing a music sensibility to the hospitality business - and the importance of the practice room

33:00 Facing up to the prospect of constant tiny failures

36:00 The future of training in the hospitality industry

45:00 How Sims assesses new hotel and restaurant opportunities

50:00 Underrated factors that make or break a hospitality company

54:00 The colossal financial failure - and making a recovery

63:00 Seeking out thought partners… and working with your life partner

70:00 Recognizing crisis, and moving forward

77:00 The importance of doing business for local good