The past year and a half has tested the resolve of even the most battle-hardy leaders. Lockdowns, social distancing, economies in freefall. It’s not been a vintage year for many, that’s for sure. However, the learning curves have been steep, and even industries at the coalface of Covid-19 effects are rallying round. Entertainment and restaurants were particularly hard-hit thanks to stringent restrictions but are now.
Maverick entrepreneur Flavio Briatore isn’t known for following convention. His outside-the-box approach to just about any endeavour he touches has seen him land in – and out – of hot water throughout his career, but at age 71 he is still masterminding entertainment and lifestyle concepts with a fervour that remains undiminished.
His Midas touch is of course well known. As the commercial boss of Formula One’s Benetton team, he discovered, hired and propelled Michael Schumacher to career highs and transformed the team into a world-beating entity. The Benetton team, under his steer, became the one to beat in the early and mid-1990s and its boss a celebrity recognised around the world for his flair and unmistakable personal style.
Briatore created the Billionaire concept in 1998 after noticing that nightclubs had great entertainment and music, but negligible food, while restaurants served decent food but little in the way of live entertainment. Excellence in both was conspicuously absent and so he created Billionaire – deliberately named to be attention-grabbing and provocative – during down-time in the Formula 1 season. The first restaurant, in Porto Cervo, Italy, attracted the region’s jet-setters and was the impetus for destinations that today stretch across Europe, the UK, the Middle East and Africa.
The Dubai outpost opened in 2016 and underwent a change of concept at the end of 2020 to tailor it to modern audiences, and Briatore was recently in Dubai to reintroduce it to the world. A global pandemic hasn’t dented his audience’s appetite for larger-than-life dining and entertainment experiences and even though dance floors may be closed for business, Briatore’s enthusiasm for showmanship, spectacle and fun remains on full throttle.
“Before we had a restaurant with a dancefloor, but the new format is doing very well. We are sold out every night even in summer time,” says Briatore with a smile. “The food is considered to be amongst the best in Dubai and there is no question about quality of the show. The audience is people who come back to see it several times, to enjoy the food, the energy, the quality and the price and the atmosphere.”
With all the required precautions firmly in place, the show is most definitely going on.
“It’s strange to see Dubai busy in summer, but it’s good for business that fewer are travelling. People want to spend their money somehow.”
That ‘somehow’ involves a lavish nightly spectacle – a Grand Show – with a exceptional dining experience that combines New-Asian modernity and Italian authenticity. Dishes such as Wagyu beef carpaccio, phyllo pastry with wasabi mayo, and guacamole that is prepared right at the table are enjoyed as the stage lights dim and world-class performers take to the stage. It’s an immersive experience unlike any other, engaging all the senses in an unforgettable evening of sight, sound and flavours.
Has Briatore taken some of the life lessons gleaned from running a racing team into his leadership of a hospitality brand?
“It is the same formula when it comes to managing people in a racing team or a restaurant. It is no different. What you need is to create a team where everybody is working together in sync, from the most junior guy in the kitchen to the top guy. Everybody’s successful or unsuccessful together. You’re managing people whether the final product is a winning race or a fully booked restaurant.”
“You’re managing people whether the final product is a winning race or a fully booked restaurant.”
says Briatore
Covid, says Briatore, has changed the landscape of entertainment for the foreseeable future. “People don’t want to go to large-scale events anymore. Entertainment has become modified. If you’re a business owner you have to change, you have to adapt, and the restaurant industry is no different.”
In addition to testing staff three times a week – which he hopes goes a long way to reassuring his patrons – Briatore has refocussed on providing guests with an experience that underscores the unique, journey that begins the moment you step through the doors of Billionaire Mansion.
“Everyone is treated the same, there is no question about that. It doesn’t matter whether our guest is a billionaire or not, of course, because most of them aren’t, and that isnt important. What is important is that the clients feel comfortable and welcome. Waiters today are our public relations executives because they know the customers, they make them feel welcome and at home. They are dynamic and career-driven and make it their business to see that people want to come back. And they do.”
In terms of leadership qualities that have enabled him to consistently build big and successful brands, he says clarity of communication is a must. “You need to be clear and to manage people in a way that they understand the concept. This is vital, because the people are the parts of the business and need to care about every detail of it, excellence in every single aspect.”