Own the roadmap, own the career: Wyndham’s Scott Strickland on approachable leadership and the future of hospitality

In this episode of Catalyst, Tammy is joined by Scott Strickland, Chief Commercial Officer at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. Scott joined Wyndham as CIO in 2017. Today he oversees marketing, loyalty, global sales and PR on top of technology. Prior to that, Tony led transformations at companies like PwC, Mars, Black & Decker and Nissan. He shares how an early assignment building a factory from scratch taught him to lead, and why he treats team members as customers. He and Tammy also get into how AI is changing the guest experience.

Highlights from the episode include:

• Approachable leadership. On a recent AdWeek panel about “dad energy” in leadership, Scott picked approachable as his word. Kids bring problems to a parent they trust, and teams do the same with leaders. He has signed every email with “Peace, Scott” since he was 22, a small cue to read his messages in the kindest light.
• Get to know the problem before pushing solutions. Scott’s first move after taking responsibility for a call center was to listen in on calls. Agents were toggling between four systems to answer a single question. Fixing that made the job easier and built the trust needed to implement bigger ideas.
• Welcoming the bots. While some companies are blocking AI agents, Wyndham is inviting them in. Scott explains how guests will soon search in their LLM of choice, see Wyndham inventory and log into their loyalty account in one flow. He also likes what LLMs bring: more guest detail than online travel agencies share.

Check out the full episode to hear about Wyndham’s loyalty partnerships with Live Nation, Applebee’s and college sports. Plus, why leaders need to listen and give employees a voice in change.

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Please note that the views expressed in this episode may not necessarily be those of NTT DATA.