Ana Brant's Seven Blocks of Luxury

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As announced earlier, RIT Croatia's Alumna, Ms. Ana Brant held a guest lecture in front of the full classroom of interested students at our Dubrovnik campus yesterday, October 18.

Ana, who is currently holding the position of Director of Global Guest Experience & Innovation for the Dorchester Collection, spoke very passionately on the topic of "Designing, Curating and Crafting Ultra-luxury Experiences" in the hospitality industry, where she explained her model of seven building blocks of luxury: infrastructure, anticipation, transformation, theatre, recognition, thoughtfulness and discovery. According to Ana's belief, the importance of service quality, the concept that is taught at RIT Croatia as well, is the key to achieving success. "Service without context is commodity" as Ana explained. She also defined the current decade as the "experience design phase", whereas the future will be even more "super user-centric".

After sharing her rich professional experience, as the final message to our students, Ana emphasized the importance of focusing on the one thing they are passionate and good at and developing in that particular area in order to achieve excellence.

Ana holds a BS degree in Hotel and Resort Management from RIT Croatia and an MS degree in Service leadership and Innovation from RIT, NY. Her innovation in customer experience led to articles in the Harvard Business Review and speaking engagements at many prominent schools like Harvard University, École Hôtelière de Lausanne and many others. Under her leadership and with her 10+ years' luxury brand experience and leadership, the Dorchester Collection guest experience index increased by 22% worldwide. Ana also published articles in the Harvard Business Review and was invited as a guest speaker at Harvard University, SciencesPo, École Hôtelière de Lausanne, The Malcolm Baldrige Awards & the Cornell Hospitality Research Summit.