Hospitality Folks podcast · Episode S1E16
600 Staff. 400 Show Up. Here’s What You Do. | Wolfgang Schürmann | Hospitality Folks Ep. 16
What do you do when a third of your team doesn’t show up — on day two of a five-day, 150,000-person event?
Wolfgang Schürmann has lived that scenario. And the reason he could handle it comes down to one thing: he started at the bottom and learned every role from the floor up. You cannot lead people through a crisis if you’ve never swept the kitchen yourself.
Wolfgang is a German-born hospitality operator with over two decades of experience running events and F&B operations across Mexico, Saudi Arabia, New York, and Europe — from Formula 1 and Formula E paddocks to luxury resort quality management to Michelin star kitchens.
In this conversation:
— The 600-to-400 staffing crisis and how he restructured on the fly
— Why “start at the bottom” is the only real path to earning your team’s trust
— A Michelin star chef, a flying frying pan, and what happened after that changed how Wolfgang thinks about accountability forever
— How to read a team of strangers and place them correctly in under 30 minutes
— What leading across Saudi Arabia, Mexico, and New York taught him about cultural adaptability
🔗 Connect with Wolfgang: linkedin.com/in/wolfgang-schuermann-🇩🇪-🇪🇺-🇲🇽-9a8b5b32
🌐 Gastro 2.0: gastro2punto0.com
🎙️ Host: Alicia Dick Wahlberg
🔗 linkedin.com/in/aliciadickwahlberg
📸 @alicia_dickwahlberg
#HospitalityLeadership #HotelTech #HospitalityFolks #EventManagement #FoodAndBeverage #HospitalityOperations #TeamLeadership #HighPerformanceTeams #Formula1 #hospitalityindustry
