From Air to bnb

Ahead of his appearance at our Annual Conference on 21 November, Christopher Lukezic, marketing and communications director, Airbnb talks to Elen Lewis about the importance of solving problems, staying curious and why he never grew up to be a rubbish collector.

How can businesses tap into the creativity of their customers?
Have a relationship with them. Business leaders, particularly marketing and product people should really get to know their customers. Most marketing leaders probably don’t have drinks and dinner with their customers regularly nor do they invite them to call them on their personal numbers whenever they have suggestions, insights, problems or ideas to share, but they should. At Airbnb our goal has always been to solve problems and improve our product to make life easier, to empower our community to provide amazing hospitality to travellers from around the globe. Only by including them in the value creation process are we able to truly be creative and solve these problems.

What advice would you offer to businesses looking to become more creative?
The reply here is similar to the above, with the exception of some suggestions about how to tap creativity in the workplace. Leaders talk about company culture often and for good reason, as it is the backbone for enabling employees to contribute in meaningful ways. Good ideas are not the select domain of just creative directors and senior managers. Good ideas can come from anywhere so the goal of what people refer to as “culture” needs to be finding ways to capture creative ideas no matter where they come from and ultimately encouraging employees at all levels of a company to contribute to the brain trust of the business. Office design, org structure, and the people you hire all contribute to this end.

What's the most creative thing Airbnb has done?
I think simply building Airbnb is our creative endeavor. Everyday we are trying to improve and problem solve which is the ultimate form of creativity. We are a design company at heart, meaning we use creative methods to solve problems in order to best serve and support our community.

What does bold marketing leadership look like?
Bold marketing leadership is so subtle that it never needs to be bold. We are a new era of branding, communication and marketing so boldness is out the door. Compassion and empathy with customers is ultimately the best way to be a successful marketer these days.

How does creativity add value?
Creativity is simply problem solving. The better you can solve problems for your customers the better you can serve them and ultimately this is what businesses exist for. However creativity comes from being empathetic to the needs of your customers because they often won’t be able to articulate what they need directly. Only once you have that empathy can you put the creativity of our employees to good use.

How do you continue to be bold and creative as you grow?
The most successful people in any industry, are the most curious and introspective people I know. They never rest on their laurels and they never stop turning over rocks in the pursuit of information and inspiration.

What’s your guilty pleasure?
Vinyl records and shoes.

What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
Knowing what to do is easy - it is learning how to ignore everything else that is hard.

What would you say to your 17-year-old self?
Take even more risks in life.

Tell us a secret
I wanted to be a rubbish collector as a kid, simply because it looked like fun to hang off the back of a moving truck!

Our Annual Conference is a day of three parts: helping you become more creative as an individual, more creative at work and more creative in the world at large. Led by our cast of inspirational speakers, from inventors to entrepreneurs, investors, brand guardians, business leaders and creative thinkers, this is an intensive one-day toolkit to boost your creativity.

For more information or to book your tickets please view our event page.