Academic Journey

Sometimes, the Most Interesting Questions Begin at Home

After more than twenty years in hospitality, I never imagined that one of the most intriguing questions of my professional life would emerge while spending time with my family.

Not during a board meeting. Not while evaluating an investment proposal. And certainly not while reviewing another hotel financial statement.

It began with something remarkably ordinary. Watching my son.

Our family enjoys luxury hotels, fine dining restaurants and amusement parks. I have always loved noticing the little gestures, unexpected reactions and choices people make without appearing to think about them.

Watching my children grow up has brought another perspective. Sometimes, what seems perfectly natural to them challenges assumptions I developed over decades in hospitality. One particular observation stayed with me. I am not quite ready to reveal it. After all, a little mystery is part of a good story.

When Experience Starts Asking Questions

Experience gives us confidence and helps us recognize patterns. But it can also become a comfortable place. We may begin assuming that what we learned yesterday will remain equally relevant tomorrow.

I started questioning that assumption. What if familiar principles are changing? What if the next evolution of hospitality is already becoming visible through everyday behaviors we overlook?

I had plenty of opinions. What I did not have was sufficient evidence. That distinction increasingly bothered me. I needed to understand the phenomenon rather than simply form an opinion.

Back to Lausanne. Again.

Six years after completing my MBA at EHL, I returned in 2026 for a Doctor of Business Administration, in collaboration with the Drucker School of Management.

The MBA had strengthened managerial analysis and decision-making. The doctorate asked a different question: How do I know what I believe I know?

That can be uncomfortable for someone accustomed to being expected to provide answers. Returning to academia after decades in business requires intellectual humility. Experience makes us confident. Research reminds us that confidence is not evidence.

When Aristotle Meets Drucker

Aristotle’s phronesis concerns practical wisdom: exercising appropriate judgment amid real circumstances and human consequences. Peter Drucker’s philosophy of management as a human endeavor offers a complementary perspective on knowledge, responsibility, purpose and effectiveness.

Both encourage me to think about the relationship between experience, observation, knowledge and judgment—and why even familiar assumptions should be examined.

An Observation. A Question. An Unfinished Journey.

I am investigating a phenomenon that I believe deserves closer attention from hospitality. It emerged from something personal, developed through professional reflection and eventually became an academic pursuit.

For now, I prefer to keep the subject private. Not every idea needs to be revealed before it has been properly examined.

What I can share is the intellectual voyage surrounding it: books that challenge assumptions, discussions that change my thinking and the uncomfortable realization that something I once found obvious may not be so obvious after all. Those reflections will find their way into Diario del Capitano.

The Destination Remains Undisclosed

At fourteen, I began working because my parents encouraged me to. A maître d’hôtel in Pesaro gave me the dream of studying at Lausanne. Years of hard work helped me realize it. And now, observing my own son has helped inspire a new academic adventure.

My parents taught me the value of work. The maître d’hôtel encouraged a dream. My wife and family supported major decisions. My children remind me that we do not all see the world through the same eyes.

The destination remains undisclosed. The journey, however, is very much underway.

Your Captain,
Nicola Mandolini