The Bite Magazine - Spring 2019 - Issue 24

bite travel NDON W hen your motto is “all busi- ness should be social business”, it’s easy to see why the Good Group decided to take a dif- ferent approach to business compared to other hotel groups when setting up their portfolio of Good Hotels. In fact, they took inspiration from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Professor Muham- mad Yunus and incorporated a concept called ‘social business’ which is orientated towards cre- ating human value, for the long term, with people at the heart of all that they do, on a daily basis. The brainchild of CEO Marten Dresden, Good Hotel isn’t just a successful global lifestyle brand located in the world’s most exciting tourist des- tinations but an opportunity to create a unique and premium hospitality experience with a cause. As well as offering their guests beautiful service and stunning settings, they have an inspir- ing story and an exciting mission. Their profits are reinvested to support social causes such as educating children, training the unemployed for success and doing ethical work through their Global Good Foundation. Born in the Netherlands to a family of teachers, psychologists and public service workers, service and taking care of others were the cornerstones of Dresden’s upbringing, whereas business was not. When the Euro had just launched in his country, he realised, while travelling as a student, the importance of international trade and open markets, to connect people and develop areas that had been left behind. Learning Spanish in Guatemala, he went on to work in international trade where he had the opportunity to make a change. It was in Guatemala that he met and befriended a little girl, Mirna, who had no shoes. Upon giving her a pair of shoes, Dresden soon realised the only way to change her current fate was to help her and others like her through education. In 2006, he set up NGO Niños de Guatemala to enable Mirna, her family, her community and their generations to have better futures. Through building a self-sufficient NGO business, he was able to stimulate entrepreneurship that focused on long-term change and create independency. Three years later, while working for an inter- national shipping company, he was asked by his employer to head up the South America busi- ness in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. While based there, he continued to manage the growing team at Niños de Guatemala on a part-time basis. Along with the skills gained at NDG and the Olym- pics being awarded to Rio de Janeiro, he saw an opportunity to link education, job creation and entrepreneurship to tourism demand, and saw the potential this could bring to under-developed communities.