Background, Coaching & Training Experience
Martin Kubler is a hospitality, leisure, and tourism executive turned marketing and communications consultant, coach, and trainer. Martin used to be the CEO of Strategic Partnership Solutions, a Dubai-headquartered consulting firm, and lived and worked in various Middle Eastern countries for 16 years. He is now based in Stockholm, Sweden, and splits his time between Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He specializes in all things digital, marketing, (brand) communication, business growth, change, and innovation. Martin’s clients range from individual professionals and SMEs to family-owned & run companies, and large international organisations and government ministries.
Martin holds an MBA in Marketing, and Innovation from GIHE, Switzerland, and is a certified (digital) marketing trainer. He’s highly creative, passionate about communication, new media, the interactive world, and organizational culture. He is interested in many things and understands an eclectic mix of business, science, and art. Martin knows people and how to communicate with them, but he also knows how to make organisations work and extract the best profits for their stakeholders.
Martin specializes in change, change management, (open) innovation, organizational culture, risk management, organizational communication, creative problem solving, (digital) marketing & marketing planning, cyberbullying, diversity, leadership, start-up culture, customer experience, loyalty, and customer service excellence.
Martin has delivered training courses to clients from a wide variety of industrial backgrounds since 2007. He used to be a senior lecturer at the Digital Marketing Institute Middle East (DM3), a facilitator and subject matter expert at Pearson Education Middle East, and an adjunct lecturer at SAE Institute (Dubai) and Middlesex University (Dubai). He’s currently an adjunct lecturer at MODUL University (Dubai) and has also given guest lectures at various universities in the Middle East incl. American University Dubai and BITS Pilani (Dubai).
Client history and assignments include: IFFCO | AW Rostamani Automobiles | Madjid Al Futtaim | Chaloub Group | Gulf News | Emaar Hospitality | Nakheel | Marriott Hotels & Resorts | Vodafone | Al Jalila Foundation | SCTA | Tourism South Africa | Tourism Ireland | McGettigan’s Clubs & Restaurants | Almajdouie Holding (KSA) | Ministry of Transport, Communications and Information Technology (Oman) | Opticom (Sweden) | Ministry of Tourism (Oman) | IHG Hotels & Resorts | SYAHYA – National Co. for Tourism (KSA) | Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts | Kuaishou Technology
Martin is a GLEAC mentor – read more here watch his Hot Seat interview with GLEAC here
Pictures with SCT’s David Rigby and Peggy Li
Approach and Benefits
At times hard hitting at other times witty and funny, but always highly engaging, Martin’s training, coaching, and mentoring activities help businesses, leaders, teams, and individual professionals cut through the noise of their everyday operational reality and focus on the essential elements required to move forward strategically and achieve better, smarter, results.
In today’s world the sheer velocity and volatility of change and the volume of information organizations and individuals have to deal with on a daily basis mean that we will all fail at times. Martin shows you how to start using not only your successes, but also your failures to recognize and act on opportunities. His focus areas include strategic planning, affecting and communicating organisational change, managing virtual teams, enabling creative and innovative thinking, and defining and implementing smart, objective, and realistic goals.
The benefits of Martin’s approach include:
- Improves “Hands-on”, to-the-point evaluation of a business’ status quo, bringing order and priorities to the forefront and creating a common starting point for affecting change
- Turning past failures into future successes in easy-to-follow, no-nonsense steps
- Eliminating organisational silos and enabling better communication flow
- Providing a knowledge base and sounding board for new ideas and strategies
- Revealing individuals’ hidden talents and passions and helping organisations to build better, more dynamic teams by looking beyond traditionally held viewpoints
- Enabling a “customer first” approach across all areas of an organisation and providing clarity on who a company is (or should) be talking to and what the customers really want & need.
Selected Testimonials
“Thanks Mr Martin, Sincere thanks for the enriching and entertaining training/ I’m truly thankful for your informative/ Thanks for guiding through an incredible training journey. ” Leoron training remote training on Certified Strategy and Balanced Score Card course for clients in KSA
“Great explanations and the trainer answered all questions clearly. Very clear & organised – I will keep it for a long time!/ Interactive exercises were very good and real life scenarios can be applied at my work/ Thank you for being so diligent and dedicated on the course. Looking forward to working with you next time” Leoron training and clients in Oman and KSA
“Martin has impressed me with the amount of knowledge, awareness, solutions, practices, and organization. Over and above, Martin is a great facilitator as he combines big knowledge smoothly with “Martin’s sarcastic twist”, so you never forget the bits and pieces afterwards.” Marketing Director, Multi-Platform Network (MPN) and Talent Management Agency in MENA
“Our business grew faster than expected and it was all hands on deck. Martin’s training and follow-up coaching forced us to focus on issues we would otherwise have probably neglected or pushed to the future. When COVID hit and we had to halt virtually all our operations for several month, we had the right strategies in place, knew the risks, and managed to come out largely unscathed and resume full operations very quickly.”
CEO, Hospitality Company in Europe, Middle East, and Asia.
“Martin is a real expert in this domain and he definitely knows how to deliver his knowledge to a diverse audience. I consider him as a qualified and great lecturer and would highly recommend him for any marketing training courses.” Staffing & Operations Manager, Consulting & Engineering Firm Middle East
“Martin Kubler is a driven, intelligent, and highly engaging speaker, with amazing stage presence. Martin regularly sprinkles his presentation/panel discussion with humour and always engages the audience. Martin not only understands the industry, but was able to bring clarity to the changes and demands going on in hospitality. We have received excellent feedback from our delegates, with many comments on the quality of the sessions, speakers and information gained through attendance which is all we can ever hope to achieve.” Special Events Executive, International Events Organiser Middle East
“Each meeting with Martin is finished with thousands of new ideas and improvements to our product and strategy. He is a very active mentor and helps us with our “go to market strategy”; and to acquire new customers – fundamental issues for a startup company!” Entrepreneur & Founder, Technology Start-Up South America
“Starting a new venture is never easy, but keeping it going, controlling all aspects and taking the right risks is almost equally challenging. Martin provided us with great insights in terms of growth, risk management, succession planning, and business continuity when we hired him to coach our leadership team remotely during the COVID pandemic.” Company Owner, Public Health & Environmental Company in North Africa
Other Activities & Professional Contributions
- Martin is a Fellow of the Institute of Hospitality, a Member of GLEAC – Mentoring Community, and a Founding Member & Ambassador of Otolo – Mentoring & Skills Sharing Platform.
- Martin is also a sought-after professional speaker with appearances in Johannesburg, Dubai, Doha, Muscat, Las Vegas, London, and Mumbai. He has also given keynote speeches at various corporate events for clients such as Vodafone, DTCM, and Emirates NBD.
- Martin is a regular contributor to industry websites and publications such as Hotelier Middle East, Hotel & Catering News Middle East, Travel & Tourism News Middle East, Travel Daily, and The Local (Sweden).
