EarthCheck’s Inner Circle Forum (ICF) brings together leading experts, policymakers and academics to explore how environmental and social challenges, along with opportunities for innovation, are reshaping tourism.
Hosted by EarthCheck and RCI Sustainability Group in Taipei, Taiwan, this year’s forum continued its mission to equip tourism leaders with actionable insights on sustainable practices.
One of the highlights of this year’s Forum was Tim Kobe’s session on what he calls the ‘Return on Experience’ – a concept that highlights the value of designing for people first and foremost.
A globally respected design figure, Kobe is the founder of Eight Inc., a Singapore-based firm that has collaborated with top brands like Apple, Coca-Cola, Nike and Virgin Atlantic. He was also responsible for designing the original Apple Store, after writing a white paper on why Apple should enter the stand-alone retail business that caught the eye of Steve Jobs.
Kobe’s ‘Return on Experience’ challenges the conventional approach of measuring success, asserting that traditional metrics and KPIs are merely outcomes of a more profound pursuit: human delight.
In conversation with EarthCheck Founder and CEO Stewart Moore, Kobe provided Inner Circle Forum attendees with his keys for creating experiences that yield extraordinary results.
Be human-centric
Human-centricity, according to Kobe, is more than a buzzword; it’s a competitive advantage. “Everybody talks about human-centricity,” he said, “but very few people understand quite how to do it.”
To operationalise this idea, Kobe and his team created what they call an “Experience Masterplan,” a holistic blueprint for aligning customer engagement with human values. For the firm’s work with Tiffany & Co., this involved 20 weeks of customer and staff interviews, workshops, and brand analysis to transform their Fifth Avenue store into an immersive experience.
The reimagined store now includes spaces for bridal showers, overnight stays, and events – making it a destination rather than a retail stop. This unique approach, Kobe notes, may well have contributed to Tiffany’s $15.8 billion acquisition by LVMH.
“What we try to do is look at the human outcome that will ultimately lead to the business outcomes,” he explained. This method, he shared, starts with understanding what people love – and then building strategies around those insights.
Challenge assumptions and beware of best practices
For Kobe, breaking out of old patterns and conventions is essential for companies that want to stay relevant in a rapidly evolving world.
“Always make sure you challenge the assumptions,” he advised. “All the assumptions are there to make our lives easier. But we should be making our lives a little harder, in the sense that we’re challenging those assumptions that used to work.”
He also warned against putting too much stock in ‘best practices’, which he sees as potentially stifling innovation. “Best practices give you the baseline for what everyone else is doing,” Kobe explained, “but the best way to make someone else a leader is for you to volunteer to be a follower.”
He recounted a memorable moment with Steve Jobs before the first Apple Store opened, when Jobs asked, “What happens if nobody comes tomorrow?” The leap Apple took at that time, Kobe reflected, was worth the risk – even though Bloomberg famously predicted Apple’s retail venture would be a “painful and expensive mistake”. Today, the Apple Store’s success exemplifies the rewards of challenging the status quo.
Kobe also referenced a retirement message from legendary art director Lee Clow, who urged his team to do “the brave thing” instead of “the right thing”. Reflecting on Clow’s words, Kobe shared that this mindset is essential for true innovation: “If you do it well, you can create extraordinary value.”
Align with values
According to Kobe, companies today must align their values with those of their audience to build genuine connections. “The experience you’re designing has to be based on a core set of values that people can take away from that,” he noted.
He illustrated this point through his work with the COMO Group, a hospitality brand. Kobe and his team aimed to express COMO’s philosophy through what they called the ‘Second Summit Seeker Mindset’. This concept spoke to individuals who still felt unfulfilled after achieving traditional milestones, guiding them to experiences that would resonate deeply.
To reach this audience, Kobe’s team introduced concepts like COMO Academy and COMO Rituals – programs that fostered the brand’s mission of personal growth and meaningful experiences.
For Kobe, creating value alignment strengthens customer relationships, fostering a sense of purpose that goes beyond transactions.
Evolve intelligently
Kobe explained that successful companies continuously evolve by listening to their customers. This “intelligent evolution” relies on gathering real-time feedback through “receptors” that capture insights.
Kobe pointed to companies like Netflix as examples: “Every time you make a selection on Netflix, Netflix gets smarter; they can deliver you a better product,” he said. By building an ongoing dialogue with customers, companies can stay relevant and create experiences that matter.
Kobe’s work with Nissan in Tokyo is an example of this approach. Instead of a traditional showroom, Kobe’s team reimagined Nissan’s Ginza space as an experiential venue showcasing Nissan’s innovations. Instead of focusing on sales, Kobe’s team designed the space to communicate Nissan’s commitment to innovation, inviting visitors to download an app and take a self-directed tour of the company’s electric cars and autonomous vehicles.
Nissan was able to use the app to track visitor interest in the exhibits – the last of which was an interactive experience that allowed visitors to customise their own vehicle.
This shift from monologue to dialogue had a remarkable impact. “Our target was 40,000 visitors per month, and we ended up getting 250,000,” Kobe recalled. By moving from a purely transactional model to an idea-driven experience, Nissan engaged visitors in a way that traditional showrooms couldn’t achieve.
A humanist in an AI world
As the world of design embraces artificial intelligence, Kobe shared his belief that human-centric design remains crucial. “Honestly, last summer, we asked ourselves, should we close the office? Why stay in business with artificial intelligence?” After much reflection, he concluded that the human pursuit of “excellence”—the ability to discern and create experiences of genuine quality—is irreplaceable.
Ultimately, Kobe asserts, only humans can imagine “the unthinkable” – and this is what makes human-centric design essential in a digital age. “Taking on the unthinkable is what you should be doing… and it takes humans to think up the unthinkable.”
