Ditch Boring Wellness Retreats for Bali’s Wildest Reset
Ditch Boring Wellness Retreats for Bali’s Wildest Reset
KEVIN MAK
https://www.fodors.com/world/asia/indonesia/places/bali/experiences/news/ditch-boring-wellness-retreats-for-balis-wildest-reset
What makes a wellness resort stand out against a sea of competition? I traveled to Indonesia to find out.
When it comes to getting some much-needed rest and renewal, travelers often flock to beaches and wellness retreats. But for those looking to travel further, there’s the ultimate beach-and-wellness destination of Bali and the ultimate wellness mecca, Desa Potato Head.
Recently named one of the World’s 50 Best Hotels in 2025, Desa Potato Head redefines modern wellness—moving well beyond yoga mats and juice cleanses. Here, indulgence and intention coexist, offering even the most hedonistic traveler a refined reset.
I didn’t travel to Bali for a conventional wellness escape. Instead, I visited Desa Potato Head to understand what exactly distinguishes it from other luxury resorts that claim to be transformative. In an industry where “wellness” and “relaxation” are tossed out frequently, I was keen to discover what made Desa Potato Head stand out against the rest. The difference, I found out, reveals itself quickly.
Guided by its ethos, “Good Times, Do Good,” Desa Potato Head is conceived as a self-contained cultural village. Architecture, art, music, wellness, and sustainability are seamlessly interwoven, creating a space where pleasure and regeneration feel not only compatible but inseparable.
At the heart of Desa Potato Head is merasa, the philosophy of feeling, presence, and balance. More than a resort, it is an ecosystem where wellness, culture, and creativity intersect, offering an experience that lingers well beyond the stay.
Recent renovation returns Omni Parker House to original splendor ahead of busy summer
The 170-year-old hotel to host America 250, World Cup guests
The Omni Parker House in Boston was originally opened in 1855 and was renovated in 2018 to restore some of its past decor, such as its marble floors. (Omni Hotels & Resorts)
https://www.costar.com/article/612556484/recent-renovation-returns-omni-parker-house-to-original-splendor-ahead-of-busy-summer?
A good historic hotel will make you feel like you've time-traveled, except without sacrificing any of the 21st century's luxuries — and that's exactly what the Omni Parker House in Boston and its recent renovation does for guests, said House Historian Susan Wilson.
"Despite this $65 million extraordinary renovation, it's not a modern hotel," said Wilson, who's been the historian for the hotel since 2012. "It has all the modern amenities, but you feel like you're walking into the 19th century — a really nice version of the 19th century — but the balance that both are there simultaneously, the modern and the historic, is all beautifully melded together."
The Parker House, which originally opened in 1855, has stood the test of time, and, aside from the shutdowns related to COVID-19 when the hotel sold Boston Cream Pies for pickup, is the longest-running operating hotel in North America. Over the past several years, the hotel has undergone a massive renovation, which wrapped up in 2025, that both modernized its interiors while paying homage to its roots as one of Boston's first hotels.
Now, the hotel that housed Charles Dickens, hosted John F. Kennedy's proposal to Jackie and even hired future Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh as a baker prepares to make the most of the America 250 celebrations and influx of international travelers from the World Cup.
A 170-year history
While the modern visitor to Boston is used to having their pick of hotels, travelers in the early 1800s or before had to stay in rooms above taverns if they didn't have friends or family to host them. It was dangerous for everyone and nearly prohibitive for women especially, Wilson said. Following the American Revolution and the War of 1812, the country saw a rising need for hotels.
"In the 19th century, people were traveling more. There was a lot more wealth," she explained. "People wanted a nice, safe place to stay that was really beautiful, that ladies could go to as well. And so hotels began emerging."
The Parker House was not the first of its kind in Boston. "Houses" started emerging as early as 1829, called such because the goal was to provide lodging that met the quality of someone's home. Harvey Parker, a farm boy from Maine, first dabbled in hospitality when he saved up to buy a cafe for $432, Wilson said. Once he saw the opportunity for a house of his own, he got financial partners involved and began building Parker House.
The hotel "opened Oct. 8, 1855, but within days and weeks, it was the most popular place," Wilson said, adding that the Parker House attracted the Saturday Club, a group of intellectuals including Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and more.
As a businessman, Parker knew there was an opportunity to cater to the growing number of female travelers by offering a women-only cafe that was a unique perk for these trailblazing travelers. Another part of his strategy was to acquire nearby buildings to renovate and expand into, Wilson said, all the while keeping at least part of the hotel open.
Today's Parker House stands in a building that originated in 1927. Over the years, as the ownership of the hotel changed, there were other renovations done to the Parker House, including when the Dunfey Family Corporation acquired the property in the late 1960s following a period where the hotel went downhill, Wilson said. Dunfey Hotels became Omni Hotels & Resorts in 1983.
Omni's Senior Director of Interior Design, Tonya Grine, said the company started seriously looking at renovating the hotel in 2018 — first to modernize the bathrooms, eventually evolving the project to include the guestrooms, hallways, meeting rooms, and lobby with a "design concept (that) was inspired by the original traveler," she said.
Returning to its roots
The $65 million renovation touched every corner of the hotel and was meant to bring the building "back to its previous splendor," said William Cox, architect at C+TC Design Studio, who worked on the project, which he said was closer to a restoration rather than renovation.
From the design perspective, Grine said she wanted to harken back to the Parker House's early heyday and bring a bit more glamor and luxury to that aesthetic. She used design elements that were subtle nods to the age of the horse and carriage.
"We wanted to retell that story as part of the design of the room, but we did not want this renovation to feel kitschy and too themed," she said. "We wanted the room to be timeless, elegant, loved by people who are into history and want to search for some of those unique details, but also for a business traveler who just wants a beautiful, updated, well-appointed room.
"The details are there, but they're not screaming loudly at you," she added. "The overall room just feels fresh, contemporary, with some of these slight nods to certain details."
Some examples of these design elements include the nightstands that are made to look like leather trunks and the headboard tufting that takes inspiration from a carriage. The artwork in each room, too, has an element of the Parker House's history. Grine said the Omni commissioned an artist to create an illustration of Harvey Parker drawing his original Parker House with a pen and paper.
For Wilson, who wrote a book on the Omni Parker House's history, the renovation really delivered on its promise to return the hotel to its prime, especially when it comes to the flooring, she said. Originally, the hotel had an iconic marble floor. Cox said the renovation team attempted to restore the original flooring, but when that didn't work, they installed new marble.
"When the hotel first opened in 1855, one of the things that all the newspapers mentioned was the marble, the beautiful marble steps, and the marble floor and stuff like that. So all of that was brought back," Wilson said.
The marble restoration wasn't the project's only hiccup. The Parker House's current building is nearly a century old and originally had 800 rooms. Over the years, the floor plan has changed, Wilson said.
"The biggest challenge for us was that nothing in this building was typical," Cox said. "There are 550 guest rooms in this building, and there are basically 550 room types."
The design team had to have different sizes of headboards and furniture to fit each room type. The bathrooms, too, are inconsistently sized and run on the smaller size. As a part of the renovation, Grine said the design team used space-saving elements to open up the bathrooms to feel more spacious.
Another major obstacle Cox pointed out was the building's clay tile that made up the partitions and shaft walls, a construction process used before World War II. Cox said he had to track down a forensic company that had the expertise to work with this material.
"It was a long project, but it was a whole lot of fun to do, because there just aren't that many of these kinds of hotels that are left," Cox said. "And it was really an honor to be able to work on this one, especially this one being sort of the grandparent of all the other hotels in the country."
The future of Omni Parker House
With the recent renovation concluded and both the World Cup and America 250 expected to bring in new travelers to Boston, General Manager Kevin Hurley said the Omni Parker House is primed for a lot of opportunities this year.
"Going into this year, we're more transient heavy in leisure than we've ever been. We're looking at just over 75% of the guests that we have coming into the hotel for this year are looking to be more on the transient segment, and then another quarter of that being groups coming in for this year," Hurley said, explaining that traditionally the hotel is higher on the group side.
"This year, with everything that's going on in the market, we feel our best positioning and opportunity coming out of the renovations was to take on a bigger piece of that transient business," he said.
One of the most important things Hurley said he hopes to convey to the World Cup visitors is the rich history of the property — especially to those traveling from international destinations. Boston is set to host seven games, including teams from England, Scotland, Norway, France, and more.
"I think a lot of people will be discovering the hotel for the first time, so it's just a great opportunity to kind of marry what they're coming here for, but also show them the history, and then the true significance of what this hotel means to Boston and its history," Hurley said.
Showcasing the Parker House's history is a cornerstone of the hotel's experience, and a lot of that is driven by Wilson's tours and expertise.
Hurley calls Wilson the Parker House's "secret weapon that we deploy to really help us bring the history to life and weave it into the current experiences of our guests."
"Not only are we featuring great service and great food, but we're really immersing ourselves in the history as well," he said. "So it's just adding another level of context to the experience that people are really, really appreciating."
An integral part of bringing the hotel's history to life is its food-and-beverage program. The hotel has three concepts on property: Parker's Restaurant, Parker's Bar, and The Last Hurrah.
Shortly after the hotel's opening in 1855, Parker hired the most famous French chef in America to lead the hotel's dining program, Wilson said. Chef Augustine Anezin is credited with creating the restaurant that led to the invention of three dishes that still remain best sellers at the hotel today — Boston Cream Pie, Parker House Rolls, and Scrod, a white fish dish known in the area for being flaky and fresh caught.
Today, Executive Chef Gerry Tice, a Boston native, continues the tradition with all three dishes' original recipes.
"Being there, standing in the place, touching the table where Ho Chi Minh made baked goods, or sitting at the table where John F. Kennedy proposed to Jackie — there's something about being there that just transcends everything, that takes people back," Wilson said.
When building new businesses, culture matters
https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/business-building/our-insights/when-building-new-businesses-culture-matters?
By
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A healthy culture can triple a corporate venture’s TSR by defining underlying beliefs, focusing on leadership, and modeling and celebrating desired behavior.
It’s easy for a start-up culture to survive in a new corporate venture that comprises just a handful of like-minded people. But when corporate ventures grow to hundreds or even thousands of people, the culture can break down. To avoid this outcome, the venture’s leaders can systematically build and maintain a healthy culture that takes the unique corporate context into account. The cost of not doing so can be high. In fact, our research shows that some 26 percent of corporate start-up failures are linked to cultural issues.
Although many leaders appreciate the importance of building a strong culture in their new ventures, they typically don’t take deliberate steps to shape it, wary of slowing growth. To better understand how successful leaders build healthy cultures as their corporate ventures scale, we analyzed hundreds of endeavors and tested our findings with six corporate venture CEOs around the world (see sidebar “About the interviews”). The results show that instituting a specific set of supporting mechanisms—such as fostering and understanding conviction, role modeling, reinforcing mechanisms, and building skills and capabilities—should be core elements of any venture growth strategy.
Building a healthy culture is always a challenge, even in a noncorporate venture, and corporate venture leaders in particular need to consider their environments. This article highlights the hidden advantages of a healthy culture in corporate ventures and provides concrete tips for how founders and senior business leaders can create cultures that build lasting value.
A healthy culture is a superpower
Established companies with healthy workplace cultures—that is, the behaviors, mindsets, and beliefs that shape how people work as well as their daily interactions with one another—significantly outperform their less-healthy peers, as demonstrated through the following metrics:
- TSR. Companies with top-quartile cultures have a TSR three times higher than the bottom quartile, according to McKinsey research.
- EBITDA. Companies that focus on organizational health—that is, how effectively the organization rallies around a common vision and strategy—show an 18 percent increase in EBITDA after only one year.
- ROIC. Cultural health is also a strong causal indicator of long-term financial performance, with healthy companies achieving 2.5 times the ROIC of unhealthy organizations.
Just like larger companies, corporate ventures with healthy cultures can outperform those that do not have it. But establishing a healthy culture can be challenging in a corporate venture. For example, many leaders believe they are the culture; they simply need to role model it rather than work on it. However, creating culture does not have an end date, requiring leaders to continually focus on evolving it. In addition, leaders often perceive culture as “soft” and a secondary concern to more pressing business issues. Establishing a new culture from scratch is hard. It requires a tool kit that many leaders in large enterprises lack. When heading up a new venture within their organization, leaders can feel as if they lack the skills (and mandate) to create a new culture aligned with current trends but also beneficial ties to the mothership.
Corporate ventures can take inspiration from regular start-ups on how to build and maintain their company cultures while rapidly scaling. Based on our analysis of hundreds of start-ups, as well as interviews with CEOs and founders of corporate ventures, we offer the following guidance for business leaders looking to establish exceptional workplace cultures in their new businesses.
Determine the key qualities of the culture and build support for them
Paul Taylor, CEO of HUB—a provider of data-driven software for asset managers and hedge funds that is a joint corporate venture among IHS Markit, PIMCO, Man Group, State Street, and Microsoft—summed up the power of culture in a recent interview: “Our competitors have copied our products, but they cannot copy our culture.”
When it comes to creating a unique culture at a corporate venture, it is crucial for founders and leaders to recognize and adopt the parent company’s values, practices, and organizational behaviors. Although corporate ventures mirror typical start-ups in many ways—nimble, innovation-driven, and horizontal, among other traits—they are not the same as fully independent start-ups. Corporate ventures exist and win by leveraging the advantages of the parent company, which means they should create cultures that support the parent company’s vision and goals. This is particularly true as the corporate venture grows and the culture begins to evolve (see sidebar “Maintaining cultural fabric in hypergrowth”).
Leaders can build the support necessary to create a fresh culture by creating direct policies, resources, and support structures. Just as important, leaders of corporate ventures can model behaviors from the parent company, carrying over some of the original culture. On the flip side, leaders from the parent company must actively support the venture’s own unique values. It’s a symbiotic relationship. To ensure alignment and balance, both entities should clearly communicate their core values and expectations from the outset and establish decision rights.
Every corporate venture must decide the extent to which they will adopt the values of the parent company. As an example, a global OEM launched an autonomous-driving corporate venture that drew heavily on the parent company’s core principles and long-term vision. In many ways, the venture’s culture could be seen as an evolution or extension of the parent company, particularly in fostering an inclusive, collaborative environment; supporting continuous improvement; and emphasizing sustainable growth and social responsibility. At the same time, the corporate venture developed its own software- and tech-oriented culture to keep up with the latest market shifts and R&D trends. This enabled the venture to favor speed and agility over structured, methodical processes, and to become a flatter cross-functional organization that enabled quick decision-making.
Joint cultural activities and training sessions that involve employees and leaders from both the parent company and the corporate venture—such as a values day—can also help foster a sense of unity and shared purpose, and allow for the exchange of ideas and cultural values between the parent company and its corporate venture. Regular values-focused feedback and dialogues can help align all employees—both new and established—with the values of the parent company. Formal check-ins can be structured as periodic interviews or surveys conducted by HR or team leaders. They can take place during performance reviews or as stand-alone yearly assessments specifically centered on aligning values.
Attract and retain the best people
A well-defined and positive culture is a powerful magnet for talent, drawing in and retaining highly skilled individuals. Specifically, people are drawn to organizations with characteristics similar to the ones they value,4 making an engaging culture that supports and empowers employees is crucial. Our research shows that more than 70 percent of job seekers worldwide actively seek referrals from current employees when looking for job opportunities.
To attract and retain the best people, founders and leaders of a corporate venture can build teams with attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors that align with the parent company’s values—but also seek out individuals with more nimble mindsets who would thrive in a flat, fast-moving start-up environment. Giving corporate ventures the leeway to build their own cultures through independent hiring practices is a good way to strike this balance. While like-minded colleagues can facilitate collaboration, start-ups grow through out-of-the-box thinking from diverse teams—not monocultures. Inclusive hiring practices, diversity training for employees, and a culture of open communication and respect can help guard against the implicit biases that can stifle innovation and cause ventures to myopically miss opportunities.
On this point, companies can adopt rigorous hiring processes that include value-fit interviews to help determine whether employees are likely to succeed in the start-up work environment. As an example, a European company that started as a third-party installer of solar panels eventually developed a new business venture to help small and medium-size businesses and households navigate the energy transition. To support the corporate venture’s ambitious growth plan, which included hiring more than 500 new employees, leaders created a hiring process that included an interview dedicated to assessing cultural fit. After hiring this new team, the corporate venture’s leaders went further to create a unique culture separate from the parent company; for instance, they instituted multistep decision-making. Furthermore, the company launched a training academy for female installers to expand the industry’s gender diversity and pool of skilled talent.
Compared with typical start-ups, corporate ventures have some advantages in sourcing and attracting talent because they have established credentials and more financial and institutional resources. Our research shows that early involvement of in-house talent specialists can help corporate ventures avoid some common pitfalls when it comes to setting up people plans. By involving corporate HR early on, corporate ventures can define outcome-based hiring metrics, identify potential obstacles, and gain transparency on recruiting efficiency. However, corporate ventures also face hiring challenges, including convincing the most cutting-edge developers and entrepreneurial talent to join their ranks. Corporate ventures, no matter how innovative they may be, are often seen as an extension of the parent company, and much of the best talent may prefer to join buzzy Silicon Valley start-ups on fast growth trajectories.
Steps to build a healthy culture that creates value
Based on our experience, founders and leaders at corporate ventures can take the following three steps to create an authentic and lasting culture.
Step 1: Define underlying beliefs
Defining core underlying beliefs can help create a shared understanding of values from the get-go. Founding team members will not accept a venture’s culture if they are not part of defining and sharing it. At Circulee, a German sustainable IT hardware and services company, the culture was determined early on during the hiring process. According to the company’s CEO, culture creation involved everything from how team members interacted with customers to how they marketed environmental impact. With underlying beliefs defined and reinforced, the company focused on hiring only the right people with the right mindsets. As a result, everyone was on the same page when it came to doing business with suppliers and working together as a team.
Although a corporate venture’s culture should be consistent, it will likely evolve as more people are hired. On this point, company leaders and founders can identify shared problems, particularly with people who were not hired by the founders. In doing so, company leadership can stay on top of the changing culture by articulating a vision early, holding ongoing conversations with different groups, and keeping the culture alive with stories and transparency between departments.
Step 2: Focus on leadership
When forming the leadership team for a new corporate venture, deciding whether to hire internally or externally is a critical step. In many cases, hiring an external CEO or managing director (MD) offers at least an equal chance of success as choosing an internal candidate. In fact, McKinsey research shows that within the top 5 percent of CEOs, almost one-half were hired externally. However, bringing in external leaders requires a careful balance with the rest of the team.
For certain roles, opting for an internal candidate can be highly advantageous. For example, a CFO promoted from within already knows the company’s financial policies, systems, and procedures, making it easier to tap into existing infrastructure. Similarly, if the venture requires large partnerships or commercial agreements with enterprise customers, an internal revenue leader can leverage existing relationships.
By contrast, when a corporate venture aims to develop new technologies or adopt agile ways of working to accelerate its speed to market, an external hire may bring the fresh perspective and expertise needed. This approach also applies to the talent function: Although many ventures try to use their existing HR teams, traditional HR policies can slow down hiring and other processes or block innovative compensation models. A dedicated HR leader—whether internal or external—who has some independence from legacy policies can be a significant advantage.
Ultimately, the right mix of internal and external hires depends on the desired culture. A higher proportion of internal hires typically infuses the “mothership” culture into the new venture, while a greater number of external hires can help establish a distinct culture and new ways of working.
Step 3: Model and celebrate desired behavior
The most important factor in establishing a corporate venture’s culture is leaders who model that culture: what they do, who they promote, and how they communicate verbally and nonverbally. Celebrating desired behavior is just as important as calling out unwanted behavior, regardless of who performs it. Leaders, managers, and employees are all on the same team, rowing in the same direction to establish and uphold the start-up’s culture—and everyone should be held accountable. Leaders can align team norms and values around cultural artifacts, and they can celebrate their teams’ differences in geographic locations, backgrounds, and working styles while upholding a central culture unique to the venture itself.
Authenticity in culture is nonnegotiable. Attempting to fake or force a culture will disrupt operational efficiency and mar a corporate venture’s reputation. A genuine culture, anchored in the core values of the parent company, is essential for employees and also has a positive impact on the bottom line, ultimately helping the parent company build a fledgling corporate venture into a fast-growing business that delivers long-term value.
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