Rome, 21/01/2022
Students of the Rome Business School meet Luca Coltellacci, people Manager at Soho House.
Soho House is a prestigious members-only club with 28 locations worldwide including the newly established ones in Rome, Austin, London, Tel Aviv, Paris and Canouan.
The first location of the club was in Soho, London, hence the name of the company, but since then the business has expanded significantly also thanks to its majority shares being sold for £250m in 2012, and today it is part of the holding MCG Membership Collective Group, together with a beach club, a retail and lifestyle brand and digital channels among other services.
Our guest Luca Coltellacci told us: “A crucial part of our philosophy is our design, and there are main features defining each and every house around the Globe.” The clubs’ style underlines comfort and their designs often have a home-like feel which is unique to the brand and immediately recognizable.
Part of the company values focus on people and their passions and even if membership is selective and members are drawn mainly from the media, arts and fashion industries, Soho House’s policies focus on creativity “above net worth and job titles” with “studied resistance to ostentation”, favouring moral values over financial success. The defining values of the company are Curiosity, Inclusivity Connection, Respect and Passion as described by Mr Coltellacci.
With such a quality standard it is no surprise the company has caught the attention of the general public, aided by their presence on popular TV series and movies and the halo of elitism cast by the celebrities frequenting the clubs. However the aim of the clubs is not prestige but instead to to create a community of like-minded people and bring together creatives that want to make an impact.
The Soho House Rome is a 10-storey building located on Via Cesare de Lollis in the San Lorenzo neighbourhood and features 49 bedrooms and 20 long-stay apartments. There’s also a floor of club space with a bar and House Kitchen, a rooftop pool and bar with views of the city, a Soho Health Club area, and a screening room.
“We were looking for the Italian Shoreditch, off the tourist track” said Nick Jones, founder and CEO of Soho House, some time ago to explain the choice of his first Italian location in San Lorenzo, by many seen as an untamed neighbourhood. However, this is not news for the group which has opened in Paris, Pigalle in a building that was once the home of Jean Cocteau, and in Tel Aviv in a former convent.
Finally, Soho House embraces many of the same values as Rome Business School, with a program of social responsibility initiatives, bringing together diversity and inclusion, mentorship, apprenticeships, social and environmental causes aligning them with our school.
With this sessions students also got to learn about the application process at the company and the available job opportunities.
