Richard Whitehouse

Current truth

• Senior stakeholder / decision-maker at mitchells-and-butlers (richard.whitehouse@mbplc.com; calendar display “Whitehouse, Richard (MAB)”). Sets the engagement model and instructs work; exact title unknown — TODO: enrich via LinkedIn (no lookup during ingest).
• Procurement style: pragmatic and contract-savvy — refuses open-ended retainers (“not signing a check for work we don’t know”), wants framework agreement + rate card + SOW template so work can be instructed fast without “contract nightmare”; expects to negotiate the rate card.
• Motivation: first-mover advantage — believes M&B is the only large hospitality operator building AI apps, impatient to go live (“every time we get your update… I’m like, we should be there”), wants the “glory” + incremental bookings; thinks channel-exclusive offers (e.g. 10% off via Claude) beat aggregators who can’t discount.
• Mental model: maps app discovery to SEO — reuse proven high-performing search terms (Mother’s Day, Father’s Day) as app keywords, then look for platform nuances. Sees Codex as “a back-end thing”.
• Well-networked in hospitality tech: attended NRA show Chicago (takeaway: “a robot for everything… none of the AI talks to each other… not clear how the AI pays for itself”), industry dinners/meetings; tracks competitors (Stonegate) and peers (“PizzaExpress”(?) sentiment tool); knows vendor landscape (rep.com/Reputation.com partner, “user testing” agency, Guestwise build).
• People he routes through: Ewa Turney (day-to-day), “Joe Shaw” (contracts), “Jonty” (SEO/search lead), “Kate” (marketing), “Kerry and Aiden” (build timeline — likely Guestwise). All names from an Elliot-only call — unconfirmed spellings.

Open questions

• Title/role at M&B — who does he report to, what budget does he control?
• Confirm the names he referenced (Joe Shaw, Jonty, Kate, Kerry, Aiden) and which are M&B vs Guestwise.

Timeline

• [2026-06-12] (call) Wrap-up session. Rated the consultancy useful (“accelerated thinking”); defined the framework-agreement model; identified first SOW candidates (web/AI-readiness audit with Jonty, post-live app sense-check, web-MCP readiness review — but keep Guestwise’s dev cycle untouched); pushed app timeline (wants sooner than end July); proposed the Claude-channel exclusive launch offer and a possible joint marketing piece with the Claude team.