Katie Taylor is a great lady and very financially astute, but what concerns me more is the visionary aspect of Four Seasons - something that maybe we have seen diminishing recently. Companies always say that they are retaining the services of departing CEOs and Chairmen, but they rarely use them once they have gone.

What worries me is that we could be seeing something akin to Marriott taking over Ritz-Carlton. Bill Gates' people are focused on the bottom line and so are many other people who now hold top jobs in FS, so who is going to hold the 'family' of Four Seasons together?

We have already seen rather too many top people leaving the company over the past couple of years and many of them say that they have left because they no longer feel part of a family and that their direct bosses do not appear to have that Four Seasons ethic that initially attracted them to the company.

Without Issy, this trend could be worrying. Sadly, we could be witnessing the beginning of the end of one of the world's great high-end hotel companies. I hope I am wrong.