“If the employees are well taken care of, they’ll take care of the customer and the customer will come back,” says Bill Marriott, the CEO of Marriott International. “That’s basically the core value of the company.”
Some things never change at Marriott. The company’s core values were shaped by its founder J.W. Marriott, Bill Marriott’s father, who opened a root-beer stand in Washington back in 1927 that grew into the hotel giant (3,000 branded hotels, $12.9 billion in revenues last year).
But the company has to constantly adapt—to the economic slump, to new technologies, to the changing tastes of travelers. Before long, Marriott could well get the first non-family CEO in its history, a soft-spoken Midwesterner named Arne Sorenson. (He’s next to Bill Marriott, below.)
My profile of the company, called Marriott Gets A Wake-Up Call, appears in the current issue of FORTUNE, part of a series of stories I’m doing for the magazine on FORTUNE 500 companies. It was a pleasure. For starters, I didn’t have to get on a plane; the company’s headquarters are about two miles from my house in Bethesda, Md. More important, I’ve long admired the company’s worker-friendly culture, its ethic of service and its commitment to voluntarism. Marriott is also leading the travel industry when it comes to envirommental issues.
Here’s how the story begins:
Next time you order breakfast at a Marriott, you may notice something new about the bacon. Instead of being served in identical six-inch strips, it now comes in an assortment of sizes. That’s because senior executives of Marriott, after sampling four or five varieties of bacon in a blind taste test, found that an irregular cut, which costs less, tastes just as good as the rectangular slices traditionally served in the company’s hotels.
Although J.W. “Bill” Marriott Jr., the company’s longtime chairman and chief executive, had his doubts, he approved the new specifications when he learned that they would save about $2 million a year. “Times are changing,” says the 77-year-old CEO.
You can read the rest here.
Marriott also invited me to an elegant lunch in its test kitchen, where it tries out new recipes for the company’s hotels and restaurants. (Its brands including Ritz Carlton, Champion’s Sports Bars and Renaissance.) A story about the lunch has just been posted to fortune.com. It begins like this:
When it comes to food, everyone’s a critic — even a gentleman like J.W. “Bill” Marriott, the longtime chairman and CEO of Marriott International, the $12.9-billion-a-year hotel giant.
On a trip to Florida, Bill Marriott ordered lobster risotto at one of the company’s upscale hotels. Which one, he’d rather not say.
But he will say that the risotto came with an unwelcome brownish hue. “It wasn’t good,” he said. “Matter of fact, it was bad.”
You can read the rest here.
I noticed in your article about Marriott that there was no mention whatsoever about their timeshare business. I have been an avid and loyal owner of Marriott timeshares for approximately 15 years, own their stock, an have almost 2,000,000 marriott points (something not many can proudly say)and I, along with hundred and hundreds of other Marriott timeshare owners are of the opinion that we are being used and abused by the company. In particular, we refer to the Aruba Ocean Club, with a myriad of problems and anger from the owners. I would welcome your communications and the opportunity of talking with you about, in my humble and very personal opinion, this disaster that we owners are dealing with, has been creating.
You can reach me at my email address, or my cell phone – 954-254-3464
thanks, in advance for reviewing this, and hopefully bringing the problem out in the open
Dave Berg
I’m a huge fan of Marriott too! They operated as a responsbile, sustainable business long before it was chic to do so. Over the past several years, I’ve had the good fortune to work with a few of their very smart and dedicated executives — like Mari Snyder, who has responsbility for many of Marriott’s community programs and I’m sure much more I don’t know about. I do know that Mari reads this blog so I hope she sees my post about how fabulous she is!
It’s my experience that Marriott often is too quiet about some of the great things they are doing — but, that’s no surprise given their understated corporate culture. That quiet nature just leaves more opportunity for us to sing their praises for them.
On a very personal note, my entire extended family recently stayed at Marriott Residence Inn in Old Town Alexandria for nearly a week when they were in town for my wedding. They couldn’t stop raving about the place — the people, the service, the way they felt so welcome, the convenient location, the great price, the yummy breakfast and on and on. I guess those employees feel well cared for and, in return, they took great care of my family.
Thanks Marriott!
I travel with frequency, and when not staying at a trendy niche hotel special to an area, I frequently rely on Marriott!