J. W. Bill Marriott - Without Reservations: How a Family Root Beer Stand Grew Into a Global Hotel Company

Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion.

G. W. F. HEGEL, philosopher

F or 60 years, I have loved my job, without reservations. Whilemany people my age look forward to their daily round of golfor a dip in the pool, I prefer to travel halfway around the worldto inspect hotels.

My youngest son, David, now chief operations officer for our eastern region hotels in the Americas, loves to tell a story about the time his grade school teacher asked the class to draw pictures of their fathers at work and at play. Without a second thought, David sketched two images: In one, Im wearing a suit and tie, seated at a large desk with a pen in my hand. In the other, Im dressed in a sweater, seated at a smaller desk with a pen in my hand.

Im not proud of all the hours I spent away from my family during my career, but I am proud that my passion for the work I do inspired all four of my children to follow me into the hotel business. Like me, they each treasure the special culture that has always made Marriott International a great place to work.

An organizations culture is not a small matter. A few years ago, a group of business students at Brigham Young University (BYU) decided to study the impact of corporate culture on a businesss bottom line. They focused on three major players in the hospitality industry: Starwood, Hilton and Marriott.

After months of indepth research and analysis, the students released their findings. Their main takeaway? Culture counts. In Marriotts case, our culture results in measurably lower employee turnover and higher customer satisfaction, a winning combination that boosts our profits and pleases our shareholders.

I wasnt surprised by the BYU studys conclusion. Marriotts corporate culture is the keystone of our global operations and has been ever since my parents, J. Willard and Alice Sheets Marriott, opened a tiny A&W root beer stand on 14th Street NW in Washington, D.C., in May 1927. Today, more than eight decades later, the same basic principles that helped to launch our company are still in place, still fueling Marriotts growth and still differentiating us from our peers in an increasingly competitive global hotel marketplace. What are those fundamental principles or what we call our core values?

Theyre five brief, powerful aspirations that are easy to remember but challenging to live up to:

Put people first.

Pursue excellence.

Embrace change.

Act with integrity.

Serve our world.

Marriott Internationals Core Values are connected to our Vision, Purpose, Strategy and Success Measures

The first item of the five has been our company credo since my parents era. Take care of your employees, and theyll take care of your customers was the daily mantra that my brother, Dick, and I heard from our father while we were growing up. Marriott still draws its strength today from our deep belief that treating our associates our word for employees with the respect they deserve helps them do a phenomenal job for our guests.

The other four values likewise stretch back in time to the earliest days of the company, 30 years before we ever thought about building our first hotel. Our popular Hot Shoppes restaurants were the lowtech Facebook of their day casual gathering places where families, neighbors, kids and cops caught up on the days news, shared jokes, flirted, celebrated birthdays and just hung out. Customers could count on spotless dishes and shiny floors (Pursue excellence), an evergrowing menu (Embrace change), honest value for their money (Act with integrity) and a true sense of community second to none (Serve our world). My picky father wouldnt have had it any other way.

Marriott has come a long, long way from the days of being known as a regional family restaurant chain, but our values havent budged an inch. In fact, theyve deepened over time into a commitment to do what great companies should do: make a lasting, positive difference in the world. Successful companies like ours are about more than simply making money. We can empower individuals and help to build stable communities at a time when many of our traditional social institutions are struggling with shrinking budgets and growing demand for their services. Marriotts sense of social responsibility finds expression in myriad ways, from reducing our carbon footprint to preserving endangered natural areas to investing in education and other initiatives that will improve the quality of life for our associates, their families and their communities.

Im particularly proud of the fact that Marriott creates opportunities. For our associates. Our hotel owners. Our investors. Our partners. Our guests. And for the hundreds of localities in which we operate around the world.I remember when we opened our first hotel in Warsaw.

The year was 1989. The Berlin Wall fell that November. At the time, we were the only Western hotel company managing a hotel in Eastern Europe. We also had the only reliable international telephone system in Poland. The hotel quickly became the place to go to conduct business. To fill our staff positions, we reached out to all sorts of people who had never worked in hotels. We brought them to the United States, trained them, and they returned to Poland to work as supervisors. Were doing something similar in Rwanda, where were working with the Akilah Institute for Women, based in Kigali, to train 14 young women in hospitality management. In turn, theyll train as many as 250 of their countrymen to work at our hotels in Kigali. I love the fact that Marriott offers these kinds of lifechanging opportunities every day, in dozens of countries around the world, and in the United States, too.