Every day our Marriott associates welcome three-quarters of a million people to one of our hotels around the world. Today I wanted to share with you our story and a few things I’ve learned about making the most of opportunities.
Marriott has grown as a company because it has been faithful to a purpose bigger than profits. Through the years we have developed core values and a culture that I believe gives our company an edge over the competition. The Marriott story has its roots in Utah. Six of my great-grandparents crossed the plains with the pioneers and helped settle the Salt Lake Valley in the 1850s. My dad was born in 1900 in Marriott Settlement, near Ogden. He worked as a farmer and a sheepherder and served a mission in New England. After his release he visited Washington, D.C., on his way home.
He was impressed with the city and vowed he would someday return and start a business there.
He worked his way through Weber College and then the University of Utah. He graduated and married my mother in the Salt Lake Temple in June 1927. They left Salt Lake City on their wedding day and began their journey to D.C. in a Model T Ford, which took them eleven days. When they arrived, they opened a nine-stool A&W Root Beer stand. When the weather got cold, they added hot dogs, chili, and hamburgers and called their little place The Hot Shoppe.
My dad was an entrepreneur. Before Ray Kroc and Dave Thomas were flipping burgers, my mom and dad were selling hot food, fast. They continued to grow their restaurant business until 1957 when they opened their first hotel, the Marriott Twin Bridges in Washington, D.C.
I started working for the company in 1950 at our Hot Shoppe in Salt Lake City. My first job was soda jerk. After a year I graduated to the deep-fat fryer. I loved the fast pace and decided I would like to join our restaurant company when I grew up.
After I graduated from the University of Utah, I joined the navy and served for two years as an officer on the aircraft carrier USS Randolph. It was the end of the Korean War, and young men still weren’t being called on missions. In 1956, after my service in the navy, I joined our family restaurant chain. Six months later, we opened the Marriott Twin Bridges hotel. Three months after opening, the hotel was struggling, and I asked Dad if I could take over. He said, “What do you know about the hotel business?”
I said, “Not very much, but I know as much as anyone around here!” Now, fifty-six years later, we have nearly 3,800 hotels in seventy-three countries.
When I think that my parents started with a root beer stand and now we have beautiful hotels in all parts of the world—including some places you’ve probably never heard of—I’m simply blown away.
I always said my philosophy of business was “more.” I guess I got what I asked for. In my explaining to my assistant, Phyllis, that the company had become too big and complex for me, she said, “Well, it’s your fault; you made it that way.”
Let me give you an idea of what it’s like to run a global hotel company. A typical day starts at 8 a.m. at our corporate headquarters in Maryland with a video-conference call to Hong Kong. At 9:30 I talk face-to-face with our new Middle East president based in Dubai. By 11 I get business reviews from our Europe team in London. At 1 the Ritz-Carlton executives, from our luxury brand, are in our boardroom for their business review, and at 3 I hear from the Americas team. We go around the world in eight hours. That’s fun, but it’s also big and complex.
The thing I love most is visiting our hotels, and I generally get to see two hundred to three hundred of them a year. I also love looking for opportunities in new markets and pushing to get deals in places where we could have more hotels. We have thousands of associates and more than one hundred executives focused on developing new hotels around the world.
We’re opening one hotel a month in China this year, each more beautiful than the last. In 2011 we opened the highest hotel in the world, a new Ritz-Carlton in Hong Kong, which rises from the 102nd to the 118th floor of a beautiful skyscraper. And later this year we’ll open the 1,600-room J. W. Marriott Marquis Dubai—even taller than the Hong Kong hotel and just eighty-five feet below the tip of the Empire State Building.
These new hotels have come a long way from the Marriott Twin Bridges, where the front desk clerk would check you in from your car and a bellman on a bicycle would lead you to your room. But in many ways it’s not that different. The bottom line: it’s about taking care of our customers. That hasn’t changed, and it’s a strong competitive advantage for us.
A group of BYU business students set out a few years ago to measure the financial benefits of corporate culture. They chose to examine the hospitality industry. They looked at the cultures of Marriott, Hilton, and Starwood. I’m thrilled with what they found. They reported that the culture and brand identity of Marriott helped give us a 2.8 percent higher occupancy rate and an additional $12.80 per room over our toughest competitor. This means our brand and culture add an estimated $110 million in net income a year. The students also found that our associates were more productive and that we had a 35 percent lower employee turnover rate than the industry average—both of which add to the bottom line.
I want to thank these Marriott School students for helping us quantify what we have long believed: our spirit to serve not only makes us a better company but also enables us to take better care of our associates and our guests. I hope the students earned an A.
You all recognize it’s a brand new world out there. Jet travel long ago replaced that Model T Ford my parents drove across the country. Rising incomes in China, India, and Brazil—not to mention in Europe and in the United States—have created millions of new travelers who want to see the world. In 2012 the travel industry will hit a big milestone when 1 billion people will have left their homes and visited another country. My dream is to have them all stay in a Marriott, a Courtyard, or a Ritz-Carlton. When we sell a hotel room in New York City to a Brazilian, it’s an export.
There is a great demand for people around the world to visit the United States, which is one of the reasons I have worked hard to convince Congress and the White House to get a smarter visa system so it’s easier to visit the United States. My daughter Debbie, who graduated in the BYU class of 1979, has been my campaign aide, and we’ve made some real progress with the Obama administration, which recently announced that it will shorten the wait times to get a visa to welcome millions more international travelers to America.
This means more jobs. One new job is created for every thirty-five visitors who come to this country. Just as important, we know that coming to America changes people’s minds and hearts. They fall in love with the country, and that’s good for our diplomacy. Travel expands horizons, as you who have served missions around the world know.
We’re at the threshold of a golden age of travel that will create tremendous opportunity and help grow the global economy. Already, travel and tourism are a larger contributor to America’s GDP than the automotive industry.
Many of our senior leaders at Marriott started with the company when they were your age. Bob McCarthy worked his way up the ladder from his first job as a waiter at a Marriott steakhouse when he was in college, and now he’s our chief operations officer for the whole company.
Erica Qualls started her career with our company eighteen years ago, answering telephones on the night shift. Today she is general manager of the 1,500-room Atlanta Marriott Marquis.
That’s what I love about this job. We pride ourselves in being a company where the pathway to promotion is open if you work hard. That’s one of the reasons we keep moving up the list of Fortune magazine’s “best places to work” year after year.
Our success stems from the opportunities we create for our associates and the experiences we help create for our guests.
Right now we’re building a hotel in Haiti, which will create two hundred jobs and help rebuild the country’s devastated economy. The thousands of Haitian associates who work in our hotels in Florida, New York, and New Jersey were thrilled when they heard this news. With a new Marriott, we’re helping Haiti announce once again, “We’re open for business.”
Eighty-five years ago, my parents created this culture of opportunity that has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. It wasn’t easy. They opened their first restaurant just before the Great Depression. My mother counted the sticky nickels they earned from the root beer. Together they grew their business one nickel at a time.
They based their hard work on the principles established by their pioneer ancestors and created the culture that is the foundation of our business today. We are a company that believes you should
- Put people first
- Pursue excellence
- Act with integrity
- Embrace change
- Serve our world
Those values will never be compromised, even though many things have changed in our business.
Today people turn to the internet and to their mobile devices to make reservations. They expect high-speed wireless internet in the rooms and lobbies. Our brands use Facebook and Twitter to engage our guests. I’ve even learned to blog to connect with our associates and customers.
But the basics remain the same: taking care of people, delivering memorable experiences, and helping our guests be more effective when they have business meetings. It’s providing great food, a superior sleep experience, and public spaces to gather, socialize, work, and have fun.
In a survey of opinion leaders and global travelers in China, India, Europe, and the United States, we learned that people believe international travel is considered more important than the internet, TV, movies, or political diplomacy for breaking down cultural barriers. Eight out of ten said the more people experience other countries and cultures, the more peace will spread. Ninety-six percent said travel and tourism stimulate their country’s economy.
This is a great business! And I, for one, would rather inspect a hotel on a Saturday morning than play a round of golf. It’s the reason I’ll always stay involved and why I never learned how to play golf.
Before I close, I want to say something I feel strongly about. Our family’s success has been possible because my mom and dad based their hard work on the foundation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The LDS Church has had an overriding influence on our steadiness and success. It has influenced the way we do business: how we see each person’s potential and how we care about their happiness. The Savior set this example, and each one of us should strive to emulate His life.
Let me end with one final piece of advice. I know that many of you are concerned about how you will balance your time in the future. My advice is to put family first, then church, and finally your profession.
Then find something you really love to do. Unless you are excited about going to work each day, you’ll just be filling in the hours. It won’t be fun, and if it’s not fun, you’ll have a hard time achieving the success you deserve.
Thank you for being here and for listening to the Marriott story.
_
Speech by J.W. Marriott Jr.
The Marriott Recipe for Success
People ask me, “What’s the secret of your success?” Here’s an attempt at the Marriott recipe:
“M” is for “more.” More satisfied customers, more opportunity for our associates, more return for our investors, and, of course, more hotels.
“A” is for “ask.” I’ve always tried to hire people who are smarter than I am. I ask a lot of questions and listen. Almost all of the great ideas at our company have come from our team. If I had not been willing to listen and act, I would not be standing here.
“R” is for “respect.” I have no time for arrogance. Be humble and respect others, regardless of their backgrounds, and you will have an unbeatable team!
The second “R” is for “recognition.” Recognize people for their contributions. I write hundreds of notes of appreciation every year to our associates and our customers. I try to say thank-you as often as possible.
“I” is for “innovation.” We were the first hotel company to develop a guest loyalty program and the first to develop and acquire multiple brandswe have eighteen today. Innovation continues with more exciting lobbies, guest rooms, and leading technology.
“O” is for “opportunity.” The driving force behind our core values is to open the doors of opportunity for all our associates. It also stands for the opportunity that comes from taking risks, like building our first hotel in Asia in 1989 and starting many new brands.
“T” is for the “tenacity” I learned from my parents. As my dad said, “Success is never final.”
And the last “T” is for “time.” Don’t waste it. Make every minute count.
_
About the Speaker
J. W. Marriott Jr. is executive chair and chair of the board of Marriott International Inc., one of the world’s largest lodging companies. His leadership spans more than fifty years, and he has taken Marriott from a family restaurant business to a global lodging company with more than 3,700 properties in more than seventy-three countries and territories. This text is adapted from a BYU forum address given on 3 April 2012.
