Marriott is one of the most powerful hotel companies in the world, but it has made it to the top through learning from its mistakes and nurturing the values of its founder. Jamie Knights discovers it’s a formidable mix that is going from strength to strength.
They don’t get much bigger than Marriott. One of the largest hotel companies in the world, the number of hotels (more than 3600), employees (129,000) and brands (16 excluding vacation ownership and its golf brand) under its umbrella is exceptional, and growth is not stopping.
But when I have the opportunity to talk with the president and managing director of international lodging for Marriott, Ed Fuller, it becomes clear that rather than a soulless corporate behemoth, Marriott is a gentle giant, full of values, ideals and heart.
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While this may sound glib, the sense of the values installed in the company by founder J.W Marriott and then developed by chairman and CEO Bill Marriott Jr., is palpable.
Fuller, who joined the company in 1972 and became head of international lodging in 1990, has overseen the business grow from 16 properties outside the US and Canada to 350 hotels in 70 countries with another 175 hotels under construction.
And while the Marriott machine keeps rolling out hotels, the day-to-day operations and decisions come down to a simple question for Fuller — “What would Bill do?”.
“The values transcend all our brands,” Fuller explains.
“I had the CEO of one of our major competitors say ‘you know the problem with my company is we don’t have the values that Bill Marriott has instilled, nor the structure where the people have reinforced those values all the way down the system’.”
While Fuller acknowledges the system is never perfect, he says his counterpart in the other company was making it a mission in the next three years to instill and develop those values in his company.
“This has been going on with Marriott for many years. These values have been developed over a long period of time and I would encourage anyone who is starting a business to make sure they develop their values and try and live them,” Fuller asserts.
“But if you don’t have a structure of people who are willing to buy into them [the values] and live them, then you can never do that.”
In an effort to ensure people do buy into the values of the company, Marriott conducts employee surveys every year and the results effect bonuses right through the management chain, even Bill Marriott Jr’s.
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