Page 105 - The New Gold Standard

Select—Don’t Hire
We work with both the front line and leadership, helping them
understand our Gold Standards and our approach to business.
At our leadership sessions, we define our expectations in regard
to our business model, treatment of staff, care of guests, and
community involvement. Before we leave the property, we get
departments together, and say, ‘You know our expectations. You
know our culture. What do you want to be? This is your hotel;
this is your department. What do you want to be?’ We take all
their ideas and before we leave, every single department writes
their mission statement. This ensures that the Ritz-Carlton lead-
ership approach is easily adopted and is customized to each in-
ternational property.”
Bob adds, “This transfer of knowledge is catching on inter-
nationally, as evidenced by the trainers who were involved in
opening our second hotel in Beijing. Of the 80 ‘best-of-the-best”
trainers who came from all over the world to open that hotel, 7
were from the Beijing Financial Street hotel that had only
opened 12 months earlier. One can only imagine the very pow-
erful career message that their success gave to would-be leaders.”
Over time Ritz-Carlton leadership has developed a very
sophisticated process of making training a person-to-person
journey that results in the inculcation of corporate values and
mission.

C Training through Relationship D

While formal training programs are in place, more informal and
relationship-based development opportunities are also encour-
aged. A key stage of successfully developing talent in an organi-
zation is investing time in the mentoring processes. To that end,
personal growth and development discussions are not only built
into the employee review process at Ritz-Carlton but they are
also required of the management team.
Whether Ritz-Carlton managers or leaders are selected from
within the company or transfer into the business, they undergo

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