Page 242 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 5: LEA VE A LASTING FOOTPRINT
invigorating to see how something that started as a limited obli-
gation to share best practices could be built into a strong and
growing Leadership Center that is expanding its presence
and influence throughout the world.”

C Emulation: A High Form of Flattery D

The footprint and impact of the Leadership Center and other
service training is more than a financial generator for Ritz-
Carlton. Allan Federer, general manager of The Ritz-Carlton,
Millenia Singapore, says, “This hotel is a trusted training partner
with Citibank in Singapore. Through that process they have de-
veloped a modified version of our Credo Card that they call
‘Client 1st.’ Additionally, Citibank has a variation of our daily
lineup that they refer to as a ‘huddle.’ Ritz-Carlton staff in our
hotel train Citibank’s staff, including their relationship man-
agers, private bankers, branch greeters, tellers, and call center
staff. Many of the cultural components of Citibank’s credo in
Singapore really are an outgrowth of the Ritz-Carlton Gold
Standards.” Allan adds, “The CEO of Citibank locally came to
us as part of his vision to take Citibank back to its roots—from
a transaction-based organization to a service-based one.”
Jonathan Larsen, CEO of Citibank Singapore Limited, com-
ments on their business partnership with Ritz-Carlton: “We feel
the Citibank reputation has been built to a large extent on ser-
vice, alongside of product innovation. Over the years we became
more sales oriented, and we did so at the expense of the service
ethos that we had created in the early to mid-1990s. We had a
lot of customers who had banked with us for very many years
telling us the bank wasn’t what it used to be. I could see it from
how long we were asking our customers to wait for telephone
service. I could see it from a lot of our services that were designed
to be efficient for the bank and not necessarily efficient for the
customer. It was clear to me that there was a lot of opportunity
to improve and we had lost some of our edge over time.”

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