Page 32 - The New Gold Standard

The Ritz-Carlton Experience
off, and I looked at Ron, our vice president of purchasing, and
said, ‘We have a problem.’ As you might guess, mine was not the
only pen with the problem. Now that we had already introduced
the new pen, we had to go back to the supplier and the manufac-
turer; we needed to rethink everything. So we recalled the pens.
It was a mess. We made a mistake. We didn’t do enough home-
work. We thought we had; we had all the right intentions of
rolling out a new and improved product, but it wasn’t tested or
piloted and that was one of those quick decisions where we cut a
corner on quality by thinking it was just a pen.”
Leaders at all levels can learn not just from the company’s
best practices but from the mistakes and recoveries that have ul-
timately strengthened the success principles that Ritz-Carlton
follows.

C The Making of a Legend D

So what is at the essence of this iconic company? What is the
Ritz-Carlton experience? While the answer reflects some vari-
ability based on the source you ask, there is a striking consistency
of opinion.
For Robert E. Watson, managing director of Protravel In-
ternational, Inc., the experience is characterized as “service value.
What sets Ritz-Carlton apart is its service. Ritz-Carlton partners
with us in the travel industry to get the most for our client. If we
don’t perform the service together, if we don’t get that little extra
something for the client, if we don’t come up with that nugget,
that little bit of something new, what would a client need us for?
People are spending a lot of money today. And they don’t mind
spending it, provided they get value for their dollar. In today’s
world, however, value doesn’t always match price. The experi-
ence at Ritz-Carlton is true value for us as travel partners and for
our clients.”
For community agency partner Colleen T. Brinkmann, chief
marketing officer of the North Texas Food Bank, the Ritz-Carlton

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