Page 44 - The New Gold Standard

PRINCIPLE 1: DEFINE AND REFINE
developed the Credo in 1986. We had just opened The Ritz-
Carlton, Naples, on December 3, 1985. And after each open-
ing, Horst Schulze, our president at the time, would bring those
who helped open the hotels back and say, ‘Let’s huddle.’ He
would then ask, ‘If we could turn back the hands of time to two
months prior to opening, what would we have done differently
to create a better opening?’ So we kept fine-tuning the opening
process.”
According to Ed, “The Naples opening involved mobilizing
the largest staff we’ve ever had in one room—probably close
to 600 new employees. And I remember the discussion at the
postopening debrief about how difficult it had been to have
the Naples staff get their arms around our mission statement,
which covered a full single-spaced typed page. When we pre-
sented that mission statement at Naples, there were a lot of people
staring at the chandeliers. Keep in mind, these employees had
been with us for only three hours before we tried to get them to
embrace our detailed mission.
“During the debriefing session,” Ed continues, “we had an
open conversation around the table, saying, ‘What if we took
the essence of the mission statement and condensed it somehow,
so that even brand-new employees in their third or fourth hour
could fully understand our culture in three or four sentences?’
Horst then came up with the word credo because the word is a
Latin derivative that means ‘I believe.’ I think that was a brilliant
word to utilize because it was almost like the Pledge of Alle-
giance or the Boy Scout Oath, in that people are being asked to
pledge their commitment to three core aspects of our culture.”
No matter what the nature of the business, a company’s
leadership is always tasked with making their vision come alive
at the front line. Often this objective is driven by the clarity of
language used to paint the picture. Diana Oreck, vice president
of global learning and of the Leadership Center, keenly analyzes
the Credo, stating that it is “made up of very powerful words
that reflect our commitment in the way we treat our guests.

24