[{"_1":2,"_3":-5,"_4":-5},"loaderData",{"_5":6,"_7":8},"actionData","errors","root",{"_139":-5,"_140":-5,"_141":142,"_143":144,"_145":146},"routes/clips.$id.$slug",{"_9":10,"_11":12},"clip",{"_13":14,"_15":16,"_17":-5,"_18":19,"_20":-5,"_21":22,"_23":24,"_25":26,"_27":28,"_29":30,"_31":32,"_33":34,"_35":36,"_37":38,"_39":40,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_44":45,"_46":-5,"_47":48,"_49":50,"_51":-5},"canonicalUrl","https://howleaderslead.com/clips/3165/being-optimistic-doesnt-mean-downplaying-challenges","id",3165,"title","Being optimistic doesn't mean downplaying challenges","subtitle","transcript","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.520\nwe get a lot of appropriate credit for being as transparent and candid as we\n\n2\n00:00:05.520 --> 00:00:07.280\ncan about the macro\n\n3\n00:00:07.280 --> 00:00:12.730\neconomic challenges that both we and our owner community have, the macro\n\n4\n00:00:12.730 --> 00:00:14.560\neconomic pressure that\n\n5\n00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:21.420\nthe lower end of household income households are feeling and the impacts that\n\n6\n00:00:21.420 --> 00:00:23.280\ncould have on travel,\n\n7\n00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:27.320\nsome of the challenges with the construction cost environment, the interest\n\n8\n00:00:27.320 --> 00:00:28.480\nrate environment,\n\n9\n00:00:28.480 --> 00:00:34.920\nthe labor market. I think we're quite realistic and candid and then you layer\n\n10\n00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:35.600\nin some of the\n\n11\n00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:40.870\nsociopolitical challenges that we have to navigate given the breadth of our\n\n12\n00:00:40.870 --> 00:00:42.720\ngeographic footprint.\n\n13\n00:00:42.720 --> 00:00:47.840\nI think you absolutely have to be candid and transparent with all of your\n\n14\n00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:49.040\nstakeholders\n\n15\n00:00:49.040 --> 00:00:52.720\nabout the realities of the environment that you find yourself doing business.\n\n16\n00:00:53.600 --> 00:01:01.190\nBut the optimism is not sort of manufactured. I am very confident because of\n\n17\n00:01:01.190 --> 00:01:01.920\nthe reasons I\n\n18\n00:01:01.920 --> 00:01:06.160\ndescribed in our company's ability to navigate those challenges.\n","pretty_transcript","start_time",2244329,"end_time",2310729,"keywords","Optimism, optimist, reality, realistic, transparent, challenges","slug","being-optimistic-doesnt-mean-downplaying-challenges","origin","cms","mux_playback_id","hv2s2fSZgOuPyAeFanDhOj3KNPfWnx01xqa5wGs9zLlg","mux_asset_id","KWzBlUhFLgerC5RxbQZxC5YCxgyHiB63L7RHjxMMK7E","leader_id",259,"episode_id",411,"updated_at","2026-01-08T17:06:06.000000Z","meta_title","meta_description","og_image_media_id","web_url","https://www.howleaderslead.com/clips/3165/being-optimistic-doesnt-mean-downplaying-challenges","og_image_url","leader",{"_13":36,"_103":104,"_105":106,"_107":108,"_25":109,"_110":111,"_61":112,"_58":112,"_113":114,"_68":115,"_39":116,"_117":-5,"_41":-5,"_42":-5,"_43":-5,"_118":119,"_91":120,"_44":121,"_122":123,"_124":125,"_46":-5,"_126":127,"_128":129,"_95":130,"_51":-5},"episode",{"_13":38,"_15":52,"_27":53,"_17":54,"_55":56,"_18":57,"_20":-5,"_58":59,"_60":-5,"_61":59,"_62":-5,"_63":64,"_65":66,"_67":-5,"_68":-5,"_69":70,"_71":72,"_73":74,"_35":36,"_39":75,"_41":-5,"_42":76,"_43":-5,"_77":78,"_79":80,"_81":82,"_83":84,"_85":-5,"_86":-5,"_87":88,"_89":90,"_91":-5,"_46":-5,"_92":93,"_94":-5,"_95":-5,"_51":-5},"og_image_media","Success is never final","success-is-never-final","Success can be a trap. It feels good to win, but if you stop pushing, you risk slipping. The best leaders know how to celebrate progress without getting complacent.","summary","

How do you keep your team motivated, even when things are going well?

Just ask Marriott President and CEO Tony Capuano. As the guy in charge of the world’s largest hospitality company (10,000 hotels in 143 countries!), he knows a thing or two about success.

But he’s also keenly aware that success is never final. And it’s up to leaders to set the pace and keep raising the bar. So if you want to build a culture that never settles, this is the episode for you!

You’ll also learn:

Three traits he sees in every growing leader
How technology can create more human connection, not less
The time Bill Marriott turned a kitchen mishap into a leadership masterclass
An insight that will fundamentally change how you relate to everyone on your team

","WEBVTT\n\n1\n00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.080\nHello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of How Leaders Lead.\n\n2\n00:00:04.080 --> 00:00:08.390\nToday, David sits down with Tony Capuano. He's the president and CEO of\n\n3\n00:00:08.390 --> 00:00:09.600\nMarriott International,\n\n4\n00:00:09.600 --> 00:00:14.360\nwhich is the largest hospitality company in the world. They've got over 30\n\n5\n00:00:14.360 --> 00:00:16.800\nbrands, nearly 10,000\n\n6\n00:00:16.800 --> 00:00:23.660\nhotels, and a loyalty program with close to 260 million members. In today's\n\n7\n00:00:23.660 --> 00:00:24.320\nconversation,\n\n8\n00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:28.860\nyou're going to learn how Tony leads and how his relentless focus on beating\n\n9\n00:00:28.860 --> 00:00:29.600\ncomplacency\n\n10\n00:00:29.600 --> 00:00:34.640\nhas been the key to Marriott's continued success. Enjoy this episode with David\n\n11\n00:00:34.640 --> 00:00:35.600\nand Tony, and I\n\n12\n00:00:35.600 --> 00:00:40.640\nwill see you at the debrief. There are lots of leaders that are great talkers\n\n13\n00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:41.920\nand great speakers.\n\n14\n00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:47.260\nThere are probably some subset that are great listeners, and that's something I\n\n15\n00:00:47.260 --> 00:00:48.560\n've tried to\n\n16\n00:00:48.560 --> 00:00:57.840\nemulate during my time with the company. I'm really thrilled that you're on the\n\n17\n00:00:57.840 --> 00:00:58.000\nshow,\n\n18\n00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:02.310\nas I understand it, you just came from a meeting with Bill Marriott, where you\n\n19\n00:01:02.310 --> 00:01:03.040\nguys were talking\n\n20\n00:01:03.040 --> 00:01:08.080\nabout the 100th anniversary you have coming up. That's right. In 2027, we'll\n\n21\n00:01:08.080 --> 00:01:09.920\ncelebrate 100 years\n\n22\n00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:14.960\nsince our founding, and it's by any measure, just a remarkable American success\n\n23\n00:01:14.960 --> 00:01:16.240\nstory, now a\n\n24\n00:01:16.240 --> 00:01:21.410\nglobal success story from humble beginnings. It was fascinating sitting there\n\n25\n00:01:21.410 --> 00:01:22.480\nwith Mr. Marriott,\n\n26\n00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:26.960\nhim talking about how his parents didn't literally have two nickels to rub\n\n27\n00:01:26.960 --> 00:01:27.760\ntogether,\n\n28\n00:01:27.760 --> 00:01:32.650\nand the risks they took, and how they would feel if they could look at what the\n\n29\n00:01:32.650 --> 00:01:33.440\ncompany's grown\n\n30\n00:01:33.440 --> 00:01:37.930\ninto. It's always a treat to spend time with him. It's probably the best part\n\n31\n00:01:37.930 --> 00:01:39.120\nof my job as I get to\n\n32\n00:01:39.120 --> 00:01:44.380\ntalk to him almost every week. That's fantastic. I'd be crazy if I didn't go\n\n33\n00:01:44.380 --> 00:01:45.280\nahead and ask you this\n\n34\n00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:51.120\nright now. When you look back with your time with Mr. Marriott, he's such an\n\n35\n00:01:51.120 --> 00:01:52.880\nicon. What's one\n\n36\n00:01:52.880 --> 00:01:57.190\nstory you could share with us that really impacted your leadership the most?\n\n37\n00:01:57.190 --> 00:01:58.800\nYeah. I mean, gosh,\n\n38\n00:01:58.800 --> 00:02:03.550\nwe could spend the whole time talking about that, but from the hundreds of\n\n39\n00:02:03.550 --> 00:02:04.960\nstories, there's one\n\n40\n00:02:04.960 --> 00:02:10.780\nthat always stands out. I started my career in the development discipline, and\n\n41\n00:02:10.780 --> 00:02:11.680\nI was leading our\n\n42\n00:02:11.680 --> 00:02:16.270\ngrowth efforts on the West Coast, based in Newport Beach, California, and Mr.\n\n43\n00:02:16.270 --> 00:02:17.600\nMarriott was on his way\n\n44\n00:02:17.600 --> 00:02:22.020\nback from Australia, and he was going to stop in Hawaii for a few days. He\n\n45\n00:02:22.020 --> 00:02:23.520\nasked me to join him to\n\n46\n00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:28.250\nlook at some hotels and look at some prospective deals. I was delighted to do\n\n47\n00:02:28.250 --> 00:02:29.440\nthat. We had a big\n\n48\n00:02:29.440 --> 00:02:34.640\ngroup of leaders who were driving around the island of Maui, and we finished at\n\n49\n00:02:34.640 --> 00:02:35.760\nthe Maui Marriott,\n\n50\n00:02:35.760 --> 00:02:40.070\nwhich holds a really special place for him. Believe it or not, as we approach\n\n51\n00:02:40.070 --> 00:02:41.360\nour 10,000\n\n52\n00:02:41.360 --> 00:02:47.600\nhotels, that was number 100. Is that right? Yeah. He loves the hotel. He loves\n\n53\n00:02:47.600 --> 00:02:48.960\nthe destination.\n\n54\n00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:54.020\nWe toured the hotel, and in his normal way, he was talking to the general\n\n55\n00:02:54.020 --> 00:02:55.120\nmanager, and he knew\n\n56\n00:02:55.120 --> 00:02:59.560\nthe P&L better than the GM did, and at the same time around every corner, he\n\n57\n00:02:59.560 --> 00:03:00.720\nhad housekeepers\n\n58\n00:03:00.720 --> 00:03:05.230\nhugging him, thanking him for the opportunities he had created. But we were\n\n59\n00:03:05.230 --> 00:03:06.720\nwaiting to go into\n\n60\n00:03:06.720 --> 00:03:09.920\nlunch, and he grabbed me by the arm, and he said, \"Come on, let's go in the\n\n61\n00:03:09.920 --> 00:03:11.520\nkitchen.\" And so we walked\n\n62\n00:03:11.520 --> 00:03:15.830\ndown the line. We were shaking hands with all the chefs, and eventually we made\n\n63\n00:03:15.830 --> 00:03:16.800\nour way to the dish\n\n64\n00:03:16.800 --> 00:03:21.760\narea, the dishwashing area, and there was a young man back there working hard.\n\n65\n00:03:21.760 --> 00:03:22.720\nMr. Marriott walked\n\n66\n00:03:22.720 --> 00:03:27.760\nright up, extended his hand to say hello, and I could tell this young man was a\n\n67\n00:03:27.760 --> 00:03:29.280\nlittle uncomfortable,\n\n68\n00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:33.040\nand in his amazing way, Mr. Marriott put him right at ease. He said, \"I've\n\n69\n00:03:33.040 --> 00:03:34.000\nwashed more dishes\n\n70\n00:03:34.000 --> 00:03:38.400\nthan you'll ever wash.\" And we all shook hands. We chatted for a little bit,\n\n71\n00:03:38.400 --> 00:03:39.200\nand then the team\n\n72\n00:03:39.200 --> 00:03:42.820\ncalled us to go to lunch, and Mr. Marriott looked at this young man and said, \"\n\n73\n00:03:42.820 --> 00:03:44.000\nIs there anything you\n\n74\n00:03:44.000 --> 00:03:48.280\nneed to do your job?\" And if you've ever worked in a commercial kitchen, you\n\n75\n00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:49.760\nknow at the dish station,\n\n76\n00:03:49.760 --> 00:03:54.240\nthere's this big high-power sprayer that you use to clean the dishes before you\n\n77\n00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:54.560\nrun them\n\n78\n00:03:54.560 --> 00:03:58.880\nthrough the dishwasher. And this guy reached up, and he squeezed the handle,\n\n79\n00:03:58.880 --> 00:03:59.840\nand the water kind of\n\n80\n00:03:59.840 --> 00:04:03.380\ndribbled out. And Mr. Marriott said, \"Well, you can't do your job that way.\"\n\n81\n00:04:03.380 --> 00:04:04.560\nAnd he said, \"It's okay.\n\n82\n00:04:04.560 --> 00:04:08.300\nThe engineers are busy. They're aware of it.\" Mr. Marriott patted him on the\n\n83\n00:04:08.300 --> 00:04:08.800\nback and said,\n\n84\n00:04:08.800 --> 00:04:12.440\n\"Don't worry. I'll take care of it.\" And off we went to lunch. I didn't look\n\n85\n00:04:12.440 --> 00:04:14.080\nback, and this kid\n\n86\n00:04:14.080 --> 00:04:18.360\nprobably rolled his eyes a little bit and said, \"Sure you will.\" So then we had\n\n87\n00:04:18.360 --> 00:04:18.960\nlunch. We did a\n\n88\n00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:23.270\nbunch of additional hotel tours. We overnighted there at that hotel. And the\n\n89\n00:04:23.270 --> 00:04:24.080\nnext day, we were\n\n90\n00:04:24.080 --> 00:04:30.320\nflying to a walker. So we drove from Kanopali 45 minutes to Kahului Airport,\n\n91\n00:04:30.320 --> 00:04:31.520\nabout 20 of us on\n\n92\n00:04:31.520 --> 00:04:35.980\nthe bus. And as we're pulling onto the tarmac, Mr. Marriott says, \"We need to\n\n93\n00:04:35.980 --> 00:04:37.040\ngo back to the Malay\n\n94\n00:04:37.040 --> 00:04:41.760\nMarriott.\" So everybody says, \"Oh, if you forgot something, we'll stay behind.\"\n\n95\n00:04:41.760 --> 00:04:42.720\nAnd he kind of smiled.\n\n96\n00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:47.510\nHe said, \"I'm not asking.\" So sure enough, we turn around the bus. We drive 40\n\n97\n00:04:47.510 --> 00:04:49.120\nminutes back. We pull\n\n98\n00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:53.920\ninto the port to share. And everybody starts to get up. And he says, \"No,\n\n99\n00:04:53.920 --> 00:04:54.800\neverybody wait here,\n\n100\n00:04:54.800 --> 00:04:58.470\nand I'll never know why.\" But he said, \"Tony, come with me.\" So the two of us\n\n101\n00:04:58.470 --> 00:04:59.680\ngot off the bus.\n\n102\n00:04:59.680 --> 00:05:03.990\nWe walked through the lobby, and you can guess the end of this story. We walked\n\n103\n00:05:03.990 --> 00:05:05.120\ninto the kitchen\n\n104\n00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:08.970\nstraight to the dish station. Same young man's there working. Bill Marriott\n\n105\n00:05:08.970 --> 00:05:10.400\nwalked right back there,\n\n106\n00:05:10.400 --> 00:05:14.350\ngrabbed the sprayer, squeezed it, full power. And he patted him on the back and\n\n107\n00:05:14.350 --> 00:05:15.360\nsaid, \"Had a great\n\n108\n00:05:15.360 --> 00:05:22.960\nday.\" And off we went. It's a great story, but it is such an illustration of\n\n109\n00:05:22.960 --> 00:05:25.040\nthe humility and the\n\n110\n00:05:25.040 --> 00:05:30.250\nsincerity that Bill Marriott has always had as a leader. He's right. He started\n\n111\n00:05:30.250 --> 00:05:31.280\nwashing dishes.\n\n112\n00:05:31.280 --> 00:05:35.590\nAnd he knows that's important. And he made a commitment to this young man. And\n\n113\n00:05:35.590 --> 00:05:36.160\nhe wouldn't\n\n114\n00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:40.460\nhave felt right not following through on that commitment. Yeah, that's a\n\n115\n00:05:40.460 --> 00:05:41.200\nclassic walk-to-talk\n\n116\n00:05:41.200 --> 00:05:47.440\nstory. So people often judge themselves by their intentions, but people judge\n\n117\n00:05:47.440 --> 00:05:48.400\nyou by your actions.\n\n118\n00:05:48.400 --> 00:05:53.370\nAnd he took actions there, which is great. I got to ask you, Tony, how many Mar\n\n119\n00:05:53.370 --> 00:05:54.240\nios, do you stay\n\n120\n00:05:54.240 --> 00:05:59.910\nin in a year? Yeah, well, I probably, I've been in the job next month, will be\n\n121\n00:05:59.910 --> 00:06:01.520\nfive years as CEO,\n\n122\n00:06:01.520 --> 00:06:07.100\n31 years with the company. And I think for these last five years, I've spent\n\n123\n00:06:07.100 --> 00:06:10.640\n200 to 220 nights a\n\n124\n00:06:10.640 --> 00:06:17.040\nyear on the road. So a few hundred. And so what's your favorite mattress and\n\n125\n00:06:17.040 --> 00:06:17.760\nwhy?\n\n126\n00:06:17.760 --> 00:06:23.050\nOh, gosh. Whichever one is waiting for me at the end of a long night, I think,\n\n127\n00:06:23.050 --> 00:06:24.080\nis the right answer.\n\n128\n00:06:24.080 --> 00:06:31.200\nI started with the company in 1995. And I'd only been here about a month when\n\n129\n00:06:31.200 --> 00:06:36.640\na legendary leader of the development discipline, a guy named Jim Sullivan,\n\n130\n00:06:36.640 --> 00:06:41.530\nasked me to help him because he thought we had an opportunity to acquire Ritz\n\n131\n00:06:41.530 --> 00:06:43.040\nCarlton. And so I\n\n132\n00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:48.760\nmight say Ritz Carlton, but I'm not objective. I think I have a special place\n\n133\n00:06:48.760 --> 00:06:49.840\nin my heart for\n\n134\n00:06:49.840 --> 00:06:54.610\nthat brand because I had the privilege to be involved in our investment, but\n\n135\n00:06:54.610 --> 00:06:55.760\nthey're all great.\n\n136\n00:06:55.760 --> 00:07:01.120\nYou know, Marianne has been around a long time about to celebrate its 100th\n\n137\n00:07:01.120 --> 00:07:02.240\nanniversary,\n\n138\n00:07:02.240 --> 00:07:05.960\nand it has a very unique history. Could you just give us a little brief\n\n139\n00:07:05.960 --> 00:07:08.480\nsnapshot of how it started?\n\n140\n00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:13.070\nOf course, it's an amazing story. So, you know, Bill Marriott, I was just with\n\n141\n00:07:13.070 --> 00:07:14.320\nhim. And he laughed.\n\n142\n00:07:14.320 --> 00:07:19.440\nHe said, somebody asked him whether what he was doing when the company was\n\n143\n00:07:19.440 --> 00:07:20.240\nfounded,\n\n144\n00:07:20.240 --> 00:07:25.000\nsuggesting he was over 100 years old, which he is. But it was his parents that\n\n145\n00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:26.240\nfounded the company,\n\n146\n00:07:26.240 --> 00:07:31.920\nJ.W. Marriott Sr. and his wife, Alice, and J.W. Marriott Sr. was a sheepherder\n\n147\n00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:34.160\nin Utah. And he kind\n\n148\n00:07:34.160 --> 00:07:40.690\nof saved his money and saved up enough money for he and his new bride to get a\n\n149\n00:07:40.690 --> 00:07:42.000\nModel T and drive\n\n150\n00:07:42.000 --> 00:07:48.910\ncross-country from Utah to Washington, D.C. And he had visited Washington, I\n\n151\n00:07:48.910 --> 00:07:49.520\nthink it was during\n\n152\n00:07:49.520 --> 00:07:53.830\nthe world's fair, and said, boy, this would be a vibrant economy to try to\n\n153\n00:07:53.830 --> 00:07:55.040\nstart a business.\n\n154\n00:07:55.040 --> 00:08:01.030\nAnd so they opened a nine-seat root beer stand in 1927 here in Washington. They\n\n155\n00:08:01.030 --> 00:08:01.840\nlived in a little\n\n156\n00:08:01.840 --> 00:08:06.730\napartment upstairs from the root beer stand, and they opened in May. So right\n\n157\n00:08:06.730 --> 00:08:08.480\ninto the start of a\n\n158\n00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:13.920\nnormal, hot, humid summer here in Washington, and the business was booming. And\n\n159\n00:08:13.920 --> 00:08:15.360\nevery night,\n\n160\n00:08:15.360 --> 00:08:20.320\nMrs. Marriott would wash all the sticky nickels that were sticky from root beer\n\n161\n00:08:20.320 --> 00:08:20.880\n, and then she'd\n\n162\n00:08:20.880 --> 00:08:25.680\ngo make the deposit at the bank, and they lived upstairs. And the business was\n\n163\n00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:26.800\ndoing great until\n\n164\n00:08:26.800 --> 00:08:31.240\nfall came. And then the temperatures and the climate started to change. There\n\n165\n00:08:31.240 --> 00:08:32.320\nwas less demand.\n\n166\n00:08:32.320 --> 00:08:36.800\nAnd they said, we're going to have to expand the offerings here. Now,\n\n167\n00:08:36.800 --> 00:08:38.240\ninterestingly, in college,\n\n168\n00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:43.360\nshe had studied and developed a fluency in Spanish. And so she literally went\n\n169\n00:08:43.360 --> 00:08:44.400\nand knocked on the front\n\n170\n00:08:44.400 --> 00:08:50.050\ndoor of the Mexican embassy, convinced the chef to spend a little time with her\n\n171\n00:08:50.050 --> 00:08:51.520\n, sharing recipes.\n\n172\n00:08:51.520 --> 00:08:57.920\nAnd she took those recipes and started making the hot chili and hot mollies in\n\n173\n00:08:57.920 --> 00:08:59.040\nthe apartment,\n\n174\n00:08:59.040 --> 00:09:03.350\nbringing them down during the day and selling them in the root beer stand. And\n\n175\n00:09:03.350 --> 00:09:03.920\nthat root beer\n\n176\n00:09:03.920 --> 00:09:09.570\nstand became the first of a multi-unit chain called Hot Shops. And so that was\n\n177\n00:09:09.570 --> 00:09:10.640\nreally the start of\n\n178\n00:09:10.640 --> 00:09:16.290\nthe company. And as that business started to grow, Mr. Marriott senior noticed\n\n179\n00:09:16.290 --> 00:09:17.600\nmore and more customers\n\n180\n00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:22.880\ncoming in and ordering food to go. And he started, he was very inquisitive, and\n\n181\n00:09:22.880 --> 00:09:24.000\nhe started to ask why.\n\n182\n00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:29.370\nAnd they said, well, we're flying out of what was then national, now Reagan\n\n183\n00:09:29.370 --> 00:09:30.080\nairport,\n\n184\n00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:35.520\nand there's no food on the plane. So he convinced the airport to give him a\n\n185\n00:09:35.520 --> 00:09:37.360\nconcession. And in our\n\n186\n00:09:37.360 --> 00:09:42.680\narchives, there are these amazing old photos of Mr. Marriott with a cart filled\n\n187\n00:09:42.680 --> 00:09:43.200\nwith box\n\n188\n00:09:43.200 --> 00:09:49.050\nlunches, standing at the foot of the stairs going up to an old probably DC nine\n\n189\n00:09:49.050 --> 00:09:50.000\n, selling these\n\n190\n00:09:50.000 --> 00:09:56.880\nlunches for a dime. And that turned into our big in-flight catering business.\n\n191\n00:09:56.880 --> 00:09:57.920\nAnd so it was really\n\n192\n00:09:57.920 --> 00:10:03.100\nthose two businesses for 30 years. We weren't in the hotel business. We were a\n\n193\n00:10:03.100 --> 00:10:04.400\nfood service company.\n\n194\n00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:10.140\nAnd then in 1957, we opened the first hotel, the twin bridges, Marriott here in\n\n195\n00:10:10.140 --> 00:10:10.800\nWashington.\n\n196\n00:10:10.800 --> 00:10:16.450\nVery few people really know that story. And here you are, 9,700 properties\n\n197\n00:10:16.450 --> 00:10:18.880\nlater. And you know,\n\n198\n00:10:18.880 --> 00:10:24.960\nwhen you're that big, Tony, it's easy to have a bureaucracy. How do you keep\n\n199\n00:10:24.960 --> 00:10:26.160\nsuch a big company\n\n200\n00:10:26.160 --> 00:10:34.480\nsmall? Yeah, a few ways, I think. Number one, the continued involvement of the\n\n201\n00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:34.960\nfamily,\n\n202\n00:10:35.440 --> 00:10:41.190\nI think, is a huge secret weapon. Mr. Marriott is still our chairman emeritus.\n\n203\n00:10:41.190 --> 00:10:42.240\nAnd I pity you\n\n204\n00:10:42.240 --> 00:10:46.550\nif you use the retirement word with him. He is still deeply and actively\n\n205\n00:10:46.550 --> 00:10:48.160\nengaged in the business.\n\n206\n00:10:48.160 --> 00:10:52.760\nTwo of his children, Debbie, Marriott, Harrison, and David Marriott, sit on our\n\n207\n00:10:52.760 --> 00:10:54.080\nboard of directors.\n\n208\n00:10:54.080 --> 00:10:57.650\nDavid is our current chairman of the board. There are a number of family\n\n209\n00:10:57.650 --> 00:10:58.640\nmembers that work\n\n210\n00:10:58.640 --> 00:11:03.680\nin other areas of the business. And I think as I travel around the world, one\n\n211\n00:11:03.680 --> 00:11:04.640\nof the things\n\n212\n00:11:04.640 --> 00:11:09.920\nthat's clear is our associates, despite our industry leading scale, they feel\n\n213\n00:11:09.920 --> 00:11:10.240\nlike they\n\n214\n00:11:10.240 --> 00:11:15.650\nwork for a small family business. And it really is a tremendous advantage. I\n\n215\n00:11:15.650 --> 00:11:16.960\nwould say, secondly,\n\n216\n00:11:16.960 --> 00:11:24.720\nArnie Sorensen, my predecessor, made a brilliant decision to decentralize our\n\n217\n00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:25.680\nbusiness as we got\n\n218\n00:11:25.680 --> 00:11:29.990\nbigger and bigger and we were growing further and further afield. And so we\n\n219\n00:11:29.990 --> 00:11:30.880\ncreated these\n\n220\n00:11:30.880 --> 00:11:35.920\ncontinent structures around the world. And I think the real opportunity is to\n\n221\n00:11:35.920 --> 00:11:36.480\nlean on\n\n222\n00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:41.440\nthose amazing leaders, make sure they understand the broad strategy, make sure\n\n223\n00:11:41.440 --> 00:11:42.160\nwe've given them\n\n224\n00:11:42.160 --> 00:11:46.920\nthe tools to execute that strategy, make sure they know those of us here at\n\n225\n00:11:46.920 --> 00:11:48.160\ncenter are available\n\n226\n00:11:48.160 --> 00:11:52.470\nto support them, and then really get out of the way and let them run their\n\n227\n00:11:52.470 --> 00:11:53.440\nbusinesses.\n\n228\n00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:57.880\nThat's great. You know, and you followed Arnie Sorensen, who is a tremendous\n\n229\n00:11:57.880 --> 00:11:58.960\nperson. I had the\n\n230\n00:11:58.960 --> 00:12:04.000\npleasure of meeting him, just a great person, a great leader. And he passed\n\n231\n00:12:04.000 --> 00:12:05.520\naway from cancer.\n\n232\n00:12:05.520 --> 00:12:10.800\nYou know, what was it like coming to the helm of a company like that under\n\n233\n00:12:10.800 --> 00:12:11.280\nthose kind of\n\n234\n00:12:11.280 --> 00:12:16.490\ncircumstances? Yeah, it's I've called it a battlefield promotion, which is\n\n235\n00:12:16.490 --> 00:12:18.000\nreally what it was. You had\n\n236\n00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:24.880\nthe loss of this beloved leader. And we were still this was February of 21. So\n\n237\n00:12:24.880 --> 00:12:26.000\nwe were still very\n\n238\n00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:30.720\nearly in the pandemic, which Bill Marriott has characterized as the most\n\n239\n00:12:30.720 --> 00:12:32.000\nsignificant challenge\n\n240\n00:12:32.000 --> 00:12:37.870\nthis company in this industry ever faced. And so it was, you know, it was an\n\n241\n00:12:37.870 --> 00:12:39.360\nextraordinarily\n\n242\n00:12:39.360 --> 00:12:44.080\ndifficult time. It was a very emotional time because we'd all lost our friend\n\n243\n00:12:44.080 --> 00:12:45.040\nand mentor.\n\n244\n00:12:45.040 --> 00:12:49.350\nAnd again, I'm sure during the course of our conversation, I'll talk about Mr.\n\n245\n00:12:49.350 --> 00:12:50.000\nMarriott a lot,\n\n246\n00:12:50.000 --> 00:12:55.670\nbut here's another great leadership lesson from him. He called me that Sunday\n\n247\n00:12:55.670 --> 00:12:57.040\nevening to let me know\n\n248\n00:12:57.040 --> 00:13:03.570\nI'd been appointed by the board as only our fourth CEO in nearly a century. And\n\n249\n00:13:03.570 --> 00:13:04.480\nhe sent\n\n250\n00:13:04.480 --> 00:13:09.270\nsomething to me that was invaluable. He said, nobody wishes more than me. I\n\n251\n00:13:09.270 --> 00:13:10.400\ncould get the world\n\n252\n00:13:10.400 --> 00:13:15.090\nto stop spinning for a few months so that we could properly grieve the loss of\n\n253\n00:13:15.090 --> 00:13:16.080\nour friend.\n\n254\n00:13:16.080 --> 00:13:21.040\nHe said, you're going to have to figure out in your own personal way how to go\n\n255\n00:13:21.040 --> 00:13:21.760\nthrough your own\n\n256\n00:13:21.760 --> 00:13:25.370\ngrieving process. He said, but you're going to have to figure out a way to\n\n257\n00:13:25.370 --> 00:13:26.720\ncompartmentalize it a\n\n258\n00:13:26.720 --> 00:13:31.610\nlittle bit. Because whether you like it or not, tomorrow morning, hundreds of\n\n259\n00:13:31.610 --> 00:13:33.280\nthousands of hard\n\n260\n00:13:33.280 --> 00:13:37.590\nworking loyal Marriott associates are going to wake up. They're going to put on\n\n261\n00:13:37.590 --> 00:13:38.480\ntheir name badge\n\n262\n00:13:38.480 --> 00:13:42.780\nproudly. And they're going to expect you and the rest of the leadership team to\n\n263\n00:13:42.780 --> 00:13:43.760\nlead them out of the\n\n264\n00:13:43.760 --> 00:13:49.940\nmost difficult crisis the companies ever faced. And it was such valuable advice\n\n265\n00:13:49.940 --> 00:13:50.320\nfor me,\n\n266\n00:13:50.320 --> 00:13:57.130\nbecause it got me focused on the task at hand and really didn't give me time to\n\n267\n00:13:57.130 --> 00:13:57.840\nthink about the\n\n268\n00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:02.480\nenormity of the challenge that I'd been given. Yeah, that's interesting because\n\n269\n00:14:02.480 --> 00:14:03.680\nknowing Arnie,\n\n270\n00:14:03.680 --> 00:14:07.040\nyou know, I'm sure that's exactly what he would want you to do too. You know,\n\n271\n00:14:07.040 --> 00:14:07.920\nlead that company\n\n272\n00:14:07.920 --> 00:14:12.840\nand help the team members succeed. And I can't wait to dive more into your\n\n273\n00:14:12.840 --> 00:14:14.880\njourney to becoming\n\n274\n00:14:14.880 --> 00:14:19.770\nCEO of the world's largest hospitality company. But, you know, take let me take\n\n275\n00:14:19.770 --> 00:14:20.400\nyou back a little\n\n276\n00:14:20.400 --> 00:14:24.040\nbit, Tony. You know, what's the story from your childhood that shaped the kind\n\n277\n00:14:24.040 --> 00:14:24.800\nof leader you are\n\n278\n00:14:24.800 --> 00:14:31.610\ntoday? Yeah, that's a good question. It's a big year in my family. My dad\n\n279\n00:14:31.610 --> 00:14:33.680\nturned 80 last month.\n\n280\n00:14:33.680 --> 00:14:39.330\nI'll turn 60 this month. So there's only a 20 year gap between my father and I.\n\n281\n00:14:39.330 --> 00:14:41.040\nWhen I was born,\n\n282\n00:14:41.040 --> 00:14:46.870\nhe was a student at Johns Hopkins, just up the road here in Baltimore. And, of\n\n283\n00:14:46.870 --> 00:14:48.480\ncourse, I don't\n\n284\n00:14:48.480 --> 00:14:53.170\nremember this. I was a baby, but I heard the stories. He would come home from\n\n285\n00:14:53.170 --> 00:14:54.480\nschool. He'd spend a\n\n286\n00:14:54.480 --> 00:15:00.130\nlittle time with his wife and his newborn son and any work graveyard shifts at\n\n287\n00:15:00.130 --> 00:15:01.440\nUPS loading trucks.\n\n288\n00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:05.300\nAnd then when he was finished his graveyard shift, he'd come home, sleep for a\n\n289\n00:15:05.300 --> 00:15:06.400\ncouple hours,\n\n290\n00:15:06.400 --> 00:15:11.290\nand head right back to school. And when I would hear these stories, the, and\n\n291\n00:15:11.290 --> 00:15:12.880\nthen get advice from\n\n292\n00:15:12.880 --> 00:15:19.140\nhim throughout my childhood as I worked my way through school and college and\n\n293\n00:15:19.140 --> 00:15:21.040\nstarted my career,\n\n294\n00:15:21.040 --> 00:15:26.800\nthis idea that there are many disadvantages that are beyond your control. There\n\n295\n00:15:26.800 --> 00:15:27.440\n's always\n\n296\n00:15:27.440 --> 00:15:33.390\ngoing to be folks that have a better education or better experience or more\n\n297\n00:15:33.390 --> 00:15:34.960\nhair or less gray hair\n\n298\n00:15:34.960 --> 00:15:39.270\nor taller or whatever it might be. None of that is within your control. But if\n\n299\n00:15:39.270 --> 00:15:40.880\nsomebody out works\n\n300\n00:15:40.880 --> 00:15:45.500\nyou, it's because you let them. And so from the earliest days, this idea of\n\n301\n00:15:45.500 --> 00:15:47.040\nhaving this extraordinary\n\n302\n00:15:47.040 --> 00:15:54.160\nwork ethic really came from my dad. Fantastic. And what was it early in your\n\n303\n00:15:54.160 --> 00:15:55.840\nlife or your career\n\n304\n00:15:55.840 --> 00:16:00.160\nthat made you feel like the hospitality industry was a good place for you to be\n\n305\n00:16:00.160 --> 00:16:00.480\nbecause you've\n\n306\n00:16:00.480 --> 00:16:06.660\nbeen at it a long time. Yeah, it's sort of a confluence of unrelated events. I\n\n307\n00:16:06.660 --> 00:16:07.440\nwas a lacrosse\n\n308\n00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:13.510\nplayer growing up. And one of my coaches owned a restaurant in my hometown. And\n\n309\n00:16:13.510 --> 00:16:14.080\nso as you might\n\n310\n00:16:14.080 --> 00:16:17.770\nexpect, because he didn't want us getting in trouble, all the lacrosse players\n\n311\n00:16:17.770 --> 00:16:18.400\nworked in the\n\n312\n00:16:18.400 --> 00:16:22.710\nkitchen there. So David Merritt and I always tease each other. David says he\n\n313\n00:16:22.710 --> 00:16:24.240\nstarted at the bottom\n\n314\n00:16:24.240 --> 00:16:28.680\nas a dishwasher. And I said, no, the bottom was pot washer. I started at the\n\n315\n00:16:28.680 --> 00:16:29.440\npot washer and had\n\n316\n00:16:29.440 --> 00:16:33.920\nto get promoted to dishwasher. But I, you know, I worked there for a few years\n\n317\n00:16:33.920 --> 00:16:35.600\nand I think started\n\n318\n00:16:35.600 --> 00:16:41.370\nto develop an appreciation for the industry. And at the same time, my father\n\n319\n00:16:41.370 --> 00:16:42.560\nwas commuting\n\n320\n00:16:42.560 --> 00:16:48.030\ninto DC and he carpooled with one of our neighbors, who was the then lead\n\n321\n00:16:48.030 --> 00:16:49.680\nlobbyist for the American\n\n322\n00:16:49.680 --> 00:16:55.060\nHotel and Lodging Association. And he was the one that really recommended that\n\n323\n00:16:55.060 --> 00:16:55.600\nwe look at\n\n324\n00:16:55.600 --> 00:17:00.330\nhospitality schools. And so I visited a bunch of them. I went up to Cornell,\n\n325\n00:17:00.330 --> 00:17:01.520\nfell in love with the\n\n326\n00:17:01.520 --> 00:17:06.410\nprogram, fell in love with the campus. I was there on one of the few sunny,\n\n327\n00:17:06.410 --> 00:17:07.920\nwarm days that they have\n\n328\n00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:14.400\nin Ithaca, New York. And that really is what caused me to pursue an education.\n\n329\n00:17:14.400 --> 00:17:15.440\nAnd I've never\n\n330\n00:17:15.440 --> 00:17:21.090\nlooked back. I just fell in love with the industry. Now, that's great. And as\n\n331\n00:17:21.090 --> 00:17:21.920\nyou mentioned earlier,\n\n332\n00:17:21.920 --> 00:17:26.700\nyou joined Marriott back in 95. Although, you know, it was not my first job. Is\n\n333\n00:17:26.700 --> 00:17:28.880\nthat right? Cornell has\n\n334\n00:17:28.880 --> 00:17:36.000\nan amazing career services division there. And they help the kids immeasurably.\n\n335\n00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:36.800\nAnd if you apply\n\n336\n00:17:36.800 --> 00:17:42.240\nyourself, you end up with lots of job offers, hopefully lots of, well, lots of\n\n337\n00:17:42.240 --> 00:17:43.120\ninterviews,\n\n338\n00:17:43.120 --> 00:17:48.770\nhopefully lots of job offers. And when I was a senior in 1987, I was lucky\n\n339\n00:17:48.770 --> 00:17:50.080\nenough to interview\n\n340\n00:17:50.080 --> 00:17:56.260\nwith seven companies, even luckier to get six job offers. But I held onto that\n\n341\n00:17:56.260 --> 00:17:57.200\none rejection\n\n342\n00:17:57.200 --> 00:18:02.420\nletter for a long time, because it was from Marriott. How great is that? And\n\n343\n00:18:02.420 --> 00:18:03.200\nyou know,\n\n344\n00:18:03.200 --> 00:18:08.090\nbut I've reflected on it over the years. And I think it's a funny story to tell\n\n345\n00:18:08.090 --> 00:18:08.800\ngiven where I\n\n346\n00:18:08.800 --> 00:18:14.170\nended up. But as I reflect on, I think that recruiter was probably right. One\n\n347\n00:18:14.170 --> 00:18:14.800\nof the things\n\n348\n00:18:14.800 --> 00:18:19.440\nI treasure about our company is its humility. And they probably thought, ah,\n\n349\n00:18:19.440 --> 00:18:20.480\nthis is a reasonably\n\n350\n00:18:20.480 --> 00:18:24.780\nsmart kid. But he probably needs to go out into the real world and get beat up\n\n351\n00:18:24.780 --> 00:18:25.600\na little bit, and\n\n352\n00:18:25.600 --> 00:18:30.490\nthen we'll take a look. And so I did, I worked for two consulting firms on the\n\n353\n00:18:30.490 --> 00:18:31.920\nreal estate side\n\n354\n00:18:31.920 --> 00:18:36.720\nbefore I joined the company in 95. Well, speaking of getting beaten up a little\n\n355\n00:18:36.720 --> 00:18:37.440\nbit, you know,\n\n356\n00:18:37.440 --> 00:18:42.370\nlet's a story from those early days, maybe a project that no one else even\n\n357\n00:18:42.370 --> 00:18:43.680\nremembers, but you\n\n358\n00:18:43.680 --> 00:18:49.300\nthat taught you an important leadership lesson. Yeah, so I gosh, there's a few.\n\n359\n00:18:49.300 --> 00:18:51.520\nMaybe I'll tell\n\n360\n00:18:51.520 --> 00:18:56.820\nyou one, the, by then I had made my way into development at Marriott. I was\n\n361\n00:18:56.820 --> 00:18:58.160\nworking on a project\n\n362\n00:18:58.160 --> 00:19:04.340\nin Atlanta. And the owner happened to be a dear, dear friend of Bill Marriott.\n\n363\n00:19:04.340 --> 00:19:05.360\nAnd I was doing what\n\n364\n00:19:05.360 --> 00:19:10.400\nI had been taught to do, trying to drive a very tough but fair deal for both\n\n365\n00:19:10.400 --> 00:19:12.640\nsides. And the owner\n\n366\n00:19:12.640 --> 00:19:16.950\ncalled Bill Marriott and said, you got to call off your attack dog. He's\n\n367\n00:19:16.950 --> 00:19:18.160\npushing too hard. Just\n\n368\n00:19:18.160 --> 00:19:22.630\ntell him to cave on a few of these deal points so we can get it done. And Mr.\n\n369\n00:19:22.630 --> 00:19:23.920\nMarriott called me\n\n370\n00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:27.770\nand he said, ah, you should take it easy on these guys a little bit. And I\n\n371\n00:19:27.770 --> 00:19:29.120\nheard him, but I thought,\n\n372\n00:19:29.120 --> 00:19:35.200\nyou know, I'm not being unfair. I'm sort of following the types of deals that\n\n373\n00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:36.000\nwe've done\n\n374\n00:19:36.000 --> 00:19:43.870\nhistorically. I do owe a debt of responsibility to our shareholders to stand\n\n375\n00:19:43.870 --> 00:19:45.200\nfirm and fair on a\n\n376\n00:19:45.200 --> 00:19:49.760\nbunch of these deal points. And so I wouldn't say I ignored Mr. Marriott's\n\n377\n00:19:49.760 --> 00:19:52.000\nrequest, but I continued\n\n378\n00:19:52.000 --> 00:19:57.200\nto push and we got the deal done. And Mr. Marriott sent me a note about a week\n\n379\n00:19:57.200 --> 00:19:58.320\nafter we signed the\n\n380\n00:19:58.320 --> 00:20:04.620\ndeal. And he is famous for his handwritten notes. And I've saved every one of\n\n381\n00:20:04.620 --> 00:20:06.400\nthem, but this one is\n\n382\n00:20:06.400 --> 00:20:11.690\nparticularly important to me. And he said, thank you, not forgetting the deal\n\n383\n00:20:11.690 --> 00:20:12.080\ndone,\n\n384\n00:20:12.080 --> 00:20:18.260\nbut for following your conscience and not listening to some old man and doing\n\n385\n00:20:18.260 --> 00:20:19.040\nwhat was best for the\n\n386\n00:20:19.040 --> 00:20:25.850\ncompany, you know, best bill. And, you know, on the long list of attributes\n\n387\n00:20:25.850 --> 00:20:27.520\nthat I've admired\n\n388\n00:20:27.520 --> 00:20:34.640\nover my 30 plus years here is he doesn't think he knows everything, right? He\n\n389\n00:20:34.640 --> 00:20:35.760\nalways has a point of\n\n390\n00:20:35.760 --> 00:20:41.410\nview, but he is quick to listen to what he calls subject matter experts. And\n\n391\n00:20:41.410 --> 00:20:42.160\nthat, and that's\n\n392\n00:20:42.160 --> 00:20:47.840\nsomething I think he and Arnie shared was this ability to be a great listener.\n\n393\n00:20:47.840 --> 00:20:48.720\nThere are lots of\n\n394\n00:20:48.720 --> 00:20:54.070\nleaders that are great talkers and great speakers. There are probably some\n\n395\n00:20:54.070 --> 00:20:55.360\nsubset that are great\n\n396\n00:20:55.360 --> 00:20:59.670\nlisteners. And both of them shared that attribute. And that's something I've\n\n397\n00:20:59.670 --> 00:21:01.520\ntried to emulate during\n\n398\n00:21:01.520 --> 00:21:06.420\nmy time with the company. Hey, everyone, it's Kula. I hope you are loving this\n\n399\n00:21:06.420 --> 00:21:07.440\nepisode with David\n\n400\n00:21:07.440 --> 00:21:10.690\nand Tony. All the stories he tells about all of the incredible guest\n\n401\n00:21:10.690 --> 00:21:11.920\nexperiences at Marriott's\n\n402\n00:21:11.920 --> 00:21:16.230\nacross the world has been so inspired. So I hope you are loving them too. Don't\n\n403\n00:21:16.230 --> 00:21:17.360\nforget to stay tuned\n\n404\n00:21:17.360 --> 00:21:20.660\nfor the debrief. David and I are going to give you some really practical tools\n\n405\n00:21:20.660 --> 00:21:21.600\nfrom this episode\n\n406\n00:21:21.600 --> 00:21:25.360\nthat you can apply to your own leadership and to your own life. So stay tuned\n\n407\n00:21:25.360 --> 00:21:26.400\nto the very end of the\n\n408\n00:21:26.400 --> 00:21:31.840\nepisode and do not miss the debrief. And Tony, you built quite a reputation\n\n409\n00:21:31.840 --> 00:21:32.480\nbecause you were\n\n410\n00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:38.160\ninstrumental in Marriott's growth across the western United States, Canada, and\n\n411\n00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:38.800\neventually\n\n412\n00:21:38.800 --> 00:21:45.640\nglobally. For any leader who was wanting to grow their company, what advice\n\n413\n00:21:45.640 --> 00:21:46.880\nwould you give them?\n\n414\n00:21:46.880 --> 00:21:53.060\nWhat's the key? Gosh, maybe a few things. I would say number one, you've got to\n\n415\n00:21:53.060 --> 00:21:54.000\nbe naturally\n\n416\n00:21:54.000 --> 00:21:59.200\nintellectually curious. I could have spent my whole career in development and\n\n417\n00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:00.720\nbeen very happy\n\n418\n00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:05.030\nand had a wonderful career at Marriott. But I always have this natural\n\n419\n00:22:05.030 --> 00:22:06.560\ncuriosity to learn about\n\n420\n00:22:06.560 --> 00:22:11.600\nother aspects of the business, the operating side of the business, loyalty,\n\n421\n00:22:11.600 --> 00:22:13.760\nfinance. And I think any\n\n422\n00:22:13.760 --> 00:22:19.820\ngreat leader has that curiosity. They just want to learn more and more, not\n\n423\n00:22:19.820 --> 00:22:21.120\nonly about their company,\n\n424\n00:22:21.120 --> 00:22:27.690\nnot only about their sector, but across business broadly. Number two, I touched\n\n425\n00:22:27.690 --> 00:22:28.720\non earlier.\n\n426\n00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:35.720\nI think leaders have to be great engaged listeners. I think if you spend all\n\n427\n00:22:35.720 --> 00:22:37.520\nyour time talking,\n\n428\n00:22:37.520 --> 00:22:41.830\nyou're missing the most important lessons from the folks sitting across the\n\n429\n00:22:41.830 --> 00:22:42.640\ntable from you.\n\n430\n00:22:43.280 --> 00:22:50.160\nAnd I would say number three is be humble. As leaders, it's easy to read your\n\n431\n00:22:50.160 --> 00:22:50.720\nown press\n\n432\n00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:55.200\nclippings and think you know everything. You might know a fair amount about a\n\n433\n00:22:55.200 --> 00:22:56.880\nvery narrow area of\n\n434\n00:22:56.880 --> 00:23:03.180\nyour business. But to have the humility that allows you to be a lifelong lear\n\n435\n00:23:03.180 --> 00:23:04.160\nner, I think is\n\n436\n00:23:04.160 --> 00:23:09.280\ncritical if you want to grow as a leader. Can you give me an example of where\n\n437\n00:23:09.280 --> 00:23:10.320\nyour intellectual\n\n438\n00:23:10.320 --> 00:23:15.680\ncuriosity took you down a path that led to some growth? Yeah, I mean, we're\n\n439\n00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:16.400\nquite thrilled.\n\n440\n00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:20.880\nWe've just launched our third Ritz Carlton yacht as part of the Ritz Carlton\n\n441\n00:23:20.880 --> 00:23:21.680\nyacht collection.\n\n442\n00:23:21.680 --> 00:23:27.340\nAnd over the years, we'd had lots of folks approach us about opportunities at\n\n443\n00:23:27.340 --> 00:23:27.760\nsea.\n\n444\n00:23:27.760 --> 00:23:33.000\nI think Mr. Marriott had a bad taste in his mouth. We were in the cruise\n\n445\n00:23:33.000 --> 00:23:34.320\nbusiness decades\n\n446\n00:23:34.320 --> 00:23:40.160\nago and it didn't pan out the way he had hoped. And many of the early\n\n447\n00:23:40.160 --> 00:23:41.680\napproaches we had,\n\n448\n00:23:41.680 --> 00:23:46.160\nI didn't think we had the right cultural compatibility with our prospective\n\n449\n00:23:46.160 --> 00:23:47.040\npartners,\n\n450\n00:23:47.040 --> 00:23:51.600\nbut I was intrigued with the space. And so I tried to learn as much as I could\n\n451\n00:23:51.600 --> 00:23:52.080\nabout it\n\n452\n00:23:52.080 --> 00:23:57.760\nso that if and when the right partner presented themselves, we would have\n\n453\n00:23:57.760 --> 00:23:58.800\nenough knowledge to\n\n454\n00:23:58.800 --> 00:24:04.000\nunderstand whether we had permission to operate in that space, whether we could\n\n455\n00:24:04.000 --> 00:24:05.600\nadd real value\n\n456\n00:24:05.600 --> 00:24:11.290\nand whether it was scalable. You know, Marriott purchased Starwood, I believe\n\n457\n00:24:11.290 --> 00:24:13.360\nin 2016.\n\n458\n00:24:13.360 --> 00:24:18.320\nThat's one of the biggest deals ever in hospitality. What did you learn from\n\n459\n00:24:18.320 --> 00:24:18.880\nthat whole\n\n460\n00:24:18.880 --> 00:24:23.310\nexperience as a leader? Yeah, a lot of things. But again, it starts in some\n\n461\n00:24:23.310 --> 00:24:24.720\nways with Mr. Marriott.\n\n462\n00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:31.280\nSo Arnie was CEO at the time. I was head of global development at the time. And\n\n463\n00:24:31.280 --> 00:24:32.560\nyou know,\n\n464\n00:24:32.560 --> 00:24:38.880\nthe deal presented itself, Arnie and I sat on a board called iRFAK, which is\n\n465\n00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:40.240\nthe, I think it stands\n\n466\n00:24:40.240 --> 00:24:46.000\nfor industry real estate finance advisory council of the AH and LA. And we were\n\n467\n00:24:46.000 --> 00:24:46.320\nat an\n\n468\n00:24:46.320 --> 00:24:51.210\niRFAK meeting in New York and the interim CEO of Starwood pulled us aside at\n\n469\n00:24:51.210 --> 00:24:52.880\nthe break and said,\n\n470\n00:24:52.880 --> 00:24:57.190\nI know you passed, but are you sure you don't want to jump in? And when we had\n\n471\n00:24:57.190 --> 00:24:57.440\npassed,\n\n472\n00:24:57.440 --> 00:25:02.480\nStarwood's stock traded at a pretty significant premium to Marriott's stock. In\n\n473\n00:25:02.480 --> 00:25:03.120\nthe interim,\n\n474\n00:25:03.120 --> 00:25:07.680\nafter we passed, the stocks had inverted and the economics looked a bit more\n\n475\n00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:13.490\ncreative and more compelling. And Arnie's response was, well, maybe, but aren't\n\n476\n00:25:13.490 --> 00:25:15.200\nwe too late? And he\n\n477\n00:25:15.200 --> 00:25:19.790\nsaid, no, but you didn't need to move quickly. And so we spent a bunch of time\n\n478\n00:25:19.790 --> 00:25:20.640\ntalking about it.\n\n479\n00:25:20.640 --> 00:25:26.000\nWe had the teams do some work. And Arnie went to Mr. Marriott on a Friday and\n\n480\n00:25:26.000 --> 00:25:26.320\nsaid,\n\n481\n00:25:26.320 --> 00:25:31.120\nthis opportunity exists. But I don't want you to give me an opinion. I want to\n\n482\n00:25:31.120 --> 00:25:32.000\ngive you one sheet\n\n483\n00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:36.710\nof paper that summarizes the opportunity. And I don't want you to call me until\n\n484\n00:25:36.710 --> 00:25:37.200\nMonday.\n\n485\n00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:43.150\nAnd you could tell Mr. Marriott's initial reaction was, the company's doing\n\n486\n00:25:43.150 --> 00:25:43.440\ngreat,\n\n487\n00:25:44.400 --> 00:25:50.350\nword on all time high and the stock price, the investment community loves us.\n\n488\n00:25:50.350 --> 00:25:51.280\nWhy would we rock\n\n489\n00:25:51.280 --> 00:25:56.170\nthe boat? That was his feeling on Friday. So then Monday, he came back in, he\n\n490\n00:25:56.170 --> 00:25:57.120\nsat with us,\n\n491\n00:25:57.120 --> 00:26:01.430\nand he said, you ought to go after it. And I think everybody was a little\n\n492\n00:26:01.430 --> 00:26:02.640\nstunned. And he said,\n\n493\n00:26:02.640 --> 00:26:08.400\non Friday, I realized I had fallen into the trap that I advise all of you to\n\n494\n00:26:08.400 --> 00:26:09.760\navoid. And that's\n\n495\n00:26:09.760 --> 00:26:15.640\nthe trap of complacency. We're doing fine. Why rock the boat? But this has the\n\n496\n00:26:15.640 --> 00:26:16.480\npotential\n\n497\n00:26:16.480 --> 00:26:21.860\nto be a transformational transaction. You ought to do the work and see if it\n\n498\n00:26:21.860 --> 00:26:23.040\nmakes sense.\n\n499\n00:26:23.040 --> 00:26:29.610\nAnd so that was probably the biggest lesson I learned was even an iconic leader\n\n500\n00:26:29.610 --> 00:26:30.080\nlike Bill\n\n501\n00:26:30.080 --> 00:26:36.450\nMarriott understood the risks of complacency. And now speaking of attacking\n\n502\n00:26:36.450 --> 00:26:38.000\ncomplacency,\n\n503\n00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:42.080\nyou know, what's the biggest change that you're driving inside the company?\n\n504\n00:26:42.080 --> 00:26:47.520\nThere's a few. I would say number one, we're in the midst of the most\n\n505\n00:26:47.520 --> 00:26:48.960\nsignificant technology\n\n506\n00:26:48.960 --> 00:26:54.320\ntransformation we've ever undertaken in our history. We're replatforming our\n\n507\n00:26:54.320 --> 00:26:55.040\nthree biggest\n\n508\n00:26:55.040 --> 00:27:00.000\nsystems, our reservation system, our property management system, and our\n\n509\n00:27:00.000 --> 00:27:01.200\nloyalty platform.\n\n510\n00:27:01.200 --> 00:27:07.040\nAnd I think technology is table stakes for most companies, certainly for\n\n511\n00:27:07.040 --> 00:27:07.840\ncompanies in the\n\n512\n00:27:07.840 --> 00:27:13.290\ntravel vertical. But it also is a bit of an interesting riddle, because\n\n513\n00:27:13.290 --> 00:27:14.240\nthankfully,\n\n514\n00:27:14.240 --> 00:27:19.360\nwe've all chosen careers in the human connection business, right? You're never\n\n515\n00:27:19.360 --> 00:27:20.160\ngoing to have a\n\n516\n00:27:20.160 --> 00:27:26.240\nhotel full of robots, at least not a successful one, I don't think. We are in\n\n517\n00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:27.120\nthe business of\n\n518\n00:27:27.120 --> 00:27:31.430\nconnecting people through the power of travel. And so technology has the\n\n519\n00:27:31.430 --> 00:27:32.160\npotential to be an\n\n520\n00:27:32.160 --> 00:27:38.340\nenabler of that, right? If you work for us as a front desk agent, and I give\n\n521\n00:27:38.340 --> 00:27:40.320\nyou technology tools\n\n522\n00:27:40.320 --> 00:27:45.410\nthat create 90 seconds of incremental capacity, where you don't have to be\n\n523\n00:27:45.410 --> 00:27:46.720\nstaring at a screen.\n\n524\n00:27:46.720 --> 00:27:52.370\nAnd instead, you can pick up on the visual and verbal cues of that weary\n\n525\n00:27:52.370 --> 00:27:53.680\ntraveler who's shown\n\n526\n00:27:53.680 --> 00:27:58.440\nup at the front desk at 11 o'clock at night. And based on those cues, do some\n\n527\n00:27:58.440 --> 00:27:59.680\nthings to enhance\n\n528\n00:27:59.680 --> 00:28:04.720\ntheir travel experience. And that's a massive win for us. But we've got to have\n\n529\n00:28:04.720 --> 00:28:05.200\nthe right\n\n530\n00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:10.240\ntechnology tools to create that capacity. And what else are you driving?\n\n531\n00:28:10.240 --> 00:28:14.960\nWell, I think next, I'd probably go to the Bonvoy loyalty program. You talked\n\n532\n00:28:14.960 --> 00:28:15.760\nabout that at the\n\n533\n00:28:15.760 --> 00:28:23.480\noutset. We're about 260 million members and growing rapidly. If you look at\n\n534\n00:28:23.480 --> 00:28:24.880\nthese loyalty\n\n535\n00:28:24.880 --> 00:28:30.480\nplatforms across travel, whether those are hotel platforms, airline platforms,\n\n536\n00:28:30.480 --> 00:28:37.290\nthey all started in a very similar sort of rudimentary form. You enrolled in\n\n537\n00:28:37.290 --> 00:28:38.080\nthe platform,\n\n538\n00:28:38.080 --> 00:28:44.260\nyou stayed with us, you earned points for those stays, you accumulated those\n\n539\n00:28:44.260 --> 00:28:44.720\npoints,\n\n540\n00:28:44.720 --> 00:28:49.610\nand eventually you redeemed those points for a future stay. And while that\n\n541\n00:28:49.610 --> 00:28:50.800\nfacet of the loyalty\n\n542\n00:28:50.800 --> 00:28:56.210\nplatform is still foundational to what we do, shame on us if we don't evolve\n\n543\n00:28:56.210 --> 00:28:57.440\nthat in a really\n\n544\n00:28:57.440 --> 00:29:03.390\nsignificant way. That rudimentary early platform I described, our relationship\n\n545\n00:29:03.390 --> 00:29:04.720\nwith our members\n\n546\n00:29:04.720 --> 00:29:11.160\nwas very transactional. And you only had occasion to go to the website or now\n\n547\n00:29:11.160 --> 00:29:12.960\nthe app if you wanted\n\n548\n00:29:12.960 --> 00:29:20.680\nto conduct a transaction. Today, through content, through partnerships that we\n\n549\n00:29:20.680 --> 00:29:21.920\n've forged,\n\n550\n00:29:21.920 --> 00:29:28.320\nwe have the opportunity to unlock this almost limitless world of experiences.\n\n551\n00:29:28.320 --> 00:29:33.600\nAlso, given the scale of our geographic footprint and the breadth of our brand\n\n552\n00:29:33.600 --> 00:29:35.040\nportfolio,\n\n553\n00:29:35.040 --> 00:29:41.220\nit's really the connective tissue that pulls together that whole portfolio and\n\n554\n00:29:41.220 --> 00:29:41.920\nallows our\n\n555\n00:29:41.920 --> 00:29:47.240\nmembers to explore what's possible with a company that's approaching 10,000\n\n556\n00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:49.520\nhotels in 143 countries\n\n557\n00:29:49.520 --> 00:29:55.380\nand territories across 40 brands to really help them understand everything they\n\n558\n00:29:55.380 --> 00:29:56.480\ncould desire in\n\n559\n00:29:56.480 --> 00:30:01.360\nthe world of travel they can find within the framework of Marriott Bonjour.\n\n560\n00:30:01.360 --> 00:30:07.310\nYou know, when you're trying to develop new technology platforms and take a\n\n561\n00:30:07.310 --> 00:30:08.400\nloyalty program\n\n562\n00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:11.440\nto the next level, you got to take a lot of people with you as a leader.\n\n563\n00:30:11.440 --> 00:30:17.090\nWhat's your approach to taking people with you when you face these new\n\n564\n00:30:17.090 --> 00:30:18.480\nchallenges and opportunities?\n\n565\n00:30:18.480 --> 00:30:23.140\nYeah, although I might invert your question a little bit, I think in the best\n\n566\n00:30:23.140 --> 00:30:24.000\nof ways,\n\n567\n00:30:24.000 --> 00:30:31.120\nthey're taking me along. They understand our overarching macro objectives as an\n\n568\n00:30:31.120 --> 00:30:31.760\nenterprise,\n\n569\n00:30:32.560 --> 00:30:38.000\nbut I'm a big proponent of leaning on subject matter expertise. So I think\n\n570\n00:30:38.000 --> 00:30:39.280\nabout loyalty.\n\n571\n00:30:39.280 --> 00:30:44.480\nDavid Fleck, who interestingly came as part of the Starwood transaction,\n\n572\n00:30:44.480 --> 00:30:51.290\nhe ran SPG for them. He now runs our loyalty platforms. He's got such a deep,\n\n573\n00:30:51.290 --> 00:30:52.400\ndeep expertise.\n\n574\n00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:57.290\nI can tell him some of the overarching objectives, but he's really going to\n\n575\n00:30:57.290 --> 00:30:57.920\nteach me\n\n576\n00:30:57.920 --> 00:31:04.240\nand bring me along on the journey that Bonvoy has started. And I think that's\n\n577\n00:31:04.240 --> 00:31:05.040\ntrue across\n\n578\n00:31:05.040 --> 00:31:09.580\nevery facet of our business. And it sounds like you have a tremendous respect\n\n579\n00:31:09.580 --> 00:31:11.040\nfor others, I do.\n\n580\n00:31:11.040 --> 00:31:17.440\nWe have remarkable leaders. And some of that, I think, I mean, I can thank all\n\n581\n00:31:17.440 --> 00:31:18.560\nthe leaders that\n\n582\n00:31:18.560 --> 00:31:23.760\npreceded me and their focus when you think about the company's five core values\n\n583\n00:31:23.760 --> 00:31:24.960\n. The first one is\n\n584\n00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:31.330\nputting people first. And we're an asset-like company of our 9,700 hotels. I\n\n585\n00:31:31.330 --> 00:31:32.000\nthink we have\n\n586\n00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:37.440\nowned about 20 and I'm anxious to sell those. And so if you really are asset-\n\n587\n00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:38.640\nlike in terms of\n\n588\n00:31:38.640 --> 00:31:43.780\nphysical hotel assets, what are your most valuable assets? The equity in our\n\n589\n00:31:43.780 --> 00:31:44.320\nbrands,\n\n590\n00:31:44.320 --> 00:31:49.520\nthe value of our contracts and our people. And so our people are so valuable\n\n591\n00:31:49.520 --> 00:31:50.480\nand having these\n\n592\n00:31:50.480 --> 00:31:55.840\nincredibly passionate, thoughtful, forward-looking leaders is really what's\n\n593\n00:31:55.840 --> 00:31:56.480\ngoing to drive the\n\n594\n00:31:56.480 --> 00:32:01.940\ncompany's success into that second century. And speaking of culture, and you\n\n595\n00:32:01.940 --> 00:32:02.640\nhave a great one,\n\n596\n00:32:02.640 --> 00:32:06.380\nI mean, you have one of the most trusted brands in the world. What's one\n\n597\n00:32:06.380 --> 00:32:07.600\nbehavior you want to see\n\n598\n00:32:07.600 --> 00:32:13.840\nfrom every Marriott associate, no matter where they're working in? One, they\n\n599\n00:32:13.840 --> 00:32:15.680\nneed to believe in and\n\n600\n00:32:15.680 --> 00:32:20.780\nembrace those five core values that our founders built this company on 100\n\n601\n00:32:20.780 --> 00:32:22.560\nyears ago. But just as\n\n602\n00:32:22.560 --> 00:32:27.110\nimportantly, the way I talk about core values, those are etched in a block of\n\n603\n00:32:27.110 --> 00:32:28.320\ngranite. Our core\n\n604\n00:32:28.320 --> 00:32:33.350\nvalues are never going to change. However, sometimes I think people sort of\n\n605\n00:32:33.350 --> 00:32:36.000\nexchange freely core values\n\n606\n00:32:36.000 --> 00:32:40.970\nand culture. And I find them to be quite different. Culture is built on those\n\n607\n00:32:40.970 --> 00:32:42.400\ncore values. But while\n\n608\n00:32:42.400 --> 00:32:47.090\nthe core values are etched in granite, the culture is a living, breathing\n\n609\n00:32:47.090 --> 00:32:49.120\nentity that needs to evolve\n\n610\n00:32:49.120 --> 00:32:54.010\nand needs to be nurtured. The day we are self-satisfied with the health of our\n\n611\n00:32:54.010 --> 00:32:54.400\nculture,\n\n612\n00:32:54.400 --> 00:32:59.120\nI worry about our future. Every day we've got to think, and this goes to your\n\n613\n00:32:59.120 --> 00:33:00.480\nspecific question,\n\n614\n00:33:00.480 --> 00:33:06.240\nI want every associate to be thinking about what they can do to contribute by\n\n615\n00:33:06.240 --> 00:33:07.360\ntheir actions\n\n616\n00:33:07.360 --> 00:33:12.080\nto the health of the company's culture. You obviously are very focused on your\n\n617\n00:33:12.080 --> 00:33:12.400\nguests.\n\n618\n00:33:12.400 --> 00:33:18.390\nDo you have a guest experience story you go back to because it perfectly\n\n619\n00:33:18.390 --> 00:33:20.000\ncaptures what hospitality\n\n620\n00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.890\nlooks like when it's done right? I got a note from a guest once there had been\n\n621\n00:33:24.890 --> 00:33:26.560\na massive snowstorm\n\n622\n00:33:26.560 --> 00:33:32.290\nin a city where that's rare. And she was staying at a courtyard and she\n\n623\n00:33:32.290 --> 00:33:33.200\nrealized she didn't have\n\n624\n00:33:33.200 --> 00:33:38.160\nenough medication to last her the next few days. The roads hadn't been plowed.\n\n625\n00:33:38.160 --> 00:33:42.160\nThe ability to get\n\n626\n00:33:42.160 --> 00:33:47.520\na cab or an Uber or anything was not available. And she was genuinely concerned\n\n627\n00:33:47.520 --> 00:33:49.200\nabout her well-being.\n\n628\n00:33:49.200 --> 00:33:53.520\nShe called down to the front desk and said, \"Do you have anybody that you know\n\n629\n00:33:53.520 --> 00:33:54.560\nthat's got access\n\n630\n00:33:54.560 --> 00:33:59.120\nto four-wheel drive that maybe could figure out a way to get there?\" And this\n\n631\n00:33:59.120 --> 00:34:00.560\nyoung front desk clerk\n\n632\n00:34:00.560 --> 00:34:05.600\nsaid, \"Let me work on it.\" And not because somebody told him, but because he\n\n633\n00:34:05.600 --> 00:34:07.440\nbelieves in providing\n\n634\n00:34:07.440 --> 00:34:12.030\nwarm, genuine care to our guests, he walked about two miles in the snow and\n\n635\n00:34:12.030 --> 00:34:14.080\npicked up her prescription\n\n636\n00:34:14.080 --> 00:34:18.720\nand brought it back. Not for accolades, not for awards, but because he thought\n\n637\n00:34:18.720 --> 00:34:19.360\nit was the right\n\n638\n00:34:19.360 --> 00:34:26.060\nthing to do. And then similarly, I had a father reach out to me and he said, \"I\n\n639\n00:34:26.060 --> 00:34:26.720\n've done a little\n\n640\n00:34:26.720 --> 00:34:31.170\nresearch. I know you have a daughter. I want to tell you a story.\" And he had a\n\n641\n00:34:31.170 --> 00:34:32.240\ndaughter that had\n\n642\n00:34:32.240 --> 00:34:37.130\nsurvived cancer, but as a result of her cancer treatment, she had to have one\n\n643\n00:34:37.130 --> 00:34:38.480\nof her legs amputated.\n\n644\n00:34:38.480 --> 00:34:43.980\nAnd so she was cancer-free. She got to ring the bell and to celebrate as a\n\n645\n00:34:43.980 --> 00:34:45.440\nfamily they decided to\n\n646\n00:34:45.440 --> 00:34:50.080\ntake her to New York for the first time. And she wanted to see a Broadway show.\n\n647\n00:34:50.080 --> 00:34:50.800\nShe wanted to eat\n\n648\n00:34:50.800 --> 00:34:55.110\na slice of New York pizza. She wanted to see the Statue of Liberty, all these\n\n649\n00:34:55.110 --> 00:34:55.760\nthings.\n\n650\n00:34:56.480 --> 00:35:01.120\nAnd so the family saved up. They booked one of our hotels. And he innocently\n\n651\n00:35:01.120 --> 00:35:02.640\ncalled the hotel\n\n652\n00:35:02.640 --> 00:35:07.920\njust to explain why they were coming and to say, \"I don't need any favors. Just\n\n653\n00:35:07.920 --> 00:35:08.880\nif there's anything\n\n654\n00:35:08.880 --> 00:35:15.160\navailable, we would love a view of Times Square.\" And so again, a front desk\n\n655\n00:35:15.160 --> 00:35:16.640\nmanager heard this,\n\n656\n00:35:16.640 --> 00:35:22.960\nand on his own accord, they arranged transportation for when she arrived. There\n\n657\n00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:24.240\nwas a red carpet to\n\n658\n00:35:24.240 --> 00:35:29.570\nthe car. All the hotels associates were there to recognize and applaud her\n\n659\n00:35:29.570 --> 00:35:31.120\narrival. They arranged\n\n660\n00:35:31.120 --> 00:35:35.760\nfor Broadway tickets. They arranged for pizza delivery. They just wanted to\n\n661\n00:35:35.760 --> 00:35:36.480\nmake sure she had\n\n662\n00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:41.920\na special experience. But when you ask the question, I was hesitant to pick any\n\n663\n00:35:41.920 --> 00:35:43.280\n, because I hear hundreds\n\n664\n00:35:43.280 --> 00:35:47.560\nof these stories every day. I'm glad I asked the question, because I love\n\n665\n00:35:47.560 --> 00:35:48.240\nhearing stories like\n\n666\n00:35:48.240 --> 00:35:55.840\nthat. It's amazing. I've had some folks, both investors and media, accuse me of\n\n667\n00:35:55.840 --> 00:35:56.240\nbeing the\n\n668\n00:35:56.240 --> 00:36:01.130\neternal optimist. And they say, \"Gosh, you have so many headwinds and socio-\n\n669\n00:36:01.130 --> 00:36:02.960\npolitical and macro-economic\n\n670\n00:36:02.960 --> 00:36:07.550\nchallenges that make your business tough to navigate. Why are you such an optim\n\n671\n00:36:07.550 --> 00:36:08.080\nist?\"\n\n672\n00:36:08.080 --> 00:36:13.050\nAnd I say, \"Maybe I'm naturally an optimist, but what really makes me\n\n673\n00:36:13.050 --> 00:36:14.800\noptimistic is spending\n\n674\n00:36:14.800 --> 00:36:19.110\ntime in our hotels around the world, spending time with our frontline\n\n675\n00:36:19.110 --> 00:36:20.720\nassociates, seeing how\n\n676\n00:36:20.720 --> 00:36:24.950\npassionate they are about taking care of our guests and taking care of each\n\n677\n00:36:24.950 --> 00:36:25.600\nother.\" And when\n\n678\n00:36:25.600 --> 00:36:30.220\nyou see that thousands and thousands of times every year, it's really hard not\n\n679\n00:36:30.220 --> 00:36:31.360\nto be optimist.\n\n680\n00:36:31.360 --> 00:36:37.040\nYeah, it's interesting, because when I was CEO, I had the great blessing to be\n\n681\n00:36:37.040 --> 00:36:37.440\nable to\n\n682\n00:36:37.440 --> 00:36:41.980\nmeet with Warren Buffett many times. And I never worked in the investor\n\n683\n00:36:41.980 --> 00:36:44.000\ncommunity. And I asked him,\n\n684\n00:36:44.000 --> 00:36:48.310\nI said, \"What advice would you give me?\" He said, \"Well, you love your brands,\n\n685\n00:36:48.310 --> 00:36:49.280\ndon't you? You're\n\n686\n00:36:49.280 --> 00:36:53.590\nreally optimistic and you love your brands.\" And I said, \"Yeah, I do.\" And he\n\n687\n00:36:53.590 --> 00:36:55.040\nsays, \"Do you ever\n\n688\n00:36:55.040 --> 00:36:59.930\nsay anything? Do you ever tell investors what could go wrong?\" And I said, \"No,\n\n689\n00:36:59.930 --> 00:37:00.800\nI'm always talking\n\n690\n00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:05.100\nabout the positive.\" He says, \"You need to start talking about things that\n\n691\n00:37:05.100 --> 00:37:05.920\ncould go wrong. People\n\n692\n00:37:05.920 --> 00:37:10.230\nwill respect you more for it, because you at least acknowledge what might\n\n693\n00:37:10.230 --> 00:37:10.880\nhappen, even though\n\n694\n00:37:10.880 --> 00:37:15.440\nyou're an optimist.\" What's your response to that? He's right, of course. I'm\n\n695\n00:37:15.440 --> 00:37:16.160\nnever going to argue\n\n696\n00:37:16.160 --> 00:37:20.470\nwith Warren Buffett. And I think it'd be interesting for you to talk to our\n\n697\n00:37:20.470 --> 00:37:21.600\ninvestors. But if you\n\n698\n00:37:21.600 --> 00:37:26.920\nlisten to our earnings calls, I do think we get a lot of appropriate credit for\n\n699\n00:37:26.920 --> 00:37:28.640\nbeing as transparent\n\n700\n00:37:28.640 --> 00:37:34.960\nand candid as we can about the macroeconomic challenges that both we and our\n\n701\n00:37:34.960 --> 00:37:35.760\nowner community\n\n702\n00:37:35.760 --> 00:37:42.480\nhave, the macroeconomic pressure that the lower end of household income,\n\n703\n00:37:42.480 --> 00:37:48.130\nhouseholds are feeling and the impact that could have on travel, some of the\n\n704\n00:37:48.130 --> 00:37:49.040\nchallenges with the\n\n705\n00:37:49.040 --> 00:37:54.690\nconstruction cost environment, the interest rate environment, the labor market.\n\n706\n00:37:54.690 --> 00:37:56.720\nI think we're quite\n\n707\n00:37:56.720 --> 00:38:01.810\nrealistic and candid. And then you layer in some of the socio-political\n\n708\n00:38:01.810 --> 00:38:03.520\nchallenges that we have to\n\n709\n00:38:03.520 --> 00:38:08.560\nnavigate given the breadth of our geographic footprint. I think you absolutely\n\n710\n00:38:08.560 --> 00:38:09.280\nhave to be\n\n711\n00:38:09.280 --> 00:38:14.720\ncandid and transparent with all of your stakeholders about the realities of the\n\n712\n00:38:14.720 --> 00:38:15.600\nenvironment that you\n\n713\n00:38:15.600 --> 00:38:22.250\nfind yourself doing business. But the optimism is not sort of manufactured. I\n\n714\n00:38:22.250 --> 00:38:24.880\nam very confident\n\n715\n00:38:24.880 --> 00:38:30.150\nbecause of the reasons I described in our company's ability to navigate those\n\n716\n00:38:30.150 --> 00:38:31.040\nchallenges.\n\n717\n00:38:31.040 --> 00:38:35.350\nAnd part of that confidence comes from the fact that we're nearly 100 years old\n\n718\n00:38:35.350 --> 00:38:35.520\n.\n\n719\n00:38:35.520 --> 00:38:41.600\nYou know, you talk to Bill Marriott or Arnie, their ability to navigate these\n\n720\n00:38:41.600 --> 00:38:42.560\nextraordinary\n\n721\n00:38:42.560 --> 00:38:48.880\nchallenges and come out thriving feeds my optimism about the long-term future\n\n722\n00:38:48.880 --> 00:38:49.920\nof this company in this\n\n723\n00:38:49.920 --> 00:38:54.160\nsector. Yeah, that's great. And you've obviously done a great job communicating\n\n724\n00:38:54.160 --> 00:38:55.280\nyour story to Wall\n\n725\n00:38:55.280 --> 00:38:58.990\nStreet and the investors. Your stock has really done fantastic for the past few\n\n726\n00:38:58.990 --> 00:39:00.480\nyears. And I have\n\n727\n00:39:00.480 --> 00:39:04.790\nto tell you, once I started talking about some of the downsides with our\n\n728\n00:39:04.790 --> 00:39:06.480\nbusiness, I did gain\n\n729\n00:39:06.480 --> 00:39:11.970\nmore credibility. And I think that you've got to navigate the optimism and also\n\n730\n00:39:11.970 --> 00:39:13.120\nthe realities of\n\n731\n00:39:13.120 --> 00:39:17.430\nthe tough things that you face. Well, and I also think for our business in\n\n732\n00:39:17.430 --> 00:39:17.920\nparticular,\n\n733\n00:39:17.920 --> 00:39:24.890\nall of us gladly willingly chose an industry that by its nature is cyclical. I\n\n734\n00:39:24.890 --> 00:39:25.760\nwould love to tell\n\n735\n00:39:25.760 --> 00:39:31.120\nyou every year is going to be fantastic. But that's just not realistic, right?\n\n736\n00:39:31.120 --> 00:39:31.600\nSo much\n\n737\n00:39:31.600 --> 00:39:36.990\nof our business is driven by how GDP is trending around the world. So much of\n\n738\n00:39:36.990 --> 00:39:38.320\nour business is driven\n\n739\n00:39:38.320 --> 00:39:44.500\nby the mindset of the consumer and where consumer confidence is. I talked about\n\n740\n00:39:44.500 --> 00:39:45.200\nthis with a group\n\n741\n00:39:45.200 --> 00:39:50.120\nof investors the other day. They asked me, you know, how do you feel about the\n\n742\n00:39:50.120 --> 00:39:51.440\nrelatively muted\n\n743\n00:39:51.440 --> 00:39:57.870\nperformance in the US, your biggest market? And I said, well, it's tracking\n\n744\n00:39:57.870 --> 00:39:59.360\nrelatively well\n\n745\n00:39:59.360 --> 00:40:04.400\nwith GDP. But I would say to you, you know, I think it was three or four months\n\n746\n00:40:04.400 --> 00:40:05.920\nago, the US hit a\n\n747\n00:40:05.920 --> 00:40:11.760\n50 year low in consumer confidence. And if you had told me a year or two ago,\n\n748\n00:40:11.760 --> 00:40:12.720\nthat statistic,\n\n749\n00:40:12.720 --> 00:40:16.960\nI'm not sure even I would have predicted the business would be performing as\n\n750\n00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:17.520\nwell as it is.\n\n751\n00:40:18.240 --> 00:40:22.720\nYou have a lot of competition, obviously, you know, whether you have\n\n752\n00:40:22.720 --> 00:40:24.640\ntraditional rivals like Hilton\n\n753\n00:40:24.640 --> 00:40:31.840\nand Hyatt or disruptors like an Airbnb, you know, what's your philosophy for\n\n754\n00:40:31.840 --> 00:40:33.280\nstaying competitive\n\n755\n00:40:33.280 --> 00:40:39.760\nacross such different types of players? It starts with doing what we do as well\n\n756\n00:40:39.760 --> 00:40:41.280\nas we can, right?\n\n757\n00:40:41.280 --> 00:40:46.320\nMaking sure we're aligning with the right owners. They are being good,\n\n758\n00:40:46.320 --> 00:40:47.760\nthoughtful stewards of the\n\n759\n00:40:47.760 --> 00:40:53.410\nassets, making sure we're populating those hotels with amazing associates who\n\n760\n00:40:53.410 --> 00:40:55.520\nembrace our core values\n\n761\n00:40:55.520 --> 00:41:01.980\nand culture being laser focused on the guests, making sure we anticipate and at\n\n762\n00:41:01.980 --> 00:41:02.960\na minimum meet,\n\n763\n00:41:02.960 --> 00:41:09.140\nhopefully exceed their needs for every reason they travel. But we can't be\n\n764\n00:41:09.140 --> 00:41:10.720\nsatisfied comparing\n\n765\n00:41:10.720 --> 00:41:16.080\nourselves to ourselves, right? We've got to be aware of the point that you made\n\n766\n00:41:16.080 --> 00:41:17.520\nso well. It is a\n\n767\n00:41:17.520 --> 00:41:22.560\nhighly competitive environment. There are traditional competitors, there are\n\n768\n00:41:22.560 --> 00:41:23.840\nintermediaries,\n\n769\n00:41:23.840 --> 00:41:29.680\nthere are disruptors, and we've got to be painfully aware of what that\n\n770\n00:41:29.680 --> 00:41:31.360\ncompetitive landscape looks\n\n771\n00:41:31.360 --> 00:41:35.660\nlike. And we've got to do our best to peer around the corner. What are our\n\n772\n00:41:35.660 --> 00:41:36.720\nguests going to expect\n\n773\n00:41:36.720 --> 00:41:41.030\nin the future? What are our associates going to expect in the future? And what\n\n774\n00:41:41.030 --> 00:41:42.240\nmight our competitors\n\n775\n00:41:42.240 --> 00:41:46.770\ndo in the future and try to do everything we can to stay at least one or two\n\n776\n00:41:46.770 --> 00:41:47.920\nsteps ahead?\n\n777\n00:41:47.920 --> 00:41:51.020\nYou know, when you peer around that corner and you look at the future of travel\n\n778\n00:41:51.020 --> 00:41:51.760\n, Tony,\n\n779\n00:41:51.760 --> 00:41:56.060\nwhat's the most exciting thing you see coming? And what's your personal\n\n780\n00:41:56.060 --> 00:41:57.280\nleadership challenge you\n\n781\n00:41:57.280 --> 00:42:02.580\nhave to stay ahead of it? Yeah, I think the most exciting thing for me, we have\n\n782\n00:42:02.580 --> 00:42:03.520\nthese amazing\n\n783\n00:42:03.520 --> 00:42:08.560\npartnerships with credit card partners, American Express and JP Morgan Chase.\n\n784\n00:42:08.560 --> 00:42:09.760\nAnd on the long list\n\n785\n00:42:09.760 --> 00:42:15.410\nof benefits of those partnerships, we get extraordinary data in real time\n\n786\n00:42:15.410 --> 00:42:17.680\naround how consumer discretionary\n\n787\n00:42:17.680 --> 00:42:24.000\nspend is evolving. If you looked at that data data prior to the pandemic, you\n\n788\n00:42:24.000 --> 00:42:25.040\nhad the younger\n\n789\n00:42:25.040 --> 00:42:30.310\ndemographics already starting to shift their spending away from hard goods\n\n790\n00:42:30.310 --> 00:42:31.520\ntowards travel and\n\n791\n00:42:31.520 --> 00:42:37.280\nexperiences. If you look at that data today, the pandemic essentially\n\n792\n00:42:37.280 --> 00:42:39.680\naccelerated that trend across\n\n793\n00:42:39.680 --> 00:42:45.330\nevery demographic. And there had been industry analysts that thought that was\n\n794\n00:42:45.330 --> 00:42:45.760\ngoing to be a\n\n795\n00:42:45.760 --> 00:42:51.840\none year revenge travel phenomenon. But here we are several years into the\n\n796\n00:42:51.840 --> 00:42:53.280\nrecovery. And if\n\n797\n00:42:53.280 --> 00:42:58.580\nanything, that trend is accelerating. And so my personal view is there has been\n\n798\n00:42:58.580 --> 00:43:00.320\na fundamental shift\n\n799\n00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:05.940\nin how consumers think about prioritizing their discretionary spend. And I am\n\n800\n00:43:05.940 --> 00:43:07.440\ncertainly not a\n\n801\n00:43:07.440 --> 00:43:14.250\nsociologist, but my sense is while folks were locked down, they weren't buying\n\n802\n00:43:14.250 --> 00:43:14.800\nas many\n\n803\n00:43:14.800 --> 00:43:22.370\nshoes, handbags, watches, etc. And they didn't miss it as much. But boy, did\n\n804\n00:43:22.370 --> 00:43:23.600\nthey miss exploring\n\n805\n00:43:23.600 --> 00:43:29.380\nthe world. Boy, did they miss traveling to see friends and family to explore\n\n806\n00:43:29.380 --> 00:43:30.480\nnew places to\n\n807\n00:43:30.480 --> 00:43:35.440\nimmerse themselves in new cultures. And they are hell bent on ensuring they don\n\n808\n00:43:35.440 --> 00:43:36.240\n't miss that\n\n809\n00:43:36.240 --> 00:43:42.610\nopportunity this time. And so this shift and this prioritization to exploring\n\n810\n00:43:42.610 --> 00:43:44.080\nthe world gives me\n\n811\n00:43:44.080 --> 00:43:49.440\ntremendous enthusiasm about the long term future of the sector, and certainly\n\n812\n00:43:49.440 --> 00:43:51.520\nfor Mariam. In terms\n\n813\n00:43:51.520 --> 00:43:57.010\nof my mindset, it's really about making sure we are listening to the\n\n814\n00:43:57.010 --> 00:43:59.280\nconstituents we serve every\n\n815\n00:43:59.280 --> 00:44:05.010\nday. I have often said in some ways, the challenge for Mariam leaders is every\n\n816\n00:44:05.010 --> 00:44:06.080\nday figuratively\n\n817\n00:44:06.080 --> 00:44:10.970\nwhen we show up at work, there's this Rubik's cube on our desk. Because every\n\n818\n00:44:10.970 --> 00:44:11.840\ndecision of\n\n819\n00:44:11.840 --> 00:44:16.170\nconsequence that we make, we've got to look at through the lens of those three\n\n820\n00:44:16.170 --> 00:44:17.280\nconstituents we\n\n821\n00:44:17.280 --> 00:44:22.330\nserve. How will it impact our associates? How will it impact our guests? And\n\n822\n00:44:22.330 --> 00:44:23.760\nhow will it impact our\n\n823\n00:44:23.760 --> 00:44:29.150\nowners? And to be candid, sometimes what they want and need is that opposite\n\n824\n00:44:29.150 --> 00:44:30.880\nends of the spectrum.\n\n825\n00:44:30.880 --> 00:44:35.280\nSo trying to strike the right balance to meet the needs and expectations\n\n826\n00:44:35.280 --> 00:44:40.640\nof each of those incredibly valuable critical constituents is the most\n\n827\n00:44:40.640 --> 00:44:41.760\nimportant thing that we've\n\n828\n00:44:41.760 --> 00:44:47.410\ngot to make sure our leaders are focusing their efforts on. Tony, when I look\n\n829\n00:44:47.410 --> 00:44:48.400\nback at my career,\n\n830\n00:44:48.400 --> 00:44:54.050\nI made a ton of mistakes as a CEO. Has there been any decision you made so far\n\n831\n00:44:54.050 --> 00:44:55.280\nthat you wish you could\n\n832\n00:44:55.280 --> 00:45:00.800\ntake another swing at? Yeah, I'm sure there's a thousand of them big and small.\n\n833\n00:45:02.880 --> 00:45:07.530\nI'm not one that necessarily you need to learn from mistakes you made, but I'm\n\n834\n00:45:07.530 --> 00:45:08.720\nnot sure I want to\n\n835\n00:45:08.720 --> 00:45:13.030\nkind of dwell on them. I want to continue to look forward. The way I think\n\n836\n00:45:13.030 --> 00:45:14.160\nabout it a little bit,\n\n837\n00:45:14.160 --> 00:45:18.940\nmy family is Italian. I spend as much time as I can in Italy. And the first\n\n838\n00:45:18.940 --> 00:45:20.160\ntime I rented a car\n\n839\n00:45:20.160 --> 00:45:25.360\nthere, the guy at the car rental, he said, have you driven an Italy before? And\n\n840\n00:45:25.360 --> 00:45:26.480\nI said, no. And\n\n841\n00:45:26.480 --> 00:45:30.080\nhe said, well, it's easy. He said, let me just give you one lesson. He said,\n\n842\n00:45:30.080 --> 00:45:31.200\nyou see these these\n\n843\n00:45:31.200 --> 00:45:37.150\nside view and rear view mirror, ignore those. Just look forward. Don't look\n\n844\n00:45:37.150 --> 00:45:37.920\nbehind you. Don't look\n\n845\n00:45:37.920 --> 00:45:42.230\nto the side. Just stay focused on where you're headed. And it was good advice\n\n846\n00:45:42.230 --> 00:45:43.440\nfor driving in Italy,\n\n847\n00:45:43.440 --> 00:45:47.990\nbut I think it's good advice for how our leaders should think about driving the\n\n848\n00:45:47.990 --> 00:45:49.280\nbusiness forward.\n\n849\n00:45:49.280 --> 00:45:54.170\nLove it. This has been a lot of fun. I want to have some more. I have a\n\n850\n00:45:54.170 --> 00:45:54.960\nlightning round of\n\n851\n00:45:54.960 --> 00:45:59.520\nquestions. Great. Are you ready for this? Okay. What are the three words that\n\n852\n00:45:59.520 --> 00:46:00.640\nbest describe you?\n\n853\n00:46:00.640 --> 00:46:05.920\nOptimistic, passionate, and humble. If you could be one person for a day beside\n\n854\n00:46:05.920 --> 00:46:06.560\nyourself,\n\n855\n00:46:06.560 --> 00:46:10.800\nwho would it be? Abraham Lincoln. What's your biggest pet peeve? People showing\n\n856\n00:46:10.800 --> 00:46:11.280\nup late for\n\n857\n00:46:11.280 --> 00:46:15.580\nmeetings. Who would play you in a movie? Whoever drew the short straw. What's\n\n858\n00:46:15.580 --> 00:46:16.320\nthe belief about\n\n859\n00:46:16.320 --> 00:46:21.070\ntravel you've changed your mind on in the last three years? How extraordinary\n\n860\n00:46:21.070 --> 00:46:21.920\nhotel food and\n\n861\n00:46:21.920 --> 00:46:27.120\nbeverage can be? When was your last trip to Italy? Just two months ago, I think\n\n862\n00:46:27.120 --> 00:46:29.840\n, for the WTTC conference\n\n863\n00:46:29.840 --> 00:46:34.960\nin Rome. What's the best Italian food that America hasn't mastered yet?\n\n864\n00:46:34.960 --> 00:46:40.160\nTortellini Ambroto from Bologna. What's something you've been curious about\n\n865\n00:46:40.160 --> 00:46:41.760\nlately that has absolutely\n\n866\n00:46:41.760 --> 00:46:47.120\nnothing to do with work? Whether we'll ever make a manned spacecraft, we'll\n\n867\n00:46:47.120 --> 00:46:48.480\never make it to Mars.\n\n868\n00:46:48.480 --> 00:46:53.370\nWhat's the one thing you do just for you? Probably just read. I love to read\n\n869\n00:46:53.370 --> 00:46:54.720\nphysical books.\n\n870\n00:46:54.720 --> 00:46:58.160\nBesides your family and friends, what's your most prized possession?\n\n871\n00:46:58.160 --> 00:47:02.470\nProbably the St. Chris for Metal my grandmother gave me. If I turned on the\n\n872\n00:47:02.470 --> 00:47:03.760\nradio in your car,\n\n873\n00:47:03.760 --> 00:47:08.800\nwhat would I hear? Either the NFL network or ESPN. What's something about you a\n\n874\n00:47:08.800 --> 00:47:09.440\nfew people would\n\n875\n00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:16.250\nknow? I really wanted to be a pilot in the Navy, and I was too short to get\n\n876\n00:47:16.250 --> 00:47:17.760\naccepted into flight\n\n877\n00:47:17.760 --> 00:47:22.840\nschool. What's one of your daily rituals, something that you never miss? I have\n\n878\n00:47:22.840 --> 00:47:24.480\na set of websites\n\n879\n00:47:25.360 --> 00:47:30.490\nthat I read every morning, no matter how early I have to get up. Wall Street\n\n880\n00:47:30.490 --> 00:47:32.880\nJournal, New York Times,\n\n881\n00:47:32.880 --> 00:47:38.960\nWashington Post, ESPN.com, and TMZ, so I can pretend to be relevant.\n\n882\n00:47:38.960 --> 00:47:44.400\nWe're out of the lightning round. Tony, great job. That's fantastic. I got a\n\n883\n00:47:44.400 --> 00:47:45.280\nfew more questions,\n\n884\n00:47:45.280 --> 00:47:50.380\nand I'll let you go. You and your wife live in Potomac and you've built a great\n\n885\n00:47:50.380 --> 00:47:51.360\nlife there.\n\n886\n00:47:51.360 --> 00:47:58.000\nHow do you lead at home? I am very fortunate. My wife and my daughter, for as\n\n887\n00:47:58.000 --> 00:47:58.640\nlong as they've\n\n888\n00:47:58.640 --> 00:48:04.020\nknown me, I've traveled like this. They are extraordinarily supportive. They\n\n889\n00:48:04.020 --> 00:48:05.920\nlove travel.\n\n890\n00:48:05.920 --> 00:48:10.340\nMy daughter followed suit and went to Cornell Hotel School. She's in the\n\n891\n00:48:10.340 --> 00:48:11.680\nindustry, although she\n\n892\n00:48:11.680 --> 00:48:17.330\nrefuses to work for us. She wants to pave her own way. But I think they both\n\n893\n00:48:17.330 --> 00:48:18.960\nshare my passion for\n\n894\n00:48:18.960 --> 00:48:24.170\ntravel. They share my passion for hospitality. And one of the things we talk\n\n895\n00:48:24.170 --> 00:48:25.200\nabout often,\n\n896\n00:48:25.200 --> 00:48:30.320\nbecause we spend so much time in Italy, every time I come back, the thing I'm\n\n897\n00:48:30.320 --> 00:48:31.440\nmost taken with,\n\n898\n00:48:31.440 --> 00:48:36.560\nand there are other cultures to be sure that are like this. But the Italians\n\n899\n00:48:36.560 --> 00:48:37.920\nreally embrace and\n\n900\n00:48:37.920 --> 00:48:44.400\ncelebrate careers or celebrate the dignity of careers in the service of others.\n\n901\n00:48:44.400 --> 00:48:45.200\nWe go to the\n\n902\n00:48:45.200 --> 00:48:50.280\nsame restaurants, and we have waiters that have been there 30, 40, 50 years. It\n\n903\n00:48:50.280 --> 00:48:51.200\n's their chosen\n\n904\n00:48:51.200 --> 00:48:58.080\ncareer. It's not a part-time job while they look for a \"real job.\" There is a\n\n905\n00:48:58.080 --> 00:48:59.360\nreal celebration\n\n906\n00:48:59.360 --> 00:49:05.630\nof service careers in Italy. And I think my family all loves and appreciates\n\n907\n00:49:05.630 --> 00:49:06.800\nthat idea.\n\n908\n00:49:06.800 --> 00:49:10.720\nYou obviously have a great deal of respect for the front line, and you told the\n\n909\n00:49:10.720 --> 00:49:11.600\ndishwasher story\n\n910\n00:49:11.600 --> 00:49:15.920\nearlier. You started out as a pot washer. How do you stay in touch with the\n\n911\n00:49:15.920 --> 00:49:17.040\nfront line today?\n\n912\n00:49:17.040 --> 00:49:22.640\nWell, somebody asked me the other day, \"What's the best part of the CEO job?\"\n\n913\n00:49:22.640 --> 00:49:27.440\nAnd I said, early in my career, when I was in development, I certainly spent a\n\n914\n00:49:27.440 --> 00:49:27.920\nlot of time\n\n915\n00:49:27.920 --> 00:49:32.720\nin our hotels. But it was often sprinting to a meeting room to negotiate a deal\n\n916\n00:49:32.720 --> 00:49:33.040\n.\n\n917\n00:49:33.040 --> 00:49:39.280\nToday, I get to tour hundreds and hundreds of hotels and shake thousands and\n\n918\n00:49:39.280 --> 00:49:40.160\nthousands of hands\n\n919\n00:49:40.160 --> 00:49:45.120\nof our front line associates, and just thank them. Thank them for the amazing\n\n920\n00:49:45.120 --> 00:49:46.240\nwork they do.\n\n921\n00:49:46.240 --> 00:49:50.520\nThank them for taking such great care of our guests. Thank them for taking such\n\n922\n00:49:50.520 --> 00:49:50.800\ngreat care\n\n923\n00:49:50.800 --> 00:49:55.700\nof each other. Thank them for representing the company so well. That's the best\n\n924\n00:49:55.700 --> 00:49:56.640\npart of my job.\n\n925\n00:49:56.640 --> 00:50:00.160\nI love it. You know, that's the high-touch part of the job. No question about\n\n926\n00:50:00.160 --> 00:50:00.880\nit. And\n\n927\n00:50:00.880 --> 00:50:06.160\nhere we are now. You talked about the need to lead on the technological front.\n\n928\n00:50:06.160 --> 00:50:06.880\nArtificial\n\n929\n00:50:06.880 --> 00:50:11.160\nintelligence is the buzzword for everything, not just the buzzword. I mean,\n\n930\n00:50:11.160 --> 00:50:12.320\neverybody's into it.\n\n931\n00:50:12.320 --> 00:50:18.960\nHow is AI going to impact Marriott? And two-part question, and how are you as a\n\n932\n00:50:18.960 --> 00:50:19.840\nleader\n\n933\n00:50:19.840 --> 00:50:24.730\npreparing yourself to lead during this revolution? Yeah, so maybe I'll take the\n\n934\n00:50:24.730 --> 00:50:25.680\nsecond one first,\n\n935\n00:50:25.680 --> 00:50:30.110\nbecause that's a little easier. I mentioned in response to one of your earlier\n\n936\n00:50:30.110 --> 00:50:30.800\nquestions,\n\n937\n00:50:30.800 --> 00:50:36.750\nthis need for leaders to have this natural intellectual curiosity. I'm\n\n938\n00:50:36.750 --> 00:50:39.360\nconsuming as much as I can about\n\n939\n00:50:39.360 --> 00:50:46.220\nAI. I'm reading as much as I can. A few of my leaders and I spent a good week\n\n940\n00:50:46.220 --> 00:50:47.840\nin Silicon Valley\n\n941\n00:50:47.840 --> 00:50:51.420\nmeeting with some of the most important thought leaders. Some of the\n\n942\n00:50:51.420 --> 00:50:53.120\nconferences I attend,\n\n943\n00:50:53.120 --> 00:50:57.680\nI choose to attend just because some of the thought leaders around AI are there\n\n944\n00:50:57.680 --> 00:50:58.480\npresenting,\n\n945\n00:50:58.480 --> 00:51:02.710\nand I want to hear their perspective. So it's really I'm just in the learning\n\n946\n00:51:02.710 --> 00:51:03.360\nphase. I'm trying to be\n\n947\n00:51:03.360 --> 00:51:09.020\nas much of an AI sponge as I can. In terms of how it'll affect our business, I\n\n948\n00:51:09.020 --> 00:51:09.840\nthink that story\n\n949\n00:51:09.840 --> 00:51:14.800\nremains to be told. I am a firm believer AI is going to impact every business,\n\n950\n00:51:14.800 --> 00:51:16.080\nevery industry\n\n951\n00:51:16.080 --> 00:51:21.130\nin unique ways. Ours again will be a bit more unique because we've got to\n\n952\n00:51:21.130 --> 00:51:22.480\nretain that human\n\n953\n00:51:22.480 --> 00:51:30.200\nconnection, that human touch. I think our scale makes AI particularly relevant.\n\n954\n00:51:30.200 --> 00:51:31.760\nI traveled to\n\n955\n00:51:31.760 --> 00:51:36.900\none of our big customer engagement centers in Cork, Ireland, not long ago. And\n\n956\n00:51:36.900 --> 00:51:37.600\nas part of that\n\n957\n00:51:37.600 --> 00:51:42.640\nvisit, we have five or 600 agents there. I put on a headset for two hours just\n\n958\n00:51:42.640 --> 00:51:43.440\nto listen to the\n\n959\n00:51:43.440 --> 00:51:48.640\nnature of the calls that come in. And that's a place we're already using AI.\n\n960\n00:51:48.640 --> 00:51:49.600\nBut imagine being\n\n961\n00:51:49.600 --> 00:51:55.250\nan agent in Cork, Ireland, and a very thoughtful guest calls with very specific\n\n962\n00:51:55.250 --> 00:51:56.000\nneeds in terms\n\n963\n00:51:56.000 --> 00:52:00.710\nof the type of destination they want, the type of rooms they need, the types of\n\n964\n00:52:00.710 --> 00:52:01.520\nfood and beverage\n\n965\n00:52:01.520 --> 00:52:07.190\nthey enjoy. Imagine trying to navigate a nearly 10,000 hotel portfolio manually\n\n966\n00:52:07.190 --> 00:52:09.360\n. AI is critical\n\n967\n00:52:09.360 --> 00:52:14.560\nto be able to navigate that in a split second so that we can be responsive to\n\n968\n00:52:14.560 --> 00:52:16.000\nthat guest needs.\n\n969\n00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:20.790\nYou think about functions like the traditional concierge. I think AI can be\n\n970\n00:52:20.790 --> 00:52:21.920\nhighly impactful.\n\n971\n00:52:21.920 --> 00:52:28.900\nYou think about some of the processes that have historically been manual behind\n\n972\n00:52:28.900 --> 00:52:29.680\nthe door of the\n\n973\n00:52:29.680 --> 00:52:34.160\nfront desk, whether that's the rooming assignments that are prepared at night,\n\n974\n00:52:34.160 --> 00:52:35.120\nwhether that's night\n\n975\n00:52:35.120 --> 00:52:40.160\naudit function. So there are clearly lots of touch points in our business. And\n\n976\n00:52:40.160 --> 00:52:40.960\nwe're exploring\n\n977\n00:52:40.960 --> 00:52:47.440\nhow we can incorporate AI, not simply to eliminate jobs, but again, to create\n\n978\n00:52:47.440 --> 00:52:49.200\ncapacity for many\n\n979\n00:52:49.200 --> 00:52:53.600\nof our frontline associates to be more engaged with our guests.\n\n980\n00:52:53.600 --> 00:52:58.490\nYou know, one of your core principles, I believe at Marriott is that success is\n\n981\n00:52:58.490 --> 00:52:59.520\nnever final. You\n\n982\n00:52:59.520 --> 00:53:06.330\nknow, how do you drive that in your organization? What do you keep front and\n\n983\n00:53:06.330 --> 00:53:07.200\ncenter in your own\n\n984\n00:53:07.200 --> 00:53:14.400\nleadership to make sure that you don't fall trapped to being complacent?\n\n985\n00:53:14.400 --> 00:53:19.760\nYeah, I talk about the dangers of complacency almost every day.\n\n986\n00:53:19.760 --> 00:53:26.910\nIt is hard to lead from the front, right? We're the world's largest lodging\n\n987\n00:53:26.910 --> 00:53:28.080\ncompany.\n\n988\n00:53:28.080 --> 00:53:34.160\nWe have these extraordinary category leading brands. We have the industry's\n\n989\n00:53:34.160 --> 00:53:34.800\nlargest\n\n990\n00:53:35.600 --> 00:53:41.250\nloyalty platform. These are all wonderful things, and none of them matter if we\n\n991\n00:53:41.250 --> 00:53:42.240\n're ever satisfied\n\n992\n00:53:42.240 --> 00:53:47.290\nwith any of them. So whether we use the words of our founder, success is never\n\n993\n00:53:47.290 --> 00:53:47.920\nfinal,\n\n994\n00:53:47.920 --> 00:53:53.520\nwhether we continue to warn our leaders about the risks of complacency.\n\n995\n00:53:53.520 --> 00:53:58.410\nI think waking up every day and trying to be incrementally better than the day\n\n996\n00:53:58.410 --> 00:53:58.960\nbefore\n\n997\n00:53:59.520 --> 00:54:04.000\nis the key to our success. It's the key to success for our sector. It's the key\n\n998\n00:54:04.000 --> 00:54:05.520\nto success to almost\n\n999\n00:54:05.520 --> 00:54:09.920\nany business. You've got to aspire to get better each and every day.\n\n1000\n00:54:09.920 --> 00:54:14.220\nYou know, I always felt the field that the best thing about business is the\n\n1001\n00:54:14.220 --> 00:54:14.800\nunfinished business.\n\n1002\n00:54:14.800 --> 00:54:18.160\nYou know, what do you see your unfinished business?\n\n1003\n00:54:18.160 --> 00:54:23.120\nWell, you know, it's funny. When I ran development, the question I got most\n\n1004\n00:54:23.120 --> 00:54:23.600\noften is,\n\n1005\n00:54:23.600 --> 00:54:28.260\nwhat's the company's development strategy? And in many ways, I thought then,\n\n1006\n00:54:28.260 --> 00:54:29.040\nand I think now,\n\n1007\n00:54:29.680 --> 00:54:34.960\nit's the easiest question to answer. I want to make sure I have the right\n\n1008\n00:54:34.960 --> 00:54:35.760\nproduct\n\n1009\n00:54:35.760 --> 00:54:41.480\neverywhere you want to go for every trip purpose. Because if I succeed in that\n\n1010\n00:54:41.480 --> 00:54:42.000\nlofty\n\n1011\n00:54:42.000 --> 00:54:47.950\naspiration, there's no need to ever leave the Bonvoy ecosystem. And that drives\n\n1012\n00:54:47.950 --> 00:54:48.800\na lot of the\n\n1013\n00:54:48.800 --> 00:54:53.390\nstrategy. You know, when we launched Marriott Homes and Villains, the question\n\n1014\n00:54:53.390 --> 00:54:54.720\nI got all the time was,\n\n1015\n00:54:54.720 --> 00:54:59.760\nare you trying to go head to head with Airbnb? I said, absolutely not. I have\n\n1016\n00:54:59.760 --> 00:55:01.200\ntremendous respect\n\n1017\n00:55:01.200 --> 00:55:05.970\nfor Brian Chesky and what his organization has created. But what we hear from\n\n1018\n00:55:05.970 --> 00:55:07.200\nour customers\n\n1019\n00:55:07.200 --> 00:55:12.320\nis for a very specific trip purpose. Think of multi-generational vacation.\n\n1020\n00:55:12.320 --> 00:55:18.310\nA multi-bedroom, luxury home better fit their needs. Well, if they can't find\n\n1021\n00:55:18.310 --> 00:55:18.960\nthat within the\n\n1022\n00:55:18.960 --> 00:55:24.710\nMarriott ecosystem, then they have no choice but to go to the welcoming arms of\n\n1023\n00:55:24.710 --> 00:55:26.320\nour competitors.\n\n1024\n00:55:26.320 --> 00:55:30.630\nWe heard from our luxury guests, we'd really like a luxury experience at sea.\n\n1025\n00:55:30.630 --> 00:55:31.920\nThat, in many ways,\n\n1026\n00:55:31.920 --> 00:55:36.480\nwas the catalyst to the launch of the Ritz-Carlton yacht collection. And so I\n\n1027\n00:55:36.480 --> 00:55:37.440\njust think we've got\n\n1028\n00:55:37.440 --> 00:55:44.080\nto continue to be driven by that simple idea. We want to make sure any travel\n\n1029\n00:55:44.080 --> 00:55:45.200\nneeds you have,\n\n1030\n00:55:45.200 --> 00:55:50.090\nyou can find within that ecosystem. All right, that's an exciting vision you\n\n1031\n00:55:50.090 --> 00:55:50.720\nhave there.\n\n1032\n00:55:50.720 --> 00:55:55.040\nLast question, what's one piece of advice you'd give to anyone who wants to be\n\n1033\n00:55:55.040 --> 00:55:55.680\na better leader?\n\n1034\n00:55:55.680 --> 00:56:00.000\nBe humble. And how do you do that? I'm going to ask you how you do it because\n\n1035\n00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:00.560\nhere you are,\n\n1036\n00:56:00.560 --> 00:56:06.360\nyou're leading the largest hospitality business in the world. How do you stay\n\n1037\n00:56:06.360 --> 00:56:07.360\ngrounded? You have\n\n1038\n00:56:07.360 --> 00:56:11.130\nall these associates you walk in, you might want to come in unannounced and\n\n1039\n00:56:11.130 --> 00:56:12.080\nhave people not know\n\n1040\n00:56:12.080 --> 00:56:16.440\nwho you are, but they know who you are. How do you stay grounded? I remind\n\n1041\n00:56:16.440 --> 00:56:17.520\nmyself every day\n\n1042\n00:56:17.520 --> 00:56:22.800\nhow much more they know than I do. I'll give you one quick story. I was in\n\n1043\n00:56:22.800 --> 00:56:24.800\nChina for the grand\n\n1044\n00:56:24.800 --> 00:56:30.130\nopening of our 600th hotel in China. And we had a great grand opening event.\n\n1045\n00:56:30.130 --> 00:56:31.200\nAnd afterwards,\n\n1046\n00:56:31.200 --> 00:56:37.150\nI did a town hall for about 1,000 of our associates. And I really had a few\n\n1047\n00:56:37.150 --> 00:56:40.400\nbullet points jotted down\n\n1048\n00:56:40.400 --> 00:56:44.700\nfor my remarks. And this wasn't part of it. But I got on that stage and I'm\n\n1049\n00:56:44.700 --> 00:56:46.240\nlooking out at 1,000\n\n1050\n00:56:46.240 --> 00:56:52.530\nassociates. And I said to them, there aren't 1,000 people walking planet Earth\n\n1051\n00:56:52.530 --> 00:56:54.080\nthat know more about\n\n1052\n00:56:54.080 --> 00:57:00.480\ndeveloping, staffing, opening, operating hotels in greater China than the 1,000\n\n1053\n00:57:00.480 --> 00:57:01.280\npeople sitting in\n\n1054\n00:57:01.280 --> 00:57:07.230\nthis room. You are our subject matter experts. I'm available to help you. I can\n\n1055\n00:57:07.230 --> 00:57:07.840\nmake sure you\n\n1056\n00:57:07.840 --> 00:57:12.880\nunderstand our overarching strategy. But boy, I hope I'm not making many of\n\n1057\n00:57:12.880 --> 00:57:14.000\nthose decisions\n\n1058\n00:57:14.000 --> 00:57:18.450\nbecause I have this extraordinary pool of subject matter expertise here. And\n\n1059\n00:57:18.450 --> 00:57:19.360\nthat's how I feel\n\n1060\n00:57:19.360 --> 00:57:23.770\nwhen I walk through every one of these hotels. I get out of the car and I need\n\n1061\n00:57:23.770 --> 00:57:25.280\na doorman. He knows\n\n1062\n00:57:25.280 --> 00:57:30.320\nmore about where to catch a cab, where the best Irish pub is, where to get a\n\n1063\n00:57:30.320 --> 00:57:31.600\nnewspaper, all those\n\n1064\n00:57:31.600 --> 00:57:36.370\nthings that I could ever know. He's the subject matter expert, right? And if\n\n1065\n00:57:36.370 --> 00:57:37.680\nyou remind yourself\n\n1066\n00:57:37.680 --> 00:57:42.570\nof that, it's really easy to be humble. Everyone has their own sort of bucket\n\n1067\n00:57:42.570 --> 00:57:44.000\nof subject matter\n\n1068\n00:57:44.000 --> 00:57:49.200\nexpertise. And it's fantastic. Well, Tony, you're obviously the subject matter\n\n1069\n00:57:49.200 --> 00:57:50.800\nexpert on how to be a\n\n1070\n00:57:50.800 --> 00:57:56.270\ngreat CEO. You know, you care about very much a work in progress. I told Bill\n\n1071\n00:57:56.270 --> 00:57:57.280\nMarriott, I would\n\n1072\n00:57:57.280 --> 00:58:01.240\ntry to get one degree better every day. I got a long way to go. Oh, you're\n\n1073\n00:58:01.240 --> 00:58:02.000\ndoing well. You're\n\n1074\n00:58:02.000 --> 00:58:05.630\ndoing well. Let's just say that. And I want to thank you so much for taking the\n\n1075\n00:58:05.630 --> 00:58:06.480\ntime to be on\n\n1076\n00:58:06.480 --> 00:58:10.800\nHallie's League and sharing your insights and stories. This is a lot of fun.\n\n1077\n00:58:10.800 --> 00:58:12.000\nAnytime. Thank you\n\n1078\n00:58:12.000 --> 00:58:15.960\nso much for having me. And thanks for giving me a little forum to talk about\n\n1079\n00:58:15.960 --> 00:58:16.880\nour incredible\n\n1080\n00:58:16.880 --> 00:58:27.340\nassociates around the world. All right, great. David, Tony's got me really\n\n1081\n00:58:27.340 --> 00:58:28.560\nwanting some Italian food.\n\n1082\n00:58:28.560 --> 00:58:33.450\nWell, I thought you were going to say he's really wanting you to stay at a\n\n1083\n00:58:33.450 --> 00:58:33.920\nMarriott.\n\n1084\n00:58:33.920 --> 00:58:38.810\nI want to stay at a Marriott in Italy while eating Italian food at that\n\n1085\n00:58:38.810 --> 00:58:39.440\nrestaurant that he\n\n1086\n00:58:39.440 --> 00:58:42.720\ntalked about that's in Bologna. And, you know, you probably took his\n\n1087\n00:58:42.720 --> 00:58:44.880\nrecommendation that he made\n\n1088\n00:58:44.880 --> 00:58:50.000\nfor the best bed. Absolutely. Absolutely. I did. I love this episode, David.\n\n1089\n00:58:50.000 --> 00:58:50.560\nAnd we're going to get\n\n1090\n00:58:50.560 --> 00:58:54.160\ninto some of the key ideas that Tony shared so that our listeners can have\n\n1091\n00:58:54.160 --> 00:58:54.960\nsomething really\n\n1092\n00:58:54.960 --> 00:58:59.270\npractical to take away from this episode. Of course, one of the core values as\n\n1093\n00:58:59.270 --> 00:59:00.000\nwe heard Tony\n\n1094\n00:59:00.000 --> 00:59:04.890\ntalk about a lot at Marriott is that success is never final. And he talks a lot\n\n1095\n00:59:04.890 --> 00:59:05.680\nabout fighting\n\n1096\n00:59:05.680 --> 00:59:10.720\ncomplacency. And I know, David, that you've said many times that every leader\n\n1097\n00:59:10.720 --> 00:59:12.320\nshould have a healthy\n\n1098\n00:59:12.320 --> 00:59:17.210\ndissatisfaction with the status quo. So kind of that same idea of fighting\n\n1099\n00:59:17.210 --> 00:59:18.320\ncomplacency.\n\n1100\n00:59:18.320 --> 00:59:21.900\nWhat are some of the things that you do personally, David, to fight complacency\n\n1101\n00:59:21.900 --> 00:59:23.120\n? And what advice can\n\n1102\n00:59:23.120 --> 00:59:27.760\nyou get others on how to do the same? Well, I think, you know, I picked up\n\n1103\n00:59:27.760 --> 00:59:28.880\nsomething that I know Jamie\n\n1104\n00:59:28.880 --> 00:59:33.340\nDiamond, Jamie Morgan chased all the time is he benchmarks competition, not\n\n1105\n00:59:33.340 --> 00:59:34.800\nonly internally, but\n\n1106\n00:59:34.800 --> 00:59:38.690\nexternally, you know, in different categories. So who's the best at processing\n\n1107\n00:59:38.690 --> 00:59:39.760\norders or whatever,\n\n1108\n00:59:39.760 --> 00:59:43.500\nokay? And, you know, he tries to find people that are doing something better\n\n1109\n00:59:43.500 --> 00:59:44.400\nthan you and then let\n\n1110\n00:59:44.400 --> 00:59:48.070\nthe people know that this is this is we got to we got to up our game to get\n\n1111\n00:59:48.070 --> 00:59:49.760\nthat level. I think\n\n1112\n00:59:49.760 --> 00:59:55.840\nthat's great. I think the biggest thing I think that really drives fighting\n\n1113\n00:59:55.840 --> 00:59:57.120\ncomplacency\n\n1114\n00:59:57.120 --> 01:00:01.430\nis the voice of the customer. I think you just got to be all over the voice of\n\n1115\n01:00:01.430 --> 01:00:02.640\nthe customer. And,\n\n1116\n01:00:02.640 --> 01:00:06.880\nyou know, you got to keep learning on what you need to do to get better and how\n\n1117\n01:00:06.880 --> 01:00:07.760\nyou can improve,\n\n1118\n01:00:07.760 --> 01:00:12.080\nand, you know, how can you get better execution or whatever, but just keep\n\n1119\n01:00:12.080 --> 01:00:13.440\nbringing that voice\n\n1120\n01:00:13.440 --> 01:00:19.760\nto the customer back to you. And, and then, you know, never get intoxicated by\n\n1121\n01:00:19.760 --> 01:00:20.560\nyour financial\n\n1122\n01:00:20.560 --> 01:00:26.020\nperformance. Okay. Yeah, it's great that you've done well, get focused on get\n\n1123\n01:00:26.020 --> 01:00:27.040\nintoxicated with\n\n1124\n01:00:27.040 --> 01:00:30.890\nhow you got there. Okay. In other words, if you're a CEO, don't get so excited\n\n1125\n01:00:30.890 --> 01:00:31.760\nabout your stock\n\n1126\n01:00:31.760 --> 01:00:37.580\nprice, get excited about, you know, what it takes to build that stock price.\n\n1127\n01:00:37.580 --> 01:00:38.720\nAnd, and, and, and that,\n\n1128\n01:00:38.720 --> 01:00:44.370\nthat gets people, if you want to keep growing, you got to keep, keep growing.\n\n1129\n01:00:44.370 --> 01:00:45.840\nAnd I think that's\n\n1130\n01:00:45.840 --> 01:00:50.390\nvery important. So you can't really reap the rewards with that growth. And so I\n\n1131\n01:00:50.390 --> 01:00:51.040\nthink as a\n\n1132\n01:00:51.040 --> 01:00:54.400\nleader, you got to just keep telling everybody that this is what we do. This is\n\n1133\n01:00:54.400 --> 01:00:55.520\nwhy we get paid.\n\n1134\n01:00:55.520 --> 01:00:59.160\nWe get paid to grow the business and you can't grow the business by staying the\n\n1135\n01:00:59.160 --> 01:01:00.160\nsame. Just did a\n\n1136\n01:01:00.160 --> 01:01:07.130\npodcast with Chuck Robbins, the Cisco CEO, you know, they, they dominate, you\n\n1137\n01:01:07.130 --> 01:01:07.760\nknow, across the\n\n1138\n01:01:07.760 --> 01:01:12.390\nboard and the internet services and, you know, incredible leader. But he said\n\n1139\n01:01:12.390 --> 01:01:13.600\nhe had somebody in\n\n1140\n01:01:13.600 --> 01:01:16.880\nhis company say that, you know, in six months, they'll be as good as\n\n1141\n01:01:16.880 --> 01:01:18.080\ncompetition. And he goes,\n\n1142\n01:01:18.080 --> 01:01:21.930\nwhat makes you think that, you know, it's competition got to stand for say,\n\n1143\n01:01:21.930 --> 01:01:23.600\nstand still for six months,\n\n1144\n01:01:23.600 --> 01:01:29.280\nyou know, while you, while you catch up. But I think it's that mindset of, of\n\n1145\n01:01:29.280 --> 01:01:30.000\nhaving a healthy\n\n1146\n01:01:30.000 --> 01:01:33.520\ndissatisfaction with the status quo, which is great. And healthy by that, I\n\n1147\n01:01:33.520 --> 01:01:34.640\nmean, it's like a,\n\n1148\n01:01:34.640 --> 01:01:38.960\nyou know, at least celebrate the success that you have. But don't be, don't be,\n\n1149\n01:01:38.960 --> 01:01:39.360\nyou know,\n\n1150\n01:01:39.360 --> 01:01:43.670\nsatisfied with it. You know, I always say, and I love this line, and I don't\n\n1151\n01:01:43.670 --> 01:01:44.560\nknow if it's my line\n\n1152\n01:01:44.560 --> 01:01:48.870\nor not, because I don't know where a lot of these things come from, but the\n\n1153\n01:01:48.870 --> 01:01:49.840\namount of my mouth.\n\n1154\n01:01:49.840 --> 01:01:53.840\nBut it's the best thing about business is the unfinished business. And the best\n\n1155\n01:01:53.840 --> 01:01:54.080\nthing you\n\n1156\n01:01:54.080 --> 01:01:58.390\nneeded is leaders just to keep identifying it. What haven't you done? He talks\n\n1157\n01:01:58.390 --> 01:01:59.120\na lot about the\n\n1158\n01:01:59.120 --> 01:02:04.510\nimportance of that intellectual curiosity. And he also is on the road 200, 250\n\n1159\n01:02:04.510 --> 01:02:05.440\ndays a year. So\n\n1160\n01:02:05.440 --> 01:02:09.680\nhe's the leader that I think, you know, knows the importance of the voice of\n\n1161\n01:02:09.680 --> 01:02:10.480\nthe customer and\n\n1162\n01:02:10.480 --> 01:02:14.240\ngoing their first for ideas on how to innovate and continue to get better.\n\n1163\n01:02:14.240 --> 01:02:15.040\nDavid, another,\n\n1164\n01:02:15.040 --> 01:02:19.350\nanother story that I loved from the episode, Tony tells it was early in his\n\n1165\n01:02:19.350 --> 01:02:19.920\ncareer, and he was\n\n1166\n01:02:19.920 --> 01:02:25.150\ntrying to get this deal done. And Mr. Marriott calls him and says, Hey, back\n\n1167\n01:02:25.150 --> 01:02:26.240\noff this deal,\n\n1168\n01:02:26.240 --> 01:02:30.720\nthey say you're being too aggressive. Like, let's just get it done and the way\n\n1169\n01:02:30.720 --> 01:02:31.440\nthat works for them.\n\n1170\n01:02:31.440 --> 01:02:37.430\nAnd Tony stuck to his guns and kept pushing forward and got the deal done and\n\n1171\n01:02:37.430 --> 01:02:38.320\nall of the points in\n\n1172\n01:02:38.320 --> 01:02:43.810\nthe deal that he wanted to get done. And Mr. Marriott then goes on to actually\n\n1173\n01:02:43.810 --> 01:02:44.880\nthank Tony\n\n1174\n01:02:44.880 --> 01:02:49.800\nfor not listening to his advice, but rather trusting his gut and doing what was\n\n1175\n01:02:49.800 --> 01:02:50.800\nbest for the business.\n\n1176\n01:02:50.800 --> 01:02:55.110\nSo I love the story. It's a younger leader telling the founder of the business.\n\n1177\n01:02:55.110 --> 01:02:55.760\nHey, I,\n\n1178\n01:02:55.760 --> 01:03:00.070\nI think that my gut is right here and I'm going to go with it for leaders\n\n1179\n01:03:00.070 --> 01:03:00.480\nlistening that might\n\n1180\n01:03:00.480 --> 01:03:05.040\nbe in a similar position. What would you, how would you advise them on how they\n\n1181\n01:03:05.040 --> 01:03:05.600\nshould handle\n\n1182\n01:03:05.600 --> 01:03:08.860\nsituations like that where their gut is telling them one thing that might be\n\n1183\n01:03:08.860 --> 01:03:10.080\ndifferent from the boss?\n\n1184\n01:03:10.880 --> 01:03:15.190\nI think this, this is a tourism that works every single time, cool. Do the\n\n1185\n01:03:15.190 --> 01:03:16.080\nright things and the\n\n1186\n01:03:16.080 --> 01:03:19.330\nright things happen. And what Tony did there was the, he did what he thought\n\n1187\n01:03:19.330 --> 01:03:20.160\nwas right. And then\n\n1188\n01:03:20.160 --> 01:03:23.350\nthe right things happened. Bill Marriott sends him a note and says, Hey, you\n\n1189\n01:03:23.350 --> 01:03:24.400\nknow what, I was\n\n1190\n01:03:24.400 --> 01:03:29.740\nvery satisfied with all the progress we were making. And he admitted that he\n\n1191\n01:03:29.740 --> 01:03:30.960\nmaybe had too much\n\n1192\n01:03:30.960 --> 01:03:36.320\nsatisfaction with the status quo. And thanked him for pointing out that the way\n\n1193\n01:03:36.320 --> 01:03:36.880\nthey had been\n\n1194\n01:03:36.880 --> 01:03:41.190\nsuccessful was by challenging convention and doing things different. And I love\n\n1195\n01:03:41.190 --> 01:03:41.680\nthat story\n\n1196\n01:03:41.680 --> 01:03:47.330\nfor two points. Number one, you know, do the right things, the right things\n\n1197\n01:03:47.330 --> 01:03:47.840\nhappen. And that's\n\n1198\n01:03:47.840 --> 01:03:52.370\nwhat Tony did. And then I also love the fact that Mr. Marriott really pointed\n\n1199\n01:03:52.370 --> 01:03:53.520\nout the fact that,\n\n1200\n01:03:53.520 --> 01:03:57.370\nyou know, maybe he had gotten a little bit complacent. And you know, as leaders\n\n1201\n01:03:57.370 --> 01:03:58.160\n, we got to have people\n\n1202\n01:03:58.160 --> 01:04:02.720\naround us are always pushing, pushing us forward. And Tony obviously did that\n\n1203\n01:04:02.720 --> 01:04:04.160\nat, does that at\n\n1204\n01:04:04.160 --> 01:04:07.920\nMarriott and did that for Mr. Marriott. And that's why he's the CEO. He did it\n\n1205\n01:04:07.920 --> 01:04:08.720\nin enough times where\n\n1206\n01:04:08.720 --> 01:04:12.160\nit became sort of a trait that said, Hey, if we follow this guy, good things\n\n1207\n01:04:12.160 --> 01:04:13.120\ngoing to happen.\n\n1208\n01:04:13.120 --> 01:04:16.720\nI love all the stories he tells about Mr. Marriott. He's still such an integral\n\n1209\n01:04:16.720 --> 01:04:17.840\npart of the business.\n\n1210\n01:04:17.840 --> 01:04:23.920\nDavid, as we wrap up this debrief, if there's one thing about Tony that you are\n\n1211\n01:04:23.920 --> 01:04:24.960\nreally taking away\n\n1212\n01:04:24.960 --> 01:04:28.700\nfrom this conversation and going to incorporate into your life, what is that\n\n1213\n01:04:28.700 --> 01:04:29.280\nthing?\n\n1214\n01:04:29.280 --> 01:04:32.840\nWell, first of all, you know, Tony's very accomplished. The company's done\n\n1215\n01:04:32.840 --> 01:04:34.320\nextremely well. He's made\n\n1216\n01:04:34.320 --> 01:04:39.970\nlots of acquisitions. He's trying to own basically the world of rooms, you know\n\n1217\n01:04:39.970 --> 01:04:40.720\n, there are different\n\n1218\n01:04:40.720 --> 01:04:45.200\nkind of hotels. And you know, he's trying to compete in every aspect of the\n\n1219\n01:04:45.200 --> 01:04:46.400\nbusiness. And he's done\n\n1220\n01:04:46.400 --> 01:04:49.930\nextremely well, you know, so he's accomplished. There's stocks really doing\n\n1221\n01:04:49.930 --> 01:04:50.960\ngreat because of the\n\n1222\n01:04:50.960 --> 01:04:55.270\nthings, the wins that he's put up on the board. But the thing that I took away\n\n1223\n01:04:55.270 --> 01:04:56.160\nthe most there\n\n1224\n01:04:56.720 --> 01:05:02.800\nwas just how much reverence he gave Mr. Marriott. I love the fact that Marriott\n\n1225\n01:05:02.800 --> 01:05:03.920\nhas an icon. It's\n\n1226\n01:05:03.920 --> 01:05:11.360\nMr. Marriott and the Marriott family. And he gave, you know, Mr. Marriott the\n\n1227\n01:05:11.360 --> 01:05:12.720\nthe the the cred\n\n1228\n01:05:12.720 --> 01:05:18.560\nthat that he deserves. And that's the the shout out that genuine shout out that\n\n1229\n01:05:18.560 --> 01:05:19.760\ngenuine respect that\n\n1230\n01:05:19.760 --> 01:05:26.460\nhe had for Mr. Marriott really, really, really impressed me. You know, too many\n\n1231\n01:05:26.460 --> 01:05:27.440\ntimes leaders\n\n1232\n01:05:27.440 --> 01:05:31.050\nwant to be in control. And that means they've got to wipe out the past. They\n\n1233\n01:05:31.050 --> 01:05:32.000\ngot to be the new\n\n1234\n01:05:32.000 --> 01:05:37.440\nsheriff in town. They can't celebrate the person that helped build the company\n\n1235\n01:05:37.440 --> 01:05:38.160\nor get the company\n\n1236\n01:05:38.160 --> 01:05:44.180\nto where it is. I think whenever you can give homage to to to someone, you know\n\n1237\n01:05:44.180 --> 01:05:45.600\n, for the work\n\n1238\n01:05:45.600 --> 01:05:52.720\nthat they've done that allows you to have the opportunity that you have. Then,\n\n1239\n01:05:52.720 --> 01:05:53.440\nyou know,\n\n1240\n01:05:53.440 --> 01:05:58.330\nI think that's great. You know, tonight I'm having dinner, for example, with\n\n1241\n01:05:58.330 --> 01:06:01.280\nthe current CEO of\n\n1242\n01:06:01.280 --> 01:06:06.320\nYum Yum Brands and the last CEO of Yum Brands, you know, there will be three Y\n\n1243\n01:06:06.320 --> 01:06:07.360\num Brands CEOs\n\n1244\n01:06:07.360 --> 01:06:13.750\ngoing to Lyman cellos tonight here. And, you know, but, you know, they go out\n\n1245\n01:06:13.750 --> 01:06:14.400\nof their way\n\n1246\n01:06:14.960 --> 01:06:19.280\nto give homage to me, not because I'm anything special, but because of the\n\n1247\n01:06:19.280 --> 01:06:19.920\nculture that we\n\n1248\n01:06:19.920 --> 01:06:24.330\nbuild at Yum Brands. And, you know, I think that's important, not because of\n\n1249\n01:06:24.330 --> 01:06:26.240\nthe recognition I get,\n\n1250\n01:06:26.240 --> 01:06:30.560\nbut because it's the culture that I want to see sustained at Yum Brands that I\n\n1251\n01:06:30.560 --> 01:06:31.440\nthink is going to\n\n1252\n01:06:31.440 --> 01:06:36.480\nhelp them grow results and put people capability first. And that that's what\n\n1253\n01:06:36.480 --> 01:06:37.280\nthat's what really\n\n1254\n01:06:37.280 --> 01:06:41.560\nmatters. And that's what Tony's trying to do with Mr. Marriott. Mr. Marriott\n\n1255\n01:06:41.560 --> 01:06:42.400\nput the culture in\n\n1256\n01:06:42.400 --> 01:06:46.000\nplay, put the principles in place. And he's sustaining it, but he's not\n\n1257\n01:06:46.000 --> 01:06:48.320\nsustaining it exactly the way\n\n1258\n01:06:48.320 --> 01:06:53.970\nthat Mr. Marriott did it. He's raising the bar in many different ways and doing\n\n1259\n01:06:53.970 --> 01:06:54.960\nthings differently,\n\n1260\n01:06:54.960 --> 01:06:59.680\nwhether it's developing new approaches to AI and customer satisfaction. He's\n\n1261\n01:06:59.680 --> 01:07:00.320\ndoing things that\n\n1262\n01:07:00.320 --> 01:07:04.630\nMr. Marriott never did. Okay. And that's what you got to do. Keep finding that\n\n1263\n01:07:04.630 --> 01:07:05.440\nunfinished business,\n\n1264\n01:07:05.440 --> 01:07:10.480\nturning over new leaves. And, yeah, that's what I know the CEOs at Yum Brands\n\n1265\n01:07:10.480 --> 01:07:11.760\nare doing as well.\n\n1266\n01:07:11.760 --> 01:07:13.520\nI'm history and they're writing new history.\n\n1267\n01:07:13.520 --> 01:07:17.840\nWell, you've certainly cemented your name in history Yum Brands. That dinner is\n\n1268\n01:07:17.840 --> 01:07:18.400\ngoing to be so\n\n1269\n01:07:18.400 --> 01:07:22.000\nspecial. I can't wait to hear the report on what you guys talk about.\n\n1270\n01:07:22.000 --> 01:07:25.120\nWell, I'll tell you that I hope that the linguinean clams are good.\n\n1271\n01:07:25.120 --> 01:07:30.080\nYou love the linguinean clams. I have no doubt they will be good.\n\n1272\n01:07:30.080 --> 01:07:33.440\nDavid, that does it for this week's episode of How Leaders Lead.\n\n1273\n01:07:33.440 --> 01:07:36.560\nThank you so much for tuning in and we will see you next week.\n\n1274\n01:07:41.760 --> 01:07:51.760\n[BLANK_AUDIO]\n","is_pinned",false,"pinned_at","is_featured","featured_at","mix_url","https://chtbl.com/track/DCB44F/traffic.megaphone.fm/DVL8966684401.mp3","dx_media_id",2654,"video_media_id","thumbnail_image_media_id","published_date","2026-01-08","itunes_episode_id",273,"youtube_id","_D0CsZUM5z4","2026-08-19T21:27:27.000000Z","Listen to this leadership podcast with Tony Capuano, President & CEO of Marriott, and discover how to fight complacency.","dx_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/77zMBM6g0X4TTLJSERm2qbDtlwH1IqKF8ZHcrxlc.mp3","dx_filename","77zMBM6g0X4TTLJSERm2qbDtlwH1IqKF8ZHcrxlc.mp3","dx_mux_playback_id","UoC7AKTpyTxlO4cV3MFDjMcTam9No00Jn7xxL102zjQGA","dx_waveform_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/waveforms/2654.json","video_url","video_mux_playback_id","duration",4065767,"thumbnail_url","https://img.youtube.com/vi/_D0CsZUM5z4/maxresdefault.jpg","thumbnail_image_url","dx_media",{"_13":66,"_96":80,"_97":78,"_98":-5,"_31":82,"_33":99,"_100":-5,"_101":84,"_87":88,"_102":-5},"video_media","thumbnail_image_media","filename","url","status","01H00D01vhlV00BruwctahMXtJQeSa01UFzcNiZ7ZMf5Y2500","mux_upload_id","waveform_url","preview_media_id","first_name","Tony","last_name","Capuano","job_title","Marriott International, President and CEO","Marriott, hospitality, travel, Tony Capuano, CEO","external_links","https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonycapuano,https://news.marriott.com/leadership/anthony-capuano,https://www.hotelmanagement.net/human-resources/shatterproof-honor-marriott-internationals-anthony-capuano",0,"image_media_id",2615,2616,"2026-07-20T20:38:32.000000Z","send_push_notification_at","image_url","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/KdQYvgzwVbHdGawa2WTjKfhQtSM0ZHCP8S7sBVuM.jpg","https://dnl.nyc3.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/uploads/acqsEhyGZNZQTeIpeFwCSTULw720UdGwAQEyf5XK.jpg","https://www.howleaderslead.com/leaders/259/tony-capuano","industry_id",1,"industry",{"_13":123,"_134":135,"_136":138},"industries",[133],"image_media",{"_13":114,"_96":132,"_97":119,"_98":-5,"_31":-5,"_33":-5,"_100":-5,"_101":-5,"_87":-5,"_102":-5},{"_13":115,"_96":131,"_97":120,"_98":-5,"_31":-5,"_33":-5,"_100":-5,"_101":-5,"_87":-5,"_102":-5},"acqsEhyGZNZQTeIpeFwCSTULw720UdGwAQEyf5XK.jpg","KdQYvgzwVbHdGawa2WTjKfhQtSM0ZHCP8S7sBVuM.jpg",{"_13":123,"_134":135,"_136":137},"name","Hospitality and Travel","pivot",{"_35":36,"_122":123},{"_35":36,"_122":123},"user","token","favorites",[],"collections",[],"env",{"_147":148,"_149":150,"_151":152,"_153":154,"_155":156},"GOOGLE_CLIENT_ID","644017954836-qpllhu38r0tsrtfq85ukntcvsb0akbht.apps.googleusercontent.com","APPLE_CLIENT_ID","com.howleaderslead.webapp","APPLE_REDIRECT_URI","https://www.howleaderslead.com/auth/apple-callback","APP_URL","https://howleaderslead.com","GTM_ID",""]