Name: The Secret Ingredient Behind Hyatt Hotels’ Success
Uploaded: 2016-05-20
Duration: 3 min 33 s
Description: CEO Mark Hoplamazian explains.

Mark, you have a whole new approach to the way that you are running your hotel business and to use the popular buzz word, you are disrupting the way that Highet does business. Tell us about the most important change that you've made. I think you could reduce it to really one word, which is the application of empathy. It's really asking people to reverse their perspective and how they look at interactions between Our colleagues and our guests, and then apply themselves differently. It comes from making sure that we are connected to the emotional experience that our colleagues and guests are having when we are interacting with them, and then designing their experience so that it's fulfilling for them. So I would say the essential capacity that we're focusing on is empathy. And how people listen and apply their learning to what they do and how they interact with people. Why is this so important? Well, I think first and foremost, we are a business about human engagement. So, I think, if you're a business about serving people and interacting with people, whether that's interacting with colleagues, or your guests, or people in the community Being able to connect with people, and being able to really get into the essence of what their emotional experience is all about, is essential to being successful. Now I understand that you talked to some people at Whole Foods, and at Starbucks, and that they influenced your way of thinking. What was your key takeaway? As I looked into our company, having come away from those The input and ideas that we had from those companies. I looked at how we were operating, how the industry operates. And the industry has a long history of having standard operating procedures and scripts, service sequences that are very, very prescriptive in how you engage with people. And so the first thing that we did was we said, actually we have to do away with these scripts, we have to un- script people and unleash them, to actually bring who they are into those interactions. So we started peeling back those procedures, and those policies, and the scripts, to allow people to be more of themselves. That was, maybe, the most important beginning step. Well you've been at this for a little while now. How do Highet employees feel about all these changes? Most people, when they are invited to bring who they are to work and actually be themselves, rush towards that. A lot of people who come into the industry, are coming into the industry because they love dealing with people. We have this expression which is, authenticity beats out perfection every time. And what we mean by that is, don't worry about being perfect. Because guests are not looking for a perfect experience, they're looking for a real experience, a human experience, an authentic experience. So be human, first and foremost, don't worry about being perfect. [ LAUGH ] How does all this translate into dollars and cents, and Hyatt's bottom line? Clearly there's a big macro trend under wing whether you're talking about consumer goods, fashion, retail, food products or beverage business or travel. In all these dimensions you're seeing people who are be gravitating towards experiences over product. They want experiences, they're willing to pay for experiences And so in our business in order to actually create and deliver a great experience you have to connect with someone at a human level and they have to have an emotional experience. And what that leads to is a rational loyalty, which is really what we're after. And so what it really means is that over time we will end up serving more and more of our guests needs. And that's great for market share, it's great for revenue and it's certainly great for the financial health of the company. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]