Focusing on Purpose

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company is known for extraordinary elegance and world-class customer service. Winner of two Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Awards, it achieved distinction not just through great quality but consistently great quality—across all eighty-plus hotels in over twenty-five countries. A key part of the Ritz-Carlton consistency comes through a clear vision: “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” Every employee from property general manager to housekeeper is clear on that vision as well as its specific implications for their role.

As clear and powerful as their vision is—and the twenty customer-service practices that accompany it—it is useless unless it is kept alive and fresh. It becomes ...

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