Systems Thinking, 3rd Edition

Chapter twelve. The Marriott Corporation

Marriott faced an incredible challenge in 1992. Times were bad. The game had changed drastically. Real estate had collapsed and hotel owners (Marriott's main customers) had lost more than 50% of the value of their properties and many were at the verge of bankruptcy. Furthermore, Corporate America (Marriott's major source of cash) was by necessity involved in so-called “right-sizing” and cut costs left and right. For Marriott to survive it was imperative to rescue its troubled ownership–customer base and extend a helping hand to its major source of cash, Corporate America. This forced Marriott to redesign itself to take an order-of-magnitude cost out of its operations. Parallel with dealing collectively ...