Luxury Hotelier - September 2007 - (Page 24)

24| Personalities Sharp: Company’s future is set sadore Sharp is comfortable with the future of Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts now that it is a privately held company that is controlled by interests that he believes have a long-term hold in mind. The $3.4-billion deal to take the company private was completed earlier this year. Despite opinions of some shareholders that the company could have fetched more on the open market, Mr. Sharp says he is happy Cascade Investment and Kingdom Hotels are the majority owners. Mr. Sharp retains management control and a 10percent stake. The deal, which garnered about $82 a share, included the long-term management contracts for 73 hotels. Cascade is controlled by Bill Gates of Microsoft Corporation and Kingdom is controlled by Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal—both of whom own Four Seasons-branded assets. “The main purpose of doing it was to put in place an ownership that would always be there,” Mr. Sharp says. “The concerns were that if something happened to me—unexpected or expected—that the family would eventually sell. If they put the company up for sale, who knows what buyer would end up with it. Such a sale could affect the company dramatically in terms of what might happen to it.” Mr. Sharp says the idea of taking the company private came from an undisclosed investor who was interested in doing just that. Due to some changes within their company, that person ended up dropping out, but Four Seasons continued with the plans. Mr. Sharp says the new majority owners view the hotel industry as a major growth industry. “It is today the single largest industry in the world,” he says. “And it is growing. The simple math is that this is a good business to be in.” --J.H. CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20 What is luxury? that the company has the people and the skills to be able to do this. This whole idea of being indispensable—at points in time that could be in question, but that passed a long time ago.” “Luxury is not one thing anymore. There’s so much demand for quality that it’s leading to many different ways of thinking about it.” —Barbara Talbott, executive vice president of marketing, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts I The Golden Rule Mr. Sharp earned a degree in architecture from Ryerson University in Toronto and became a hotelier when he opened his first hotel on the city’s Jarvis Street. “If you ask me what I know most about, I know more about construction than hotels,” Mr. Sharp says. “I’m not sure of the definition of hotelier. I would say I do have a kinder view of people—an appropriate way to deal with a customer as a Kathleen Taylor guest. So in that regard I would consider myself a hotelier.” Ah yes, people. Just about everyone at Four Seasons knows Mr. Sharp is a people person. He long ago established The Golden Rule—treating others as one would wish to be treated—as Four Seasons’ guiding Jim FitzGibbon principal. “He’s been very strict about having the culture define everything we do,” says Kathleen Taylor, Four Seasons’ president and chief operating officer. “You have to treat people the way you want to be treated. He really does believe that and uses it every day.” Jim FitzGibbon, the company’s president of worldwide hotel operations, says he views Mr. Sharp in some ways as a father figure, and definitely as a coach. He says the biggest lesson Mr. Sharp has taught him is to have faith in people. “Believe that there is another gear in everybody’s minds,” Mr. FitzGibbon says. “If you really believe in human beings, and choosing the right human being, and treating him or her with dignity, there’s something else that doesn’t come out until it’s needed.” Mr. Sharp says his own experience tells him that people are any company’s greatest assets—if they’re given the opportunity to participate in a meaningful way. “More companies are coming around to this idea and I know for a fact that they can’t take the work force for granted,” he says. “They can’t just treat it as a labor source. It’s a force to be reckoned with and has great power.” The service culture at Four Seasons is its lifeblood. The company trumpets that philosophy every chance it has. It also puts its fortunes in the hands of its 34,000 worldwide employees every day. “At the end of the day, service is delivered by someone you don’t control,” Ms. Taylor says. “They are out there at the property taking care of a guest, and it is up to them to deliver the service that guests expect. It’s totally an issue of trust.” That trust means allowing them to make mistakes, says Ellen Dubois du Bellay, vice president of learning and development. “Mr. Sharp says things like, ‘Don’t try to work everything out for people; let them work some things out for themselves,’” she says. “Give people the space to learn.” The people principal Mr. FitzGibbon says there’s an easy way to sum up Mr. Sharp’s thoughts on employees: “You really have to see Luxury Hotelier | September 2007 | www.LuxuryHotelier.com http://www.LuxuryHotelier.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Luxury Hotelier - September 2007

EDITOR’S LETTER PUBLISHER’S LETTER INFORM NETWORK PERSONALITIES INSIGHT INSIGHT PROPERTIES ROPERTIES INSPIRE DELIVER PROTOCOLS INSIGHT INNOVATE DEVELOPMENT INDULGE INSIGHT CONNECT UPDATE DOSSIER

Luxury Hotelier - September 2007

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