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Lesson #4: “Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class.”
Article Overview: Marriott was a firm believer in the principle of management by walking around. He was as hands on as he could get, inspecting everything from the number of times a hamburger was flipped, to the haircut of his waiters. Even as the company grew, Marriott maintained his belief that if he was going to run his company, he had to know about what was going on in the restaurants, in the hotels, and on the ground. Marriott knew that the financial books in his office were in fact going to tell him less about his business than the cooks and waiters in his restaurant were, or the guests in his motels.
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Free Download - J. Willard Marriott Quotes By John Willard Marriott |
Lesson #4: “Only close attention to the fine details of any operation makes the operation first class.”
Marriott was a firm believer in the principle of management by walking around. He was as hands on as he could get, inspecting everything from the number of times a hamburger was flipped, to the haircut of his waiters. Even as the company grew, Marriott maintained his belief that if he was going to run his company, he had to know about what was going on in the restaurants, in the hotels, and on the ground. Marriott knew that the financial books in his office were in fact going to tell him less about his business than the cooks and waiters in his restaurant were, or the guests in his motels.
From talking to the employees, to talking to the customers, to inspecting equipment, Marriott insisted on perfection in the details. Cooks were made to follow a recipe card to the exact proportions for every dish. Hash browns could only be turned over once on the grill. He instructed waitresses to pick up customers’ glasses from the sides. Even if it meant throwing away ten hamburgers until a cook got the seasoning right, Marriott was all for it.
Paying attention to the detail taught Marriott some important business lessons. “The first thing I learned in the restaurant business was to get portion control in order to get a decent food cost. I don’t mean, by portion control, that we should cut down below what a customer should get, but in many instances we either give less or a lot too much,” he said.
“They served a whole platter of mushrooms for each guest who had steak. There must have been nine or ten mushrooms on the plate. No one can eat this many mushrooms and a steak and all the other things that they had. I think better judgment should be used. A couple of mushroom caps on the steak would have been plenty, in all of our places.”
Marriott also learned that by keeping his employees and their uniforms clean, and teaching them how to work clean, “We would save ourselves an awful lot of cleaning problems, and money.”
No detail was too small for Marriott. "We should use carpets in all entrances, with a rubber base and a rubber edge, and have enough of them to keep them clean. This picks up the dirt that will otherwise be carried into the kitchens," he found in one case.
In another, Marriott suggested, “Every airline kitchen should have a perfect setup for cleaning. There should be portable stainless steel sinks, places to hang mops, and drains in the floors throughout the kitchen so that the floors can be washed down."
In his hotels, Marriott insisted that there were fireplaces, always with a big stack of wood beside them. “Fireplaces should be used at all times during the cold weather. It makes so much difference in the atmosphere of our lobbies…There will always be a demand for a hotel with a homey, charming atmosphere."
Whether it was for cost-cutting or service improvement reasons, Marriott knew that focusing on the details was a smart way to boost profits.
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