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The Spirit to Serve: Marriott's Way
In the bestselling tradition of The HP Way, The Spirit to Serve describes how one of the most successful hoteliers of the twentieth century built Marriott International from a respectable $50-million-a-year enterprise into the mammoth $9-billion multinational giant of today. Told in the words of J. W. Marriott, Jr., The Spirit to Serve distills years of hard-earned wisdom and experience into twelve timeless lessons that managers at any level can implement in their own business lives.
216 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1997
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January 28, 2020
"When you cut to the chase of what growth in all it's dimensions is all about, I think the quote I selected to kick off this chapter sums it up well: 'The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and preserve change amid order.'
For Business, this translates into: To grow successfully, you must stay true to who you are, even while working feverishly to change who you are." (J.W. Marriott, The Spirit to Serve: Marriott's Way, Page 64)
Written by billionaire J.W. Marriott, son of the founder of Marriott Corporation, which later became known as Marriott International.
Like every other great corporation, it had it's small beginnings. The father of the author, Bill Marriott, pooled $3,000 in 1927 with another person, and started their own A & W franchise in Washington, DC. They then changed the name of their franchise to The Hot Shoppe. They started opening up these restaurants in different places in Washington, and then others states. They began to get into airline catering, then opening their first motor hotel, then another hotel, and then another...until they became the sixth largest employer in the United States with over 192,000 in 1996 about the time of this book's printing. I checked the statistics today online and apparently they are the world's largest hotel company with over 5700 properties, 1.1 million rooms, and a new portfolio of 30 brands.
I think what someone could glean from this book is counsel on how to be a good manager. He is known as a hands-on manager. He touts the philosophy of Managing by Walking Around in this book, and details what that means. One example, he would travel to all the hotels and get on his hands and knees and check under beds, kitchens, even broom closets!...He also would take time to shake employees hands individually and showed he generally cared for them. One quote on management that I highlighted:
A very important lesson he speaks about in this book is about balancing work with play. He describes himself as a workaholic, but, the time he realized he needed to change was when he had 3 heart attacks in a row! He says this was the result of him being a typical walking stereotype of the workaholic executive who has "too little exercise and rest, too much work, and too many heavy dinners too late at night." One practical adjustment he made in the aftermath of his illnesses was he started to delegate things more. He said this was hard to do because he knew that he could get things done faster; however, he acknowledges that overtime, delegation became much easier.
If you want to know how a large hotel chain started, grew, and the lessons learned along the way, then this is the book to read. Great management advice in this book, business growth strategies and hard lessons in balancing work with play.
For Business, this translates into: To grow successfully, you must stay true to who you are, even while working feverishly to change who you are." (J.W. Marriott, The Spirit to Serve: Marriott's Way, Page 64)
Written by billionaire J.W. Marriott, son of the founder of Marriott Corporation, which later became known as Marriott International.
Like every other great corporation, it had it's small beginnings. The father of the author, Bill Marriott, pooled $3,000 in 1927 with another person, and started their own A & W franchise in Washington, DC. They then changed the name of their franchise to The Hot Shoppe. They started opening up these restaurants in different places in Washington, and then others states. They began to get into airline catering, then opening their first motor hotel, then another hotel, and then another...until they became the sixth largest employer in the United States with over 192,000 in 1996 about the time of this book's printing. I checked the statistics today online and apparently they are the world's largest hotel company with over 5700 properties, 1.1 million rooms, and a new portfolio of 30 brands.
I think what someone could glean from this book is counsel on how to be a good manager. He is known as a hands-on manager. He touts the philosophy of Managing by Walking Around in this book, and details what that means. One example, he would travel to all the hotels and get on his hands and knees and check under beds, kitchens, even broom closets!...He also would take time to shake employees hands individually and showed he generally cared for them. One quote on management that I highlighted:
"After more than forty years in business, I've concluded that listening is the single most important on-the-job skill that a good manager can cultivate. A leader who doesn't listen well risks missing critical information, losing (or never winning) the confidence of staff and peers, and forfeiting the opportunity to be a proactive, hands-on manager."
A very important lesson he speaks about in this book is about balancing work with play. He describes himself as a workaholic, but, the time he realized he needed to change was when he had 3 heart attacks in a row! He says this was the result of him being a typical walking stereotype of the workaholic executive who has "too little exercise and rest, too much work, and too many heavy dinners too late at night." One practical adjustment he made in the aftermath of his illnesses was he started to delegate things more. He said this was hard to do because he knew that he could get things done faster; however, he acknowledges that overtime, delegation became much easier.
If you want to know how a large hotel chain started, grew, and the lessons learned along the way, then this is the book to read. Great management advice in this book, business growth strategies and hard lessons in balancing work with play.
November 30, 2017
• Standard operating procedures (SOPs)
• Systems: "Maybe we are a little fanatical about the way things should be done. But for us, the idea of having systems and procedures for everything is very natural and logical: If you want to produce a consistent result, you need to figure out how to do it, write it down, practice it, and keep improving it until there's nothing left to improve. (Of course, we at Marriott believe that there's always something to improve)"
• Being hands-on manager: "If a manager is hands-on, more likely she's also on top of her business. She can pick up immediately on problems, concerns, or issues and take care of them before they fester or grow. Conversely, a manager who doesn't know his staff by name, who doesn't spend the bulk of the day walking the heart of the house, will eventually have problems. He's just not going to have the same rapport with associates or the knowledge base to make decisions as do his hands-on counterparts."
• Staying within circle of competence
• Overconfidence or "arrogance creep": "Perhaps the most important check against overconfidance in an institution is the quality that protects human beings from the sam fate: a sense of humor. Being able to laugh at yourself once in a while is a good thing."
• Important qualities for corporate culture: good listening skill, attention to detail, putting employees first, maintaing equlibrium between the forces of change and the status quo.
• "No tree grows to the sky" - beware of adverse market conditions - and prepare
Diversifying into strengths: theme parks
• Systems: "Maybe we are a little fanatical about the way things should be done. But for us, the idea of having systems and procedures for everything is very natural and logical: If you want to produce a consistent result, you need to figure out how to do it, write it down, practice it, and keep improving it until there's nothing left to improve. (Of course, we at Marriott believe that there's always something to improve)"
• Being hands-on manager: "If a manager is hands-on, more likely she's also on top of her business. She can pick up immediately on problems, concerns, or issues and take care of them before they fester or grow. Conversely, a manager who doesn't know his staff by name, who doesn't spend the bulk of the day walking the heart of the house, will eventually have problems. He's just not going to have the same rapport with associates or the knowledge base to make decisions as do his hands-on counterparts."
• Staying within circle of competence
• Overconfidence or "arrogance creep": "Perhaps the most important check against overconfidance in an institution is the quality that protects human beings from the sam fate: a sense of humor. Being able to laugh at yourself once in a while is a good thing."
• Important qualities for corporate culture: good listening skill, attention to detail, putting employees first, maintaing equlibrium between the forces of change and the status quo.
• "No tree grows to the sky" - beware of adverse market conditions - and prepare
Diversifying into strengths: theme parks
October 15, 2022
Finished reading Marriott's Way: The Spirit to Serve. It is hard to explain the excellence in this business book; it is harder to explain how it applies to a Christian life, beyond business. It is the same way in which 3D Ministries Building a Discipleship Culture applies as easily to business as it does to your own personal life and understanding.
Each chapter is titled with the basic idea, and peppered with personal stories from the life of both J.W. (the founder) and his son, Bill Jr. These help to underscore the seriousness both took in the life of Marriott and how you can apply the chapter's principles to your own business, and by extension your life.
Because the point of all of it is the understanding that building a successful whatever requires a thorough understanding of "why?" What's the point? What's the purpose?
While each chapter focuses on something a little different, the forward spells it out pretty quickly: What stands out at Marriott? How'd they do it?
1.) Timeless core values and enduring purpose. What are yours?
2.) A relentless drive for progress. Regardless of your answer to #1), you can't get there by standing still.
3.) Strength beyond...any one individual. You are not alone. And when you understand and know what your value is; what your values are; and why: AND you start moving to being all of those, you'll find that you are not alone-you've been joined by the others who are following the path you follow.
All from a book about a hotel company. Huh.
Each chapter is titled with the basic idea, and peppered with personal stories from the life of both J.W. (the founder) and his son, Bill Jr. These help to underscore the seriousness both took in the life of Marriott and how you can apply the chapter's principles to your own business, and by extension your life.
Because the point of all of it is the understanding that building a successful whatever requires a thorough understanding of "why?" What's the point? What's the purpose?
While each chapter focuses on something a little different, the forward spells it out pretty quickly: What stands out at Marriott? How'd they do it?
1.) Timeless core values and enduring purpose. What are yours?
2.) A relentless drive for progress. Regardless of your answer to #1), you can't get there by standing still.
3.) Strength beyond...any one individual. You are not alone. And when you understand and know what your value is; what your values are; and why: AND you start moving to being all of those, you'll find that you are not alone-you've been joined by the others who are following the path you follow.
All from a book about a hotel company. Huh.
April 6, 2015
As someone who stays in a lot of hotels and Marriott’s in particular I found this book a fascinating look at the it means to be in the “service” industry which is the true focus according to the Marriott’s. From having basic procedures in place so that employees can focus on the customer to treating employee’s right so they want to do their jobs and focus on the customer. Marriott views itself as a full service hospitality outfit so more than just hotels but also a significant food arm as well as managing retirement properties, time shares and its franchised off shoot brands for budget travelers, business travelers and long term travelers in the form of Fairfield Inn, Courtyard Inn, and Residence Inn. Overall if you are looking for a solid business book from organizations that manage large volumes of employees there are some great lessons here as well as interesting look at how this hotel chain evolved.
February 1, 2018
My two favourite concepts and chapters in this book are:
"Preserve Order Amid Change" and "Preserve Change Amid Order"
While I'd say that Management skills are important.
Frequently I see that too many management skills are an impediment to being a good leader, as those Management skills are often used to maintain the Status Quo, rather than be the foundation that Continuous Improvement is built on.
So, I like Bill Marriott's (of the hotel chain fame) statement in his book The Marriott Way - The Spirit to Serve "Preserve Order Amid Change" and "Preserve Change Amid Order". The importance of balancing Management and Leadership, that in my experience too often tips to the over management side.
"Preserve Order Amid Change" and "Preserve Change Amid Order"
While I'd say that Management skills are important.
Frequently I see that too many management skills are an impediment to being a good leader, as those Management skills are often used to maintain the Status Quo, rather than be the foundation that Continuous Improvement is built on.
So, I like Bill Marriott's (of the hotel chain fame) statement in his book The Marriott Way - The Spirit to Serve "Preserve Order Amid Change" and "Preserve Change Amid Order". The importance of balancing Management and Leadership, that in my experience too often tips to the over management side.
May 27, 2025
I found this very fascinating.
September 17, 2018
Based on a suggestion by a colleague at work, Ali. Overall the book seems to be more of a manifesto of Marriotts current way of operation, rather than a historical path showing why and how they came upon this design. Because hospitality industries need to focus on customers, but don't have too many changes, unlike a lot of industries in SV, the philosophy is appropriate.
1. What I found amazing about Marriott is his hands-on approach. I have found that managers who become people managers and are not willing to get their hands dirty, typically work well in slow moving companies. Marriott does exactly this. He goes on unconventional ways of gathering information like secret shopping, reaches down all the way down the beauracracy, goes and personally interviews the customers even though he is the CEO, puts thorns on the his own company. What I found amazing is his philosophy, is his ability to cut his own losses, sell off companies to somebody more motivated and talented to run some parts of his business, ability to live the uncomfortable life, when he could have just had a very smooth sailing life living off his fathers wealth. Haven't heard many people being able to do that. I am also no sure how true this narrative is, given that its written by Marriott and could be a marketing propaganda.
2. The importance of systems: What he means by systems can also be called automation. SOPs etc are important for efficiency purposes. This is very true in age old industries like the hospitality industry, where there is no much technological disruption happening. <-- I think though when you apply too much manually curated systems in a fast moving industry, this just leads to disaster. An example of this is Netflix's CEOs previous company True Software. In a podcast with Tim Ferriss, he discusses that he set up elaborate SOPs and systems to operate based on in his company. After a while, there were so many manual SOPs and systems to work through, that nobody smart enough wanted to work there. So there were systems without people to work through the systems. In order to overcome this issue, he basically went to the other end of the pool, where there are very few systems in Netflix's culture, he pays the people way higher than normal, but also has a extremely higher barrier to entry to only allow the people who almost have the CEO personality to get things done. I am guessing the reason for this is probably because, NetFlix is fighting very established incumbents like Disney etc, and they need people who are that independent and don't necessarily follow rules. Most startups need that kind of people only at the beginning, but it maybe that NetFlix needs that kind of independent CEO types even as it scales way past the initial stage. This is probably why it has been able to scale so fast, despite incumbents trying to beat them.
3. Treat your employees well: Its interesting that because Marriott is a hospitality industry, it places high emphasis on employee well being, and recognizes employees who do their job well and create that sense of belonging. They take care of the kids of their employees, when they are sick, listen to their employees, make their employees feel heard etc. Even when they have to layoff 1000 people, they make sure they are secure and have future options. This motivates their employees to take care of their customers. This is way of doing business seems to be very similar to how software businesses run. Perhaps, it comes down to that in both these industries you are dealing with individual customers. Even though, it seems software is a highly technical problem area, and it is, most software is fundamentally designed for a single end-user, not another robot. As such, customer service is a unstated job description of software development, and the people who become great fundamentally understand this. So in both these industries, you have to design your culture around `appropriately` rewarding your employees. Most software companies do offer a wide range of facilities like child care, free food etc. Netflix on the other hand offer very high compensation packages, and high flexibility, but doesn't necessarily take care of your kids etc. This kind of flexibility in job description only works for a very selected group of self-driven people, not for the majority. NetFlix thus selects only these people by eliminating everybody who doesn't fit the needs of the culture. Its also probably a marketing tactic to distinguish itself, as I can't think of a company which won't need a combination of both. On the other hand, if you end user is really another business or in b2b companies, even though you are dealing with a person at the end of the phone conversation/meeting, you degree of empathy matters much less, I guess, atleast in the short-term. Perhaps, because business customers tend to be much more logical than individual customers. As a result, b2b industries such as hardware companies or enterprise software companies tend to do the exact opposite and place the customer first. This is also probably why few talented people want to work in them, and why individual customer oriented industries tend to be leading edge and growing much faster these days. So, the conclusion from this maybe that even though in the short term, for b2b companies, it maynot matter too much whether they take care of their employees or not, if they don't take care of their employees in the long run, they will leave and thus suffer as a whole industry. The challenge however is the tradeoff between short and long term business profits. If you really put employee first, your performance will drop. Then your competitor who places customer first will win in the short term. Since b2b industries tend to have relatively smaller number of customers, and once a competitor has an account, its hard to switch, this probably leads to the downward spiral where everyone in the ecosystem successively treat their employees somewhat worse that its competitor, while trying to gain `customer trust`, thus leading to the `employee last` strategy. The solution to this could be whole sale automation, and only have NetFlix-type employees.
4. Listen well: pay attention to not only what is being said, but also to the body language of the speaker. Even if you listen well, sometimes it hard to really understand. You have to go around finding facts, and also take action. He mentions that he gives an equal time to everybody. This is in stark contrast to `Ray Dalio's` way of listening based on believability based decision making, where he only listens to people who are believable regardless of whether they are in his close circle or not. What Marriott is probably doing is that he is listening to not only to his direct reports but randomizing whom he is listening till the bottom end of the ladder, which maybe why he is able to make good decisions. He has this questions, which for some reason I use a lot `What do you think?`. Its actually a very good open ended question, and I came upon this as well in my own journey. It doesn't ask whether the idea is right or if the idea is wrong. It just asks somebody to go on a open ended rant on the idea. As a result, people tend to be more open to criticizing your idea, which is great. What I found even better is to ask people to actively criticize your idea something like `What am I not thinking of? Why should I not do this?` Its usually much easy to see the pros of a decision, because you came upon the idea due to some combination of reasons, and you are incentivized to drum up the idea because of your own psychological needs. Its much harder to see the negative aspects of your decision, and people usually hate telling you why an idea won't work, because people don't like disappointing other people, especially higher ups (whose approval they need for promotion etc).
5. Success is a team sport: As a big slow moving company, you probably depend on a lot of people. People who can get things done, are creative also come with larger egos, independent thinkers. If your company is not growing as fast (hospitality industry has been growing at 2.6%, similar to inflation growth rate, which means basically 0% inflation adjusted growth rate), and there are no opportunities for these individuals, its better to not recruit them at all. There are some people who want a stable job, who may be a better fit for your org. I think, Marriott Jr, never had to growth the company like his father did., probably why he has this advice. His philosophy seems to be inline with war-time CEO vs peace-time CEO advice from Ben Horowitzh. War-time CEOs tend to be bad peace-time CEOs. Marriott Jr. seems to be a peace-time CEO, while his father was probably more of a war-time CEO.
6. Never believe your own hype: Agree 100%. Its very easy to get caught in your own idea and not get feedback from other people about the downsides. It gets more treacherous because if you are a manager with direct reports, your direct reports are probably not going to say anything against your idea, unless the culture actually encourages it.
7. Listen to your heart: If you are a big business, you will have to make a lot of decisions. Because hind-sight is always 20/20, you will have some regrets. However, you shouldn't spend a lot of time obsessing over these decisions. He seems to be very good at realizing what type of business is a good fit for the culture of Marriott, and if its not a good fit, he is fine with finding somebody in the company to lead the company and let it be its own unit. Its probably hard to have 2 business units which have completely different needs or modes of operation.
1. What I found amazing about Marriott is his hands-on approach. I have found that managers who become people managers and are not willing to get their hands dirty, typically work well in slow moving companies. Marriott does exactly this. He goes on unconventional ways of gathering information like secret shopping, reaches down all the way down the beauracracy, goes and personally interviews the customers even though he is the CEO, puts thorns on the his own company. What I found amazing is his philosophy, is his ability to cut his own losses, sell off companies to somebody more motivated and talented to run some parts of his business, ability to live the uncomfortable life, when he could have just had a very smooth sailing life living off his fathers wealth. Haven't heard many people being able to do that. I am also no sure how true this narrative is, given that its written by Marriott and could be a marketing propaganda.
2. The importance of systems: What he means by systems can also be called automation. SOPs etc are important for efficiency purposes. This is very true in age old industries like the hospitality industry, where there is no much technological disruption happening. <-- I think though when you apply too much manually curated systems in a fast moving industry, this just leads to disaster. An example of this is Netflix's CEOs previous company True Software. In a podcast with Tim Ferriss, he discusses that he set up elaborate SOPs and systems to operate based on in his company. After a while, there were so many manual SOPs and systems to work through, that nobody smart enough wanted to work there. So there were systems without people to work through the systems. In order to overcome this issue, he basically went to the other end of the pool, where there are very few systems in Netflix's culture, he pays the people way higher than normal, but also has a extremely higher barrier to entry to only allow the people who almost have the CEO personality to get things done. I am guessing the reason for this is probably because, NetFlix is fighting very established incumbents like Disney etc, and they need people who are that independent and don't necessarily follow rules. Most startups need that kind of people only at the beginning, but it maybe that NetFlix needs that kind of independent CEO types even as it scales way past the initial stage. This is probably why it has been able to scale so fast, despite incumbents trying to beat them.
3. Treat your employees well: Its interesting that because Marriott is a hospitality industry, it places high emphasis on employee well being, and recognizes employees who do their job well and create that sense of belonging. They take care of the kids of their employees, when they are sick, listen to their employees, make their employees feel heard etc. Even when they have to layoff 1000 people, they make sure they are secure and have future options. This motivates their employees to take care of their customers. This is way of doing business seems to be very similar to how software businesses run. Perhaps, it comes down to that in both these industries you are dealing with individual customers. Even though, it seems software is a highly technical problem area, and it is, most software is fundamentally designed for a single end-user, not another robot. As such, customer service is a unstated job description of software development, and the people who become great fundamentally understand this. So in both these industries, you have to design your culture around `appropriately` rewarding your employees. Most software companies do offer a wide range of facilities like child care, free food etc. Netflix on the other hand offer very high compensation packages, and high flexibility, but doesn't necessarily take care of your kids etc. This kind of flexibility in job description only works for a very selected group of self-driven people, not for the majority. NetFlix thus selects only these people by eliminating everybody who doesn't fit the needs of the culture. Its also probably a marketing tactic to distinguish itself, as I can't think of a company which won't need a combination of both. On the other hand, if you end user is really another business or in b2b companies, even though you are dealing with a person at the end of the phone conversation/meeting, you degree of empathy matters much less, I guess, atleast in the short-term. Perhaps, because business customers tend to be much more logical than individual customers. As a result, b2b industries such as hardware companies or enterprise software companies tend to do the exact opposite and place the customer first. This is also probably why few talented people want to work in them, and why individual customer oriented industries tend to be leading edge and growing much faster these days. So, the conclusion from this maybe that even though in the short term, for b2b companies, it maynot matter too much whether they take care of their employees or not, if they don't take care of their employees in the long run, they will leave and thus suffer as a whole industry. The challenge however is the tradeoff between short and long term business profits. If you really put employee first, your performance will drop. Then your competitor who places customer first will win in the short term. Since b2b industries tend to have relatively smaller number of customers, and once a competitor has an account, its hard to switch, this probably leads to the downward spiral where everyone in the ecosystem successively treat their employees somewhat worse that its competitor, while trying to gain `customer trust`, thus leading to the `employee last` strategy. The solution to this could be whole sale automation, and only have NetFlix-type employees.
4. Listen well: pay attention to not only what is being said, but also to the body language of the speaker. Even if you listen well, sometimes it hard to really understand. You have to go around finding facts, and also take action. He mentions that he gives an equal time to everybody. This is in stark contrast to `Ray Dalio's` way of listening based on believability based decision making, where he only listens to people who are believable regardless of whether they are in his close circle or not. What Marriott is probably doing is that he is listening to not only to his direct reports but randomizing whom he is listening till the bottom end of the ladder, which maybe why he is able to make good decisions. He has this questions, which for some reason I use a lot `What do you think?`. Its actually a very good open ended question, and I came upon this as well in my own journey. It doesn't ask whether the idea is right or if the idea is wrong. It just asks somebody to go on a open ended rant on the idea. As a result, people tend to be more open to criticizing your idea, which is great. What I found even better is to ask people to actively criticize your idea something like `What am I not thinking of? Why should I not do this?` Its usually much easy to see the pros of a decision, because you came upon the idea due to some combination of reasons, and you are incentivized to drum up the idea because of your own psychological needs. Its much harder to see the negative aspects of your decision, and people usually hate telling you why an idea won't work, because people don't like disappointing other people, especially higher ups (whose approval they need for promotion etc).
5. Success is a team sport: As a big slow moving company, you probably depend on a lot of people. People who can get things done, are creative also come with larger egos, independent thinkers. If your company is not growing as fast (hospitality industry has been growing at 2.6%, similar to inflation growth rate, which means basically 0% inflation adjusted growth rate), and there are no opportunities for these individuals, its better to not recruit them at all. There are some people who want a stable job, who may be a better fit for your org. I think, Marriott Jr, never had to growth the company like his father did., probably why he has this advice. His philosophy seems to be inline with war-time CEO vs peace-time CEO advice from Ben Horowitzh. War-time CEOs tend to be bad peace-time CEOs. Marriott Jr. seems to be a peace-time CEO, while his father was probably more of a war-time CEO.
6. Never believe your own hype: Agree 100%. Its very easy to get caught in your own idea and not get feedback from other people about the downsides. It gets more treacherous because if you are a manager with direct reports, your direct reports are probably not going to say anything against your idea, unless the culture actually encourages it.
7. Listen to your heart: If you are a big business, you will have to make a lot of decisions. Because hind-sight is always 20/20, you will have some regrets. However, you shouldn't spend a lot of time obsessing over these decisions. He seems to be very good at realizing what type of business is a good fit for the culture of Marriott, and if its not a good fit, he is fine with finding somebody in the company to lead the company and let it be its own unit. Its probably hard to have 2 business units which have completely different needs or modes of operation.
March 11, 2011
Interesting review of the Marriott Corporation's history and rise to power. I would have liked to hear more stories of how it got started - lots of info on how Mr. Marriott believes they succeeded - things like treating employees like customers, standard work, customer focus, listening, etc.
September 28, 2010
I found this book in a box of old stuff, so I read it. If you own a hotel...or maybe even another business...this book might interest you. I don't. It didn't.
February 6, 2020
How to creat an organizational culture that lasts after you're retire. Amazing book!
January 13, 2022
Not a bad little book, great reading for corporations to give to their employees.
July 13, 2019
Follow The Word Vibes for more Reviews.
‘The Spirit to Serve – Marriott’s Way’ is a book by the owner of Marriott Industries and is about the foundation on which the Empire exists and all the lessons learned by Bill Marriott on his journey in becoming world’s one of the best in the lodging industry.
The book starts with the foreword by Jim Collins, which is worth reading and ends with an afterword by ‘Kathi Ann Brown’, a co-author, followed by all the milestones achieved by Marriott till 1998. It is not the trumpet-blowing history of the company, but about the mistakes, the organization has made, the opportunities they perhaps should have taken and the importance of keeping true to your original purpose.
Every chapter of the book is well crafted. Bill Marriott tries to put each core value that helps an organization grow and sustain. Not only this, he even teaches us the value of teamwork; how being a hands-on manager can help you achieve new levels of experience and spot new ways of improving your business, and many more. Besides his professional life, we also get to know a little about his personal life, a lot about his father and his success and failures, and about the basic fundamentals of life too. The basic idea of all the lessons in the book, as the Bill Marriott says, is ‘to achieve balance in your life’.
At some points in the book, I felt like the author is bragging about Marriott and himself, but when I went through the actual events, I found them all genuine and a lot more than it has been mentioned. Marriott’s history is full of peaks and valleys; the empire’s prosperity is all because of those principles that Bill Marriott lays down in the book! And I hope the principles are carried on in the near future too, so that we all can enjoy the great services of Marriott!
To sum up, the book is inspiring and thought-provoking. Language is proper, Vocabulary is good and it’s an easy read. Anyone can read this book, and I believe everyone should because the book not only contains lessons for an organization but for every individual to live a life worth living.
‘The Spirit to Serve – Marriott’s Way’ is a book by the owner of Marriott Industries and is about the foundation on which the Empire exists and all the lessons learned by Bill Marriott on his journey in becoming world’s one of the best in the lodging industry.
The book starts with the foreword by Jim Collins, which is worth reading and ends with an afterword by ‘Kathi Ann Brown’, a co-author, followed by all the milestones achieved by Marriott till 1998. It is not the trumpet-blowing history of the company, but about the mistakes, the organization has made, the opportunities they perhaps should have taken and the importance of keeping true to your original purpose.
Every chapter of the book is well crafted. Bill Marriott tries to put each core value that helps an organization grow and sustain. Not only this, he even teaches us the value of teamwork; how being a hands-on manager can help you achieve new levels of experience and spot new ways of improving your business, and many more. Besides his professional life, we also get to know a little about his personal life, a lot about his father and his success and failures, and about the basic fundamentals of life too. The basic idea of all the lessons in the book, as the Bill Marriott says, is ‘to achieve balance in your life’.
At some points in the book, I felt like the author is bragging about Marriott and himself, but when I went through the actual events, I found them all genuine and a lot more than it has been mentioned. Marriott’s history is full of peaks and valleys; the empire’s prosperity is all because of those principles that Bill Marriott lays down in the book! And I hope the principles are carried on in the near future too, so that we all can enjoy the great services of Marriott!
To sum up, the book is inspiring and thought-provoking. Language is proper, Vocabulary is good and it’s an easy read. Anyone can read this book, and I believe everyone should because the book not only contains lessons for an organization but for every individual to live a life worth living.
September 1, 2025
As a hospitality professional, I was hoping the title would expand on Marriott’s guest service philosophies a bit more. This was more an organization’s acquisition history. Interesting to know they started more in F&B, but otherwise, not a necessary reading for hoteliers.
January 24, 2022
A very interesting insight on leadership and also, the history of Marriott.
April 14, 2024
This book is a short and easy read. While it does not include anything earth shattering, I think the book provides some good insights into the history of Marriott.
January 31, 2018
Wonderful view into the Marriott story. Autobiographical.
September 12, 2016
Service at its finest. Great read for managers, leaders, coaches, businessmen and others to get back to management basics and connecting with the people you interact with. Bill makes it an enjoyable read as he reflects on the journey to building the Marriott brand. You get to see what it is like when a man values the people around him more than he values himself. Good things happen. (The book also carries a somewhat nostalgic effect if you're a frequent traveler and stay with Marriott. He mentions many locations in his stories of decisions, service, growth, etc., it is kind of neat to look back at those after staying there and knowing their stories.)
August 21, 2008
This is a great business book and really explains how one man's philosophy transformed a company into a hospitality empire. "Take care of your employees, and they will in turn take care of the customers." It's no wonder I have worked for the company for 6 1/2 years.
March 3, 2008
Did you all know that this book is sitting atop the Book of Mormon in many Marriott rooms?
January 24, 2008
An inspiring book.
August 25, 2009
One of the easier to read books about business. I enjoyed the little known facts about the Marriott business and the life lessons Mr. Marriott includes throughout.
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January 3, 2011Why did I read this? I was staying in a Marriott hotel in Scottsdale, Arizona, finished the only book I had with me, and had nothing else to read but the complimentary copy left in the room.
January 5, 2011
This book makes me want to be a Marriott
May 8, 2014
This was a book I recently read on the plane to and from a work trip. I think it's older but was still interesting and I learned more about Marriott!
February 11, 2015
J.W. Marriott and Kathi Ann Brown covered a lot of the company's principles and the motto behind the brand. The story was interesting and got some good take always for the lessons along the way.
April 22, 2015
Easy reading on the success of Marriott imperium.
July 5, 2012
Good book. Basic stuff but nice to read the Marriott story and set it in action.
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