October 3, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, a legend and leader in the hotel world, Horst Schulze has reshaped how service and hospitality are defined in business—standards that have become world-famous. Throughout the years he worked for both Hilton Hotels and Hyatt Hotels Corporation before becoming one of the founding members of the luxury hotel chain, The Ritz Carlton, in 1983. Horst is a Christian who lives out his faith in both his business and personal life.
Support the show (https://www.ouramericanstories.com/donate)
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we love to hear your stories. You're the hour
in our American Story. Send them to our American Stories
dot com. There are some of our favorites, and one
of our favorite recurring types of stories to tell is
(00:32):
the story of founders, of people who start things, who
have the courage and the desire to do so. And
it is no simple thing to do, and we don't
spend nearly enough time in this country talking about people
who start things. Today, we're going to tell the story
of a legend and leader in the hotel world, Horst Shultzi,
(00:53):
and how he reshaped how service and hospitality are defined
in the business world that have become world famous Throughout
the years. Chelsea worked for both Hilton Hotels and Hyatt
Hotels Corporation before becoming one of the founding members of
the luxury hotel chain The Rich Carlton in nineteen eighty three.
(01:18):
Cost is also a Christian and tries his best to
live by his faith at home and at work. Here's
a story of how he deals with and thinks about
his employees his company and the founding vision of the
rich Carlton.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
We, particularly in our industry, be higher because our industry
has over one hundred percent turnover. They're constantly opened chops
in the hotel and their chops have to be filled.
So what do we do be higher? And we said, finally,
we're not going to do that, and we're going to select.
We're going to suffer through the open shop if we
(02:00):
have somebody who actually fits into it. By the way
we went to the point it tooken an average of
ten interviews before we filled the job, including dishwashers, but
we didn't film. And then, of course, so we selected.
We created a profile around each job category and then
(02:20):
hired against this profile below that was the talent really
needed for this job. So that was the selection. So
we went into major careful selecting. Kind of a funny
example here is doorman. Well, we found after we were
working and we interviewed our five top doormen that they
(02:43):
had all one thing in common. The hobby was gardening.
Now wow, But other words, they like to be outside
and the dot. But what would we have done in
hiring somebody We probably would have liked somebody that loves
computer work, in a room somewhere by himself, and we
put me in as a domain and vice versa. But
(03:06):
so we did selection and done. Of course orientation, and
that's that was one of the keys again of our success.
Absolutely and I'm absolutely sellous about that, that the orientation.
When I see orientation being done, and nearly every company
is totally wrong. What happens most of the time, most
(03:28):
of the time, the new employee, and let's say it
so hotel, it could be any any business. The new
leader comes to work the bid, the manager the department
had make sys we're a team speech, which is pretty pathetic.
It happens everywhere. We're a team here and done and
done board. What is a team. A team is a
(03:52):
group of people who help each other toward a common goal,
objective vision. But that's not being the vision is not
the goal is not being given. Just we're a team.
And so Bill the new Vader. Now, after the team speech,
(04:12):
the boss said, Now Bill worked with Joe over here
because Joe knows the ropes, which is really funny because
you're not in a raw business. But somehow he knows
ropes and we turn them over and Joe the Vida
does their nine months and knows. The rope tells Bill
(04:34):
the new Vada on the way to the kitchen. This
company is not good. That's his orientation. What do we
possibly expect from that employee? It's crazy. We did our orientation.
We went so far as to the first day. Orientation
(04:55):
has to happen the first day because that is when
people are willing to change their behavior, because it's the
first day to work. Is a significant emotion event when
you can impact behavior. So we didn't do it the
second day. The first day and so far that when
(05:16):
we needed a certain job to be filled and we
found an ideal a candidate, we offered a job to
the candidate, but he couldn't come to work until the
day of orientation, but we paid them. The first day
had to be oriented, and the first day we talked
about who we are, what is do we how do
(05:38):
we treat guests, how do we say hello? Where are
we going? What is the dream of this organization. We
invited them to be part of the dream, not part
of the function. We hired them and oriented them to
be part of a dream. The vision of the company
to be the leader in the in the service industry.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
In the world.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
In our case join this dream. But we connected to
the motive of the dream also the first day. And
here's why we dream about that, because that will create
respect for all of us. We connected ours to them.
That creates opportunity for all of us. That creates armor
(06:19):
for all of us, that creates we define ourselves that
way together. That creates more income for all of us.
So that's why you have to join this dream. Adam
Smith and wrote the book Besides Wealth of Nations where
he identified that people cannot relate or to orders and
direction and what do we do? We give orders and
(06:42):
direction all they long, He said, people can only relate
to objectiveern motive, vision and motive bank. There's Adam Smith.
And by the way, aristartled wrote that in order to
be fulfilled in life, you need purpose and belong well,
the vision is a purpose that we give people. Why
(07:04):
would they give him that? Here is why? And he
can buy in right just given the direction you tell
him why and paying the buy in. So it becomes
a total different relationship as you will, and totally different
buy in and a total again, total different alignment because
they know why, they don't know, don't just know you'se
a because what does a What do some posts say?
(07:26):
Why should I do that? The answer because, wow, that's
how we treat human beings, that we treat our neighbors.
We cannot get away from the fact if I'm a Christian,
I cannot get away from the fact I cannot dismiss
(07:46):
my employees. Are my costmers of not being my neighbors.
Come on, it's kind of pretty said. I have to
give it at least sometimes thoughts that I have to
supposed to love my neighbors myself, and that incidentally they
are enables.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
And a great job on the storytelling by Greg Hengler,
and a special thanks to Horace Schultzy for sharing the
story of the rich Carlton at least one part, which
is how to hire and motivate folks, and he tells
a compelling story about how to do so. By the way.
His book Excellence Wins, a no nonsense guide to becoming
the best in a world of compromise, is a must
(08:27):
read for anybody leading anybody anywhere, and it all starts
with vision casting and motivating folks to do their best.
And my goodness, the other thing, clearly, if you've ever
been to a rich Carlton is service and service to others,
and having the mission of the company and the enterprise
serving the customer and not the customer serving the enterprise.
(08:50):
By the way, I love the quote from Adam Smith.
People cannot relate to orders and direction. They respond to
vision and to motive, and no finer word could be
said to hear. Some of the other Horse Shelty pieces,
by the way, go to Ouramerican stories dot com, including
the terrific one about his life story, an immigrant story
coming from Germany to the United States well to pursue
(09:14):
his dream, and the rich Carlton was not only his dream,
but the tens of thousands of employees who work there.
The story of Horse Shelty here on our American Stories
This is Lee Habib and this is our American Stories,
the show where America is the star and the American people,
and we love to hear your stories. You're the hour
in our American Story. Send them to our American Stories
dot com. There are some of our favorites, and one
of our favorite recurring types of stories to tell is
(00:32):
the story of founders, of people who start things, who
have the courage and the desire to do so. And
it is no simple thing to do, and we don't
spend nearly enough time in this country talking about people
who start things. Today, we're going to tell the story
of a legend and leader in the hotel world, Horst Shultzi,
(00:53):
and how he reshaped how service and hospitality are defined
in the business world that have become world famous Throughout
the years. Chelsea worked for both Hilton Hotels and Hyatt
Hotels Corporation before becoming one of the founding members of
the luxury hotel chain The Rich Carlton in nineteen eighty three.
(01:18):
Cost is also a Christian and tries his best to
live by his faith at home and at work. Here's
a story of how he deals with and thinks about
his employees his company and the founding vision of the
rich Carlton.
Speaker 2 (01:38):
We, particularly in our industry, be higher because our industry
has over one hundred percent turnover. They're constantly opened chops
in the hotel and their chops have to be filled.
So what do we do be higher? And we said, finally,
we're not going to do that, and we're going to select.
We're going to suffer through the open shop if we
(02:00):
have somebody who actually fits into it. By the way
we went to the point it tooken an average of
ten interviews before we filled the job, including dishwashers, but
we didn't film. And then, of course, so we selected.
We created a profile around each job category and then
(02:20):
hired against this profile below that was the talent really
needed for this job. So that was the selection. So
we went into major careful selecting. Kind of a funny
example here is doorman. Well, we found after we were
working and we interviewed our five top doormen that they
(02:43):
had all one thing in common. The hobby was gardening.
Now wow, But other words, they like to be outside
and the dot. But what would we have done in
hiring somebody We probably would have liked somebody that loves
computer work, in a room somewhere by himself, and we
put me in as a domain and vice versa. But
(03:06):
so we did selection and done. Of course orientation, and
that's that was one of the keys again of our success.
Absolutely and I'm absolutely sellous about that, that the orientation.
When I see orientation being done, and nearly every company
is totally wrong. What happens most of the time, most
(03:28):
of the time, the new employee, and let's say it
so hotel, it could be any any business. The new
leader comes to work the bid, the manager the department
had make sys we're a team speech, which is pretty pathetic.
It happens everywhere. We're a team here and done and
done board. What is a team. A team is a
(03:52):
group of people who help each other toward a common goal,
objective vision. But that's not being the vision is not
the goal is not being given. Just we're a team.
And so Bill the new Vader. Now, after the team speech,
(04:12):
the boss said, Now Bill worked with Joe over here
because Joe knows the ropes, which is really funny because
you're not in a raw business. But somehow he knows
ropes and we turn them over and Joe the Vida
does their nine months and knows. The rope tells Bill
(04:34):
the new Vada on the way to the kitchen. This
company is not good. That's his orientation. What do we
possibly expect from that employee? It's crazy. We did our orientation.
We went so far as to the first day. Orientation
(04:55):
has to happen the first day because that is when
people are willing to change their behavior, because it's the
first day to work. Is a significant emotion event when
you can impact behavior. So we didn't do it the
second day. The first day and so far that when
(05:16):
we needed a certain job to be filled and we
found an ideal a candidate, we offered a job to
the candidate, but he couldn't come to work until the
day of orientation, but we paid them. The first day
had to be oriented, and the first day we talked
about who we are, what is do we how do
(05:38):
we treat guests, how do we say hello? Where are
we going? What is the dream of this organization. We
invited them to be part of the dream, not part
of the function. We hired them and oriented them to
be part of a dream. The vision of the company
to be the leader in the in the service industry.
Speaker 1 (05:58):
In the world.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
In our case join this dream. But we connected to
the motive of the dream also the first day. And
here's why we dream about that, because that will create
respect for all of us. We connected ours to them.
That creates opportunity for all of us. That creates armor
(06:19):
for all of us, that creates we define ourselves that
way together. That creates more income for all of us.
So that's why you have to join this dream. Adam
Smith and wrote the book Besides Wealth of Nations where
he identified that people cannot relate or to orders and
direction and what do we do? We give orders and
(06:42):
direction all they long, He said, people can only relate
to objectiveern motive, vision and motive bank. There's Adam Smith.
And by the way, aristartled wrote that in order to
be fulfilled in life, you need purpose and belong well,
the vision is a purpose that we give people. Why
(07:04):
would they give him that? Here is why? And he
can buy in right just given the direction you tell
him why and paying the buy in. So it becomes
a total different relationship as you will, and totally different
buy in and a total again, total different alignment because
they know why, they don't know, don't just know you'se
a because what does a What do some posts say?
(07:26):
Why should I do that? The answer because, wow, that's
how we treat human beings, that we treat our neighbors.
We cannot get away from the fact if I'm a Christian,
I cannot get away from the fact I cannot dismiss
(07:46):
my employees. Are my costmers of not being my neighbors.
Come on, it's kind of pretty said. I have to
give it at least sometimes thoughts that I have to
supposed to love my neighbors myself, and that incidentally they
are enables.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
And a great job on the storytelling by Greg Hengler,
and a special thanks to Horace Schultzy for sharing the
story of the rich Carlton at least one part, which
is how to hire and motivate folks, and he tells
a compelling story about how to do so. By the way.
His book Excellence Wins, a no nonsense guide to becoming
the best in a world of compromise, is a must
(08:27):
read for anybody leading anybody anywhere, and it all starts
with vision casting and motivating folks to do their best.
And my goodness, the other thing, clearly, if you've ever
been to a rich Carlton is service and service to others,
and having the mission of the company and the enterprise
serving the customer and not the customer serving the enterprise.
(08:50):
By the way, I love the quote from Adam Smith.
People cannot relate to orders and direction. They respond to
vision and to motive, and no finer word could be
said to hear. Some of the other Horse Shelty pieces,
by the way, go to Ouramerican stories dot com, including
the terrific one about his life story, an immigrant story
coming from Germany to the United States well to pursue
(09:14):
his dream, and the rich Carlton was not only his dream,
but the tens of thousands of employees who work there.
The story of Horse Shelty here on our American Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.