Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

When I first joined Four Seasons a little under 2 years ago... I thought everyone around me had "drunk the kool-aid". I had never worked in an environmen quite like this. Everyone around you was interesting in not only offering an amazing product but also invested in making you and the team succeed. And generally everyone was happy at work... from housekeeping to executive staff. After reading this book... I now see how this corporate culture has reached all 83 hotels and all corporate offices. This memoir is inspiring and shows to be successful you don't have to be cut throat and bottom line oriented but you can also try living by the Golden Rule. I totally recommend this book to anyone interested in the company or industry, interested in different types of business philosophy, and definitely anyone interested in working for this company.

This book gives incredible insight into the formation of the worlds top luxury hotel brand. Sharp gives you an inside look into how the company started and grew into a luxury brand to where it is currently headed. Sharp describes things very well, and the books just makes you want to book a reservation at one of his hotels. Not every four seasons is the newest or the best, but overall the service and standard levels are unmatched. A must read for anyone interested in business, management,entreprenaurship or luxury travel.

Isadore Sharp's started out helping his father on small construction projects and eventually founded the prestigious Four Seasons Brand. The business lessons learned from his father stuck with him for the rest of his life. To this day, when Issy offers a handshake and his word, no fancy contracts are needed Four Seasons tells the story of a business philosophy that puts the customers first. The guest experience is the cornerstone to the brand. Every decision that is made comes back to the customer - How does it benefit the customer? How does it make their stay better? This approach forces customer services to be the foundation of the company rather than an afterthought. For example, every morning, staff members assemble to discuss the Glitch Report -- problems guests experienced from the night before. More importantly they work to resolve these complaints from the perspective of the customer. What's important is not the glitch per se but rather how it was handled. Hotel guests -- like all customers -- remember how they were treated and outcomes. As a result, the company creates a fiercely local customer base that afford it higher occupancy and room rates than competitors. Four Seasons doesn't look at a guest as a one time transaction worth only several hundred dollars but rather a lifelong relationship worth well into the hundreds of thousands. Creating an experience where everyone -- from managers and supervisors to bellmen, servers, and housekeepers were fully engaged around the customer took years. The biggest issue was trust. Managers needed to stop micro managing and trust employees to do the right thing to make the guest happy. It sounds easy but it's incredibly hard to weave that into the fabric of a large organization. Reading this book made me want to stay in a Four Seasons Hotel for the first time.

Like everything Isadore Sharp does, this book is first class! It is such a pleasure to read how this amazing man built the worlds finest hotel company. Down to earth, unpretentious and filled with honesty, Four Seasons gives you the highs and lows of the founding of the company. Mr. Sharp provides a history of him upbringing which gives the reader a clear understanding of his value system and the reasons that he holds the beliefs that he does. I recommend this book not only for people interested in the hotel business, but in any business that wants to succeed and be the best. I hope that this book becomes mandatory reading in every hospitality school in the world. Too many hotels look at their clients not as guests, but as walking ATM machines. Four Seasons still remembers that this is the Hospitality industry and that there is a reason that we call these people "The Guest". Thank you Mr. Sharp. From one hotelier to another, your company is the pinnacle that we all strive to reach.

Prior to reading Isadore Sharp's memoir, I checked out the biographical information about Four Seasons' founder, chairman, and CEO at the corporate Web site. Here is a portion of it that provides an excellent introduction to his book. As Sharp explains, "The reason for our success is no secret. It comes down to one single principle that transcends time and geography, religion and culture. It's the Golden Rule - the simple idea that if you treat people well, the way you would like to be treated, they will do the same. There was no vision, there was no grand dream," since the first Four Seasons - a modest motor hotel - opened in downtown Toronto. "But there has always been a consistent thread and it propels us forward today, as we continue to grow globally, and that's service." It may seem obvious that in the hotel business, service is a primary objective, but it is how that service is delivered that sets Four Seasons apart. "One way to characterize Four Seasons service would be to call it an exchange of mutual respect performed with an attitude of kindness." Defining and enforcing the company culture was one of four key strategic decisions made in the formative years of Four Seasons history. "I sat down with our communications experts and wrote down the fundamentals of our culture, which is based on the Golden Rule - to treat others as you wish to be treated...A lot of companies talk about having a culture, but we knew we had to walk the talk if we expected it to thrive in our hotels." The company that was launched in 1961 with a 125-room motor hotel in Toronto now has arguably the most profitable as well as the highest rated luxury hotels in the world, more than 140 in more than 40 countries. Sharp's leadership deserves much of the credit. What I most appreciate about this book is the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time that he has discussed so comprehensively and so specifically the process by which the Four Seasons organization has evolved over the past 46 years. There are so many highlights to cover and no one else is better qualified to do so. Here is a representative selection: 1. In 1963, Four Seasons opened its second hotel, Toronto's Inn on the Park. the sophisticated urban resort-style hotel was an instant success. 2. As indicated, throughout its history thus far, Four Seasons made four strategic decisions that formed the pillars of its business platform. The first was about quality. Small, central and well-appointed, with friendly, personalized 24-hour service, the first London hotel was just what people were seeking in the new age of international jet travel at the dawn of the 1970s. Rather than being all things to all people, Four Seasons would focus on one thing: being the best in each location, with medium-sized hotels of exceptional quality. 3. The second key strategic decision that formed the business platform was about service. True luxury is defined not by architecture or décor, but by service. S