Treat Employees Right So They Treat Customers Right

http://www.forbes.com/sites/micahsolomon/2015/08/17/four-seasons-leader-isadore-sharp-treat-employees-right-so-they-treat-customers-right/#4bd846a85017

Isadore Sharp,  Founder And Chairman, Four Seasons Hotels And Resorts (Photographer: Bryan Mills for Four Seasons)

Isadore Sharp, Founder And Chairman, Four Seasons Hotels And Resorts

Starting from a modest offshoot of his family’s construction business (“The Four Seasons Motor Hotel,” if you can believe that), founder and chairman Isadore Sharp has built one of the great brands and organizations in the hospitality industry, the privately-held Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts, with 93 highly-rated luxury hotels and resorts under management worldwide.

Most impressive to me is that the Four Seasons organization  has been built in alignment with Mr. Sharp’s longstanding commitment to The Golden Rule, to applying this principle of fairness to all of the entities involved in creating their hospitality experience; to quote the Four Seasons corporate framework, “In all our interactions with our guests, customers, business associates and colleagues, we seek to deal with others as we would have them deal with us.”  The success of this approach in employee retention –Four Seasons has one of the lowest turnover rates in the industry–and engagement–Four Seasons has been ranked in the “100 Best Places To Work” for 18 years straight–is evident, and Mr. Sharp also credits this philosophy with allowing Four Seasons to provide what he says is the single most important factor in the success of his company: a superior level of customer service.