Review: The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company

The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendary Customer Experience Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company by Joseph A. Michelli
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Another excellent case study and analysis by Dr. Michelli of a high-service company. Here, the author documents the Ritz Carlton hotel chain. While listening to the audiobook, I did not remember the “5 leadership principles” mentioned in the title, but when I reviewed them on the Amazon “look inside” peek at the book’s contents, I can see why I didn’t remember them – they are pretty obvious. The 5 principles are define and refine, empower through trust, it’s not about you, deliver wow, and leave a lasting footprint. As I review this list, I can recall examples of all of these principals at work at the Ritz through Michelli’s descriptions. This book seemed a lot like the last Michelli book I read, about the Mercedes Benz US sales operations. Both of the subjects have a lot of employees and take the high end of their marketplaces. They both charge high prices and can afford to implement methods that may not be cost efficient, but that can increase goodwill of the customer, aiming for repeated sales. From these books you learn that both companies use relationship building as a key to their business. There are great anecdotes throughout this book, including stories about the creation of Ritz’s external training center and curriculum, employee empowerment to fix customer’s problems, and having all employees understand and live the company credo. There were many memorable examples, but the one I will likely remember most is a story about a Ritz restaurant being called out of the blue by a community member asking for recommendations for where they could buy an allergy-free cake. The Ritz employee made the cake himself.

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