Damon Huber
ENTP 420; Corporate Entrepreneurship
Section 1
Richard S. Normington
November 19, 2013
Marriott International Research Paper
Marriott International is one of the most well-known and respected hotel chains in the world. They have maintained an incredibly high reputation in the industry for decades while also being the most profitable. They are currently ranked #217 on Fortune 500 with 12.317 billion in revenue, highest in the hotel industry by three billion. Marriott wasn’t always the giant it is today. Their phenomenal achievements are a result of a well thought out vision, purpose, strategy, and core values. These features created an outstanding backbone for a great company using tactics discussed in Built to Last by Jim Collins. These ideas implemented years ago are holding true, keeping Marriott International two steps ahead of their competitors in all aspects of business.
J. Willard Marriott founded Marriott International in 1927 with an A&W root beer store. He and his wife, Alice, got their young business off the ground by quenching people’s thirst during Washington D.C.’s hot, muggy summers. Their original guiding principle was “Good food and good service at a fair price.” Within two years J.W. grew from a concession stand to three restaurants, including the first ‘drive-in’ restaurant on the east coast. These restaurants were known as ‘Hot Shoppes’. By 1937 they had expanded their company to a growing market, the airline industry. J.W. began selling in-flight boxed lunches to on planes traveling through the Hoover airport in Washington. In 1953 Hot Shoppes Inc. went public. Their shares were sold out within 2 hours of trading.
The company’s innovation continued to into the second half of the century with their introduction the hotel industry. In 1957 the Twin Bridges Hotel opened in Arlington, Virginia, with 365 rooms. It was the first ever
References: Marriott International. (2013, November 17). Yahoo Finance. Retrieved November 17, 2013, from http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=MAR+Interactive#symbol=mar;range=3m;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined; Fortune 500-- Marriott International. (2012, May 21). CNNMoney. Retrieved November 17, 2013, from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2012/snapshots/10664.html http://www.marriott.com/ Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Harper Business Essentials) (08 August 2002) by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras