Isadore Sharp > Quotes

“Excellence is the capacity to take pain”
― Isadore Sharp

“Having a positive mental attitude is asking how something can be done rather than saying it can’t be done. —BO BENNETT, businessman, author, and philanthropist”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“Great companies first build a culture of discipline . . . and create a business model that fits squarely in the intersection of three circles: what they can be best in the world at, a deep understanding of their economic engine, and the core values they hold with deep passion.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“Japanese contracts were vague; they wouldn’t stand up in Canadian courts, for in Japan they didn’t have to. If an agreement wasn’t working out for both parties, company managers would just talk it over and settle any differences.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“In North America, some companies rotated purchasing agents so they didn’t get buddy-buddy with suppliers, for fear of kickbacks. I found company relationships in Japan to be so close that a Japanese manufacturer might have only one supplier for any one part.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“I asked John Stauss, “To what do you attribute our success in creating such a competent workforce? Most of your people had never worked in a hotel before, and many others had never worked anywhere.” “I think I can put it in two words,” John replied. “Patience and understanding.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“Having a positive mental attitude is asking how something can be done rather than saying it can’t be done. —BO BENNETT,”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“find that expertise is easier to learn than bad habits are to unlearn.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“Start out with what is “right” rather than what is acceptable. —PETER DRUCKER”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“I speak to our people about Four Seasons culture and the Golden Rule and how we preserve it. “Look,” I tell them, “this isn’t of my making. This is not something I invented and you have now bought into. This is the way you were brought up and this is the way I believe you bring your children up, with certain principles, work ethics, and values. That is what brings us together. We are different in our personalities, beliefs, and backgrounds, and we take pride in those differences. The tie that binds is our value system, the principles that we believe in, and that is what makes the company homogeneous. Not that we are all the same, but our beliefs are similar.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“An old Japanese proverb put our managers’ role in a nutshell: “If they work for you, you work for them.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“Wolf later told me he just hoped that I was the genuine one. After the interview, he said to himself, “If this guy is for real, I’ve found the perfect job. This could be the place where I want to work for the rest of my life.” His viewpoint was typical of the young executives we were now hiring, people who believed in treating employees as they themselves would want to be treated.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“What we believe about people, positive or negative, is self-fulfilling, and it’s fundamental to workforce attitude and motivation.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“The whole question of glitches is central to how we provide service. It comes full circle to employee job security and confidence. If they feel secure in their job, they won’t mind telling us the things that didn’t go right.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“We didn’t want people who thought servicing others was demeaning—we wanted people with high self-esteem. Not people who said in a crisis, “That’s not my job,” but people who’d say, “How can I help?” People who’d never answer a customer’s question by saying, “I don’t know,” but rather, “I’ll find out.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“I’ve identified the four key strategic decisions that formed the rock-solid foundation of Four Seasons. These are now known as the four pillars of our business model. They are quality, service, culture, and brand.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“Over is the beginning of under,” meaning that growth can become addictive, adding volume without value.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“We made this a common experience by setting up, early on—far ahead of other hotel companies—what we called a guest-history system. The first time guests stayed with us, we computerized their preferences—in rooms, food, drink, and anything else our employees noted—so that when they returned, we could give them, without their having to ask, whatever they wanted and liked best. And these files, as we added to them, kept us abreast of changing tastes.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“We can upgrade technical skills with training, but no amount of training can change ingrained attitudes or create responsibility and initiative.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“The mind is like a parachute,... It only works when it's open. p162”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“To accomplish great things we must first dream, then visualize, then plan . . . believe . . . act! —ALFRED A. MONTAPERT, American author”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“Business books credit Isadore with “a talent for innovation” and the mind of an “integrative thinker.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“All people are equal in our eyes, whether guests or employees.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“We encouraged our employees to keep notes on guests’ preferences, so that when the vice president of a national organization checked in to a room at Four Seasons Ottawa, she was greeted by a flower arrangement in her favorite colors. Not only was this a pleasant surprise, she also felt recognized and special.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“So keep your egos in check, and let the people who work for you shine. Because they’re the people who know our customers best, the people we depend on to lead the way. It’s no longer ‘Do as I say.’ It’s ‘Do as I do.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“Doing too many things at once is the most common mistake in business.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“Remember, we can’t change employee behavior without changing ours. We have to have employees who think for themselves and act on it, who can remedy service failures on the spot. We’re asking them to see the company’s interest as their own and to voluntarily take responsibility. We’re asking them, in effect, to be self-managers.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“most of the raves workers give their employers were based on three corporate traits. First, “a powerful visionary leader,” one who “demands but also inspires them to give their best.” Second, “they offer a physical environment that makes work enjoyable.” Third, “they frame their work as part of a deep rewarding purpose that employees find fulfilling.” It also stated that “high morale and outstanding performance emphatically go together.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“Next up is a review of the previous day’s mistakes in something we call the Glitch Report. Every department in the hotel is represented at the morning meeting, and each has a printout detailing what’s gone wrong and what steps may have already been taken to correct course. The Glitch Report ensures that every hotel department knows what happened and which guest it affected.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy

“Tough times brought on by the Gulf War were testing such assumptions, forcing us to consider our response. We needed to come up with new ideas, do more with less, make short-term gains through greater efficiency, and prepare for long-term gains. That meant cutting every dollar possible in overhead and procedures while maintaining or boosting spending in three vital competitive areas. Number one was product quality. World leadership demanded that we maintain world-class quality, and recession is generally a period when material and labor prices are lowest and room occupancies are down. So we renovated and refurbished at such normally busy properties as the Inn on the Park in London and The Pierre in New York at a time when revenue would be little affected and customers least inconvenienced. That meant we were spending when others were retrenching. We had followed that strategy in 1981-82, and the rebound from that recession had given us nine years of steady growth. I thought the odds were in our favor to score the same way again. The second area was marketing. It’s tempting during recession to cut back on consumer advertising. At the start of each of the last three recessions, the growth of spending on such advertising had slowed by an average of 27 percent. But consumer studies of those recessions had showed that companies that didn’t cut their ads had, in the recovery, captured the most market share. So we didn’t cut our ad budget. In fact, we raised it modestly to gain brand recognition, which continued advertising sustains. As studies show, it’s much easier to sustain momentum than restart it. Third, we eased the workload and reduced costs by simplifying reporting methods. We set up a new system that allowed each hotel to recalculate its forecast, with minimal input, to year’s end, then send it in electronically along with a brief monthly commentary.”
― Isadore Sharp, Four Seasons: The Story of a Business Philosophy