Bill Marriott telling stories, listening and learning in the Blogosphere
February 13, 2007 - כ"ו שבט תשס"ז by admin
Bill Marriott, Chairman & CEO of Marriott International has recently started blogging. In my view, he has captured the true essence of what blogging is all about (telling stories, listening, learning, engaging in a dialog, nurturing the community and sharing one’s passion) and I love reading his posts. Jonathan Schwartz at Sun may have some stiff competition on his hands 
In character with Bill’s love of talking, the blog offers an audio link so you can listen to Bill’s story in his voice. For example: .
His first post, on 01/16/2007, entitled “Uncharted Territory” (quoted below) received 80+ comments at last count – not bad for a first post!
Here’s Bill on why he’s entered the Blogosphere:
“I’m venturing into uncharted territory as I launch this blog. A year ago, I didn’t even know what a blog was — until my Communications team began telling me about all the blog traffic on travel and tourism. Now I know this is where the action is if you want to talk to your customers directly — and hear back from them. Soon we’ll add an audio version of the blog. That’s how I’m most comfortable: telling stories and listening.
Pioneering new frontiers is how this company was built.
Blogging will allow me to do what I’ve been doing for years — on a global scale. Talking to the customer comes easily to me. I visit 250 hotels around the world every year. This year I’ll be traveling once again to China where we have 27 hotels, 16 under construction and many more in our development pipeline. At every hotel, I talk to associates, from housekeepers to general managers, to get their feedback. I call it “management by walking around.” Like my parents, I value the input from our associates at all levels. I make lots of notes — and my best ideas almost always come from our people in the field.
Our 143,000 associates are truly the people who make Marriott a world-class business. I want to share some of their stories with you in future blogs. We are a company that is built on opportunity, and that foundation has made us successful.
Bottom line, I believe in communicating with the customer, and the internet gives me a whole new way of doing that on a global scale. I’d rather engage directly in dialogue with you because that’s how we learn and grow as a company.
So tell me what you think, and together we’ll keep Marriott on the Move!
This blog allows us to hear from you and build on the community that we’ve nurtured for 80 years.“
