Mariott International

Executive Summary

The aim of this paper is to display the overall strategy of Marriott International. Issues discussed throughout the report reveals how Marriott aligns their business and people management strategies. In addition, the report will cover the main features of the workforce and how the company positions itself in the global and knowledge economies. The report further discusses the training and personnel development at Marriott underlining the employee management strategies.

1. Introduction

J. Willard Marriott was the founder of Marriott in 1927. Along with his wife they opened a root beer stand in Washington D.C as Marriott was convinced that the city needed such a place to get a cool drink, later they expanded their enterprises into a chain of restaurants and hotels (Marriott History, 2010). Marriott International's longest operating hotel is the Key Bridge Marriott in Virginia and it celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009. Their son J.W. (Bill) Marriott Jr. is now the current Chairman and CEO and has led the company to spectacular worldwide growth (Marriot History, 2010). Marriott International was only established in 1992 after the division of Marriott Corporation to comprise of two individual companies, the other being Host Marriott Corporation (Marriott History, 2010).

Marriott, in partnership with Conservation International, has become the first major global hotel company to calculate its carbon footprint and launch an integrated environmental strategy to address climate change (Corporate Environmental Leadership, 2010). This strategy involves specific steps the company can take in five key areas: water, waste and energy; supply chain, green buildings, carbon offsets and employee and guest engagement (Corporate Environmental Leadership, 2010). The strategy was developed in collaboration with Conservation International.

In conjunction with exclusive restaurants and hotels, Marriott International also developed three theme parks named Marriott's Great America from 1976 until 1984, however, only opened two. These parks were located in Gurnee, Illinois and Santa Clara, California with a proposed although never built theme park in Washington D.C area (Great America Parks, 2010)

Marriott International currently have 3,420 operated or franchised lodging properties in than 70 countries. Marriott's hotel brands include the Renaissance Hotels, Marriott Hotels & Resorts, Courtyard and Fairfield Inn, the Ritz-Carlton luxury chain and resort and time-share properties operated by Marriott Vacation Club International (Marriott International..., 2009). Moreover, Marriott additionally provides more than 2,000 rental units for corporate housing and manages 45 golf courses. At the end of the financial year 2009, the company had an astonishing 137,000 employees.