Hilton Worldwide Leadership
Referred to as “the inn keeper of the world” Hilton Hotels founder Conrad Hilton was a visionary leader and his values echoes on the current leadership practices at Hilton to a certain extent. Christopher J. Nassetta is Hilton Worldwide President and CEO and has been recognized as the CEO of the Year 2014 by Washington Business Journal for his rigorous approach to everything and motivational leadership style.[1] Hands-on approach is another important aspect of leadership at Hilton promoted by its President and CEO Nassetta. For example, the initiative known as ‘immersion’ “requires every corporate manager to spend three days a year on the front lines — cook, housekeeping, front desk — to get a feel for the customers”.[2]
The position of Chairman of the Board of Directors is currently held by Jonathan D. Gray. Hilton Worldwide Executive Committee has 13 members and there are eight members in Hilton Worldwide Board of Directors. Autonomy for decision making is an important feature of Hilton leadership practices. Employees at all levels go to great lengths to meet and exceed customer expectations and employees very seldom ask for permission from their superiors to address customer requests, even when these requests are unusual.
Beyond making independent decisions, the members of Hilton team are vested with the power to make the difference, to give others a powerful reason to want to come back to them when a need developed.[3] Diversity represents another critically important value at Hilton with direct implications on leadership practices at all levels. Hilton CEO and President Nassetta states “I have a very simple philosophy on diversity: It is what allows us to perform and deliver for our customers and, frankly, outperform the competition”[4]
At present, Hilton Worldwide leadership is assigned with the challenging task of maintaining the competitive advantage amid increasing costs increasing uncertainty in the global marketplace accompanied with intensifying competition.
Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. Report constitutes a comprehensive analysis of Hilton business strategy. The report illustrates the application of the major analytical strategic frameworks in business studies such as SWOT, PESTEL, Porter’s Five Forces, Value Chain analysis and McKinsey 7S Model on Hilton. Moreover, the report contains analyses of Hilton’s marketing strategy and discusses the issues of corporate social responsibility.
[2]Heath, T. (2014) “Christopher Nassetta: The man who turned around Hilton” The Washington Post, Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/christopher-nassetta-the-man-who-turned-around-hilton/2014/07/03/43071478-fd5a-11e3-932c-0a55b81f48ce_story.html
[3]Magee, J. (2015) “The Managerial Leadership Bible” 2nd edition
[4]Nasetta, C. J. (n.d.) “Diversity Leadership” Available at: http://www.diversityinc.com/christopher-nassetta/