Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts: Overview
In 2002, Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts was arguably the world's leading operator of luxury hotels, managing 53 properties in 24 countries. Being able to replicate "consistently exceptional service" around the world and across cultures was at the heart of the chain's international success and sustained advantage.
For Four Seasons, "consistently exceptional service" meant providing high-quality, truly personalized service to enable guests to maximize the value of their time, however guests defined doing so. Corporate culture contributed to the firm's success in two ways. First, through the values that the organization espoused. For Four Seasons, these were personified
in the Golden Rule: "Treat others as you wish they would treat you." Second was the set of behaviors that employees and managers displayed, in effect the enactment of the firm's values. The organizational capability of translating core values into enacted behaviors created competitive advantage at Four Seasons. Doing so required managers to address
a central question as they expanded into new countries: What do we need to keep consistent, and what should be flexible, i.e., what should we adapt to the local market?