Chapter 1: What experiences shaped Horst Schulze's early life?
I came to a conclusion. I'm working for barbarians. No fish knives, no fish fork. And they live in a situation where human beings shouldn't live. My father joined the Nazi party because he had to work. My grandfather was a unique character, said if our son died, he will die too.
So living in that environment impacts your life in a big way as a kid.
No doubt.
I will never go to that Ritz-Carlton in Fort Lauderdale ever again.
You understand I cannot compromise that. You understand I'm getting upset. I said, there is no way this is horse's standard. And Daniel said, and don't come to work tomorrow. Come here to create excellence. Now, I didn't get that.
You were number one when you guys left. Oh, sure. They dropped from one to 26, and Capella's number one.
Yeah. I insisted, wherever we are, we're number one. Period. And I told the general manager, will you accept that? What's your superpower? relentless.
Here's a promise I'll make you. By the time you're done watching this interview with the founder of Ritz-Carlton, your life will change. I'm telling you right now. It's a big promise, and I don't normally open up an interview saying this. This was one of my favorite interviews I've ever done in my life with an 87-year-old man that was born in Nazi Germany in 1939. His father was in the military.
His father was a Nazi, his mother hated the Nazis, and all he talked about was love and respect. And how this boy from this city in Germany grows up, goes into the hospitality business, eventually starts Ritz-Carlton, later on the only business ever to get two awards from the government for the best service in the world. What came with that honor was the fact that you had to let any company
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Chapter 2: How did Horst Schulze develop his standards of excellence?
Your life is about to change by the time you're done watching this interview with the one and only founder of Ritz, Horst Schulze. Enjoy this interview.
Adam, what's your point? The future looks bright. The handshake is better than anything I ever saw. It's right here.
I don't think I've ever said this before.
that's a simple decision to make i agree with you and by the way horse you need to know this like i've been following your work for many years uh we read the book we see the work that you've done over the years we brought in october of 2024 a ritz trainer to teach on standards of excellence in this room we took all our executive all our managers for a full day she did a great job on the training on where you guys stand for questions to ask and
You know, I've been a customer of yours for decades, going to Ritz-Carlton all over the world. And to sit with the guy that came up with the ideas to talk to you, it's a pleasure. It's great having you on the podcast.
Thank you. It's great to be with you.
Yes. And in turn, I admire what you're doing. Well, thank you. Truly do. Thank you. Thank you. So let's get right into it. As I'm going through the story, I'm like, wait a minute. He was born in 1939 in Stuttgart, Germany. Wasn't Stuttgart, but was Germany.
Outside of Stuttgart in the wine area, you know, where wine... And apparently it's right next to Luxembourg in France on that area where it's like a perfect market to create wine. So to go from there to where you are today, I want to first go into the story how everything got started. When you were born, what was Germany going through?
the start of the war, beginning of the war in 1939. In fact, my father was drafted late 1939 and came back in between, but left permanently, if you will, in 1941. I got to know him, I got to meet him the next time when I was seven. So you meet your father first time at seven years old? Well, I consciously met him. I mean, I was a baby, yeah.
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Chapter 3: What principles did Horst Schulze learn from his father?
There was a movie that went on at the time. Are you kidding? I know. What I'm trying to find out about Hattie, because I read somewhere as well that you said as early as four years old, you knew you wanted to be in the hotel business. No, I was 11. 11 years old? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, so when I read this, Rob, where was it we read that said as early as four years old? I said four years old?
For him to know at four years old, how does that happen? No, no. What was it like? Maybe, you know, because today when we read about it, 39, Germany goes to war in September. I think you're born April 25th. So five months.
Chin your antennae.
January 10th. Okay, so you're born January 10th? Yeah. Okay, so January... Online says April 25th, by the way. And now you're pretty private with your... Yeah. So January 10th, you're born. A few months later, the country goes to war. What is the conditions like where you're living?
I know, of course, you don't remember at that age, but... Yes, you do, because there were such extremes. Pretty soon, we went to sleep in the cellar. We broke the cellar wall in so in case the house would collapse, we could go into the next neighbor and so on, so on. They were all connected. My father joined the Nazi party because he was working. My mother was a major negative.
Let me give you a story that is hard to believe. My father, we didn't hear from him. My parents didn't hear from him. But my grandfather, who hated Nazis,
Every morning came to my house, he lived in a different house, at 7 a.m., took the axe that was there from the wood chopping plant, and stayed behind the door and looked through the slot in the door, the old wooden door, because the chief Nazi went to work that morning. When he went to work, he told, stopped in the families where the sun had fallen and informed them.
And my grandfather was a unique character, said if our son died, he will die too. When he comes in here to report, he's going to die. So you think you don't know that as a kid? is coming to take the axe. That was a normal daily routine. So you can't help but remember those things.
Or when there was the message that Hitler had been killed for a moment in the radio, my mother was in the grocery store. buying grocery when it came, the Fuhrer has been killed. For a moment that was out, and of course that changed a few minutes later. And my mother said, Gott sei Dank, thank God, it's time. She was arrested the next day.
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Chapter 4: How did Horst Schulze's upbringing influence his leadership style?
There was no transportation. There was nothing after the war, right after the war. And of course, it created such extreme moments that you do remember, no doubt.
Yeah, you see the inflation. There was some reports I saw that the price of bread could double every two hours, every four hours, some weird stories that you would read about. So do you remember the day it was announced that Hitler died?
No, I don't remember, no. I only knew my mother was in trouble.
She got arrested. And this was even the right one. This is the day that she thought he died, that he didn't die.
For the moment, it was announced. Stauffenberg, who tried to kill him, thought he was dead. He announced and it was open. That's how everybody was exposed because they got a message he died. Consequently, everybody that was part of the plot, 20,000 exposed themselves, took over in various towns. and were killed afterwards. That's how they knew they were all involved, that huge plot, yeah.
20,000. Yeah. How do you, because when I'm seeing you speak or I watch your interviews or I sit down with you right now or you're coming up to me, read this book, I'm going to help you change your life, you're a very positive figure, right? Your intensity, your energy, you've been married for many years, you're a man of faith, you speak in a very eloquent way. Even at that moment, were you...
Staying positive? Was it your mom that helped you be positive? My mom.
My mom.
How would your mom make you positive?
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Chapter 5: What are the implications of employee retention rates?
So please continue.
It's nearly pathetic.
Please forgive me.
please forgive me why though tell me why because because that means everything is wrong with the selection process already if you if you have if you hire those poor those poor percentages then you better start selecting stop get somebody to help you selecting employees
But you said your retention hit 19%.
Between 18 and 20% was the retention.
That means you fired or lost 18 or 19%.
You want to have 10% because you want to renew a little bit.
So why did you lose 18 or 19%?
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Chapter 6: How does accountability shape leadership?
But when I make a mistake, now I have to... This employee really didn't work out. So let's look where we made our mistake and tweak our process. Did we hire them wrong? Did we orient?
I agree with you.
If something go wrong, I have to go back and tweak my processes, not the employees. And if I have those numbers, that means my processes, that says your processes are really screwed up. Start over. That's what that says to me.
Chapter 7: What role does communication play in successful management?
Okay, how many times in your career did you fire people? How many people have you personally fired?
Well, I look at general managers. Roughly five or six.
Five or six you fired in 30 years at Ritz?
No, 20 years at Ritz. That's between Ritz and Capella, so in 30 years. Okay, so in 30 years you fired five GMs?
General managers. How often did you fire people at Hyatt? How many people did you fire at Hyatt?
Oh, that was earlier, and I was working different. I didn't fire a general manager, but managers, a lot, yeah.
A lot. What's a lot?
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Chapter 8: How can a leader maintain high standards after leaving a company?
50, 100, 200? Yeah, something. Okay, so tell me what did a person do to get you to a point of wanting to fire them?
Okay, for example, as a leader, we talk about delegating and so on, kind of what Tesla did. What do you delegate? You delegate, except you don't delegate your vision and your purpose. You don't delegate the standards. You don't delegate the values, you don't delegate those things. But you let people do things and then you measure and make sure they happen.
You cannot hope then, hope is not a strategy whatsoever. So you measure and you establish the expectation. You expect it to exist. Makes sense. So my expectation, for example, was, and that was a key element here, employee satisfaction X, customer satisfaction 92% top box, intend to return, intend to recommend. 92% minimum. And that was made very clear.
I said, Patrick, now understand, I have no right to compromise. I am here for all concerned. My right of compromising is over.
Mm-hmm.
So my expectation is X. Do you think you can handle it? By the way, and by the way, my role is to help you. I'm here available. Call me anytime. I'm here to help you. I will come to your hotel and spend time with you, but I'm here to help you. But here's the expectation. Here are the expectation. Customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and so on.
And I delegate you, and here's how our rules, and you go through orientation, here's how we do it. They learn that the employee is a part of the company, not just working for the company. They learned that any manager, that every employee works in an environment of belonging and purpose. Do you understand this, Patrick, I would say? Belonging and purpose. So we go through all that.
And then you have the precise numbers. And every year, the precise budgets numbers. Everything's clear. But now I see the customer satisfaction, which was my key. On the end of the month, I see you are 86%. But 92 is the minimum standard. So I call you, Patrick, you know, he said, Horst, no problem working on it.
I got it.
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