From Iconic Founder to Iconic Leader
Obstacle
The iconic founder built the foundation for a highly successful company. As the inventor of the boutique hospitality industry, he was the most important figure in this early stage, fast-growing hotel and restaurant company. Classic challenges abounded, including a “cowboy” culture of creative mavericks, conflicts among top leaders, and upcoming growth challenges without a strong digital platform. As the company grew, the founder contracted a serious illness and died unexpectedly in his prime, leaving the company to struggle to find their culture and identity just as they encountered the business crisis of 9/11.
Solution
The iconic founder’s core values and vision were the guiding force to the young company’s culture. After his death, it became imperative to harness his core values, along with highlighting the strength of his vision and expertise. Focusing on the entire company, Trimergence helped all the leaders and employees throughout the company align with common goals and accurate interpretations of each other’s’ world views and interpersonal styles. Through our self-awareness upgrade system, relationship alignment process, and Trimergence tools they established the Cultural Cornerstones. This systematic approach helped build trust, rapport, alignment and opportunity throughout the enterprise.
Impact
The company’s brand and customer experience created a rapid shift in notoriety. As the brand and company grew, achieved unprecedented NPS scores, they attracted top talent and became even more successful through the tightly aligned culture. They achieved a huge creative leap to become the top boutique hospitality company in the world. Their massive differentiator is their highly sophisticated and operationally defined business culture, which drove a compelling employee and customer experience. They entered the Fortune 100 Best Places to Work starting in the mid-2010’s and have been in the F100’s top 10 since 2018. The former CEO, who drove the huge acquisition by the world’s largest hotel company, made it clear that Trimergence was the “secret sauce” that made their culture come alive and stay strong.