I'm a big fan of The Peninsula Hotels.
What made me a fan was their 2005 presentation, and extension, of the "Portraits of Peninsula."
According to the CEO, they believe the heart and soul of the Peninsula are the people who humbly, and sometimes secretly, serve there. And, rather than hiring any photographer to focus on these unknown celebrities, they hired Annie Leibovitz to travel to the far corners of the world and introduce us to these people through the magic of simple black and white photography.
The presentation of her art, on their website, is captivating. She introduced these quiet celebrities by name, by their art within Peninsula and showed us their families.
One of the Photos By Annie Leibovitz, Children of the Staff Pose as Peninsula Pages
But there's more -- to extend the campaign Annie worked with inner-city students in the Hunts Point community of South Bronx to help them see and capture their world through photography. Then, there was a special exhibition last October at the Peninsula New York to showcase their work and raise funds for the center at which they learned -- ICP at The Point, an arts-based community center in New York.
I believe a great hotel lobby should feel as wonderful at 5 am as it does at 5 pm. My favorite hotel memories, don't include the people who work there -- I can tell you how incredible our room was, how creative our meals were and tell you what core values I felt from the "sense of place."
Those things don't happen by themselves. But in a great hotel -- it seems as though they do.
A great hotel experience isn't marred by a slow check-in, a quiet lobby, or a distant staff. Even their best people have a bad day. (But, more on this later.)
Was the "Portraits of Peninsula" effective? Did it produce a remarkable ROI? What did it do for employee morale? What was the response to the Exhibition? How did they measure success?
They wouldn't tell me.
Then I remembered reading about Chris Maher's discussion with Raymond Yeh, the co-author of "The Art of Business." Raymond shared his four principles when looking at any innovation or business or endeavor. Chris wrote them this way:
Will this add to the peace of the individual?
Will this create more harmony in the society?
Will this increase compassion among the wealthy?
Will this increase hope among the needy?
Then Chris said, "To those with a certain turn of mind, these questions will seem soft-headed, fuzzy and actually inappropriate for any serious businessperson to consider. But as a pragmatic businessperson who is blessed with a successful and growing business, I find each of these questions to be relevant to the choices I make." *
These questions must have been relevant to the people of Peninsula, too.
* Q&A With Chris Maher: Marketing and Our Souls, by Ann Handley,
