If You Want Excellence, You Need High Intent!
Are you ready for nonstop knowledge bombs? Joining us in episode 52 of this revved up, 45 minute edition of Pit Stops to Podium is Horst Schulze. A founding member of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, Mr. Schulze established a new standard of excellence in the hospitality industry. Under his leadership, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company became the first service-based company to be awarded the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award – twice. Later in his career, Mr. Schulze founded The Capella Hotel Group. Now, he energizes organizations to reconnect with their service commitment and he recently completed his first book titled “Excellence Wins." Learn what it means to have high intent, how taking the necessary steps are crucial, and why finding the right people along the way is key.
Here comes the checkered flag!
Pitstop Highlights
Finding People to Join You in a High Intent
Tools fulfill a function, people fulfill a purpose. When you invite people to join you in your high intent, you’re not merely providing them with a function to carry out, you are giving them an opportunity, a purpose, and connecting them to your motive and how it can benefit them. When they see your high intent has a value to them, they want to accomplish it with you.
Solving the Root Cause of a Problem
Don’t ever say, “stuff just happens.” Problems are the result of flawed processes, not flawed people. If a defect or problem repeats, there is a root cause. If you eliminate this root cause, the problem is solved. Finding a root cause entails asking “why?” (usually going back about 5 steps). As an example of this, Mr. Schulze recounts a story with a surprise ending!
Relationships Build Loyalty
“We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” This quote by Mr. Schulze embodies the idea that if you display respect to people and show you are professional, they will become loyal customers. According to surveys, people are willing to pay more for the same service if they feel well taken care of in the process. It’s all about trust. Loyalty creates customers, not the product.
Connect with Horst:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/horstschulze/
Website: horstschulze.com
Full Transcript
Brendan: Hey everyone welcome to pit stops Podium the RevPartners podcast where we talk to execs who have competed and won in taking their companies from high growth to high scale. My name is Brendan Tolleson. I am the co-founder and CEO of RevPartners and I'm delighted to have with me today Horst Schulze for this edition of Pit Stops to Podium. Welcome, Mr. Schulze, how are you?
Horst: I'm very fine and I'm glad to be with you
Brendan: Likewise well this is a treat um I have been a long admirer of Mr. Schulze. I have read quite a few of his books and listened to a few of his speaking engagements. For those that may not be familiar, Horst Schulze is a founding member of The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company and he really established a new standard of excellence in the hospitality industry. Under his leadership the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company became the first service-based company to be awarded the Mercedes Malcolm Baldrige National Quality award not once but twice. Later in his career Mr. Schulze founded the Capella Hotel Group and now he energizes companies to reconnect with their service commitment and you're also now an author uh recently completing his first book entitled Excellence Wins. This is a very fun episode for me as I said Mr. Schulze and so this is just a real delight so thank you for taking the time to join us today
Horst: Great to be with you you know it's funny I have to I have to say that not not to sell something but you know you mentioned Ritz-Carlton was a respected voted for many years 16 years in a row in fact when I worked there as a number one hotel company in the world but not only that it was voted number one brand in the world but guess who is now and then I left and I started another hotel company Capella And guess who was now voted number one in the world well Capella is
Brendan: I'm gonna guess Capella
Horst: Yes it is now I sold it two years ago but it's it's already number one in the world now and uh so the the philosophy and the processes do work
Brendan: Yes yeah you know not once but twice and so to your point there there's likely some knowledge that you can impart to our audiences it relates to how to build it
Horst: I try I'll try and do that
Brendan: Well Mr. Schulze before we get into talking about some of those insights we do have a tradition here and that's to get to know our guests outside of work uh what are three fun facts that our audience should know about you
Horst: Fun I don't know fun well maybe maybe I have four daughters
Brendan: Okay
Horst: Four daughters they all live in Atlanta that's why I live in Atlanta I actually come from Germany and from a small village I still have a home there my wife is from Pittsburgh but the fact that I still have a home there after being married 44 years means my wife likes it also otherwise wouldn't have a home there anymore now we spent yeah we spent quite a bit of time there but not the last three years because of Corona however we're going to go there next month again after three years which we love is small wine village all of my friends and here's the real fun fact when I get back there within minutes people in the village know that I'm there that's a small village for you and it won't be taking 10 minutes for them there I'm still unpacking when I get my first telephone call people inviting me to wine tastings because they all grow wine let me tell you that is fun
Brendan: Yeah that's a trip it's a fun time yeah um this is white wine correct?
Horst: Yeah yeah Riesling
Brendan: Yeah yeah I uh growing up I took German uh don't ask me to do this podcast in German oh yeah I took it for about seven years and lived in Vienna, Austria during University but uh I I can barely even speak it embarrassed it's an embarrassing uh yeah
Horst: It's not it's not easy okay I I'm when I got back even myself I luckily I live in the U.S 50 over 50 years when I got back it takes me two three days to really be in it again yeah if they asked me to make a speech in German I I'm I I would fail. In English in a minute no problem yeah
Brendan: Did you raise your daughters to be fluent in German?
Horst: And no two of them are fluent and the other two speak a few words they would pretend that they can they will tell others that they can but they really not very well
Brendan: Well I think I'm probably in that camp as the other two daughters
Horst: That I tell you I tell you some a fun fact and beautiful fact my wife after we got married my parents were still alive uh on my first birthday after we got married she said I have a birthday gift for you you won't see it but I'm going to learn German that's my gift to you so I can communicate with with your parents I thought oh well come on that Americans never learn languages but she did but she did she's from Pittsburgh but she did she speaks pretty well German
Brendan: Well that's impressive did you hear the Pittsburgh Steelers or were you
Horst: Sure I lived in Pittsburgh for a while you cannot help but if you live in Pittsburgh you get sucked into the excitement about the Steelers you you can help that you know
Brendan: Well they have a rich tradition that's for sure
Horst: And then live with me ever since
Brendan: That's great well let's let's transition into the big idea we had mentioned uh Mr Schulze both your background in terms of the brands you've created and the awards that you've received but also the book kind of speaks on that framework so I'd love to use this as an opportunity to unpack some of those themes and I really love this line that you have that excellence is not an accident it's a result of intent hard work so let's let's talk about it
Horst: It's not no just it's it's all the result of high intent
Brendan: High intent
Horst: That's that's that is the difference maker in your life so if you if you have a plan if you if you go if you if you intend to do something what is the high intent what's your high intent in your relationships with others what's the high intent for the future of your company of yourself of your marriage let's let's take that as an example because it's an easy example what's the high intent is it I intend to have peace together or how about being in love the rest of your life not just love of course you love your wife she lives as you know you she's your partner but how about being in higher intent being in love the rest of your life you see once the high intent is established you'll find the answer to what that intent rather than just making average decisions every which everybody makes non-stop why not take a decision and bring it to a high intent but and and decisions is everything it's a decision I again uh don't you know what to do let's let's stay with this silly example if you will maybe the marriage is certainly not nothing simple nothing silly it's it's the most important union unit that you have in your life because it's the closest it impacts you the most let's stay for a moment it's a high intent you want to be in love all your life now you have to make decisions and about the actions that you have to take to get to that point and and let me do some do you all the men in this that are listening a big favor now I do you a big favor okay yeah here's a step that you have to take for this lifelong being in love you have to do something about it you can't wait for it
Brendan: Yeah
Horst: You start this way go to your wife in a quiet moment and say sweetheart whatever you call that how can I be a better husband to you and after she cried and then you apply it what you see high intent is not enough you have to take down the actions that get you to that point
Brendan: I I do love that you called out the distinction between intent and higher intent and to your point it's followed by action um and if there is a response required
Horst: Yeah yeah you know it's just doing things you invariably even end up in the morass of mediocrity unless you you're doing things for which you have a high intent then you will pass mediocrity
Brendan: Yeah well let's let's unpack a little bit further Mr. Schulze before we get into some of those practical applications um what do you think about high intent from a like apply it into the business context uh you talk a lot about this idea of like we are human beings um and so this idea of purpose and belonging
Horst: Yeah
Brendan: I'll start there because I think that's a good segment
Horst: Yeah I mean look high intent simple example it's like but I had a high intent to create a finest hotel company in the world once you know that and of course then in that moment you have the obligation because in that moment as a leader of a company you have the obligation to question yourself is this good for all concerned and in fact you should always do that is your intent good for those that it affects now in this case of course it would be in in a case or it's called of course it would be in the investors the employees the guests and society as a whole yeah I have to question myself is my intent here good for all of them not an easy answer oh yeah but wait a minute why and answer to yourself yes this is good for all concerns in this moment as the leader as the owner of the intent if you will you now will have no more choice you cannot compromise it anymore because you would go against all concerns and once it's clearly established what you want to accomplish that vision you now have developed purpose for all for everybody rather than just function work work now is done for for a higher purpose for a high intent by all of them you you have a real obligation now to not compromise and keep it alive if you're the leader of an organization but no no that goes back right to yourself your individual dreams your individual vision your high intent you have no it it should it can’t be a pipe dream you have to commit yourself to it you have to initiate the step that gets you to the to the vision to the high intent and of course you have to keep focus on it that's where people break down they define excuses why things cannot be done well that that and you end up in the morass of mediocrity
Brendan: Yeah so let's let's unpack that a little bit from uh Ritz Carlton uh example so you mentioned there are four stakeholders um what was that high intent for you in terms of what north star that you were going towards?
Horst: But in in that case of course it was the high intent was to become the finest hotel company in the world so I have to question myself is that good for the investors so yeah even the best we get higher sales and so on it's good for every employee but yeah because if you're the best and get known to be the best in the world we will grow that means opportunity for all of them it means the name of the company will become well known that means everybody gets defined by it as positive an employee for example former employee of Ritz Carlton if if they look for a job today and they hundred others they will get the job because they have a good reputation that is the result of the high intent and the in accomplishing the high intent so is it good for the the guest of course if I'm the best in the world and the service delivery is good for the guest is it good for society well yeah because society can learn from that and I'm serving society so they will benefit from it so I and I have the question once I know that and I didn't answer those questions that easily I really thought about it I now know once be understand that I now can find what I have to initiate to get to that point I also know I have no more right to compromise it
Brendan: Yeah
Horst: I own it it kind of paints you and kind of paints you in the corner
Brendan: Yeah you can't hide yes um and I love that let's talk about to your point that's where the action happens that's where that hard work uh manifests itself and I wanna I wanna talk about three areas within kind of your experience in Ritz Carlton and one of the one of those is around orientation so you talked about the four stakeholders one of those being um and I love your description of how you thought about new hires and how you brought them into that high intent purpose statement
Horst: Well from then once you have a high intent you actually can invite people not to work for you but join you in your intent it is there's a big difference I'm not in that moment I'm not selecting people anymore to just fulfill a function is it the chair in which I’m sitting is fulfilling a function I'm hiring a human being to join me in a high intent and understand here it is why don't you do you want to join me to become the best in the world that of course sets expectations in you but it gives you opportunity at the moment the same moment I must connect them to the motive of becoming the best in the world and show them how the motive is a good one for them that means if you're the best in the world we will grow and you have opportunity we will be honored you will be respected etc we will have more guests you have more income so I I connect them so that the high intent has a value to them and they want to accomplish it next of course is orienting the the customer the I'm sorry oriented employee to the to the company that that's done that is all every company does that wrong I I'm sorry every company don't anybody get insulted there I have looked at so many companies I haven't seen anybody doing it right the first day of work is the orientation first you select them to join then you orient them to who you are and to the expectation that the market has in your product that has to be understood in the orient them who it is what is the soul and his thinking the heart and the dreams of the company join don't work for us join give them the pieces to be part of something you know what happens in most companies come on I mean let's be honest the new guy comes to work and the minutes are next are pathetic team speech we're a team here come on a team a team is a group of people who have a common objective but that's not given the vision to be the best in the world our common objective now we'll keep and help each other too with that that's not done the first day they come in we make the team speech and then we give them the rules and regulation of the company and then we let them fill out all kind of papers insurance and all this stuff and that's the orientation instead of showing them the first day when when they have you see the first is essential the first day is a significant emotional event for a new employee and when there is a significant emotional event in human beings the human being will adopt new behaviors so you tell them the first day we are in time always we respect our guests we should discuss the behaviors necessary in your job not not hear the rules and regulations it's silly you can teach them later so we made sure we have a very careful orientation we've invited again reinvited the employees to join the first day we told them who we are by the way any new hotel or takeover hotel no matter where Berlin, Osaka, Shanghai I did the orientation and so here's
Brendan: Our listeners for us we need to pause there so for our listeners listening um you would physically go to a new location to do the training?
Horst: That's correct in a statement that's how important it was that's how important it is I want to clearly align the new employees from dishwasher to general manager to us as a company who we are welcome them tell them you are part of something you're part of purpose and belonging and and here's what we want to do and here is why it's good for you
Brendan: And I remember you even said that you'd have new employees where you say or we'll hire you but you're not starting until you have that training right like it would even be a gap like two weeks
Horst: Oh yeah oh a new and yeah but well you understand we I did it for new hotels I didn't do It for the existing hotels once the hotel's operating the general manager does it but we actually that first day of work is a key day for us we'll if we hired you because we wanted you because you're good candidate we hired you but our day of orientation is two weeks from now you cannot show up till the day of our we put you on the payroll but it cannot show up to the dear orientation because that first day is when we connect you or make you part because you're this significant emotional event we don't want to waste that
Brendan: This is a this is a light bulb moment for us at RevPartners doing when I heard you give this uh presentation once uh we we changed everything about how we did onboarding um and it it was painful to your point about like these people like it it's a lot of time um but it is it has been I mean immensely valuable to our new employees I mean they the last four people since we've implemented so this is the best onboard experience we've ever ever had because it's really connecting to the mission and the values and the DNA of the organization and the intent to your point earlier
Horst: Yeah they become part they become part of a culture and a thinking and a dream is our vision is our dream you know we must understand that people must understand even even Aristotle said people need belonging and purpose but we don't offer them that at work we offer them a function and again your microphone is fulfilling a function but we are hiring human beings
Brendan: And this is incredibly relevant you know in this current market that we're in I mean it's been pretty volatile but there's that whole great resignation because to your point it's become very transactional and it's become very much you fulfilled a function as you stated as opposed to being part of a purpose and belonging to a greater uh cause
Horst: Yeah I I before we started the podcast here I was on the Zoom with some people I'm connected with and we talked about that turnover of employees which has gone up and not finding employees first of all there are plenty of people out there the problem is you don't want to work for you it doesn't Okay so okay so let's not make those excuses we are not in we're not bleeding and managing to make excuses we are here to find answers okay find them and and why do they leave well they leave one of three reasons that they leave don't say money because I started that enough studies that they said it's not true okay there well yeah a small percentage leave for money but very small except it was even
Brendan: Like number seven right of like why people consider leaving I mean why they want to be at the organization
Horst: It's minimal and it's the accept effect so why do they leave either you sell on the if Joe Joe or Bill is left he was not good oh wait a minute wait a minute he was not good why did you hire him then right so it he can't help that he was raised wrong by his mother but you hired him number two you oriented them him you trained him you created working environment and if and if it isn't didn't work out that employee Bill didn't work out it means either you selected them wrong or you oriented them wrong or you trained them wrong or you created the wrong work environment it's you not them what what can you do about Bill you can't do anything about it but you can do something about your processes
Brendan: I like that it uh well yeah ultimately is to you I think it's a good segue into the next topic which gets into continuous improvement um and how process plays into that that concept so help us understand how that applied into the Ritz Carlton um story
Horst: Well well very careful about about that uh if a defect a mistake repeated itself we we created teams what we call tiger teams doesn't mean anything but tiger teams with people connected to the process and let's say we have front the front of a check-in we have slow service there or complaints so we talk people from the front desk and put them together inside and told them finds the root cause as to why this is happening and we worked on it and we looked at it and because it's not the mistake or there is slippage in the banquet corridor why it has nothing to do with people has always to do with it why it is wet because it is bad why is it wet we go five steps until we find the answer a limited root cause and it just became a better you're limited and it just became better you see it that is such an important issue as soon as the defect repeats there is a root cause somewhere it's not people it's a process somewhere if it is the wrong person it's still a process the hiring process maybe that's what I said before look where is it what is the process and there's so many you know that that has to be understood there's so many little mistakes happen if we would eliminate those mistakes we would save dramatic monies in every business but instead of people say stuff happens they use a different word but stuff happens it shouldn't happen right now what if they would say about the computers that help landing a plan if the stuff happens so we have another accident another crash so silly stuff happens you figure out by identifying root causes eliminate one mistake after the other that's it
Brendan: And you also had a rewarding those behaviors right so for the individuals that were able to identify that root cause that they were rewarded for it
Horst: Yeah yeah well we had to because we realized the employees for good reason don't report the mistakes that happen because we all learned as behaviors we all learn from very small we do something wrong we were told don't do that so we we stay away and we hide our mistakes so now we turn this around and be rewarded if you said here's what I did wrong here's what went wrong so that we could dig into the mistake and actually found the root cause and eliminated the root cause is usually five steps away by the way it doesn't it doesn't it isn't where you are but what we do we see mistakes why did we do that you shouldn't have done that even though they have nothing to do with it I tell in my book and it's a little bit long story so I want about a root cause study that we had because of slow room service you should read it I mean I may be attach it very fast but slowly
Brendan: I think it's good you should tell I like this story
Horst: All right you know it's it's so crazy slow room service in the in the hotel our first hotel first Ritz Carlton which I ran at the time so what I do I call the room service manager I said read my lips I don't want this to happen another not a complain this guy called me about room slow room service you must be kidding me you're the manager figured out figure it out mistake and nothing happened you know and he went down and gave hell to the to the waiters and in order to overcome it hired another waiter there what does that mean if you hired another waiter there so that room service goes faster that means complexity and the in the uniform room in the laundry room the other way does made less money now because there's one more video splitting the offers nothing but problems nothing but serious problems and finally after a few years it was the number one complaint in that hotel slow room service because we they called they called the order in the room service order taker said takes about 35 minutes all right that's fine 45 minutes later they weren't there yet they had to go to a meeting and they were angry then guest so after a few years we created by that time we had learned we created we were in continuous improvements we created a tiger team that means room service order taker, room service waiter, a busboy, a cook it must be there after all that's where it is the creative team and they worked everything out everything worked fine until they came to the elevator and the elevator didn't come okay 10 minutes with the elevator which should be then three minutes latest so there was a couple and then in this moment we had to move engineering had to become part of the team people connected to the process must be part of the team could the engineer figure out everything's working fine so they called to elevator company everything's working fine so one waiter to set in the elevator and was riding up and down in a more money that's morning breakfast orders I mean everybody comes to work at the same time the elevator is very busy anyway already and you set in the elevator to figure out why did it take so long to go up and down and he went up and on the fifth floor the houseman housemen are the people who supply the maids with linen shampoo soap and so on he supplies the houseman went up to the next floor blocked off the door the elevator door went out came back with some linen went to another floor and did the same thing now he rides up and another another houseman does the same thing on the way down what's happening here now who is involved now housekeeping joins and housekeeping said well I know why they're doing that because we are short of linen a normal hotel big hotel like that would have two sets of linen one is on the bed one is in traffic one is being washed and ironed but we have only two sets why is that now the laundry manager is involved laundry manager see how far away the problem is not a manager is not name happened to be Randy I will remember him well that's many years ago became part of the team now and they said Randy what happened here why don't we have three sets of laundry of linen and he said that's very simple before we opened the hotel in the meantime eight years ago that's how long it was number one complaint before we opened the hotel we we were running out of money our budget was cut and Mr. Schulze which happens to be me cut one set of linen in order to save money we never replaced it because that was done then we had to live without everybody seems to have to live with that and we added one set of linen and immediately room service complaints when went down by around 80 percent so it will end the the money that we saved because of shortages because of turnover in the room service because of guest complain it can pay many times for the linen it's crazy but that's how that's what that's what happens that's so how far I happen to be the root cause
Brendan: Well I appreciate the humility and it speaks to the uh the idea of hard work uh because your point that uh became very convoluted very fast and stakeholders you never would have anticipated were a part of the problem uh and and in most cases everyone you mentioned they thought they were just doing their job without any idea how that impacted the customer experience I think it's a good segue into the last topic but I'd love to get your perspective on and that that is the customer experience uh and even talked a little bit about how you know tight root cause was you know you take a budget cuts on having a third lemon third floor third linen versus two lens uh but let's talk about how that kind of you mentioned four stakeholders beginning how the customer experience impacts that high intent aspect of purpose
Horst: Well well it's all about customer experience and and you know it's also misunderstood very much very much so everybody talks about customer loyalty today what is customer loyalty customer loyalty is nothing else but they trust you that's what you know and we know from surveys by the way this is very important to understand we know from relatively recent survey the market says I am willing to pay more 70 of the market 70 percent says I'm willing to pay more for the same product I'm willing to buy it from you and pay more even though I know I can get it next to the same product for less if you take good care of me but what does it really mean if I take away get good care of you you trust me so you trust me and so you're willing to pay more and now here's even more something more interesting eighty percent of the millennials say so trust let take good care of me and I feel with you even if you charge more and that of course is relationship you know it's not the product that creates customer loyalty it's your relationship how you treat them how you pay attention then how you respect them that creates loyalty it's relationship you know human excellence human excellence in the thing whatever the thing is is if it works well for what it was created doesn't matter what it is a human being you are human ex and human being if you do your very best you cannot be perfect you do your very best in your functioning and you do your very best in your relationships and you do your very best morally and ethically and to get that makes a good human being but it is the relationship that creates the opinion about you not a function
Brendan: Well I I love everything you just said I mean we have a uh in one of our values is do your best not your all which kind of talks what you're saying and the idea is you're a human being not a human doer um and what I I love the example in the Ritz Carlton to your point about its rooted in relationships um that the relationship that you created between the employee and a customer in terms of empowering the employee to solve those you know issues that do arise to make sure that they have a positive experience can you walk our audience through through that
Horst: Well it it is it is essential that you under that you have to understand that three types a customer there is a dissatisfied customer and believe me the dissatisfied customer is going to be a terrorist against your company period and then there's a satisfied customer they go next door if there's something cheaper and then there's a loyal customer we talked about they want to trust you but you have to be aware that if you cannot you have to avoid your dissatisfied customer you have to avoid them and that means I empowered my employees to move heaven and earth to keep a customer even there if they were still satisfied in fact we empower them to make a decision if somebody is unhappy that they have that the employee is allowed to make a decision up to two thousand dollars to keep that customer any any employee no when I did that that was nearly a nuclear explosion went out I mean the hotel owners you know we don't own hotel we manage hotels want to sue me for mismanagement that let the passport give two thousand dollars nobody gave two thousand dollars I want when you have a problem I want them to look for you to look in the eyes and say sorry I feel so bad about your breakfast or something and that moment you instead of you going out and going the in the internet and complain about us you become loyal so I want to turn this around I don't want anybody to become a terrorist against us and that's why we did that that for that you have to people have to have employed a few like their belonging they're part of a vision and they're empowered
Brendan: Yeah and it goes back to what you said too there's a at the root of that is trust
Horst: Okay absolutely absolutely trust is it
Brendan: Well Mr. Schulze I I could talk to you for as long as you let me um but this is just really helpful to understand how the concept of for excellence when you talk about the combination of high intent hard work uh and incorporating that into three key areas of a um orientation, continuous Improvement, and in the customer experience uh and then all the kind of experience side to your point like if you create those raving fans that are loyal the lifetime value of that individual or company is extraordinary
Horst: Not to correct you the the employee the piece of the employee is to selection the orientation and the and the work environment that they have for the for the customers you're wondering you wonder the employee you see let me put this way over here a lot of people this is your potential market and here I'm here people too those are your employees and if you create company you understand what the market expects from your product and you make sure that the employees understand it too that's alignment that's the first step of alignment now management creates processes systems measurement controls to make sure it is delivered. Leadership creates environment where they want to do that where they want to do that and and the one thing that your customer wants no matter what you sell you maybe you may have a hardware store you you think the customers are loyal to your store because of your product you can buy the same screw somewhere else okay they're only going to they're only going to be loyal to you because of relationship that because that that is it and that for that you need to have employees that want to care again and employees understand what it means to serve a guest you see serving a guest serving service is one of those things everybody talks about today it's relationship services relationship it certainly starts to instantly make contact with a nice greeting welcome showing them with your eyes that you care that you respect them giving the customer respect not hey hi what I'm saying when I'm when I'm hi I'm saying we're equal I'm not saying you I respect you but if I'm if you walk in and I said welcome good morning how are you today sir by the way I'm here to help you what am I saying then I'm saying I respect you but at the same time I'm saying I'm professional you can trust me so this has to be worked this relationship with the customer now I'm here now I'm starting service I'm starting service the instant I make contact not a half a second later after I say hey or nothing that instant I start serving you and then I continue the next instance I start continuing by helping you to make the very best decision about my product it's about you it's not about me it's not about me I'm here now for you in service and finally I say farewell thank you for allowing me to serve you I was delighted to serve you now I'm starting to make sure that you trust me and consequently when you need something similar to this product that you come back to me because you know I'm here to help you I'm here for you and it doesn't matter if you have a shoe store or hotel or or whatever it doesn't matter
Brendan: It reminds me of of your line talking about “we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen” um and it gets that whole point like there's this whole like a theme to me on that is dignity and we treat our
Horst: I want to make it very clear we are not servants I'm I'm we're not servants in the business well if we do things right we define ourselves and by doing things right in service we define ourselves as ladies or gentlemen by do things right that's why we are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen we're not servants that just deliver something no we are professional how we deliver to you and we are ladies and gentlemen about it and we respect you as ladies and gentlemen
Brendan: That uh last topic on respect that's a that's a bonus for everybody listening so thank you Mr. Sculze for going into that uh so I I know I've learned an immense amount I could listen to this all day long um if our audience wanted to engage with you or learn more about you um what are what are some practical next steps that our audience can take?
Horst: Well in one step you can do by the book and read and you will be a better person uh and in the book it will say also how it can contact me but then also you can go in the internet horstschulze.com and go internet and see how you how to follow it and so on I'm I'm as you know I'm engaged with many companies I consult them I have until now I have not even could do that every day and not taking any consulting or advice job for hotels only for other companies and that's why I've learned over the last few years doing that it's all the same it's doing a very best in your product but most of all understanding its relationship and and it's a human all the human elements bringing into the business functioning meaningful for product relationship meaning caring for you and of course honor and integrity and if you look at that as yourself that is what you're made of and we talked about continuous improvement before and said to our continuously improve those part of our being question yourself how could I function better question yourself how could I improve my relationships walk by somebody and say hello and a second later said how could I said have said hello better work on relationship and work on your on the questions of where can I improve my or should is there a way to improve my interactive me and my values and that's what it takes and you will find excellence in who you are and escape mediocrity mediocrity people I the reason I mentioned a few times I did not long ago I talked to a group of people who said well we are we are good average good average average is a bottom of good and the top of bad average is nothing and the average is a sentence of morass of mediocrity so to shoot for more you have to continuously improve and accept that in yourself too first set the goal and continue to improve your relationship your functioning and everything and and and and it's impossible to fail for a company or for an individual impossible
Brendan: Yeah well Mr. Schulze I I really appreciate uh your insights your example your leadership now I can vouch for the book it is a fantastic read you will be better as he mentioned uh we've already implemented a lot of those principles into our organization and we've seen the benefit of it so yeah
Horst: It's greatly successful I'm in fact I I just had a CEO call me over very scientific company a company that makes parts for nuclear reactors the CEO happens to read a book and he called me he bought five thousand books with his employees you know and this is I try to read write it in a way where I tell stories and not a boring business book because usually when I write a business read a business book I put it away after about 40 pages because get bored I try to avoid that and I think I can really serve some people with it
Brendan: Well I can attest you do um so thank you again I appreciate the time uh thanks for sharing we'll talk soon
Horst: God bless nice to be with you
Brendan: Likewise I'll see you
Horst: Bye
Want to learn from more industry experts?
Come check out the full Pit Stops to Podium podcast repository!
