Who has more independence? Procurement professionals or hotel employees?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Mathew Schulz’s January 29th, 2024 post on “The Ritz-Carlton $2,000 rule” has a lesson for the C-Suite regarding their procurement department.

I share my thoughts in today’s post:

Great post, as always, Mathew Schulz!

Here is an excerpt of a 2004 study assessment I wrote that links your The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C. story to procurement – https://bit.ly/40HDpfL

“In my fall 2004 analyses of a study on the use of web-based applications, I made the following observation:

It is my position that a true centralization of procurement objectives requires a decentralized architecture that is based on the real-world operating attributes of all transactional stakeholders, starting at the local or regional level. In other words, your organization gains control of it’s spend environment by relinquishing centralized functional control in favor of operational efficiencies originating on the front lines. This is the cornerstone of agent-based modeling.”

The Ritz story is a perfect example of a decentralized approach to customer service that empowers employees to deliver a high level of customer service without being bogged down by processes and procedures.

Tagging • Shep Hyken for his opinion on this kind of employee empowerment to deliver great service.

In the meantime, what are your thoughts?

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