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ALUMNI
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Read about other Tufts Newsmakers
The Good Neighbor
Jonathan Tisch sets an example that inspires good corporate citizenship and civic
responsibility.
by Laura Ferguson
As chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels, Jonathan Tisch, A76, has
a front-row seat on corporate America. But he’s hardly
one to sit on the sidelines watching trends. His latitude as
an influential leader also includes his serving as chairman
of the Travel Business Roundtable, chair of NYC & Company,
the local convention and visitors bureau, and on Mayor Michael
Bloomberg’s Economic Development Transition Committee.
Tisch’s understanding of the hospitality industry, customer
service, and community relations, and his reputation for pursuing
unconventional business strategies have now come together in
his first book. The Power of We: Succeeding Through Partnerships
demonstrates how leadership based on collaboration—and
timeless values—can help both corporate and non-profit
organizations achieve success by focusing on partnerships.
“We’re coming out of a moment in time when CEOs
were being rewarded for being tough, for being aggressive, for
doing all they could to grab every last penny and bring it to
the bottom line,” says Tisch, who’s also a Tufts
trustee. “It doesn’t have to be that way. You can
still be successful, you can create personal success as well
as business success, by being collegial, by working together.”
Partnerships may be a broad term—but that’s what
Tisch finds so compelling. It encompasses just about any opportunity
that brings two parties together for shared benefits. Employees,
for instance, are key partners. So are customers. So are communities
and neighborhoods, where corporate generosity can have a powerful
impact on the social and economic health of cities and towns.
Tisch says that the “power of partnerships” is not
a new idea. But in a time when cash-strapped communities struggle
with budget cuts, and as the business world becomes increasingly
cutthroat, the partnership model, he says, offers a radically
optimistic framework for building effective businesses. Besides,
it’s impossible for organizations today to achieve success
without realizing their interdependence on customers, employees,
and the health of their communities. “We must work with
and through other organizations,” he writes. “It
means . . . redefining the terms of traditional business relationships
and transforming them from adversarial to cooperative. In essence,
it means shifting your philosophy of relations from caveat emptor
(‘let the buyer beware’) to the Golden Rule: Do
unto others as you would have others do unto you.”
Tisch provides countless examples about how that philosophy
works at Loews Hotels. It shows up in concerted research, focus
groups, and innovative marketing strategies. It appears in the
company’s Good Neighbor Policy, an employee community-outreach
program that includes donating excess food to local food banks,
shelters, and hunger-relief programs. And in numerous “Tisch’s
Tips,” he describes how any company can create a situation
“where the person that you’re dealing with is valued,
rewarded, and derives the necessary financial or emotional rewards
so that both parties are successful.” For instance: never
start a paragraph with the word “I.” “That
sends a message to the reader of a letter or an e-mail that
you’re more important than they are,” he says. “If
one party in a partnership or one party in a deal is taken advantage
of, or feels that they’re being taken advantage of, then
it’s not successful.”
The notion of success as mutual benefit has long been fostered
at Loews Hotels, a company that started with a summer camp in
New Jersey five decades ago and has grown into one of the largest
corporations in the world. More important than growth itself,
Tisch says, is how the company evolved around a set of principles
active at Loews today.
“I’ve been fortunate in looking at the role models
in my life who have always held ethics in very high esteem,”
he says. “If you look at my father and late uncle, in
their business careers, they always treated people fairly, they
always were honest and upfront and direct. Their relationships
were conducted in an honest, disciplined manner that was a great
way for me to learn and create my own set of values.”
Tisch recently renewed his own appreciation for those values
when he spent five days in jobs such as cook and pool boy on
Now Who’s Boss? a reality-TV series that sent top executives
into lower-level jobs. “Even though I’ve done all
these jobs at some point in my career, I learned in a whole
new way how dedicated our employees are, how tough their jobs
are, how uncomfortable their uniforms are,” he says. “We
instituted a ‘Now Who’s Boss Day,’ and we’re
actually working on finding a new fabric for uniforms. There’s
so much competition out there in today’s world, if you
don’t understand and appreciate your employees, then you’re
in big trouble as a senior executive in any company.”
It’s that willingness to be open, flexible, and responsive,
says Tisch, that’s ultimately key to any successful partnership.
It’s also an attitude that has been proven true time and
again. “I don’t know anybody who’s successful
who hasn’t recognized that you have to be good to people
as you’re working your way up the ranks,” he says.
“People just respond better to you when you’ve been
nice to them.”
—Laura Ferguson
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