The All College Hour Speaker series featured Ritz-Carlton Executive Bruce Himelstein ‘76. According to the Geneseo webpage, he was recognized as “One of the Top 25 Most Extraordinary Minds in Sales and Marketing Association international” by The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International. He is also an inductee into “The American Marketing Association” Hall of Fame.
Himelstein is a Geneseo alumnus and explained that he initially saw himself going into the radio and television industry, but that is not where his path took him. He explained that after graduating from Geneseo he could not get a job in the industry he wanted, so he became a housekeeper. Himelstein’s housekeeping position turned out to be the start of his very successful career.
His talk mostly focused on how the Ritz-Carlton hotel was as a brand, then how it was rebranded after the stock market crash. Himelstein explained that for many businesses—not just for hotels—the key to being successful is knowing how to branch out and take risks that could potentially (and hopefully) have big payoffs. One example that he gave was the Gucci iPhone case.
“Somebody came to a meeting and said, ‘hey what do you think?’ And they went ‘well, it’s a cellphone case,’ and they go ‘yeah, I bet we could sell a lot of these.’ And guess what? They sell a lot of them. This is a brand staying relevant. This is a brand that understands that sometimes you have to think out of the box,” Himelstein said. The example illustrates why it is important for brands to come up with new and unique ideas in order to continue to maximize profit.
Himelstein went on to explain how the Ritz-Carlton found and defined the essence of their hotel brand.
“At the very top, which usually takes the most amount of time to discuss, [Ritz-Carlton] is the essence of who we are. So, we would get to that place, and my team would go ‘I know, we give great service. Yes, we do give great service. Target gives great service. Jiffylube gives great service. What do we do?,’” he said. “What was decided upon is that we are artists of anticipation. That’s what we’re going to pride ourselves on.”
The speaker then explained why the brand has survived and what it is that they pride themselves on.
“I’m going to give you the secret sauce of Ritz-Carlton … When you’ve been selected to join this brand, this is what you’ve committed to. These aren’t votes. These aren’t options,” said Himelstein. “This is what you’ve agreed to. If you’re a part of this organization, it’s because you love to serve. If you don’t love to serve people, this isn’t going to be for you. You have to overtly love to serve people.”
He concluded the talk shortly after, reflecting on being at Geneseo and the path he thought he was going to take versus the path he ended up on. Himelstein’s lecture and reflection of his experience at Geneseo indicate how much he encourages students to enjoy their college years and take risks.