Starwood president and CEO Frits van Paasschen and the company’s top executives have relocated to Shanghai for a month in order to to understand and leverage different cultural perspectives and approaches to business in China.
“With properties in nearly 100 countries, Starwood is no longer an American company that happens to run some hotels overseas,” van Paasschen says. “Today, we’re a global company that happens to be based in New York. Eighty percent of our future pipeline is outside of North America, and nowhere is more emblematic of our global growth than China, where we will open one hotel every two weeks this year.”
In addition, more than 20 executives from the U.S. and international locations will join the team throughout the course of the relocation. The group will delve into Starwood’s extensive business in China, meeting with local customers, partners, and developers while also touring new properties throughout the country.
The company intends to implement a month-long global relocation annually; its next high-growth target markets include Brazil, the United Arab Emirates, and India. “It is not just language that gets lost in translation, but also cultural nuances,” van Paasschen notes. “The companies that will break away in an increasingly global world will be those that are most globally fluent.”
