Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2014 - (Page 78)

behind the scenes The LosT Business Cards deBaCLe I n w h I c h a n I n v a l u a b l e c o l l e c t I o n o f b u s I n e s s c o n ta c t s ends up In the trash; a slew of securIty cameras Is engaged; a banquet manager goes dumpster dIvIng; a n d a m e ta p h o r I c a l n e e d l e I n a h o t e l h ay s ta c k I s f o u n d By An drew SeSSA The Challenge IlluStrAtI onS By G rAnt ShAffer On a sunny Southern California morning last fall, D.W., an executive with an organization promoting business between South Korea and the United States, hosted a small but well-attended 70-person business-development conference and working lunch in one of the sleek and contemporary third-floor meeting rooms in the tower of The Ritz-Carlton, Los Angeles. All was going well, with Mr. W and his fleet of eager young interns registering the Korean delegates and American investors as they arrived, collecting business cards from each and every one of the high-flying attendees. After the last of the guests checked in, one intern gathered the cards together and placed them (rather feeblemindedly and, as it would happen, fatefully) in a royal blue, Ritz Carltonbranded disposable coffee cup, firmly affixing the lid to its top. The intern imagined, of course, that 78 w w w. r i t z c a r lt o n . c o m he was doing all of this for purposes of safekeeping. But this storage method quickly proved itself significantly less than "safe" and the business cards themselves not "kept" in the slightest. The intern in question left the card collection cup on the registration table, and, as hotel staff began breaking down and cleaning up the registration area, the cup and the cards - not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of future business opportunities they represented for Mr. W's company - disappeared. Unable to find the cards when the event wound down after lunch, Mr. W interrogated his interns, deduced what had transpired and immediately alerted the hotel's staff. It's then that The Ritz-Carlton crew kicked into high gear, orchestrating what Mr. W later described as "an incredible display of teamwork" to right the intern's wrong. This "chain of events," in Mr. W's words, was "nothing short of remarkable." http://WWW.RITZCARLTON.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2014

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2014
Contents
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
President’s Letter
Falling in Love With ... Bangalore
Design
Shopping
Gifts
Beauty
Jewelry
Watches
Tradition
Behind the Scenes
Family
Local Knowledge
Outdoors

Ritz-Carlton Magazine - Winter 2014