Innovator Interview: Sue Brush, Westin Hotels & Resorts

Sue Brush
Senior Vice-President,
Global Brand Management
Westin Hotels & Resorts

the
innovator’s
interview
The Innovator’s Interview highlights unique innovations from a wide range of industries, and is an
opportunity for futurethink and some of today’s leading innovations to share insights and ideas.
May 2009

Anticipate. Innovate.
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Future Think LLC © 2005–09 Reproduction prohibited
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New York NY www.getfuturethink.com

the innovator’s interview 2

Sue Brush
the background
This Innovator Interview series highlights leading innovators at Fortune
500 companies. In contrast to past interviews, focusing on a single
innovation, this series examines the state of innovation at global
organizations. We spoke with both innovation leaders and practitioners,
within varying business units and organizational structures, across a
broad range of industries both for–profit and not–for–profit.
The interviews offer a unique insider’s view into the world of
innovation—what makes it work, what holds organizations back,
and what critical advice new innovators need to know to be more
successful with innovation overall.

the interview
futurethink had the pleasure of speaking with Sue Brush, SVP-Global
Brand Management for Westin Hotels & Resorts. A veteran of the
industry and the Starwood family for over 20 years, Sue spoke in
defense of the ‘quick win’ and why smaller ideas matter, the benefits
of being first to market, why employee and partner metrics matter, and
how yoga can be essential for letting ideas flourish.

What do you think is the single biggest challenge to making
innovation happen?
For me, it is how people interpret innovation. Typically, our
expectations are too high. When people often think of innovation,
they’re looking for that next really big idea, which is great. But, at
the same time, I think in that process they miss some of the small
significant wins. In our case, a big win certainly is Westin’s signature
Heavenly Bed®. It’s a great idea; it revolutionized the industry, but
was also very complex and very expensive—$1,000 a bed is a pretty
expensive proposition in our business.

I think sometimes we’ve set the bar too high. You see Fortune
Magazine putting out the list of best innovators, and it usually includes
organizations based on those big ideas. I think that sometimes we don’t
get to some smaller ideas because we think innovation has to be this
great, giant earth-changing type of thing.

At Westin or at Starwood in general, how do you overcome this “it’s
gotta be big!” innovation barrier?
It starts from the top. In so many instances, it really takes the CEO to
drive that. And Starwood’s been very fortunate that our CEOs have
been very focused and committed to innovation. So when you hear
from the top that innovation is important and that it’s okay to make
mistakes and fail because everything can’t succeed, it creates a
climate where people are willing to take more risks and become more
risk-takers, and are generally willing to try new things. They feel more
comfortable and supported when doing so – and they’re less likely to Anticipate. Innovate.
give up. Innovation isn’t easy you know! For instance, somebody at |
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Sue Brush
lunch today just told me about an idea, which I can’t share because it
could be a big idea, but she went to the first person she thought that
would be a sponsor for her idea and was turned down flat. But, she “We think being first
said, “You know what? I’m just not going to listen to him because I
really think this is a great idea.” And then, she went another route and to market is extremely
got somebody else to listen and to be supportive. important. It establishes
So I think at Starwood, knowing that there is a general climate you as an innovator. Let’s
encouraging innovation – even though there will be some naysayers on
certain ideas – it definitely creates that climate and nurtures that idea face it: in our case, being
that we are looking for innovations of all kinds.
first with an innovation
You touched upon just the idea of risk, and having people at all does have a chance to
levels of the organization get more comfortable with risk-taking. Do
you think that innovation is always attached to some level of risk? revolutionize the industry
Well, it depends on how we define risk, I guess. An example for us because there are
would be our smoke-free initiative. After we did it, people said, “Oh,
that was a no-brainer. Anybody could’ve seen that that was a smart a lot of hotel brands.”
thing to do. You’d certainly get more business. You’re first to market.”
And I kind of chuckle to myself and I say, “Well, it’s great for them
to say that now! “ But, during the process of evaluating that idea, we
determined that 4% of our guests smoked in their rooms. And if we lost
that 4 percent, that was millions and millions of dollars. So, I said it was
a calculated risk when we finally decided to do it. However, if there had
been some hugely adverse reactions, that would’ve been a major risk.
That’s why you have to set those parameters up and do your homework
to determine how much is truly at risk.

If the CEO at Starwood were to come to you tomorrow requesting a
progress report on innovation at Westin, what three metrics would
you report on and why?
Well, we already do this. The way we look at our innovations involves
3 things:

• Are we first to market? If we can be first to market, then that is huge.
• Guest satisfaction – will this improve the guest experience?
• Market Share – did we get more business as a result of it?

So, going back to number one—we think being first to market is
extremely important. It establishes you as an innovator. Let’s face
it: in our case, being first with an innovation does have a chance to
revolutionize the industry because there are a lot of hotel brands. How
can we better stand out? You can influence a lot of those brands, and
you can also see how and when your competitors followed your lead.
So, in the example of ‘smoke-free’, we were the first to go to market
with this concept. About two months after we launched, Marriott
followed our lead. But, smoke-free is, to me, an innovation that you
actually want your competition to follow because it is just so good for
the environment. It’s so good for people if they choose not to smoke.
And so, ‘smoke-free’ is a unique innovation in that it’s more health-
related versus comfort-related or experience-related, the common
focuses of innovation when thinking about the typical hotel stay.
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Sue Brush
First to market is huge. It also gives you the advantage in the media
that, when a competitor follows, you continue to get mentioned. And
that’s what happened for us with ‘smoke-free’. I just love that. We’re still “Metrics are really around
experiencing this first-mover effect ten years later with our Heavenly
Bed program. Any competitor that comes out with an all-white bed, being first to market, guest
which most of them are now doing, the second paragraph always satisfaction and market
references, “Well, Westin introduced this in 1999.” And the same is
happening with smoke-free and our other innovations. So, being first to share. And then, also we
market is very important.
want to gauge, over time, our
Obviously, guest satisfaction is important, and we actively measure
our efforts in this area. Our hotels are held accountable for it. General
associate satisfaction and our
Managers are evaluated against it. It’s one very important measure we owner satisfaction, as well.”
have for knowing how the overall stay was, if a guest is willing to return
to Westin, and if they’re willing to recommend us to a friend. There
are multiple other measures on satisfaction within certain initiatives,
products and services. But it’s important because it is affected by
innovation; if you introduce a new product, within 90 days, you’ve
got some very substantive data to prove or disprove your innovation’s
effectiveness!

And how do you go about collecting those satisfaction insights —
and other insights — from customers?
There’s an online channel and a survey we offer guests to take at the
hotel and online, offered to about every 20th guest. We can also tell
satisfaction from market share. In our industry, that’s measured in
a metric we call RevPAR Index — revenue per available room. All of
the hotels participate in a research study that goes on, and while the
results don’t share where the other individual chains fall in the results,
you know where you fall in the whole scheme of things. As for these
indices, we always strive to be above 100.

And how do you tie good results to innovation specifically?
Well, it’s usually a combination of these metrics. For example, if guest
satisfaction is really high for a specific initiative, and your market share
is going up, you can make some correlation. Sometimes we’ll also do a
very specific survey on an innovation we’ve launched. With ‘smoke-free’,
we did a lot of individual surveys for that because we wanted to see
how that was going, and if it was making a meaningful difference.

And with the ‘smoke-free’ innovation specifically, there were fringe
benefits you incurred as far as just reducing the cost and time of
cleaning a room, correct?
You bet. Several minutes are saved on cleaning time, which then the
room attendants can use to really attend to other parts of the room to
make sure it’s absolutely spotless. But the benefits didn’t stop there.
We save additional time and money on cleaning, painting—and more.
Think about it: a room that’s smoked in, you need to change the drapes
more often, the bedspreads more often, you have to paint more often,
etc. And then there’s just the practicality of booking the room. In the
old days, every room had to be listed in the computer system twice —
listing if it was a smoking or nonsmoking room. And so, we simplified
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our systems. And so, that’s another big benefit, as well. |


Sue Brush
As far as the metrics go, while guest satisfaction is number one, our
associates are very important to us as well. We survey them once a year
and get their feedback on how we’re doing and how our initiatives are “We had meetings every
perceived by them. We also survey hotel owners. We’re primarily a hotel
management company and we also have a lot of franchises. So, we own Friday morning at 9:00.
very few of our hotels. In that case, we are obviously working very closely [Associates] couldn’t wait to
with the owners and managing their assets for them. What does this
mean? They’re the ones who are oftentimes writing the check for these get there. It was really fun
innovations. And so, obviously, they need to be very much in the loop.
because people know at
In the case of Westin, we learned a big lesson with the Heavenly Bed.
Starwood stepped up to the plate, wrote a check for $30 million to
Starwood that if you do your
put beds in the hotels that we did own. Then, we were able to build homework and you build a
the business case from that. In fact, the initiative started to be driven
by the guests! Other owners who hadn’t funded the Bed effort yet strong business case, the
were getting complaints from guests who said, “Why doesn’t this hotel
have those wonderful Westin Heavenly Beds?” So, the guests put the
organization will support you
pressure on the owners to comply. and the innovation. And so,
Certainly, we can’t keep adding cost to the hotel model, so we ask people want to be part of that
ourselves, “What is the guest willing to pay or trade for?” For instance,
we used to have fax machines in hotel rooms that cost a lot of money. and everybody wants to be
Well, we’ve eliminated those, and we put in dual-headed showers
instead. So, there are things that you can trade—the tradeoffs are
part of what’s new and fresh
definitely in the guests’ and the owners’ favor. and different.”
So, metrics are really around being first to market, guest satisfaction
and market share. And then, also we want to gauge, over time, our
associate satisfaction and our owner satisfaction, as well.

What would you say is the number one indicator of a healthy
innovation program?
More business. If you get more business as a result of the innovation,
you’re obviously doing something right, and all of your metrics should
go up. The long-term indicator is loyalty because if we can create
loyalty beyond reason with our customers, they will seek out a Westin
whenever they travel and, in some cases, will go out of their way to stay
at a Westin even if it’s not the most convenient option for them.

Do you look at how engaged your associates and other employees are
in your innovation efforts?
Absolutely. Employee engagement and satisfaction are big. ‘Smoke-free’
is a great example. We put a taskforce together of people and said this
is what we’re trying to evaluate. We had meetings every Friday morning
at 9:00. They couldn’t wait to get there. It was really fun because
people know at Starwood that if you do your homework and you build
a strong business case, the organization will support you and the
innovation. And so, people want to be part of that and everybody wants
to be part of what’s new and fresh and different.

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Sue Brush
Are these metrics measured by business unit, or do you have a
specific group or team that’s kind of in charge of innovation?
It’s really encouraged from the top. Each business unit has their own “I think [the innovation
focus on it. We don’t have a separate innovation department, and for team’s] responsibility
a reason because we think that would defeat the purpose. We feel
that if we had a formal innovation team, other employees would think should be to create this
‘well, innovation isn’t my job – it’s theirs’. We really try to say that in our
business everybody is a brand champion for all of the Starwood brands, environment where ideas
and everybody is responsible for innovation. can flourish. Once we went
So, what are the main criteria you use when choosing new ideas to to a yoga studio to have a
move forward with? brainstorming session. We
For us, the number one is – does it support our brand positioning?
We have nine hotel brands. Each of them has a different positioning. invited everybody to come
Westin is about the idea of preserving wellness in travel. Therefore,
anything we come up with has to support that positioning. For instance,
in their workout clothes. We
having the best night’s sleep you can possibly have certainly helps started with some stretching.
to preserve your wellness in travel. Our Heavenly Shower, our Westin
Workout, our Super Foods Breakfast Menu, all of these things support We had a nice healthy
our positioning. ‘Smoke-free’ definitely supported it as well—clean,
fresh air is something that our guests told us was very important to their
breakfast. And we would do a
idea of wellness. 45-minute brainstorming.”
Second, good news or bad news, we say it must be PR-able. If we
can’t get the media’s attention over this idea, and we can’t create buzz,
which would then help create the demand and the acceptance and the
demand for the product, then it probably isn’t that innovative.

Third thing we ask is: are we first to market? If others are already doing
it, how can you say it’s that innovative?

Fourth, is it something our guests have demanded or asked for, so is
there a guest need or demand for it?

And fifth, does it have an ability to increase occupancy, RevPAR or our
average daily rate? So, what’s the business case around it?

Let’s talk about idea sharing. Are there ideas that come up in Westin
that might apply to say, W or aloft or to Sheraton, and vice versa?
Absolutely, we do it all the time. It really helps because when you know
your brand, you know what the positioning is, and an idea comes
across and you go, “No, that doesn’t work for me, but it would be great
for Sheraton.” It enriches our innovation pipeline, if you will, and directs
the ideas to the group that it makes the most sense for, and then they
can go ahead and develop it.

What do you think the role of an innovation team or innovation office
should be?
I think their responsibility should be to create this environment
where ideas can flourish. Once we went to a yoga studio to have a
brainstorming session. We invited everybody to come in their workout
clothes. We started with some stretching. We had a nice healthy Anticipate. Innovate.
breakfast. And we would do a 45-minute brainstorming, and then |
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Sue Brush
we’d do another yoga activity, then we’d do another 45 minutes, and
then we’d have lunch, then we’d do another 45 minutes. We got some
“I think recognition is so
really good ideas out of that, but the goal was to create an environment important. But, what we’ve
where ideas can flourish. Just telling everybody to put “next Thursday
at 3:00 on their calendars so we can think big thoughts” is not going to also learned is there is no
work. You cannot schedule meetings to be creative and come up with
innovations. The idea isn’t going to come up in a meeting. The idea
formula for recognition. We
is going to come up in the shower or when you’re out for a run or in a have each of our associates
yoga studio.
fill out a form and, if you will,
So, how do you measure value in ideas, and how do you make the take a little test. It includes
decision to move forward with certain ideas?
To evaluate ideas, we have a Global Steering Committee of colleagues everything from, “Tell me
from around the world that we have a conference call with once a what your favorite color is,” to
month, and we run ideas past them. And then, we do a couple of tests.
In the yoga studio, we came up with the idea of replacing the cities your favorite TV show to your
where our associates are from on their nametags with their hobbies
and interests, to facilitate conversations between our associates and movie, to “What kind of music
our guests. The Global Steering Committee liked it, so we chose a do you like?” It just gives
couple of hotels and had them do it, and it just worked—I mean, it
was pretty simple that you could tell right away that the associates you a personal background
liked it. What’s also interesting is the associates liked it because they
said, “My employer really cares about me as a person not just where on the person so that when
I’m from.” And some of the hotels even had what we called passion something special happens or
forums. They took their ballroom, they set it up, and had a little cooking
corner, they had a sports corner, and they had different hobbies and they come up with an original
things. The idea was to help the associates open their mind to what
truly does excite you and what truly is your passion outside of your work idea, we can reward them in
environment. The associate satisfaction we got from that was great, as an original way.”
well, because they realized that somebody really wants to know about
them as a person.

Should you reward for innovation? Or just recognize someone when
they participate in it?
I think recognition is so important. But, what we’ve also learned is
there is no formula for recognition. We have each of our associates fill
out a form and, if you will, take a little test. It includes everything from,
“Tell me what your favorite color is,” to your favorite TV show to your
movie, to “What kind of music do you like?” It just gives you a personal
background on the person so that when something special happens
or they come up with an original idea, we can reward them in an
original way. Some of them are really pretty silly, but if somebody has a
birthday and they say they’re favorite color is orange, well, we can have
a little party and decorate the theme is an orange color, or somebody’s
favorite food is cheese, so you have a cheese party. An actual example
of that is that somebody put on their nametag that they liked road trips
and that, when they grew up, their family took them on road trips. So,
now that they were an adult and they had children, they wanted to
continue that tradition or that ritual and take their family on road trips.
So, the general manager was very perceptive, saw that, and when this Anticipate. Innovate.
associate did something particularly noteworthy, the general manager |
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Sue Brush
went to the gas station and bought him a gas card and brought that
back and gave that to that associate as a form of recognition. This was
“Another thing we find out
certainly much more meaningful than a pat on the back or handing from our survey is the best
him a $5 bill or whatever it might be.
way you like to be recognized.
Another thing we find out from our survey is the best way you like to
be recognized. Do you like to be recognized in a public forum? Some Do you like to be recognized
people absolutely thrive on that, but yet others absolutely hate it. They
say, “Please don’t recognize me in front of a big group. I would prefer
in a public forum? Some
that you called me into your office, sat me down and verbally gave people absolutely thrive on
me my recognition, one on one.” Somebody else says, “Yeah, that’s
okay. I’d rather you write me a personal note.” If we’re talking about that, but yet others absolutely
innovation, it needs to go both ways. So, when the ideas come up that
are innovative, we need to respond and recognize that, but it also helps
hate it. They say, “Please
if we do that in somewhat of an innovative way, as well. don’t recognize me in front
What are some ‘quick win’ suggestions you’d give to other innovators
of a big group. I would
who are trying to get momentum around innovation? prefer that you called me
I can think of a few things. First, we do idea contests. We have a thing
that’s called Dream Westin. It’s about getting people to dream big
into your office, sat me down
thoughts or dream about the future, what they see for Westin, and how and verbally gave me my
to start implementing some of those ideas. Another quick-win idea
we’ve used was something called a burden basket. Again, if we’re about recognition, one on one.”
preserving wellness and travel, that means reducing your stress level,
reducing clutter around you, providing clean, fresh air. The idea was you
check into the hotel, you check your burdens and either write them down
or just metaphorically put them in their basket, and then they go away.
Well, we weren’t able to operationalize that on a global basis, but we were
able to operationalize it in our spas. That’s another example of something
that ended up in our spas that gave us insights on how to improve the
guest experience overall. Other organizations can do something similar to
get customers to share their needs in a clever, innovative way that’s not
expensive either.

What are the top three tactics or initiatives that you implement
in order to make sure that Westin, as a whole, is really excited
about innovation?
First, I’d say, is to make sure that every project has a champion who
is energetic, totally passionate and totally committed to its success
because if you assign something to somebody and they aren’t excited
about it, they’ve got too many other things on their plate, it’s not going
to work. Make sure you’ve got somebody who can really drive it.

Second, is to create that ever-important climate where it’s okay to try
and fail. People have to know that failure is a good thing. You learn that
the more no’s you get, you’re eventually going to get to a yes, and that’s
okay. The last one is really holding people accountable and making
them feel that, this just isn’t playtime here. We should be thinking
creatively all the time.

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Sue Brush
Along those lines, what do you suppose makes an individual good at
innovation?, Do you think that these are skills and abilities that you
“Make sure that every project
can learn, or are they innate qualities that people either have has a champion who is
or do not?
The first quality that comes to mind is being open-minded. Then, I’d
energetic, totally passionate
say they still need to have some technical knowledge of our business and totally committed to its
so you can relate your ideas. There needs to be a pragmatic quality,
but then I also think it needs to be somebody who’s totally optimistic, success because if you assign
high energy and enthusiastic.
something to somebody and
So, those are my six traits: Open-minded, Technical knowledge of the
business, Pragmatic, Optimistic, High energy, Enthusiastic. Can those
they aren’t excited about it,
traits be learned? In some cases, I think so. Anybody can be open- they’ve got too many other
minded. People may struggle a little bit with the technical knowledge,
but they can access others who have that. Certainly, in being optimistic, things on their plate, it’s not
high energy and enthusiastic, I think anybody can do that if they’re
really committed to it and want to win.
going to work. Make sure
you’ve got somebody who
What advice would you have for another organization that’s trying to
build an innovation effort and get things moving, especially given our
can really drive it.”
current economic environment?
My advice would be to think big because sometimes we try to be too
pragmatic. An example for us is ‘smoke-free’. We did all this research
and all of our homework, and we said, “If we could go smoke-free
in the United States and Canada and be the first global hotel brand
to do that, this would be extraordinary.” Well, here we are two years
later, and we are now smoke-free in 60% of our hotels and 70% of
our guest rooms around the world. So, we didn’t think big enough. We
never thought global, and what a mistake that was. The other advice
I would have is that in addition to thinking big, you also have to stay
committed. This isn’t a seasonal thing. This is part of Starwood’s DNA.
We are known as being an innovative company. People come to work
here because of that. Therefore, leaders have to have a responsibility
to perpetuate that spirit of innovation by staying committed and
recognizing and rewarding those who do step up with good ideas.
Finally, watch out for copy-cat competitors because you can’t rest on
your laurels very long. The minute we come out with something, your
competitor is going to come out with something similar – and better.
Part of being an innovative leader is about always staying ahead.

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Sue Brush

What can you learn from Sue Brush and Westin’s approach to innovation?
• The First Mover Advantage: Do you embrace growth opportunities before your competition or have
a ‘wait and see’ approach with innovation? How can you better get new ideas to market before others
in your industry?
• Setting innovation metrics: Do you have a set of established metrics for innovation? Do they include
participation of both internal and external parties for new ideas?
• Make rewards personal: Do you reward people for participating in innovation? Are the rewards
generic, or personalized? Who is in charge of making rewards and recognition happen?

To learn more about the research, tools and training you need to better anticipate change and move innovation
forward, visit us at getfuturethink.com.

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Innovator Interview: Sue Brush, Westin Hotels & Resorts

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