At Marriott, a Matter of Numbers

The huge challenge that lay ahead for corporations hit George Muñoz, a director at Marriott International Inc., when he realized that minority students were in the majority at public high schools in the nation's 25 largest cities.

"This is our workforce of tomorrow," Muñoz told himself.

At the time, in the mid-1980s, Muñoz was president of the Chicago Board of Education, but the understanding eventually informed his leadership of an unusual board of directors subcommittee at Bethesda-based Marriott, which promotes diversity throughout the company's operations.

The two-year-old subcommittee spent its first year building a business case for diversity. Muñoz said that if businessmen are not convinced there is a bottom-line reason for programs, diversity efforts usually fail.

The subcommittee analyzed the impact that diversity programs could have on morale at Marriott, where the workforce is 59 percent minority, as well as the correlation between employee satisfaction, customer service and profits. It also collected information on black, Asian and Hispanic consumers, and on governments and companies that give preference to hotels with strong diversity programs.

"A lot of our key corporate customers are asking us about what we're doing in this space, what are we doing in diversity. What does our workforce look like? They ask about the ownership make up of our hotels," said David M. Sampson, senior vice president of diversity initiatives. "Our ability to mirror the communities where we do business has helped us get additional lodging deals, particularly in top urban markets."

Then, the subcommittee shifted its focus to Marriott programs to promote women and minority executives, minority suppliers and minority hotel ownership.

William J. Shaw, president of Marriott International Inc., established the subcommittee and gave the chairmanship to Muñoz, a former president of the Overseas Private Investment Corp. and assistant U.S. Treasury secretary and now head of Arlington-based Muñoz Group Investment Banking Group LLC.

The subcommittee includes two other directors, Debra L. Lee, chairman of BET Holdings Inc., and Harry J. Pearce, chairman of Nortel Networks Corp. and former chairman of Hughes Electronics Corp., as well as Shaw and six senior Marriott executives.

Its efforts included setting up a group that reviews Marriott's 400 highest-ranking managers and picks those who will be groomed for the top jobs. "We look at who our highest potential people are, and as part of that, look at how we are progressing against our goals on the diversity front," Shaw said. "We make sure we have not just identified people, but we have development plans for everybody."

-- Sandra Sugawara