Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta Talks Trade and Fixing Company Culture

(Bloomberg Businessweek) -- The Hilton CEO knew he wanted to work in hotels early, he tells Carol Massar and Jason Kelly. Acting on his dad’s advice to learn a business “from behind the walls,” Chris Nassetta’s first job was at a Holiday Inn plunging toilets. “You don’t forget those things.”

● Joined Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. in 2007 as president and CEO after 10 years with Host Hotels and Resorts
● Oversaw Hilton’s move to Virginia, from Beverly Hills, in late 2009
● The 100-year-old company has added 86% more rooms globally during his tenure

How are U.S.-China trade tensions affecting your business right now?

We’re not seeing any dramatic impact. We came into this year thinking we were going to have a reasonably good year from a same-store-growth point of view, that economic growth would be a little lighter than it was last year but still positive. I think when we finish the year, that’s what we’re going to see. The nice thing about our model is the bulk of our growth is from new-unit growth rather than same-store growth. Our new-unit growth is super resilient. We’re experiencing the largest net unit growth numbers we’ve ever experienced.

The longer these trade spats go on, do you start to get nervous?

It would be crazy for me to say we’re not watching this very carefully. And I live in Washington, inside the Beltway, so if you think it’s bad, try the echo chamber that I live in, right? Nobody talks about anything but trade wars, now that Mexico’s done. This and other things going on around the world provide a level of uncertainty that’s not healthy for the markets.

Twelve years ago, this company was not focused. How did you get it focused?

There was no global strategy, no common strategy. The culture had become super complacent. So we went about building a world-class culture.

Why did you move the headquarters?

Cost was certainly a reason—Beverly Hills is expensive, and Northern Virginia is cheaper. Talent base was a reason. Time zone was a reason. Access to airports. But the core reason was a cultural reboot. I went to Jon Gray, our chairman, and I said, “We had a great play. We have a great strategy. But to execute against that strategy we have to rebuild our culture.” We had been in Beverly Hills for 60 years and had decades of complacency.

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