2. Esteem your team. “Dan sets the culture, not just
of the brand globally, but of how our office runs and
personal interactions,” says Sarah Raynor, Senior
Director of Operations and Culture for EDITION
hotels. “He fosters a culture of respect, kindness,
inclusivity, and creativity. We’re a small team but
achieve a lot because Dan encourages us to work
collaboratively. Working outside our disciplines lets
us continually learn. And it’s great to be trusted and
not micro-managed.”
3. Push people to take a chance. Dan believes one of
the most powerful motivators is to give someone
more responsibility and stretch them. “I’m the
perfect case in point,” says David Chase. “I was
the director of catering when we opened The Ritz-
Carlton Battery Park and thought of myself as a
lifetime foodie. But Dan perceived me as someone
who could build a team of fiercely loyal players. ‘All
I ask is that you give the hotel manager job a try,’
he said. ‘I’m offering you a three-month trial while
the current manager is on maternity leave. You can
always go back, but you’ll never know what you’re
missing if you don’t take the chance.’ Before long, I
was the hotel manager at The Ritz-Carlton Central
Park,” David says. He parlayed that into a GM
position and is on his third assignment at the Omni
Berkshire in New York City.
4. Take risks. When Dan was the Hotel Manager at the
Marriott Financial Center, his three-meal restaurant
took in $800,000 but lost $350,000. “We could
have played it safe with the cookie-cutter approach,
where everything is provided from menus, to use
records, to tabletops, where you get a free pass by
simply passing an audit,” says Dan. “But I knew we
could achieve more if we had the guts to take a risk.
“After arduous research, we set our sights on Roy’s,
founded by Roy Yamaguchi. I had to make an
extensive business case for corporate approval with
financial projections, ROI, construction costs, and a
positioning plan. And I had to convince my general
manager, our owners, my marketing manager, and
Marriott. After some initial pushback, I got the go-
ahead, and the restaurant was a success. Roy’s was
the first license agreement with an outside chef and
the first time Marriott used an independent design
team. In the first year, we did five-and-a-half million
dollars,” Dan recounts.
5. Play mental Ping-Pong. “Dan is engaged on a
different level,” says Laura O’Neill, the former
Director of Human Resources at The Battery Park
Ritz-Carlton “If I go to him with a labor strategy, I
must be prepared to make my case with an action
plan for roll-out and implementation. He turns it
into a tennis match, throwing out questions and
pushing me to consider options I never thought
possible. It’s incredible to sit in a room and get
feedback and feel cared for and never criticized,”
reflects Laura. “He doesn’t tell me what to do but
puts the ball back in my court. You leave his office
excited with your head spinning with ideas.”
6. Give meaningful recognition. “Like most hotels, we
host lavish Christmas parties. At first, people came
up and thanked us,” says Dan. “Then, after a couple
of years, complaints rolled in about the DJ, menu,
venue, even the date. What started as recognition
became an entitlement. What counts is personalized
attention. My mentor Jean Cohen taught me to
never underestimate the power of a heartfelt hand-
written note,” continues Dan. “I keep a Friday File
reminding me to write to someone offering special
thanks, and most importantly, to send it to their
home. It’s more personal when families share in the
pride and appreciation firsthand.
Meaningful recognition is what people value most.
Sarah Raynor travels the world for us. A single mom
of two young boys, she was visibly upset while waiting
in the Zurich transit lounge. Her sitter in New York
had overslept, and her 11-year-old son called in tears
to explain he was alone in an Uber going to a new
school. Sarah got him to school long distance talking
with the driver and revealed how she felt about
not being there for him. This time, I sent a letter
addressed to her boys: ‘I appreciate the sacrifices
you make by sharing your mom with us. When you
see her, give her an extra big hug because she works
so hard.’ The next time I saw Sarah there were
tears streaming down her face as she told me how
important her boys felt receiving a letter addressed
to them. “And now when I go away,” says Sarah,
“they know EDITION is just borrowing me.”
7. No ass kissing. “Dan has no tolerance for people
who kiss up, continues Kate. “When we launched
EDITION, the message of not being afraid to tell
the truth to higher-ups was so important that we
made it a core value. Dan stands up for what is
right even if it isn’t popular. He always challenges
an organization if a view, process, or system isn’t
working.”
“At the opening of the New York Times Square
EDITION, Ian Schrager mentioned that ‘we have to
ward against being ‘the Emperor in New Clothes.’
We don’t want our people to feel they have to be
political and dishonest about something they know
isn’t exceptional,” Dan emphasizes.
ILHA 55