NEW YORK --
Hilton Hotels staged its first annual Diversity Review here,
rolling out details of several projects meant to attract more
minorities and women as employees, investors and business partners.
At the same time,
Marriott International set more aggressive goals as a way to
strengthen its diversity initiatives, beginning with a doubling of
the number of minority owners and franchisees in the next five
years. Currently, 270 Marriott-branded properties are minority- or
women-owned.
Marriott also
pledged to do at least $1 billion worth of business with minority-
and women-owned suppliers in the same five-year period. It said it
spent $210 million with such suppliers in 2004.
Marriott also
announced new relationships with minority- and women-owned
financial services firms.
At its Diversity Review,
Hilton touched on similar topics. Ernest Wooden, senior vice
president of hotel operations, said, We have an aggressive effort
to seek minorities and women to invest in and own our
franchises.
Hilton did not
spell out a numerical goal for growth but said it aims to increase
franchise participation in under-represented groups --
African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans. Representation
is high among Asian-Americans and women, a spokeswoman
said.
Speakers at the
event said Hilton is taking a proactive approach to identifying and
seeking bids from minority- and women-owned suppliers. Tony Nieves,
senior vice president of purchasing, noted that each Hilton
property is charged with helping to identify such
suppliers.
The company spent
$89 million with minority- and women- owned businesses in 2002.
(More recent statistics werent available.)
As for its
staffing, Hilton reported that its nonminority employees in 2004
were, in fact, in the minority, at 40.5%.
African-Americans
were at 21%, Hispanics at 29.3% and Asians, Pacific Islanders and
Native Americans accounted for the rest.
As for gender
breakdown of employees, men made up 47.9%, of the work force,
making women a majority.
Among officials
and managers/professionals, women were a majority at the corporate
headquarters at 51.6% but were in the minority elsewhere at
46.2%.
It isnt just the
complexion of Hiltons staff and business associates that is
evolving.
Customer
demographics also have changed, Wooden said, so Hilton recently
created a multicultural sales advisory board to keep us current on
the needs of the changing customer base and named two multicultural
sales directors, Carnita Chopin and Elvida Rogers.
From the
audience, Andrew Ingraham, president of the National Association of
Black Hotel Owners, Operators & Developers, said his
organization expects by the end of 2005 to double the number of
hotel members that are majority-owned by
African-Americans.
The group has 27
properties controlled by African-Americans (another 32 have some
African-American ownership).
Ingraham was
upbeat about the opportunity for black Americans in the hotel
business and said he expected most of the new members to be Hilton
or Marriott franchisees.
The two hotel
companies have connected with some of the same people,
too.
Robert Johnson,
founder of Black Entertainment Television, chairs the committee
that advises the Hilton board on diversity policies.
His hotel
business, RLJ Development, owns eight Hilton-affiliated franchises
and four Marriott-branded properties. Last week, Marriott announced
it invested $20 million in RLJs Urban Lodging Fund, a real estate
development fund.
To contact
the reporter who wrote this article, send e-mail to Nadine Godwin
at [email protected].