[EO San Francisco] From The Ritz-Carlton To Building Great Culture

Joe Quitoni is the Founder and CEO of Unify|Align, a consulting firm dedicated to transforming organizational culture and redefining the customer experience to drive growth. With a diverse portfolio that includes working with startups and Fortune 500 companies, Unify|Align thrives under Joe’s unique blend of creativity and structured thinking.

Before venturing into entrepreneurship, Joe had a storied 20-year career with The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and served as Director of Human Resources and later as the Global Head of Delivery at The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

What drew Joe Quitoni to the hospitality industry?
Joe talks about the necessity of engaging with people on a personal level in the hospitality industry
The three-legged stool of business success
How Joe helps clients build a solid company culture
Creating culture through the hiring and onboarding process
Changes in culture expectations during the pandemic
How much should companies work on their culture?
Common red flags among companies that struggle with culture

In this episode…

Are you striving to create an outstanding company culture but aren’t sure how? Do you want to discover the secrets of creating culture from someone who’s mastered it in one of the most service-focused industries?

Crafting a strong, cohesive company culture is no easy feat, especially when your organization is growing and diversifying rapidly. Joe Quitoni’s journey transitioning from the renowned Ritz-Carlton to becoming a culture consultant for corporate giants is a story of mastering the art of building effective cultures in diverse environments. His insights on aligning team values and expectations offer invaluable lessons for those looking to foster a robust and sustainable organizational culture.

In this episode of the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast, host John Corcoran engages in a deep-dive conversation with Joe Quitoni, Founder and CEO of Unify|Align. Joe provides an inside look into his time at The Ritz-Carlton and how his experiences there laid the foundation for his current role as a corporate culture expert. He also talks about revitalizing core values, weaving cultural elements into daily operations, and the two main pitfalls hindering culture-building efforts.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Sponsor for this episode…

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Episode Transcript

Intro 0:02

Welcome to the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast where we feature top founders and entrepreneurs and their journey. Now let’s get started with the show.

John Corcoran 0:13

Hi welcome everyone, John Corcoran here and the co host of this show, you know, check out some of our pack past interviews, we got some great episodes for you. I’m here with Joe Quitoni. And what we’re gonna be talking about is we’re gonna be talking about building a great culture and we’re at work and how that affects the customer experience. Those two are really related to one another, they’re integrated one another. And Joe has got 20 years of experience, including with some of the most amazing hotel chains in the world and hospitality and consulting world, helping companies to build out great culture. So we’re going to talk all about that here in this episode. Of course, this episode is brought to you by EO San Francisco, which is the Bay Area chapter of Entrepreneurs Organization, which is a global peer to peer network of more than 16,000 influential business owners 200 chapters 60 plus countries. And if you are the founder, co founder or owner or controlling shareholder of a company that generates over seven figures a year in revenue, you want to connect with other like minded successful entrepreneurs in the Bay Area, the EO San Francisco chapter is perfect for you and enables leading entrepreneurs in the Bay Area to learn grow and achieve greater success. You can go to eonetwork.org/sanfrancisco, to learn about it and come out and experience a test drive so you can experience it for yourself. And I’m John Corcoran, I’m the co founder of Rise25, where we help b2b businesses to give to and connect to their dream 100 relationships and partnerships by helping them to run a podcast to generate a referral pipeline and ROI and I’ve been a member of EO, San Francisco, for going on three years now. It’s an amazing organization. And now let me introduce our guests. So his name is Joe Quitoni. He’s the founder and CEO of Unify|Align. It’s really kind of shaking up the industry with a unique blend of creative and structural talents throughout his year. His career, Joe has honed his skills and organizational transformation, creating game changing competitive advantages for some of the world’s biggest brands. Before starting unify in line, he put in 20 years at the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company, served as Director of Human Resources. We’re jumping over to the brands consulting firm, the Ritz Carlton Leadership Center, where he led the team as global head of delivery, helped to transform and evolve their approach and methodology while creating dramatic positive impact for clients and businesses. He also has a master’s in science in industrial and organizational psychology, which Joe so great to have you here today, that actually relates to why you got into the work that you do, you know, you were born and raised in New York, you observed that people would walk down the street, you know, with their head down, looking at their feet, same thing at work, people just didn’t seem happy at work. And so you knew that you were interested in that and wanted to figure out why that was that people were unhappy and how they could be happier at work before you tell me the answer to how you figure that out. I want to know, what was your worst job as a kid?

Joe Quitoni 3:04

Oh, boy. Well, John, first and foremost, thanks so much for having me, I really appreciate the opportunity. My worst job as a kid was probably a telephone sales order. You know, the orders come in, it’s repetitive, it’s very transactional customers were just the number there was no opportunity to engage with people it was you get them in and you get them out. And that was the mentality that we were told to kind of have with the customers that were coming. So it was just, you know, nine to five transactional, and there was really no engagement level to it, which is something that I certainly am passionate about.

John Corcoran 3:34

I mean, knowing just the little bit that I do about your personality, having heard you speak you came and spoke to our EO San Francisco chapter retreat a couple of weeks ago did an amazing job just blew everyone away with your your knowledge. I bet it would be miserable for you to have that kind of job, right. Where you were, you’re stuck head down just kind of a number puncher.

Joe Quitoni 3:54

Absolutely. So I’m from New York. So I wanted to get my hands around. I mean, I was in a cubby, I couldn’t do anything a technique contained. And, you know, there was just this lack of engagement. And I love people. It’s something that drives me, networks and connections drive me to and to be somewhere where we were almost forced to do everything. But that made me realize real quick that this was not the right job for me.

John Corcoran 4:16

Man, I had a few I’ll spare you the stories, but I had a few experiences like that as well. And it’s amazing. Really, sometimes I say to young people now having a bad job can be as good as having a good job because it helps you get clarity around what you don’t want and get clarity around what you do want to move towards and you end up in actually go and get your master’s degree in industrial organizational psychology, which is kind of the study of how and why people are happy at work.

Joe Quitoni 4:43

Yeah, it is. It’s a really fancy word for human behavior at work. You know, I like to categorize it as it’s the study of what motivates people kind of like up here from the head to kind of take that knowledge but to deliver the experiences from here to the heart. And ultimately what that does is it creates connections connect Since build trust, trust builds relationships and relationships lead to the health and wealth of any organization. So it’s a large stretch. But it’s about making that mindset shift from I’m just a to i am V and what I do matters. So creating that pride in that purpose and that sense of well being, which ultimately comes down to the culture that organizations create for their for their employees.

John Corcoran 5:20

Now, what drew you specifically to the hospitality industry?

Joe Quitoni 5:26

You know, it’s a great story, I graduated and while at will, right before graduation, I was doing my thesis and I had to meet with an HR professional. And just by way of connections, a friend of a brother, sisters boyfriends sister, put me in contact with the Director of Human Resources at one of the hotels with the Ritz Carlton Hotel hotel company. So you know, what started out as a 15 minute informational interview, eventually led to a job offer. And I started with the company realized that hospitality was an industry that suited me well. And the Ritz Carlton was a phenomenal brand to work for. So it was a happy marriage.

John Corcoran 5:57

Yeah, and hospitality. So I waited tables when I was in high school in college. And what’s amazing about that is it is so face to face, there’s no hiding at all, it is eye contact, it is engaging with people and hospitality, kind of the same thing. We’ve all stayed at some property where people don’t look you in the eye, they avoid you, you’re trying to get their attention, that kind of thing to talk a bit about kind of the necessities of of working hospitality and how you need to be able to engage with people on a personal level.

Joe Quitoni 6:32

I think it comes down to just a genuine will to want to serve, you know, and that’s one of the things that are not teachable, are trainable. And you know, I tell a lot of clients, you know, if you’re looking for, say, a hospitality mindset within your industry, you have to find people who genuinely want to be around people and want to serve people. And like I said, you have to hire for that you really do. And there’s the right questions that you have to ask, you know, thinking about asking questions to be undertaken, able to understand what someone has done in the past, and how that would attribute to success. And if it’s aligned with your culture, so you could train the eye contact, there’s a rule, right? It’s 15 feet, you make eye contact five feet, you acknowledge, but at the end of the day, if that’s not lead with the heart, and it doesn’t feel genuine, that’s exactly what customers will feel that it’s just transactional. And you’re doing it to check the box.

John Corcoran 7:18

It kind of sounds like it’s either they have it or they don’t. So if you’re if you’re coming into a situation where there are people in in a role, or you’re consulting with a, one of your clients these days, and you see people that are not engaging, is it something? In other words, is it something that can be trained or not?

Joe Quitoni 7:38

I’d like to say it could. But I think reality tells us that it is innate, you know, it’s something that I think you could attempt to bring out of somebody. But at the end of the day, it’s it’s a genuine ability to want to help and be around people. And I don’t know that that is trainable. I’d like to say it could be developed, but I don’t know trained.

John Corcoran 7:57

Yeah. Now, do you get pushback when a client comes to you? And they say, you know, what, we need a better customer experience, you know, we’re not doing a good enough job of the customers, we want them to be happier. We want higher approval ratings as far as the customer is concerned. And then you say, Great, let’s talk about your employees, employees need to have a sense of belonging? Do you get pushback on that? And they say, What are you talking about? I don’t care about that. I want to focus on the customer experience.

Joe Quitoni 8:23

At first, of course, it’s quite common, I think then I go through like, I call it the three legged stool of any organization success, you know, those clients who come to us and say, Hey, we want to elevate our customer experience. I said, You highlighted important word experience. And when we think about that word, experience can be defined as the sum of service, which is providing counsel or service to somebody, but you marry that you layer that in with a level of engagement. And that engagement comes by way of people. So if your people are not engaged, how could you expect for them to engage with your customers and deliver an elevated experience? So I like to say we have to take a holistic view to this employee engagement creates customer engagement, and that drives profitability and organizational success.

John Corcoran 9:06

And so some of the things that I know that you focused on is kind of helping companies to reimagine, reimagine their culture, develop purpose statements, that sort of thing. It’s such a big topic, how, what is the process that you would take a company through? Let’s say that you’re talking to me, and I’m thinking our culture? We haven’t really put enough thought into it? Where do we even start with that conversation?

Joe Quitoni 9:30

I oftentimes like to start high. And while a vision statement I respect a vision statement is often goal oriented. And I believe that culture should be behavior oriented. So I would say leave your vision for your strategic plan and focus on that and make it happen year over year, but create a purpose statement. A purpose statement creates a sense of belonging, a purpose statement should ideally never be achieved. And that’s the beauty about it is that it drives continuous improvement and innovation. So we start with the purpose statement under Standing, why does this organization and this industry exist? What value do you bring to the people that you serve. And then after that, we would create a commitment, which is the watch. So our purpose is the why well then create a commitment statement that can unify your business. And we would insert behaviors within that so that any employee at any law, any level within the business, will understand what they need to do today, to drive your purpose forward tomorrow. And then last, but not least, we look at your values. And I think a lot of organizations have organizational values. However, if you don’t define your perspective of that value, and you don’t create safe behaviors, and characteristics that can then become habits, those values are going to be open to interpretation. And there’s going to be a lack of connectivity to those who are expected to bring it to life. So through a long process, I would work with a group of employees, not the CEO, not the C suite, there’ll be part of the purpose statement. But then after that, I say, please step aside, I want to involve your people in this planning, because it’s ultimately them that we need to buy in and ownership from, and when we engage them in that process. That’s when we make that stick.

John Corcoran 11:04

So can you give me some, like examples of purpose statements and ones that work? Well, or ones that don’t work? Well?

Joe Quitoni 11:12

Yeah, I think, you know, a purpose statement that is very far reaching, you know, a purpose statement that says, We want to be the best in this space that we occupy, it’s not going to fly. And in fact, I would say, you know, that’s probably what your competition is setting as well are sitting as well. You know, when you look at a purpose statement that says something along the lines of, we want to empower everybody to be to, I don’t know, it’s we want to empower the world to be more sustainable with efficiency or something of that nature, right? You know, like, it’s something that’s far reaching, you know, that it likely can’t be achieved in this lifetime. But that’s what drives people. Every day, we come back to work, we know our purpose, we have a sense of belonging, and we want to rally cry behind something that can be so far reaching and create an ultimate positive change in the world.
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John Corcoran 11:57

I mean, what comes to mind, for me is like, you know, Elon Musk’s SpaceX company, their purpose is to go to Mars, which seems crazy and achievable. We’ll see, you know, the history will tell if it if it if it’s achieved in, in the next 10, 20 years, but how do you know if it let’s say you have a boring b2b business sale? How do you determine what that is without it being something totally fluff?

Joe Quitoni 12:24

It’s funny, I was doing a presentation not too long ago, and I was talking about the the intent of a purpose and the power behind it. And there was an individual who worked in a manufacturing company, they made tires. And the gentleman mentioned to me, you know, well, we work in a tire industry, the purpose, I don’t know that I can connect to that, I don’t know that I can get my employees behind that we manufacture tires. So I did a little bit of a respectful, challenging and said, Well, why do you make those tires? To put them on cars? Why do cars need tires? To allow them to go from point A to point B? Why do cars need to go from point A to point B, to allow people to go on the journey of their life? There’s your purpose, right? So digging back and peeling back the layers, and it’s once you get there, it’s almost like the AHA. And that’s why we’re here. And that’s what we intend to do. And when you get into a team of employees behind that, that’s when that mindset shifts, I don’t just work in manufacturing, I make tires, and I make them for everyone. The right purpose.

John Corcoran 13:19

Yeah. And keep your family safe while you’re getting from, you know, getting on with your life. Yeah, for sure. I know, hiring and onboarding talent is an important piece of building a good culture. We could take those separately, if you like. Talk a little bit about that about some of the ways to build great culture when when they’re going through the hiring process.

Joe Quitoni 13:42

Yeah, I think identifying talent is probably one of the most critical people processes that an organization should have in place. I’m a fan of behavioral interviewing, you know, that allows for us to understand how one’s previous behavior will predict future success. And if it’s aligned with your culture. And a lot of times with behavioral interviewing, we’ll ask questions that will allow us to better understand what was the situation this applicant was facing? What did you do and then what happened as a result of it? The one thing I always encourage clients to do is to weave in the behaviors that are embedded into their culture into the questions that they’re asking of these applicants, so that you’ll be able to understand the way that this individual handled this, could this person be a culture contributor to our business, and that’s ultimately what we’re looking for. I don’t want a cultural fit. It’s a word that’s been out there. I’m not a fan of it. I like culture contributor, better diversity of thought provides innovation, it challenges the status quo. And that’s ultimately what moves the organization forward. So being able to understand who could contribute to culture by way of inserting the behaviors that you expect your employees to deliver on is a very powerful process.

John Corcoran 14:49

What about the onboarding process then?

Joe Quitoni 14:52

Yeah, I mean, also significant and emotional. You know, I recall my very first orientation, it was not a positive one I was put into a room. Great balls, no windows, they gave me an index card and told me to color my personality with marker. And that, you know, there was the introduction to my to this business, right. And then there was a stack of papers, and the HR representative came in and said, Here, I went ahead and highlighted where you need to sign. So you don’t need to go through the entire stack. So that is my expectation of this organization right now, yeah, periods. Whereas today, I’m a firm believer and encourage clients where, if you could do it on day one, there’s significant power behind that. And when you have the power to immerse new employees on the first day of their job, to the culture, and the behaviors and the expectations and what’s expected of them, you’re allowing these employees to walk away and say, I joined the right company, I understand their culture, and I understand the role that I have in bringing it to life. And you’re setting your business and that employee up for success.

John Corcoran 15:54

What came to mind there, as I started my career in government, I worked in the Clinton White House, and, you know, federal government, right, you know, big bureaucracy, and one of the early first days may not have been the first day was the FBI grilling me that goes with the territory, but it was not a really pleasant experience. But you know, you got it, you got to endure it. But I want to ask you about employees. You say that you should ask the employees what that they need in order to have a great culture like directly. So, you know, I, if I’m an employer, and I’m a hire, and you know, as an employer, I have my own company, some things that come to mind is, well, cheese, like, I don’t know that I want the answer that I’m gonna get back. There’s probably some fears around that. So unpack that a little bit for us.

Joe Quitoni 16:44

I’m sure there are some fears, but that’s part of the business. And I think being open to that vulnerability, letting your employees know that you are there, you want transparency, and you want to make this the best possible place for them. Right there, you’re demonstrating respect, and you’re gonna get that right back from the employees. So while it’s, I’ll say, you know, seven times out of 10, it’s likely going to be opportunity areas, as opposed to this is working really well, right. But when you uncover and you unpack what those opportunities are, you work with the employees and say, Okay, we’ve identified it as an opportunity, what would you like to be done about it, and then you work through them, you empower them in that process, and suddenly, they start to feel that they’re part of something. And that ultimately starts that level up this engagement that’s needed for them to do what we need them to do.

John Corcoran 16:45

Now, a couple of years ago, there was this little thing called COVID. I know, we’re all trying to forget that it ever happened. You know, that was kind of a major change. For as culture was concerned, a lot of companies hadn’t, hadn’t thought about their culture for a while. And he suddenly realized that they needed to do something about it, because it was everyone was working in a very different way, for a period of time. So what did you observe during that period of time, in terms of how culture expectations are changing how companies needed to think about their culture in a different way?

Joe Quitoni 18:07

Yeah, I mean, I think they were calling it the great resignation, right? Where everyone was leaving for new purpose driven work that was happening and surfacing throughout COVID. Whereas when people were thinking about the great resignation, I was thinking about the great retention. What are you doing to retain the top talent that you have? Asking them? What does work look like today? You know, I challenge clients and say, if you haven’t looked at your culture, since co COVID, you’re behind the ball. Because expectations have drastically changed, both internally and what customers are looking for. So you need to evolve your culture and your model to meet those new expectations, flexible work environments, they’re everywhere. And right now, this is how we’re communicating these days, many people aren’t seeing people on site and live anymore. So what does an engaging environment in a virtual world look like? And a lot of times, you know, I’m a firm believer, what is your communication guidelines? How do you prefer to communicate? Do you want to be on Zoom? How often and, and being able to meet people where they’re at, I think, allows for a higher level of productivity and engagement and ultimately, efficiency throughout the business.

John Corcoran 19:08

Yeah. Now, I know, one of the clients that you’ve worked with is a large IT services company. Interesting. It’s kind of an interesting case study, in a sense, because that was a company that had a call it been around for, I don’t know many years, and had been a startup but it’s since become a much larger IT services company hadn’t really thought about, you know, what their culture was since the early days. And and that’s obviously a situation where a company really does need to think that through because it’s a much different diversified company. So take us through those types of challenges that that type of company would experience.

Joe Quitoni 19:48

Yeah, I mean, they had they had a great, they have a great culture and really strong, creative and cool core values. But when we went in, they hadn’t been looked at since the company was started, which was well over about 20 years ago. And now like we just said, since the expectations have changed, the company has evolved drastically. I mentioned that, you know, don’t change the values, we don’t need to shake things up, let’s not reengineer anything here, let’s keep the core values that as as they are. But let’s work with your employees to say, for example, if one of your core values is integrity, what does integrity looked like? What are the behaviors? What are the characteristics that you need to emulate today, to bring integrity to life. So we went through a really cool working process where we pulled employees from different parts of the business, different locations, different levels, and we facilitated those conversations and ultimately created, what I like to call these behaviors, success behaviors that identify how to bring each of these core values to life in every interaction. And ultimately, it led to the success that they’re continuing to have today.

John Corcoran 20:46

Now, I remember where you talked about this during your presentation at the chapter? What is the frequency that you recommend that companies should be working on culture? Is it something that like it’s a quarterly meeting? Go over the bullet points? Hey, guys, here you go. Remember, these are our core values? Are there more creative ways to kind of integrate it into the day to day to day or week to week, just so that a company is actually living it?

Joe Quitoni 21:15

Yeah, you know, it’s a great question, John. And it’s one that when I’m speaking to clients sustainability, right, you know, to go through the culture work, it’s time it’s money, it’s an investment, it’s a lot of energy to put through. But then what happens once that’s all created is the big question, right? How do we sustain this, identifying the next selection, onboarding orientation, but then also, communication is one of the easiest ways of sustainability. And a lot of my clients don’t like to hear me say this. But I’m a firm believer that you should integrate this into your daily operation, you know, focus on maybe just one critical element of your culture and talk about it. What does it mean for you? How are you going to bring it to life today, this is our perspective of it. This is how we see it. And these meetings if you would become these really cool and creative conversations. And in theory, as a leader, I’m teaching and training my employees on what my expectation of them is to drive culture. And then the next day, you maybe go to another element, and they go to another element, and you go to another element. And once you get through your entire culture model, what do you do, you start again, and then you do it again, and you do it again, and you don’t stop doing it? And a lot of times people say, well, doesn’t that become repetitious? And my response is always the same, you know, yes, and that’s a good thing. Repetition equates to consistency. And when you talk about a message day in and day out, and you never deviate away from it, that’s when culture becomes so much more than, say, words on a screensaver or a mouse pad, it becomes the DNA and the fiber that keeps the company together.

John Corcoran 22:41

I want to ask about, when do you see culture breaking down a company that really struggles with getting it to work at all? Like, what are the ingredients that goes into that? Or another way of looking at it is what are the red flags that were you know that culture is going to be a struggle for this company, or it’s not going to they’re not going to achieve the culture that they want to achieve?

Joe Quitoni 23:05

Two red flags. The first is lack of commitment. So if you know we go in, and we hear a CEO, who says, All right team, go ahead and make this happen. Not gonna happen. This has to be top down, bottom up, and everybody needs to be bought in and commit to driving this change for the future. And the other one is a lack of accountability, if you don’t hold yourselves and others accountable for bringing these behaviors to life and reinforcing the behaviors, that eventually it’s just going to fall to the waistline. So I always like to say that the two red flags that I would say that that would allow for culture not to stick would be lack of accountability and lack of commitment.

John Corcoran 23:39

Hmm. All right. Final question I want to ask, which is kind of like a, how the sausage is made the question, because you started your company not that long ago, about a year ago, and the tail end of COVID. And you went from 20 years of systems, process, culture well defined, you still work on it, but it’s in place to starting a new company. Starting fresh. Yeah. And I know from building our company, that no matter how much you want things to be flawless, they rarely are, and you stumble and you’re challenged, and you know, and the experience isn’t as fluid as you want to be. And for you, knowing what the standard should be, that must be a challenge, right? You onboard a new consulting client, you wanted to have this, you know platinum experience, but like any startup, it’s, it’s it’s hard to deliver on that the first time, second time, even the 10th time. So how have you been able to manage that process? Or what have some of the struggles if you’re willing to share them struggles been along the way?

Joe Quitoni 24:46

You know, it is a constant struggle and and you’re right, I worked for an organization that was hyper focused on details. Everything mattered, right? Nothing could fall through the cracks. But one of the things that I did learn was, you know, transparency, that I’m looking at anything that comes my way that’s not going right as just an opportunity to strengthen the next time around. And just remaining hyper focused on why I did this in the first place. I knew there was going to be bumps, there’s going to be bumps today, and there’s going to be bumps five years from now. But using those as an opportunity to learn to strengthen to make them better in the future has definitely carried over the cookout carried me forward in my business

John Corcoran 25:22

I guess, just in the nature of the work that you do, you have to be a little bit okay with imperfection, because it’s gonna be there’s going to be some messiness.

Joe Quitoni 25:30

1000%. And that was very hard for me to grasp, believe it or not. But I learned very quickly that let the guard down. You’re doing good, and you’ll continue to get better as you go forward.

John Corcoran 25:40

Yeah, for sure. What just one step at a time. Well, Joe, this has been great. Where can people go to learn more about you and Unify|Align and the work that you do?

Joe Quitoni 25:48

LinkedIn Joe Quitoni, that’s Q U I T O N I or of course, my website is www.unifyalign.com.

John Corcoran 25:55

Excellent. All right, Joe. Thanks so much.

Joe Quitoni 25:57

Appreciate you, John.

Outro 25:58

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