Skift Take
The one thing about mergers and acquisitions that isn't usually discussed? Bringing different company cultures together. That'll be key to the success of Marriott's acquisition of Starwood, and Marriott's Global Chief Human Resources Officer David Rodriguez knows it.
Now that Marriott's acquisition of Starwood has a closing date, and no last-minute third-party by the name of Anbang can interfere, the monumental effort begins to bring together these two companies and their combined more than 500,000 employees.
All of this needs to be accomplished while Marriott also implements $250 million in synergies — a.k.a. cost savings and job cuts — most of which will be gleaned from the top of Starwood's executive team.
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A key player in this process is David Rodriguez, Marriott executive vice president and global chief human resources officer. Rodriguez, who's been with Marriott for the past 18 years, sat down with Skift at the NYU International Hospitality Investment Conference in June to talk about the importance of getting the integration of the two companies right, addressing those $250 million in synergies, and building a great company culture.
He also gave us a few glimpses into what he has in store for the nearly 200,000 Starwood employees who are now part of the world's largest hotel company.
If there's a silver lining for anxious Starwood employees, they should note Marriott has been named to Fortune's list of "100 Best Companies to Work For" for the past 19 years, and more than a third of its U.S. employees have been with the company for more than 10 years, Rodriguez included, and 12 percent for more than 20.
Note: This interview has been edited for length.
Skift: So we have to ask you about Starwood. We know it's not officially closed yet, but I'm sure that you're working right now on figuring out your game plan or how you want to address the merging of the two different cultures at both companies. What is your game plan, and in what ways do you think there are similarities or differences between the Starwood corporate culture and the Marriott corporate culture?
Rodriguez: Here's what's interesting about that. This is where a lot of M&A transactions go wrong, because I don't think they think about the right way. Marriott culture actually is going to be one of the strongest reasons why this merger is going to be a home run. Marriott culture is actually very simple. It's simply that we take care of each other. When I've talked to people at Starwood and I describe what Marriott culture is about, they get excited. By the way, they s
