Take Action: Beating Your Competitors
Act Faster Than Your Competitors
The super-successful people I’ve known have all had a huge propensity for action. They had tremendous agility in carrying out projects rapidly.
I remember one night in late 1951, my father Ernest Henderson, co-founder of the Sheraton Hotel Chain, told his family over dinner, that he had just decided to get into the credit card business. The Diner’s Club Credit Card had just come into being.
Father reasoned that with a national hotel chain and a database of tens of thousands of clients, that Sheraton could get into this attractive new business rapidly. He told me “We thought about getting into it today, and we started working on it today!”
In fact, he and his business partner Bob Moore rolled out the Sheraton Credit Card in a matter of weeks. “We can make decisions and put them into effect much faster than our competitors,” Father told me. He went on to say that he was pretty sure that it would take his competitors months if not years to make and implement such a decision.
This agility proved profitable. He and Moore created a large, fully functional credit card system. A few years later Sheraton was able to sell to another credit card company for a fortune.
Actually, I got to learn more than you might expect about credit cards. My first job at age 15 was as a file clerk for the Sheraton Credit Card part of Father’s business. I and eight other file clerks sat in a small office with shoe box-size containers filled with alphabetized credit cards. There were thousands of these boxes, and our job was each day to match credit cards with lists of people who hadn’t paid their bills. In these cases, our job was to remove the cards and record the credit card number. People at the front desks of the hotels were given lists of credit card numbers that they shouldn’t accept.
But we also knew who paid promptly and who spent a lot. We had codes that enabled the front desk people to know when they were dealing with a VIP.
I was impressed that Father could come up, in such a short time, with an elaborate plan for vetting the cards. It meant that we knew a lot about the spending habits and reliability of each card holder. Thus, when he sold this part of the company. the cards had a lot of value because.
The credit card example was actually emblematic of his approach to business. He told me that being able to respond rapidly and with agility either to opportunities or to problems was one of the key reasons for the explosive growth of the Sheraton Hotel Chain.
Mitzi Perdue is a speaker, author, and businesswoman. She is the widow of Frank Perdue and daughter of Ernest Henderson, co-founder of the Sheraton Hotel Chain. Permission is granted to reprint this blog post in your newsletter or magazine with the following byline and clickable link: www.MitziPerdue.com. Please let Mitzi know when you do this!
To find out more about her programs and services,
write to: Mitzi@MitziPerdue.com
or call 410 860 4444.
Search Articles
Latest Articles
Are There Spies in Priests’ Robes?
https://www.newsmax.com/mitziperdue/darbynko-zelenskyy-putin/2024/07/18/id/1173083 Publication –newsmax.com
Ukraine’s Kidnapped Children Return as Russian Soldiers
https://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2024/07/13/ukraines_kidnapped_children_return_as_russian_soldiers_1044269.html Publication –realclearworld.com
OPINION: From Grief to Resilience: A Ukrainian Actress’s Healing Journey
https://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/35240 Publication – kyivpost.com
Ukraine: A Swift Peace at any Price?
https://cepa.org/article/ukraine-a-swift-peace-at-any-price/ Publication –cepa.org
Subscribe to Updates
About Author
Mitzi Perdue is the widow of the poultry magnate, Frank Perdue. She’s the author of How To Make Your Family Business Last and 52 Tips to Combat Human Trafficking. Contact her at www.MitziPerdue.com
All Articles
One Good Idea Can Change Your Life
One Good Idea Can Change Your LifeA brief story about Ernest Henderson Do what it takes to find good ideas. The reason? One good idea can change your life. And lots of good ideas can lead to undreamed of success! Let me explain why I say this by sharing a brief story...
Be the Person Others Want to Do Business With: Be fair
Be the Person Others Want to Do Business With: Be fairThe Beginnings of the Sheraton Hotel The international Sheraton Hotel Chain grew from an investment of just $1000. My father, his brother, and his college roommate received war bonuses after their military service...
Heart Disease In Women: It’s Different
Heart Disease In Women: It’s DifferentHEART DISEASE IS A WOMAN’S DISEASE In the 1950s, we all thought heart disease was a man’s disease. However, more women are dying of heart disease than men. Also, even though the mortality rates for both men and women are...
Prevent Nightmare House of Horrors: Family Business Quarrel, Part 2
Prevent Nightmare House of Horrors: Family Business Quarrel, Part 2 To prevent a Family Business Quarrel 1. Create a culture emphasizing that family members are part of something bigger than themselves. Being too self-centered is a danger in a family business....
Preventing Nightmare House of Horrors, a Family Quarrel, Part 1
Preventing Nightmare House of Horrors, a Family Quarrel, Part 1Since you’re here reading this, the subject probably hits close to home. If so, you have my entire sympathy. If ever there’s a high stakes situation, it’s the family quarrel in a family business. I’ve had...
Four Things Frank Perdue Did to Encourage Employee Engagement
Four Things Frank Perdue Did to Encourage Employee Engagement Employee engagement is one of the most important – possibly the most important factor in an organization’s success. When I look at how Frank Perdue (my late husband) built his chicken company from a...