Conrad N.

Hilton (1897–1979), the son of a Norwegian immigrant father and a

German-American mother, had a strong belief in the American dream. He derived his
strength from his faith in God, his belief in the brotherhood of man, his patriotic
confidence in the United States of America, and his conviction that a natural law obliges
all mankind to help relieve the suffering, the distressed, and the destitute. He entered the
hotel business by buying the Mobley Hotel in Cisco, Texas, in 1919.
The first hotel he built, the Dallas Hilton, opened on August 2, 1925. While the
Dallas Hilton was under construction, he married Mary Barron. Conrad and Mary had
three children: Conrad N. Jr., William Barron, and Eric Michael.
Hilton maintained operations during the Great Depression of the 1930s by giving
up many of his hotels and by learning to operate with economy—one of the keys to his
future success. This enabled him to expand his empire by purchasing hotels throughout
the United States, including the Sir Francis Drake in San Francisco, the Plaza and the
Waldorf-Astoria in New York City, and the Palmer and the Stevens in Chicago (the latter
currently is known as the Chicago Hilton & Towers).
He developed his business in the international arena by building hotels in such
exotic locales as San Juan, Puerto Rico; Madrid, Spain; Istanbul, Turkey; Havana, Cuba;
Berlin, Germany; and Cairo, Egypt. The expansion of his international business cemented
Hilton’s belief in world peace and global economic stability. He vigorously opposed the
spread of communism and used corporate advertising to promote world peace through
international trade and travel. His concern for the public was expressed in the formation
of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation in 1944, which continues to carry forward its
founder’s vision by providing resources to organizations that focus on social issues,
health issues, and education. The Conrad N. Hilton College at the University of Houston,
Texas, is a designated recipient of foundation resources because of Conrad Hilton’s belief
that tourism and travel help promote global understanding and world peace.
Conrad Hilton’s vision for Hilton Hotels Corporation was carried on by two of his
sons, William and Eric.
Form this short historic review we can clearly state the Hilton Hotel company is
an institutionalized company were the founder Conrad N. Hilton chose the best people
possible to succeed him both in vision and skill : his two sons William Barron and Eric
Michael .
One part of the organizational that we can see that survived over the time and
even economical crises is knowing how to operate with economy thus creating great
value . One example is how the hotels manager decided that employees from the call
center are to work from there own homes so to reduce cost . By this means the company
saved money on call center real estate, computer equipment, power, server licenses,
technical support, per-hour agent rates, and full-time employee overhead. At the same
time Hilton Reservations is gaining flexibility to expand or decrease workforce hours as
needed, and broadening the company’s reach to employ the most qualified agents who
will deliver the highest quality service to Hilton’s customers. Or to quote th IT manager
from Hilton : “It all came down to doing an even better job for less.” “Saving $100 on
equipment costs per employee may not sound like much,” says Sloane, “But we are
rolling this out to 2,500 individuals throughout time, representing close to $250,000.”
As mentioned above this simple change offers knew benefits both for the
company opening new labor horizons , but it is also proof of the companies openness
towards diversity . Another proof of it’s openness towards diversity is the fact that is has
hotels in countries from America to Spain to Turkey and each time it acquires a new
franchise it set strict deadline both the IT managers of the hotel and the HR manager to
ensure the correct training and appropriate standards that characterize the company , and
to ensure the continuation of the organization’s culture (see fig. 1)
Fig.1

Also this figure because of it timeline show that Hilton Hotel is has a work
hard / play hard organizational culture (hierarchically culture ) .But because of the fact
that offers a high level of individualism to the customer we can also say that the
company has a Market oriented culture . Because of the characteristics just mentioned it
is hard to say wheather Hilton has a hierarchically culture or Market oriented culture .
By looking to the “Becoming a Hilton Hotel” brochure we can see that the Hilton
Inc. puts a lot of accent at the encounter stage of the socialization process which will lead
to a complete and uniform metamorphasis of the initial hotel in to a Hilton Hotel . Also
when it comes to new employees the company puts a lot of accent on the encounter stage
offering vocational qualifications and management skills and personal development
courses to ensure the best quality of the services and the maximum efficiency , beside
these completes the metamorphasis by brand Education : quote from ther official website
“via our unique Passport to Hilton training and then using our brand and service
standards e-learning materials to ensure you know how to deliver the service our guests
expect.”

APPENDEX
Source: “Conrad N. Hilton,” Cathleen Baird, Hospitality Industry Hall of Honor
Archives, Conrad N. Hilton College, University of Houston,
Texas, 1996.
WWW.HILTON.COM
“Becoming a Hilton Hotel Brochure”
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?
CaseStudyID=4000002835
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