- In today’s CEO Daily: Diane Brady interviews Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta.
- The big story: The U.S. Government shutdown is finally over.
- The markets: Mixed, with small gains in Asia.
- Plus: All the news and watercooler chat from Coins2Day.
Good morning. Chris Nassetta admits it took a long time for Hilton Worldwide to become a truly great place to work. Founded by Conrad Hilton in 1919, the hotel giant was acquired in 2007 by Blackstone, which brought in Nassetta as CEO. “We had this really unique culture, and we had sort of lost touch with it,” he told me earlier this week.
TL;DR
- Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta prioritized rebuilding company culture, significantly reducing employee turnover.
- Nassetta's strategy involved top-down and bottom-up approaches, focusing on employee value and benefits.
- Hilton secured the top spot on Coins2Day's World's Best Workplaces ranking.
- Key lessons include consistent messaging, adaptability, and listening to employee feedback.
Under Nassetta's leadership, Hilton expanded its property portfolio by over threefold to more than 9,000, introduced 10 new brands, relisted on the stock market, and effectively shifted the company's focus from property ownership to an asset-light strategy. He also managed to cut staff turnover by nearly half compared to the industry average, while simultaneously achieving high levels of employee contentment. Consequently, Hilton secured the top position on Coins2Day’s's 2025 ranking of the World’s Best Workplaces, a list developed by research collaborator Great Place to Work, as announced by Coins2Day earlier today. Here is a link to the full list
Nassetta shared some lessons from turning things around:
Go top down and bottom up: “The top down is about making everybody in an organization feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, like what they do matters. They’re seen. Bottom up is about the pay and benefits and programs like learning and development. We didn’t have a team member travel program and now we do. That’s a huge benefit.”
Tell stories: “We were telling the stories of all the things they were doing to help people understand why they matter and how that work aggregates up into something that’s really powerful. If you look at brands like Spark and Waldorf Astoria, the product and service levels are wildly different. What’s common: things like the technology and delivering a reliable, consistent experience in a friendly way.”
Stay the course: "It'll demand considerable effort. Adaptability is key, yet abrupt changes must be avoided. This process spans years; don't pursue every fleeting opportunity. Having been here for 18 years, my primary goal was to revitalize our culture, believing other aspects would follow. I began that demanding work immediately. I repeated messages so frequently I felt I'd exhaust them, but for many, it was the first time hearing them. We identified errors and adapted. We tested concepts. We utilized actual data. We conducted employee engagement surveys. We paid attention to our team's feedback.
With 500,000 individuals, true understanding is elusive; therefore, establishing proper infrastructure, implementing effective listening mechanisms, and ensuring the utilization and action upon accurate data are crucial.
Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at [email protected]
Top news
U.S. Government shutdown ends
President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed a bill ending the U.S.’s longest government shutdown following the House's narrow approval of the legislation. This act will finance the government until January and will promptly reinstate certain government services, such as SNAP benefits. Other interruptions, including diminished air travel, will take longer to return to normal.
U.K. Economy contracts
The U.K. Economy unexpectedly contracted by 0.1% in Septemberthis situation intensifies the pressure on the governing Labour party to stimulate economic expansion. It's anticipated that Labour will violate a fundamental commitment by increasing taxes within their budget this month. Concurrently, Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing push-back from within his own party.
Boring Co. Coverup
After Elon Musk’s tunneling startup, Boring Co., was cited for serious safety violations in Nevada, the governor’s office stepped in and the citations and fines were rescindedSubsequently, records of that meeting were erased. The sequence of occurrences “raises questions about the degree to which a powerful business is able to bend regulatory guardrails to its will and skirt proper oversight,” Coins2Day’s Jessica Mathews and Leo Schwartz report.
Cloudflare CEO takes aim at Google
In a conversation with Coins2Day at Web Summit, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince says Google is abusing its search monopoly to feed its AI models. “The great patron of the internet for the last 27 years was Google. The great villain of the internet today is also Google,” Prince said.
OpenAI expects hefty losses through 2028
Financial documents obtained by the Wall Street Journal reveal openAI anticipates substantial annual deficits until 2028, with profitability expected in 2030. This forecast includes an estimated shortfall of approximately $74 billion in 2028, the same year competitor Anthropic is projected to achieve breakeven for the first time.
Renters stuck following collapse of short-term rental platform
Marriott abruptly ended following its collaboration with short-term rental provider Sonder, announced earlier this week, which resulted in numerous customers being given only a day's notice to leave their accommodations and seek new arrangements. The following day, Sonder revealed its intention to file for bankruptcy. Interim CEO Janice Sears stated that the company is “devastated to reach a point where a liquidation is the only viable path forward.”
Circle shares drop 8% following first earnings announcement
Shares of stablecoin issuer Circle dropped more than 8% circle's stock plummeted on Wednesday after its initial quarterly earnings report as a publicly traded entity. Shareholders divested their holdings even though Circle reported revenue and earnings that surpassed projections. The lack of investor confidence seems linked to diminishing yields from the reserves supporting its primary USDC stablecoin.
The markets
S&P 500 futures are down 0.04% this morning. The last session closed up 0.06%. STOXX Europe 600 was up 0.09% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was down 0.4% in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was up 0.43%. China’s CSI 300 was up 1.21%. The South Korea KOSPI was up 0.49%. India’s NIFTY 50 is up 0.01%. Bitcoin was down at $103K.
Around the watercooler
When will I know if my flight is canceled? Here’s what to expect as delays ripple across U.S. Airports by Jessica Coacci
Trump, who slapped an extra $100,000 on the H-1B visa, now says there aren’t enough talented people in the U.S. To fill jobs by Sasha Rogelberg
Kim Kardashian’s Skims is now worth $5 billion after a massive $225 million funding round led by Goldman Sachs by Dave Smith
The CEO of Ford stated that the company has 5,000 mechanic positions available, offering salaries exceeding $100,000 annually, due to a deficit in individuals with manual skills, declaring, "We are in trouble in our country."By Marco Quiroz-Gutierrez
CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Claire Zillman.