#273: Tony Capuano, President & CEO, Marriott International – Success is never final

How Leaders Lead with David Novak

David Novak Leadership

Entrepreneurship, Business, Management

4.8 • 596 Ratings

🗓️ 8 January 2026

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

How do you keep your team motivated, even when things are going well? Just ask Marriott President and CEO Tony Capuano. As the guy in charge of the world’s largest hospitality company (10,000 hotels in 143 countries!), he knows a thing or two about success. But he’s also keenly aware that success is never final. And it’s up to leaders to set the pace and keep raising the bar. So if you want to build a culture that never settles, this is the episode for you! You’ll also learn: Three traits he sees in every growing leader How technology can create more human connection, not less The time Bill Marriott turned a kitchen mishap into a leadership masterclass An insight that will fundamentally change how you relate to everyone on your team Take your learning further. Get proven leadership advice from these (free!) resources: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠The How Leaders Lead App⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: A vast library of 90-second leadership lessons to stay sharp on the go ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Daily Insight Emails⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: One small (but powerful!) leadership principle to focus on each day Whichever you choose, you can be sure you’ll get the trusted leadership advice you need to advance your career, develop your team, and grow your business.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of How Leaders Lead. Today, David sits down with
0:05.5	Tony Capuano. He's the president and CEO of Marriott International, which is the largest
0:11.0	hospitality company in the world. They've got over 30 brands, nearly 10,000 hotels, and a loyalty
0:18.6	program with close to 260 million members. In today's conversation,
0:24.2	you're going to learn how Tony leads and how his relentless focus on beating complacency
0:29.5	has been the key to Marriott's continued success. Enjoy this episode with David and Tony,
0:35.2	and I will see you at the debrief. There are lots of leaders that are great talkers and great speakers.
0:42.3	There are probably some subset that are great listeners,
0:46.3	and that's something I've tried to emulate during my time with the company.
1:05.7	I'm really thrilled that you're on the show because I'm really thrilled that you're on the show, because I understand it, you just came from a meeting with Bill Marriott, where you guys are talking about the 100th anniversary you have coming up.
1:11.2	That's right. In 2027, we'll celebrate 100 years since our founding, And it's by any measure, just a remarkable American success story, now a global success
1:17.3	story from humble beginnings.
1:19.6	It was fascinating sitting there with Mr. Marriott and him talking about how his parents
1:24.7	didn't literally have two nickels to rub together and the risks they took
1:29.3	and how they would feel if they could look at what the company's grown into. So it's always a treat
1:35.6	to spend time with him. It's probably the best part of my job is I get to talk to him almost every week.
1:40.9	That's fantastic. And, you know, I'd be crazy if I didn't go ahead and ask you this right now.
1:45.9	I mean, when you look back with your time with Mr. Marriott, you know, he's such an icon,
1:52.0	what's one story you could share with us that really impacted your leadership the most?
1:57.5	Yeah. I mean, gosh, we could spend the whole time talking about that. But there's,
2:02.0	I mean, from the hundreds of stories, there's one that always stands out. I started my career
2:08.0	in the development discipline. And I was leading our growth efforts on the West Coast based in
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from David Novak Leadership, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of David Novak Leadership and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.