{"id":14242,"date":"2019-04-28T16:50:26","date_gmt":"2019-04-28T20:50:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.berdeogroup.com\/?p=14242"},"modified":"2023-12-18T12:50:06","modified_gmt":"2023-12-18T17:50:06","slug":"leadership-at-royal-caribbean-cruises-charting-courageous-courses-of-conservation-and-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.berdeogroup.com\/leadership-at-royal-caribbean-cruises-charting-courageous-courses-of-conservation-and-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Leadership at Royal Caribbean Cruises: Charting Courageous Courses of Conservation and Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cI am comfortable that this company for which I\u2019ve worked for such a long time believes in doing the right thing. I wouldn\u2019t want to be here if I felt there was a conflict between my values and the company\u2019s core values,\u201d declares Adam Goldstein, President and COO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Benevolence<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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For sure, Royal Caribbean\u2019s<\/a> emblematic status as stewards of environmental stewardship is ironic given what many travelers look forward to at the bon voyage party\u2014a let-your-hair-down experience sailing away from day-to-day obligations on a 230,000-ton<\/a> ship where the liquor budget abounds, the casino is almost always open, and the food is unlimited. In the background, however, the company is in its second year of an alliance with the World Wildlife Fund<\/a>, with core mantras (per Goldstein) such as \u201cwithout healthy oceans, we don\u2019t have a business,\u201d \u201cabsolutely nothing goes overboard,\u201d and \u201con our biggest ships nothing goes to landfill anymore.\u201d The Royal fleet also plans to be \u201c35 percent more fuel efficient within three years against a 2005 baseline \u2026 and will drastically reduce sulfur emissions through Advanced Emissions Purification units known as scrubbers.\u201d And he relays such statements of aggressive conservancy with a matter-of-factness as if they are family values passed down over centuries.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Bad Breaks that Benefit<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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At Berd\u00e9o Group<\/a>, we work with leaders every day in a world where employees, shareholders, and stakeholders alike crave members of the C-suite who walk-the-talk. Goldstein is undeniably that guy. And it may root in the three of his four years at Princeton through which he mastered adversity and appreciation for this Earth. During this period, his perspectives on adversity likely drifted from the mainstream, \u201cbecause in my particular frame of reference, having a serious but undiagnosed back problem, not being able to sit down for a year \u2026 ruining the nerves in my elbows \u2026 laying on my back holding the book above me, having months where I took five and six hot and cold showers \u2026 to get through the night, maybe \u2026 I have a perspective that keeps things very much under control when they could otherwise become very challenging.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

His greatest career episode in adversity came with the Radiance of the Seas<\/em>, when the customer service delivery to the guests \u201cmelted down in the inaugural period\u201d of 2001 while his \u201ccustomers lived with us 24\/7 \u2026 a situation very few businesses encounter.\u201d Royal was out to revolutionize the greater portion of what they did aboard Radiance.<\/em> While changing their methods, Royal also deviated from its tradition of staffing new ships with veteran personnel, opting instead for fresh land-based talent. \u201cEventually, over the months, things calmed down, the beginners became veterans, some didn\u2019t make it, and we injected more veterans.\u201d Now, Goldstein is fond of that experience for \u201cchallenging [our leadership] to pay attention to the first principles in doing any big projects in the future.\u201d Undeniably, at a company holding individual assets worth as much as $1.35 billion<\/a>, small ventures are few and far between. Goldstein posits \u201cthere\u2019s a natural tendency to think you\u2019ve thought something through \u2026 and you really have to try to test that assumption.\u201d He also admits \u201chumans have great difficulty anticipating problems and predicting the future,\u201d but thankfully, \u201cthe bones of the ships today are very traceable to what\u201d was \u201ca very painful failure at the beginning\u201d\u2014 Project<\/em> Radiance.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Balance<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Despite his vibrant, challenging day-to-day at Royal, Goldstein\u2019s responsibilities seem almost as great when away from the office. He manages through his mantra for success\u2014\u201ca balance of excellence.\u201d Significant, prevailing forces foster equilibrium with his profession through: \u201ca very strong commitment to my family\u201d who happen to be \u201cextreme concussion activists;\u201d serving on the advisory board of Our Kids<\/a> (of which he is also former Chairman), which in great part oversees three to six thousand foster children and a $100 million annual state grant; involvement in national energy security for the last 12 years, and a prolific passion for running. This year\u2019s Maccabiah Games<\/a> in Jerusalem is the first occasion on which he represents the United States in a half marathon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Belief in Our Future<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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After thirty-years of success, Goldstein has an eye on tomorrow\u2019s leaders<\/a> who will replace him with optimism<\/a>. \u201cThe young twenty-somethings are very positive and \u2026 excited to engage with the world and \u2026 are much more open-minded about diversity.\u201d Notwithstanding, worthwhile traditions remain important: \u201cMany times, having deep experience in what you are doing really matters,\u201d rather than a perceived trend to excel through a broad focus on the subject matter of your work. What\u2019s more, while \u201cvery well-educated people coupled with technological opportunities \u2026 have more potential to create new business opportunities and to invent and innovate new things, \u2026 I don\u2019t think you can go away from people taking time to really put in the effort to master discipline,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

He continues by advising, \u201cIt\u2019s really helpful to do the basics [reading, writing, and speaking] right \u2026 No matter how technological the world becomes, you will never go wrong by having strengths in those areas.\u201d He also feels, \u201cIt will always be helpful to make your presence felt in a room, conference or one-on-one discussion and to have a point of view.\u201d Goldstein doesn\u2019t want a young worker \u201cto come to me and say, \u2018You\u2019re the president, so which option, A, B, or C would you like to do?\u2019\u201d He greatly prefers \u201csomeone who comes to me and says, \u2018I am recommending A, but I\u2019ll tell you about B and C.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Goldstein leads his life in- and outside of work conducting an orchestra of pieces as vast as the ocean. After our time together, it is clear, he will look back on his years as \u201ca balance of excellence.\u201d To that end, his life is a microcosm of the company he serves and that has served him, \u201ccreating central memories in people\u2019s lives through the vacations that we deliver to them,\u201d while also doubling 2014 earnings per share alongside a double-digit return on invested capital by the end of 2017. Goldstein and his company can certainly both make the same claim \u2014 \u201cWe have been able to do well by doing good.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

This article originally appeared on Huff<\/a> Post July 07, 2017<\/p>\n

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