1999 Annual Report - Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

Message to Our Shareholders
“ Ours is a strategy for growth that is based on our fundamental beliefs:
that quality has inherent value; that sound business is rooted in
trustworthiness; and that most people, when fairly treated, respond in kind.”
Isadore Sharp
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
In the pages that follow, you will read more about what we believe was a most successful year for Four Seasons
Hotels and Resorts. It was a year of continued growth in earnings and improvements in profitability, as net earnings
increased by over 24% to over $86 million. We also opened more hotels in a single year than ever before in our
nearly 40-year history, adding important new properties in Las Vegas; Punta Mita, Mexico; Scottsdale; Canary
Wharf; and Paris to the Four Seasons portfolio.
But in reflecting on the achievements of 1999, we at Four Seasons believe that it was much more than another
good year. For us, it was the culmination of a series of successful years, all based on a strategy that now enables us to
set new goals for the future—goals that would have been inconceivable two decades ago when the essential
elements of our strategy first came together.
Ours is a strategy for growth that is based on our fundamental beliefs: that quality has inherent value; that
sound business is rooted in trustworthiness; and that most people, when treated fairly, respond in kind. These core
values have guided the key decisions that shaped our business decisions in the years gone by.
First, we decided to develop only mid-sized hotels of exceptional quality, which has resulted in our current
portfolio of irreplaceable buildings in irreplaceable locations. Second, we decided to focus on customer satisfaction,
which led us early on to redefine luxury, not in the form of buildings and decor, but as consistent, intuitive,
personalized service.
This meant giving high priority to the morale of our employees, so our third major decision was to create and
adhere to a set of core values that determine how we should act toward each other, whether we be co-workers,
business partners, customers or shareholders. In essence, we committed ourselves to treating all others as we
ourselves would want to be treated. Written credos were common decades ago, but they usually became quite
meaningless. So we didn’t talk about ours, we lived it and enforced it. Within a few years, we had a complete
managerial consensus on what is now known as the Four Seasons corporate culture.
F our Seasons Hotels Inc.
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