By Bradford Hudson Three decades ago, American industry was obsessed with quality management. Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman helped create the enthusiasm during this era with their best-selling book In Search of Excellence. Although the subsequent quality movement was quite successful in the manufacturing sector, it has been less successful in services. Indeed, there is […]
By: Christopher Muller What is unique about being a designer and also an artist is that you are always composing and designing. It’s like breathing. It’s inherent. It’s like musicians who are always humming when they walk down the street and don’t even know they are doing it.-Morris Nathanson For more than a half century, […]
By Bradford Hudson Brand heritage is an emerging topic within the marketing discipline, which suggests that the consumer appeal of products and services offered by older companies may be enhanced by the historical characters of their brands. The partially shared nomenclature with the well-established field of heritage tourism is more than coincidental, as both concern […]
By Peter Szende The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations – also known variably as the Great Exhibition, the Crystal Palace Exhibition, or the World’s Fair – occurred in London during 1851. This established the standard for industrial and cultural exhibitions throughout Europe and the United States during the next century. […]
By Christopher Muller Hospitality : n. friendly and generous reception of guests or strangers, or of new ideas. –The Concise Oxford Dictionary The idea of hospitality is evident in several types of human behavior including obligatory duties, commercial activity, and prosocial action. These are intertwined and revolve around the commitment to caring for others whether […]
By Zoe Ho The hospitality industry has no shortage of women entering the business, but senior management positions seem to be dominated by men, especially general managers at major hotel properties. Although the proportions have probably improved over time, two academic studies by Robert Woods and his colleagues a decade ago indicated that fewer than […]
By Christopher Muller Restaurants are considerably more sophisticated as manufacturing and service delivery systems than most uninitiated observers and users may recognize. Dining in a restaurant, whether one is served at the venerable Union Oyster House in Boston or at the window of a new food truck in Portland, requires a contextualized understanding of procedures. […]
By Rachel Black Finding a neutral definition of the term terroir is not an easy task. For some, it can mean the soil and microclimate that imparts a distinct taste to a wine. For others, the concept of terroir includes the human expertise and craftsmanship that goes into growing grapes and making wine. In the […]
By Peter Szende and Heather Rule The legacy of Charles Eaton began with a little bit of luck. In 1882, while walking along Washington Street in downtown Boston, he passed a vacant building that seemed to be a good site for a new business serving non-alcoholic beverages. In short order, he emerged with the lease. […]
By Bradford Hudson The Cradle of American Liberty is a term that has been applied to the City of Boston in general, and Faneuil Hall in particular, since the Revolutionary era. It could be argued that Boston also deserves credit as the Cradle of American Hospitality. An astonishing array of firsts and near firsts in […]