Starwood is one of the world's largest hotel and leisure companies. Its well-known luxury and upscale brands include Four Points, Sheraton, Westin, St. Regis, and W Hotels. In an industry that's highly dependent on attracting and keeping customers, Starwood knows it has to be innovative. In 2006, the company's Westin chain spotted a market opportunity after a survey found that 34 percent of frequent travelers feel lonely away from home. The challenge was to be innovative in finding way to exploit that opportunity. Again, showing its willingness to be different, the company took an unusual approach.

Instead of hiring the usual consultants, Starwood's management team turned to Six Sigma, a quality management process best known for increasing efficiency and reducing product defects. Many companies have had great success with Six Sigma, but it has often keen described as a creativity killer. "Combining creativity and efficiency is a delicate managerial maneuver that few service companies can pull off." But that reputation didn't deter Starwood's managers. One thing they had in their favor was that the company already had strong culture of creativity. In the 1990s, it designed its popular W Hotels as a blend of high fashion and high energy and captured a lot of attention and customers looking for a trendy experience.

Today, Starwood uses Six Sigma to dream up projects for its properties around the world. Since the program launched in 2001, 150 employees have been trained as "black belts" and 2,700 as "green belts" in the art of Six Sigma. These employees are based mostly at the hotels, with the black belts overseeing the projects and the green belts taking care of the details. The Six Sigma specialists help hotel employees find ways to meet their goals. In fact, almost 100 percent of the creative ideas have come from in-house staff.Starwood's innovation process starts with hotel teams who "pitch" the Six Sigma group on a new idea. A Six Sigma Council (composed of 13 people) evaluates the idea's merit, based on the goals and expected payoffs. If the council approves a project, the Six Sigma specialists are deployed to help the local hotel teams carry it out.

1. Do some research on Sigma Six. Explain what it is . Do you think its reputation as a "creativity Killer" is justified? Why or why not?
2. What does this say about what Starwood has accomplished with its Six Sigma program? What could other companies learn Starwood's experience?
3. How important it is to leave a culture of creativity? Explain. If a company doesn't have a culture, what could managers do?
4. What else might Starwood do to promote creativity and innovation?
5. Do you think the hotel/resort industry environment is more calm water or white-water rapids? Explain your choice?