Book Review: Delivering the WOW

For anyone with an interest in books about how to build a business and, more importantly, how to run it, we have a beauty for you. Called Delivering the WOW, Culture as Catalyst for Lasting Success, it is written by Providence-born Richard Fain, the chairman and former CEO of Royal Caribbean Group. Named by Barron’s as one of the “World’s Best CEO’s” for three years running, he took the company from a small niche cruise line with a handful of small ships in 1988 to a fleet of megaships, including the Icon of the Seas, the largest cruise ship ever built, and from 2700 employees to almost 100,000 today. In fact, it’s now bigger than all the other cruise lines combined.

While the book focuses on the cruise industry, it reads like an engaging case study for any business school class. In this enjoyable, fast-paced narrative, Fain shares the inside stories of the company’s amazing growth with wit, modesty, and frequently disarming humor. It’s livened up with wild, exciting experiences in international business, unique developments in design and technology, and the details of overcoming unexpected obstacles to success.

His most significant breakthrough was to go all-in on the concept of “megaships.” The company then had to redefine its marketing objectives. Their competition was now not just other cruise ship lines, but giants like Walt Disney World and Marriott Hotels, all fighting to deliver the best customer experience for those vacation dollars.

For Royal Caribbean, this meant enhancing the shipboard experience for its cruise guests by completely redesigning everything. They created eye-popping four-story atriums in the center of the ship, unheard of on-board entertainment options like bumper cars, climbing walls, ice skating rinks (with real ice), and champagne bars. Quite frankly, there had never been anything like it. No wonder “WOW” became the first word out of everyone’s mouth when boarding their first megaship.

To run the company, Fain prescribed a unique corporate culture that links every employee, from top to bottom, to the same company vision, or “alignment,” as he calls it. This is coupled with establishing the company’s “North Star,” a perhaps unattainable goal but one towards which everyone strives, which became the secret sauce for success. He argues that it’s something most businesses could benefit from. Success is to always seek continual improvement. Good enough is never good enough.

Yet for all its growth, the company’s very survival was threatened in 2020 when COVID struck and forced cruise ships off the seas. “I went to Wharton and don’t remember any lessons on what to do when your company’s income drops literally to zero.” Meanwhile, employees were scattered around the world, some far from home. 

Their struggle was one of corporate commitment… the ability to adapt, painstakingly retrench for their comeback, never losing sight of that North Star. By remaining true to their culture, they did survive. And when the restraints were mercifully lifted, virtually the entire Royal Caribbean workforce stood by the company and returned.

Since Fain grew up in Providence, we asked him if this played any role in his view of life. “Sure. The East Side was my home during my formative years. My 12 years at Moses Brown, Temple Beth El, and tinkering with gadgets and designs in my cousin Lyle’s basement were all key to how I grew up,to the extent I ever did. Being part of a community and having a purpose all came from that strong foundation. I wasn’t ‘taught’ how to give back. I experienced it as part of life.”

Fain ends his book on this note. “COVID forced us to rethink everything. But it also reaffirmed what mattered most: our people, our culture, and our purpose. This experience, this horrible experience, proved the importance of culture and how resilient a strong culture can be.”

It’s a story we need to hear more than ever. Learn more at DeliveringTheWow.com