Ian Schrager Bibliography
Early life
Ian Schrager is a great icon in the hospitality industry (Schrager, 2015). This historical figure was born on July 19th, 1946 in New York City, United States. Schrager is known to be a well renown American entrepreneur in the hospitality industry who grew up in Brooklyn and came from a Jewish family. His skill in entrepreneurship was inherited from his father, who expressed business acumen that saw him own a factory in New Jersey, specializing in women’s coats. On the other hand, his mother was a housewife (Schrager, 2015).
Education
Schrager holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Syracuse. His business roots can be traced back to this institute where he met Steve Rubell, with whom they eventually would go into business. Moreover, besides holding a BA degree Schrager also attended St. John’s University School of Law where he attained qualifications in legal practice. On successful completion of his studies in Law school, our business leader in subject practiced in the field of criminal justice for three years after which he then fully ventured into business (Schrager, 2015). In this case, he partnered with Rubell to come up with an Enchanted Garden, which served as a disco in Douglaston. This venture was so successful, an aspect that prompted him to diversify, opening up a nightclub in Manhattan. As a result of the experienced success in their previous business dealings at the Enchanted Garden, Schrager and Rubell signed a lease for studio 54, which opened six weeks later (Schrager, Goldberger, & Colacello, 2017).
Family
Schrager married Rita Noran, who is a Cuban Ballet Dancer. The marriage took place during valentine’s day in the year 1994. The couple was blessed with two daughters namely Sophia and Ava. In the year 2008, Ian Schrager married his second wife, Tania Wahlstedt, who was a former Ballerina with a City Ballet in New York. The two got two daughters, and these are Amanda and Lili, and a son by the name Louis (Schrager, 2015).
Business experience
Ian Schrager is known to have a vast experience in business, and this ranges from taking on the night club business in the 1970s to coming up with the legendary Studio 54, and now turning to Hotels, with the latest business initiative being coming up with his company under his brand name that manages hotels (Schrager, Goldberger, & Colacello, 2017). As mentioned in the early life section of this Bibliography, Schrager is known to have partnered with Rubell after several years of practice in law to open a disco, and this was in Douglaston, Queens. The two gentlemen rented space for the nightclub, which initially served as a CBS studio. The latter stated venue was known to host one-night-only theme parties. Three years down the line, on opening up, the club was raided and this came after Rubell made a statement that the mafia was the only entity that made more money than their business. Following this disturbing statement, Rubell and Schrager were charged with conspiracy, and tax evasion (Enz, 2010). This saw them sentenced to three and a half years in prison, an aspect that subsequently led to the sale of the club.
After Studio 54 was sold and their jail term terminated through a presidential pardon, Schrager resorted to opening another business and this was Palladium. The Palladium was a night club that was in the old Academy of Music Building located in New York City. This was then followed by the opening of another business, and this was the Morgan’s Hotel Group. The two business partners decided to venture into Hotels. Their first hotel, which is the Morgan’s, was a hit, as it introduced the concept of a boutique lifestyle hotel to the world. After this business venture was successful, there led to a series of other new hotels and these were the Royalton Hotel and the Paramount Hotel. The new business ventures came in with a lobby socializing, where people could hold gatherings within the hotel premise.
The hotel industry seemed to be too lucrative to the business partners, and this can be attributed to the opening up of more outlets including the Delano Hotel in Miami, Mondrian Hotel in West Hollywood, Hudson Hotel in New York, Cliff Hotel, and Sanderson Hotel. All these chains of outlets were designed by Starck. However, it is noted that Ian Schrager became a solo business person after his partner succumbed to early signs of HIV/AIDs, and this was back in 1989.
When it came to the year 2005, Schrager, who was a sole entrepreneur at this time, decided to sell the Morgan Hotel Group. This led to him coming up with Ian Schrager Company which owns, develops, as well as, manages brands of hotels, residential, along with mixed-use projects. Under this new business venture, Schrager was able to transform the Gramercy Park Hotel, and this was in the New York City, creating two groundbreaking residential properties under his new brand (Schrager, 2015). As a sole entity, the Schrager brand is known to be a new genre of hotel that provided great value, service, and style that set a new industry standard. Schrager has been able to combine the best from boutique, luxury set, and the best from select service, to come up with a new breed of hotel where everything that has been rethought along with every original idea updated (Pine, & Gilmore, 2011).
Moreover, Schrager in partnership with Marriot International came up with EDITION hotels, which was a luxury property hotel that is located in New York City, London, and Miami. This new entity in the market marks the next chapter in the lifestyle hotel story. The EDITION hotels incorporate personal, individualized, intimate, as well as unique experience in lodging. Ian Schrager is known to provide a significant contribution to the business venture by enhancing global reach, operational expertise, along with scale of Marriott.
Most notable accomplishments and how they were achieved
One of the most notable accomplishments that can be attributed to Ian Schrager is business diversification which was evident by shifting from night clubs to hotels. The new business line was a success and this can be attributed to the integration of the concept of boutique lifestyle hotels to the world (Enz, 2010).
The most precise accomplishment in the hotel industry was the realization of hotel as a lifestyle, which led to the expansion of Hudson Hotels from New York, to San Francisco, and later London (Gubler, 2008).
Roles and responsibilities within the H&T organization.
The major role of Ian Schrager is that of the owner, ownership role. In this case, this business icon was responsible for mobilizing resources solely to come up with the Ian Schrager company which delved deep into the hotel brands. Therefore, his responsibility was to generate capital to start up the sole proprietorship (Enz, 2010).
The other role that was assumed by Schrager is the innovative role. His main responsibility in his company was to come up with ideas that fit the modern lifestyle. For instance, Schrager developed the concept of a boutique hotel in the world. Moreover, he was also able to pioneer other concepts along with creating numerous original innovations in the industry (Schrager, 2015).
How he believes that he is successful in achieving his responsibilities.
Through his responsibility of coming up with the latest trending designs in the market, Schrager believes that he is successful in achieving this because this project became forever engrained in the fabric of the city’s life, and still got relevance as they were when they were first created (Enz, 2010). Apart from that, Ian also believes that he is successful in achieving his responsibilities, and this can be attributed to the notable successes that are evident in his sole proprietorship company.
Challenges and how he overcame them to become an industry leader.
One of the main challenges that Schrager faced was that of the death of his business partner. In this case, he had to shift from partnership to sole proprietorship. After the death of his partner, Rubell, whom he had partnered to do many businesses with, Schrager put his head high to open up a sole proprietorship, which turned out to be very successful. It is through his company that his name became bold in the industry, and this is evident whereby his style is now embraced by the current generation (Schrager, 2015).
The other challenge that was faced by Ian was that of going to jail for three years. This came when his business partner made assertions that they were making a lot of money, thus bringing suspicion that they were not paying taxes. This challenge was overcome by selling the old business and opening up a new one, to avoid such suspicion.
Additional statistics
Schrager partnered with Arthur Cohen in coming up with some first boutique hotels in New York City. This partnership also saw them acquire and renovate the Royalton Hotel and the Barbizon Hotel (Gubler, 2008). Ian was married to two wives, and had a total of 4 children; three girls and one boy.
Why I selected Ian Schrager
I selected Ian Schrager because of his character of aggressiveness and his spirit of diversification in the hospitality industry. This leader was able to successfully venture into more than one business ranging from night clubs to hotels. Apart from that, the other reason as to why I selected Ian is because of his exposure in both sole proprietorship and partnership.
My personal feeling for Ian Schrager.
According to me, Ian Schrager is a person who goes out of his way to bring innovativeness on board (Schrager, 2015). This business leader always goes an extra mile to ensure that he meets the current and future needs of clients. In addition, Ian Schrager is one person who does not easily give up in whatever he is doing.
References
Enz, C. A. (2010). Hospitality strategic management: Concepts and cases. Hoboken, N.J:
John Wiley & Sons.
Gubler, F. (2008). Great, grand & famous hotels. Crows Nest, N.S.W: Great, Grand &
Famous Pty Ltd.
Pine, J. B., & Gilmore, J. H. (2011). The experience economy. Boston, Mass: Harvard
business school press.
Schrager, I. (2015). Ian schrager – design.
Schrager, I., Goldberger, P., & Colacello, B. (2017). Studio 54.