The huge challenge that lay ahead for corporations hit George Munoz, a director at Marriott International Inc., when he realized that minority students were in the majority at public high schools in the nation's 25 largest cities.

"This is our workforce of tomorrow," Munoz told himself.

At the time, in the mid-1980s, Munoz was president of the Chicago Board of Education, but the understanding eventually helped him lead a board of directors subcommittee at Marriott, which promotes diversity throughout the company.

The two-year-old subcommittee spent its first year building a business case for diversity. Munoz said that if businessmen are not convinced there is a bottom-line reason for programs, diversity efforts usually fail.

The subcommittee analyzed the impact that diversity programs could have on morale at Marriott, where the workforce is 59 percent minority, as well as the correlation among employee satisfaction, customer service and profits. It also collected information on black, Asian and Hispanic consumers, and on governments and companies that give preference to hotels with diversity programs.

"A lot of our key corporate customers are asking us about what we're doing in this space, what are we doing in diversity. What does our workforce look like? They ask about the ownership makeup of our hotels," said David Sampson, senior vice president of diversity initiatives. "Our ability to mirror the communities where we do business has helped us get additional lodging deals, particularly in top urban markets."

Then, the subcommittee shifted its focus to Marriott programs to promote women and minority executives, minority suppliers and minority hotel ownership.

William J. Shaw, president of Marriott International Inc., established the subcommittee and gave the chairmanship to Munoz, a former president of the Overseas Private Investment Corp. and assistant U.S. Treasury secretary and now head of Munoz Group Investment Banking Group LLC.

The subcommittee includes two other directors, as well as Shaw and six senior Marriott executives.

Its efforts included setting up a group that reviews Marriott's 400 highest-ranking managers and picks those who will be groomed for the top jobs. "We look at who our highest potential people are, and as part of that, look at how we are progressing against our goals on the diversity front," Shaw said. "We make sure we have not just identified people, but we have development plans for everybody."

MARRIOTT CHANGES FACE OF BUSINESS

EMPLOYEE DEVELOPMENT: The Human Capital Review program, headed by William J. Shaw, Marriott's president and chief operating officer, identifies leadership talent throughout Marriott, with an emphasis on women and minorities.

RESULTS: Of Marriott's 407 senior executives, 86 are women and 32 are minorities. Of Marriott's 41 top executive vice presidents, four are minorities and 11 are women.

SUPPLIER DIVERSITY PROGRAM: Marriott has a Web site where small businesses can register for work. Marriott assesses each registrant's sales, capabilities and products, and tries to respond to the registrant within eight weeks. It then works with the business, explaining what kinds of products and services Marriott is trying to buy, and how to navigate Marriott's procurement system.

RESULTS: In 2005, $347 million of procurement business, or 11.7 percent, went to 11,000 minority- and women-owned suppliers. That was up from $210 million in 2004.

DIVERSITY OWNERSHIP INITIATIVE: Last year, Marriott set up a program to increase the number of its hotels owned by minority- and women-owned franchisees. It holds seminars on the economics of the hotel business, where wealthy minority investors can hear experts talk about underwriting criteria for securing loans, as well as details on hotel construction, refurbishing and operations.

RESULTS: When Marriott began the initiative, about 250 of its 2,700 lodging properties were owned or under development by minorities. At the end of 2005, about 300 of its 2,800 lodging properties were owned, operated or under development by minorities.