Have mobile devices struck one more blow to email business etiquette? Do you know that smart phones and tablets make up more than half of all mobile devices and that 90 percent of those with these latest devices use them to check their email before checking their computers?.

At least that is what Dave Tedlock of NetOutcomes.reports. Based on personal experience, I don’t doubt him for a second.

Everywhere you go, you see people on their mobile device, whatever type it is, but something has changed. They are no longer using them for live conversation. This is obvious because their lips aren’t moving and they are operating the device with their thumbs. What effect has this had on email etiquette? For one thing it has caused a rise of ATS or “Alone Together Syndrome.” ( Look for more about ATS in a future article.)

Hotel students face a daunting road ahead of them, and educators are finding it increasingly difficult to prepare them for all the twists and turns along the way, according to a panel of deans from some of the world’s leading hotel schools.

“Our students are going to graduate into a really tough environment. And that environment is going to get worse and not better,” said Bjorn Hanson, divisional dean of the Preston Robert Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports Management at New York University.

Hanson—who along with four of his peers shared their thoughts on the state of the hotel industry and hotel education during a keynote session Tuesday at the Cornell Hospitality Research Summit—said NYU is responding by adjusting its curriculum to reflect today’s challenges.

Ecole hôtelière de Lausanne, a Switzerland-based hospitality university, along with the other schools represented on the panel, have responded in kind, developing new and innovative approaches to immerse students in the hospitality experience, said Fabien Fresnel, dean of education and research at the university.

If you're like most people, you probably think business success is the result of innovative products, strong financial backing and long work hours.

But you'd think wrong.

Most successful business ideas are stolen from other companies. And millions of companies have spun through billions of dollars, only to fold up and die.

As for long work hours, as I explained in this post, consistently working more than 40 hours a week actually makes you less productive.

What, then, are the true reasons that people (and the companies they create) become successful? There are three:

1. Ability to Empathize

There is simply nothing so important in business as understanding what other people are feeling and likely to feel in the future.

This capability determines whether customers will want your products, whether employees will accept your leadership, whether colleagues will work well with you, and whether investors will be willing to take a risk on you.

Without empathy, there's absolutely no way that you'll get all these folks pulling in the same direction.

2. Clarity of Purpose

Hospitality Innovator: Lara Hernandez
C2 Trinity | Nov 12, 2012 | Comments 1

Hernandez had already changed majors several times when she stumbled upon the hotel and restaurant management major at West Virginia University after remembering fondly previous part-time jobs she’d held at restaurants.

After signing up for the major, Hernandez decided she’d best get familiar with hotels, so she marched down to the Holiday Inn property in Morgantown, West Virginia, and was hired in as a front-desk clerk.

The 38-year-old has been a “hotel girl” ever since, and in April she was named VP of distribution and relationship marketing at InterContinental Hotels Group.

“There are two types of people in this business,” Hernandez said during a telephone interview last month. “You either love it and have a passion for it, or it’s not for you. And I’m lucky to have a passion for it.”

IHG career
Hernandez has been with IHG since 2006, heading up business development within the company’s distribution marketing division.