Hard Rock Cafe’s Peter Morton Visits Daniels

Peter Morton (BSBA, 1969) was the featured speaker of the March 1 Lunch and Learn at the Daniels College of Business. Morton, grandson of the late co-founder of Morton’s: The Steakhouse, shared with students, staff and alumni his experience founding and growing the Hard Rock Cafe restaurant chain and Las Vegas hotel and casino.

After graduating from the School of Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Management, Morton had planned to spend a summer traveling in Europe before starting a job in the fall of 1969 with a large New York-based restaurant company. On his way home, he stopped in London, where he and a friend came up with the concept for Hard Rock Cafe. They put in $5,000 apiece, took out a $150,000 loan and opened their first Hard Rock in London’s Mayfair district. Today, Hard Rock boasts more than 170 venues and 15 hotels/casinos. Morton sold his restaurants in 1996 and the world-famous Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in 2006.

Morton discussed everything from his entrepreneurial ventures to the economic meltdown to his steadfast dedication to an idea that ultimately led him to achieve business success. “You’ve got to be doing something that you’re passionate about,” said Morton. “If you’re not passionate, forget it. If you’re just looking at it as a job to earn some money, pay some bills…I really can’t comment on that because that’s not the way I’ve done it.”

When asked about ethical dilemmas he has faced, Morton offered a simple answer. “Honesty, integrity—that’s the only way to go,” he said. “You will be faced with it on numerous fronts, whether it’s an employee doing something unethical, whether it’s a coworker or the chairman of your company. You will all face these issues.” Morton shared a story from his early career of an employee of Hard Rock who was embezzling money from the café, whom he later sued mainly on principle—against the wishes of his partner and co-founder. “My partnership ended on that. All of you have to be able to draw the line in the sand and say, ‘You know what, I stand for honesty and I’m not accepting anything else.’ I was prepared to end my partnership, which I did, because that is the way I was raised and it’s what I believe in.”

Morton joked about his academic abilities. “I couldn’t pass an accounting course now—there’s no chance,” he laughed. But his greatest skill has always been his ability to connect with people. At the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino, he recalled staff meetings where he would stand in front of the hotel’s 2,000 employees and ask for feedback on what he and the restaurant could do better.

As for how to overcome challenges in business, Morton compared it to the issues commonly found in a large family. “I think everything is a challenge—people, finances, motivating your people,” he said. “When you have a restaurant or a chain of restaurants, you have a big, extended family. Everyone in this room has a family and I bet there is not one person in this room that can say they have not had issues of one sort or another with their family. It’s the same way in a large corporation. You’re a large family—there will be issues.”

These days, Morton is planning to open an exclusive small chain of hotels “that is ethos and vibe and spirit,” which he says does not exist in the marketplace today. “It’s the type of place I would want to go to,” said Morton. “If I’m going to a resort property, I literally want to be in a place with 20 rooms, 25 rooms, that’s really cool.”

Visit daniels.du.edu/events to learn more about Lunch and Learn events and to register for future sessions, such as the Lunch and Learn: Jake Jabs, CEO of American Furniture Warehouse on Tuesday, April 12 at noon.