Hospitality and Tourism Strategic Planning

Level 7 Postgraduate Diploma in Hospitality and Tourism Management

West City College

Table of Contents
Discussion Paper............................................................................................................3 Introduction ...............................................................................................................3 Ansoff Matrix.............................................................................................................3 Vertical and Horizontal integration............................................................................4 Mintzberg Strategies...................................................................................................5 Product/ industry Lifecycle........................................................................................5 Porter Generic Strategy .............................................................................................7 Ethics in Business.....................................................................................................10 Strategic Planning Report.............................................................................................11 Introduction .............................................................................................................11 Company Background .............................................................................................11 Market Segmentation ..............................................................................................11 Service Lines .........................................................................................................12 Market Growth ........................................................................................................12 Competitors .............................................................................................................12 Vision and Mission...................................................................................................12 Environment Analysis .............................................................................................12 Strategic Planning Models .......................................................................................15 Strategic Alliance and Joint Ventures......................................................................16 Mergers and Acquisitions ........................................................................................18 Stakeholders and their participation.........................................................................18 Business Ethics and their role in Business Strategy ................................................19 Conclusion ...............................................................................................................20 Recommendations to Hilton Hotel Group................................................................20 References................................................................................................................22 Murphy P., Murphy A., 2004, Strategic management for tourism communities: bridging the gaps, Channel view publications, UK......................................................23

Discussion Paper
Introduction
In any business identifying the opportunities and forming useful strategies is very significant in order to be successful. This applies for hospitality industry as well. Over the time various theories and concepts have been developed for these purposes. Importance of theories is considerable as they have been helping the businesses to achieve their goals. Some of the theories are as follows:

Ansoff Matrix
This theory shows a path in case an organisation decides to grow. In this case, organisation must decide that where and how it is going to expand its business. This matrix has two dimensions of growth. One is market wise and other is product. It shows the possible combination of these two that can be used to grow. The following figure shows these combinations.

Advantages: This helps organisation to decide where capital and other resources can be invested. There are only two key elements for deciding about the investment

Disadvantages: This is an over simplified model that ignores the other internal and external factors. There are many more elements that can be covered and would give more efficient table.

Vertical and Horizontal integration

Source: www.strategyhub.net

The horizontal and vertical integration is also a growth strategy with different approach. Vertical integration is the process in which several steps in the production and/or distribution of a product or service are controlled by a single company or entity, in order to increase that companys or entitys power in the marketplace. While horizontal integration is quite simpler than vertical integration as this involves taking over or merging with similar company for growth purpose. Advantages Efficiency of business increases Achieving economies of scale

Disadvantages Operations can become complex The flexibility can decrease due to upstream and downstream investment.

Mintzberg Strategies
According to mintzberg (1987) there are five elements that should be taken into consideration while forming the strategy: Strategy as Planning: Planning is most common and basic thing when it comes to form the strategy. This is also said default and automatic approach. Also, it is essential part of the strategy formation process. Strategy as ploy: Strategy can be ploy when a company gets better by influencing or disrupting the competitors. Strategy as pattern: There can be specific pattern that an organisation is following in order to operate its business. This makes the pattern a strategy. The strategy is not a choice but comes from the past behaviour of the organisation. Strategy as position: The way company position itself in the market is a strategy. It is the way in which the fit between company and environment is established. Strategy as a perspective: The strategy can come from the culture of organisation which is its perspective. For example if an organisation believes in risk taking and comes with the innovative product, its the perspective that thrust the strategy. Advantages According to Mindtools.com these five Ps can be taken as different viewpoints while developing a strategy Disadvantages Trying to use all 5ps in the strategy can become confusing and lead to ineffective strategy.

Product/ industry Lifecycle

This theory supports the belief that every industry or product has life for certain period which goes through cycle. There are series of stages that a product or industry

goes through. These stages are commonly represented through the sales and profit history of the product or industry itself.

Source: www.fao.org Figure: Product/industry Lifecycle Advantages Forecast of profits can be made Plans can be developed on the basis of these forecasts It anticipates the competition and changes in advance and thereby helping them to form the plans in advance Disadvantages It is a basic model that follows a fixed pattern without considering the other factors that could change it. This cannot be used for every product.

Schiens Cultural Model

According to this model given by Schien E. (1988) there are three layers of culture in each organisation that develop over the time. These layers are interlinked but each of them has their own complexity. The three layers are Artifacts: Visible Organisational Structure Espoused values: Strategies, Goals and philosophies

Assumptions: Taken for granted beliefs Advantages This model provides an overall view of the culture of organisation

Disadvantages This model is complex to implement as it takes into consideration various elements. The elements included are visible things as well as the intangible things which are difficult to understand.

Porter Generic Strategy

This is theory that helps an organisation to choose from the most common strategies implemented by the organisations in order to make profit. These are cost leadership, differentiation and focus. The focus can be combined with variants cost focus or differentiation focus.

Source: www2.ifm.eng.cam.ac.uk

Advantages

It offers the good starting point in decision making. The two dimension of this model helps the decision maker to consider two major aspects

Disadvantages There are only two aspects of strategy It can make organisation stuck in the middle if it does not clearly follow one strategy as each of them take different fundamental approach.

Boston matrix
It tells about the portfolio management based on product life cycle. In this matrix the four cells are stars, cash cows, dogs and question marks. Stars are in their initial stage using large part of resources but giving fewer returns. The cash cows are using less resources but have grown to giving high returns. Dogs are expensive and company should consider improving them or terminating them. Last are the question marks who are worst where input is very high return is very low. Advantages If a company has many products it can categorise its products using this matrix. It helps to assess and balance their products right to make maximum profit out of them. It helps the manager to formulate the future strategies.

Disadvantages It does not consider the synergy between business units of a company. It considers that having high market share is only a success factor. There are only two dimensions of business are considers which is market share and growth rate.

Mickensey 7 S model

This model presents 7 set of issues that should be considered while forming a strategy. These 7 s are

Strategy: It is about deciding how the competitive advantage can be attained to reach the overall goal of business. Structure: The structure contributes to the achievement of goals as the hierarchy and responsibility help in implementing the strategy effectively. The strategy should be in alignment with way of functioning of business. Systems: Systems are processes that are followed to get the work done. Style: It relates to the culture of the organisation and specific way of doing things. This accounts for the behaviour of leaders and employees. This is unsaid tradition of organisation. Staff: Employees are important in carrying out the plans and executions. Their abilities and commitment in implantation matters a lot.. Skills: These are capabilities of the organisation which can be turned into the core competencies by the combination of system and staff. . Shared values: The values which are shared by the employees and management must be clear to achieve the goals.

Pros and Cons Advantages This 7S of model largely includes every aspect of a strategy formulation. Using this model can find the shortcomings more specifically in any of these 7s which could avoid the failure of strategy implementation. This model can be used to convince the stakeholders for using a new strategy. Disadvantages It is quite complex to implement. In case of big company, it will more difficult to consider each s of this model.

Ethics in Business
According to Anon (2009) from Applied Corporate Governance the ethics in business can be defined as the application of moral code of conduct to strategy and operations of the organisation. Ethics is about being right and wrong. They are the moral guidelines for good behaviour. The business ethics consists of behaviour that a business adheres to in its daily dealing with world. The ethics can be different for different business. In business they defines that what kind of conduct is acceptable. They also highlight how decisions are made by management. Today as consumer world has become aware and conscious of the ethical trading, it very important for businesses that they adhere to the ethics. People expect companies not be there just for making money but adopt the right ways of doing business. It relates to the issues like labour exploitation, degradation of environment. Human rights, extortion and environment problems are the basic issues of business ethics (Bowie and Beaucham, 2001). Ethics is a lively issue in the hospitality industry. In this industry the organisations are expected to embrace the Corporate Social Responsibility concerned with providing their services. CSR states that if an organisation is making profits from people of a society it has some responsibilities in turn. It should share its benefits with local communities for example employing local people. If an organisation is operating in a tourist place it should have strategies to develop that location. It is also related to the managers duty in serving the some of the stakeholder groups such as NGOs and environmental groups. For example hotels should use the renewable source of energy. It should implement the ways in which energy can be saved and reduce the wastage wherever possible. Thus keeping the ethics in view is very important while developing a business strategy. The strategy should embrace the ethical ways of carrying out business. Some of the brands have high value for being ethical.

Strategic Planning Report

Introduction
This report is based on multinational hospitality organisation named Hilton Corporation. The report presents an evaluation of the companys strategies in accordance with various theories and concepts. It also examines the risk involved in those strategies. Finally it recommends the ways in which it can achieve its strategic objectives.

Company Background
It is operating in 85 countries under 10 brands. It owns more than 3750 hotels all around the world. It was founded by Conard Hilton in 1919 with opening a 40 room hotel Texas. Since then it grew into multinational chain of hotel serving all over the world. In USA it is market leader in hotel industry. It is a big company so its target customers include a wide variety of people. These are the business travellers who travel frequently, family on holidays, leisure travellers etc. Hilton hotel offer a wide range of products or service under 10 different brands which are mid level to high end. The number of hotels and rooms, geographical presence, occupancy rates and revenue per available room are the main drivers of revenue in the hotel industry. Hiltons strategic objectives can be described as smart. It aims to create a Hilton Brand i.e. People see them as a brand.

Market Segmentation
The brands of Hilton are Waldorf Astoria, Conrad Hotels and Resorts, Double Tree by Hilton, Embassy Suits, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton, Homewood Suits and Hilton Grand vacation. The Waldrof Astoria and Conrad Hotels are Luxury brand hotels offering elegant and modern services to their guests. Double Tree and Hampton Inn are upscale brands appropriate for the family and business travellers. The Embassy suits and Garden Inn offer self sufficient rooms with all kinds of amenities like refrigerator, microwave etc appropriate for the longer stays. The Grand Vacation as the name suggests offers 1, 2 or 3 bedroom suits with all kinds of facilities in the hotel for enjoying the vacations.

Service Lines
All of its hotels and suits offer the services such as high speed internet. Other services are different in different brands according to customer needs such in grand vacation provides the swimming pool, spa. Garden Inn and Embassy suits provide the coffee maker, remote printing, and secure data port usually required by the business travellers.

Market Growth
Hiltons CAGR (compound annual growth rate) grown by 3.7% during the 2002-2006 and its revenues were about $8162 millions in 2010 according to Fortune 500.

Competitors
Its prime competitors are Intercontinental hotel group, Marriott, and starwood, Accor group, Choice Group International. These are the competitors at global level who are operating in many countries.

Vision and Mission

Vision and mission ravels the objectives of the organisation. Vision tells about what the company sees itself later point of time. While mission is target of company which it wants to achieve. Vision To fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality Mission To be the preeminent global hospitality company - the first choice of guests, team members, and owners alike. The vision of the Hilton worldwide hotels is to fill the whole world with the warmth of the hospitality and the vision the group desire to achieve through their mission of becoming pre-eminent company in the world of hospitality by becoming the first choice of for all its customers, employees and owners and business associates.

Environment Analysis
In order to formulate a business strategy every organisation has to analyse it internal and external environment. Same is true for hospitality organisation. According to

those involved in the tourism business today realise that tourism is more competitive than ever before (Gunn C, 2002). To form strategy the present state, goals, and resources are analysed. Here some of the models are used for development of business strategy for Hilton Hotel Corporation. These models analyse the markets, competitors, customer etc.

SWOT analysis
Strengths Hilton group is a well established organisation and leader in hospitality industry. It is reputed organisation which is known for its service quality all over the world. It is a big player and has advantage of positive image at global level. Its has a range from mid priced to high end products for customer under 10 lodging brands. These products can cater the needs of different types of customers according to their needs. It has solid integration features for example it owns the furniture manufacturing company which provides furniture for its hotels. Also it has invested in a company which makes online booking for its hotels. Weaknesses According to data obtained form company, it is found that Hilton group has relying mainly on US markets and US economy has major influence on its income.

Opportunities There are many distinctive and specialised services which can be seen as opportunity by Hilton group and taken up like wedding planning and hosting, personal services related to Spas etc. It can expand into a cruise lines which gaining popularity among tourists these days.

There are lot of opportunity for Hilton group in emerging markets. It should expect a good business from newly emerged market as it has already known worldwide. It could get advantage of its international reputation in new markets.

Threats

A downturn in economy can hit the Hilton hotels badly and is a threat for it. There are many events which directly hit the hotel industry like terrorist strikes.

Exceeding the limits in mixing of gaming and entertainment can be dangerous for Hilton group. If not done carefully credits of gaming industry can eat away its profits. Thus overindulgence can be harmful for the group it should head carefully in this business.

PEST analysis
Political Factors: The political system of any country supports the Hilton group and the hospitality industry. Hospitality industry boosts the tourism which is a way of earning for the countries. Hilton is into hotel, gambling and entertainment industry which is a very much support by political systems. Economic Factors: The downturn seen worldwide has affected the Hilton group as it has reduced the tourists and travellers who avail their services. There are fears to not improving in next one or two years. This is becoming a concern for this organisation and further strategies need to be formed accordingly. Social Factors: As there is growing trend of travelling due to many reasons in most of the societies all over the world, has created good opportunities for the Hilton group. With economic growth and globalisation there are more and more people from all location are travelling. There is also increasing trend of leisure travellers and people travelling to different locations for holidays. Thus all these trends in society have created a pleasant environment for business. Technical Factors: Advanced technology has made business easier for Hilton as it uses sophisticated software to keep track of customer. Also, Hilton online website enables remote customers to book rooms and pay via credit cards. Thus new

technologies has enabled it reach out to the customers regardless of geographic locations.

Strategic Planning Models

Choosing an effective strategy is very important for hospitality organisation.

Porters Generic Strategies

Struman C et al (2011) has described three choices for hospitality organisations given by Porter (1980) in generic strategy mix. These are differentiation, cost leadership and focus Differentiation: It refers to offering something different to customers which is not available in market yet or is offered by others. Cost leadership: It is about keeping the cost low and offering the products at lower prices than the competitors. This involves focusing on lowering expenditure and creating economies of scale. For example for a restaurant to achieve the cost leadership will to produce at lowest cost, watch overheads and produce in high volume. According to Sturman C. et. al. (2011) some hotel firms have succeeded at melding cost leadership with differentiation. Focus: This involves focusing on a narrow range of customers from a specific market segment. In hotel business examples be specialising in services provided at weekends or a value to customers staying for full week. Hilton has adopted the hybrid strategy of consisting focus differentiation. Hiltons differentiation is the high quality service offered to the guests that is liked by both business and personal travellers. Its different brands are focused on the different market segments ranging from midscale to upscale and luxury services. These brands are well focused and differentiated by the needs they cater of families, business travellers and for long stays.

Ansoff Matrix
Ansoff Matrix is a matrix is a strategic management tool which can be used to depict to different growth strategies. It analyses organisations present products and markets and helps in choosing the future strategies which can be adopted. The Four different strategies are

Market Penetration: This is the strategy in which organisation plans to capture more market share using same products or service in the market they are already operating. Hilton is been growing by opening new hotels. In UK and Ireland they plan to open 100 new hotels. Thus they are penetrating the market and reaching to more customers in same market.

Market Development: This is the strategy in which organisation takes its existing products or service to different markets for the growth. Hilton has opened many hotels in 2011 in new emerging markets such as China and India. It has focused on these new markets in recent years by opening hotels in big cities of these countries.

Product Development: This is about adding new products or services. These new products and services are offered to existing markets. Hilton has developed its products by adding a new brand to its hotels which is Home2 suites introduced in 2011. It is equipped with advanced technologies for extended stays.

Diversification: This strategy involves launching new products or services in new markets altogether. Hilton has not diversified its business yet. It should consider investing into different business.

Hilton has been using the Ansoff matrix well except the Diversification part. It has different brands in many countries as well newly emerging markets. It lacks in the diversification of business. Diversification has its pros and cons. It requires lot of resources and skills to invest in a different business and involves a lot of risk. On the other hand it could also divest the risk of being into one business.

Strategic Alliance and Joint Ventures

Strategic alliance has been made by companies around the world to serve whole continents and move towards a global marketplace. The interfirm relationships of organisation can help in achieving the competitive advantages. Thus strategic alliance, joint ventures and mergers combines the capabilities of different firms to make them stronger. The strategic alliances increase the strength by combining the abilities of

companies. The alliance in hospitality is used for the entry in global and domestic markets till now Olsen et al (1998). There are many joint ventures and strategic alliance done by Hilton with other firms for different objectives. Some of them are mentioned below. There was an alliance in 2000 between the Forte, Hitlon, Accor and Strawood groups to develop a joint distribution on internet. All of them are big players in hospitality industry. The objective of this alliance was to reduce the cost by combining resource for an online project which would provide a range of hotels to the customers. They purchased a internet system jointly which is more competent and reduces the operational cost. The US based Hilton Corporation and UK based Hilton which is a unit of UK based Ladbroker has an alliance for sharing the customer database. The objective behind was to grow the brand to compete on global bases. Hilton has many strategic alliance and joint ventures with other organisations in this industry. Recently it had a joint venture with a real estate company in China to open a 500 room resort which is scheduled to open in 2012. Hilton is growing at big scale in China and in recent years it has planned to open about 20 hotels. For this purpose, it has made joint ventures with many local companies of China.

Pros and Cons The strategic alliances and joint ventures helps to find tap the market opportunities in addition to reduce the market threats. It also help in reducing the costs by sharing resources. It builds the relationship among firms that leads to developing the competitor alliances. It helps in executing the global strategies which require bigger resources. However strategic alliances can make difficult for the companies to deal with diverse and conflicting practices. The lack of trust among the firms can worsen the results. There are possibilities of clash of egos and cultures in alliances and joint ventures.

Mergers and Acquisitions

The merger takes place when companies combine to become one. The acquisition however is the taking over the ownership of a company by other company. The acquisition could be hostile or friendly. Hilton is the example of one of the biggest acquisition in hospitality industry. It was acquired by Blackstone group in 2007 for $26billion. Blackstone group is into the business of finance and real estate. This deal was made by Blackstone to expand in hotel industry and integrate its name with Hilton Brand. Pros and Cons Majority of mergers and acquisition have failed due to various reasons. First of integrating two different companies requires adapting to each others culture. The conflict of objectives, processes and systems could be fatal. On the other hand it is quick way of expansion into different industry.

Stakeholders and their participation

Owners/Shareholders The shareholders expect their wealth to grow by making the investment in Hilton. Hence they would expect the Hiltons to form the strategies for maximum profit. They also would expect Hilton to grow and achieve their expectation. Hilton group is been able satisfy the shareholder in terms of growth. It has plans of opening 100 new hotels in United Kingdom and Ireland in coming five years. Employees Employees interest in the Hilton is by getting good salary, career growth and pleasant work environment. Hilton is been able to understand this and have helped them to build a life log career in the company. For this purpose they promote the employee to higher level from within rather than picking from outside. The management know very well that if their employees are valued than only their customer would be valued by them. They provide sound atmosphere to the employees. Customers

Customers look for the value for the money they pay to buy their services. Hilton has set a goal for achieving a level of value that they offer to their customers. Becoming number one hotel is the result of providing very good services to their customers. The guest surveys tell that there is steady improvement in the satisfaction level of customers which led to increased profits. Participation of all groups of stakeholders is important for the successful implementation of the planed strategy. Convincing the stakeholders and motivating them participate could be done by the informing them regularly. Effective communication is key for convincing them. Their opinions and suggestion should be taken seriously through a two way communication in order to make them participate in strategy implementation.

Business Ethics and their role in Business Strategy

Business Ethics can be defined as the critical, structured examination of how people & institutions should behave in the world of commerce (Mcdonalds C, 2010). These days business ethics are becoming more vibrant as a result of advancement of information technology which keeps people around the world informed. Organisations are increasingly under the pressure to adopt the ethical ways of doing business especially multination organisations. The major issues in ethics related to business are Labour exploitation Child labour Environment Degradation Sustainable use of natural resources

Corporate Social responsibility is also related to the business ethics which states that organisations has some responsibility towards the society from where they are making profits. Hiltons activities of corporate social responsibility The Hilton group has a code of conduct and ethics which is expected to be followed by all the directors, officers and employees. It encourages the honest and fair

behaviour at work. This is about the internal application of business ethics. The external application is contributing the development of society in some form. In this direction Hilton has adopted the programs like Lightstay is a sustainability measurement system is a brand standard across its portfolio of hotels and helps improve hotel performance in energy consumption and reducing the carbon emission. In 2010, DoubleTree by Hilton team members, participating schoolchildren, and community members worked to collect non-perishable food items for local food banks and philanthropic charities. For every non-perishable food item a student or team member collected for their community, DoubleTree by Hilton made a donation to the World Food Program USA to benefit School Meals. Thus it can be concluded that role of business ethics can be vital in improving the brand value of the organisation. As people become more and more aware of business ethics and fare trading the organisation has to form policies and develop strategies keeping these issues in mind.

Conclusion
Choosing the strategies carefully is important for the hospitality organisation regardless of the size. There are many internal and external factors that are related to the strategy decisions which must be considered in the business. For Hilton multimillion dollar decision weather for diversifying in gaming or expanding internally should entail a detailed analysis. There are factors such as demand, product life cycle, industry lifecycle etc. Since hospitality has become more complex and volatile there is need of thorough analysis of things that influence the strategic decisions of the company which becomes it becomes more important for the multinationals like Hilton.

Recommendations to Hilton Hotel Group

Differentiation Strategy for Hilton is to continue developing ways of differentiating themselves from the competition. Hilton is already known as a world-class hotel chain and has a large reputation in the industry; however, Hilton must find ways to offer the best deals and

packages to attract its target market in the casino gaming industry. Hilton needs to ensure they offer a variety of packages from economical to luxury deals that will attract all levels of its target audience. Hilton Honors is an established loyalty program that many travelers will use to stay and earn points at Hilton properties. This is a good opportunity to cross promote special deals to Hilton Honors members and possibly offer discounted rates and free stays or nights in order to keep the customer in the hotel and casino game rooms for longer periods of time. Hilton should definitely try to establish a program for its loyal customers and high stakes gamblers. Taking care of the high rollers is critically important for any hotel and casino. Offering complimentary rooms, food and drinks, spa visits, and special odds on gambling can attract and keep these consumers loyal to a particular hotel. Partnering with other companies Hilton should consider partnering with online travel companies such as Expedia and Travelocity. These sites offer special rates to consumers and provide side by side comparisons of properties to include amenities and virtual tours of the properties. This type of cross promotion can lead to higher occupancy rates for Hilton in its gaming and casino themed hotels. The variety of innovative technology that these sites offer can drive customers to Hiltons properties. According to the Travelocity website, when you're working with Travelocity Business, you're gaining access to the buying power of millions of Travelocity.com users. And as part of the Sabre Holdings family, we drive unique supplier value benefiting both companies managing travel and the suppliers (2007). This partnership is a strategy that will help Hilton remain competitive with all other hotel companies. With the use of these online services and strategic advertising in industry magazines and television stations such as The Travel Channel, Hilton can ensure they are always in the front of the travellers mind as one of the best options for gambling and casino entertainment.

Globalisation and Internet Advantages Hospitality industry is the heart of the globalisation of international businesses. The environment is changing and hospitality industry must be able to change themselves accordingly to get the full advantage of globalisation. The industrys future would be

formed by the trends inter linked global marketplace. The international business depends on the characters of globalisation such as communicating in different languages used in different countries, travelling overseas frequently, deal in different currencies etc. These characters also include handling the different political and social systems, regulations and cultures. The hospitality organisation such as Hilton must be able to understand these factors and make balance of them while forming strategies at global scale. Though these issues are easy to understand it is not that easy to resolve them. However, globalisation can be advantageous for Hilton in the following:

The common products, services and brand position can help in expansion at global level The marketing programs confining the economies of scale i.e. Hilton has to spend less on the marketing as a result of attaining economies of scale. Hilton has a structure with expertise of global level providing services in combination with local management of business. Cross border training provided to the employees to support operations; Business can be funded using world capital markets.

Globalisation has boosted the tourism and hospitality business. It has also changed they way it was carried out earlier. It has influenced all the aspect including customers, management processed, employees, and products. In addition, the investment required to move across the national boundaries is also increased to a great extent. In turn to this the tourism has flourished and is primary source of income for some of the countries. To be able make profits out of globalisation hospitality organisations will have to offer the service of international standards to its customers. The organisations that have failed to realise it and did not change with time are left behind. It brings special advantages to the Hilton being an international brand in hospitality. Globalisation led to creation of homogenous tourists resorts removing the local standards.

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