SWOT Analysis and Strategic Planning

The provided document is an assignment that focuses on strategic planning and analysis techniques such as SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis, PESTLE (Political, Economic, Social, Technological, Legal, Environmental) analysis, and Ansoff's matrix. The assignment includes references to academic articles and online resources for further reading. It provides a detailed example of how these techniques can be applied to the case of Marriott International, a leading hospitality company. The document also includes illustrations of SWOT analysis and PESTLE analysis for better understanding.

BUSINESS HEALTH CHECK

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1.1 Objectives of Marriott Hotel...........................................................................................3
1.2 Different types of factors which affect the environment of Marriott hotel......................4
1.3 Ansoff's Growth Matrix....................................................................................................8
2.1 Review the effectiveness of business...............................................................................9
2.2 plan to improve the business..........................................................................................10
3.1 evaluation of current skills of management and staff.....................................................10
3.2 Plan for the development of skills for management and staff........................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Business health check up is used to analyze the overall performance of a business and it
will help to use and determine the selling power and consumption level of customers. The entire
report dealt with the case scenario of Marriott Hotel in UK. There were 566 hotels which are
operated by Marriott. The hotel is providing its best services to customers with the best
accommodation and proper customer service. The report explains the main objective of the hotel
and also presents different external and internal factors which may affect the environment of
business. The report also shows PESTLE and Porter's Five Forces Model Analysis which will
enhance the performance level of company. The report also presents how Ansoff's growth
matrix model will help in the growth and development . It explains how different effective areas
such as products, services and marketing will help to determine the actual position of a company.
It shows different plans which help to develop skills for management and its staff.
1.1 Objectives of Marriott Hotel
Marriott hotel is one of the biggest hotels in UK. It had 360 hotels in 47 different
countries. Recently it had open new spa and resort which helps to gain more profit as it provides
accommodation facilities to customers and make sure to complete needs of users.
The main objective of hotel is to present it in smart way as to attract more customers and
their smartness will prove by their way of attending customers. the senior authority takes care its
staff by assigning different responsibility and then measure their working quality. It always tries
to change in innovative ways to achieve its target and create social impact On the customers so
they will attract towards the firm.
Each direction and guide will help people to go in right directions. The hotel work in
realistic, as it always try to change in present scene like the hotel wants to do innovation in their
existing service as to get feedback from the customers whether they like it or not. they provide
good food facility and service at normal price and this will take a business into new success point
(Cubas‐Díaz, and Martínez Sedano, 2018). The other working of hotel is also effective and
whatever the work assign to their employees it will manage timely such as proper time is assign
for check in and check out Therefore, Marriott tries to deal in every field area as it wants to
make big public relationship in order to generate more revenues and makes it image as a brand in
all over the world .

1.2 Different types of factors which affect the environment of Marriott hotel
It is one of the largest hotels in UK and it is the most successful hotel.
There are many factors which affect the environment of Marriott which are mention below:
Political Factors
 political factors affect the environment of hotel the biggest threat for Marriott hotel is the
conflict between military and having terrorist attack which disrupt the air line and people
fear in doing traveling (Menon, 2018) .
 Marriott faces direct terrorist attack on hotels which result killing many peoples in hotel
 These attacks scares many people and force them to stay away from those reputed hotels
Social Factors Social factor create positive impact on the business of Marriott. from last many
years there is increase in number of travelers which seems that people are wiling to travel and
can invest for more experience (Pestle analysis of Marriott international.2018).They want to pay
more to experience the social life of people stay in UK.
 Chinese and Asian people will also help to enhance the level of hotel because their
demand is so high and filled by reputed hotel only such as Marriott.
Economic Factors The major factor affect the business of Marriott is declining rate economic
growth of China.
Ill
ustration 1: PESTLE analysis

 Falling share market of China will affect the debts of Europe and this will affect the
buying power of UK.
 Slow down in tourism line will also affect the business of Marriott.
 The demand of exchange of dollar is quite high and it result to discourage Americans to
travel UK
Technological Factor
 Marriott also uses latest new technology to enhance its selling power.
 It also helps to book accommodation facility through online system.
 Around more than half of the public uses social sites and wants to book online room and
Marriott provide this facility to their customer (Fathi-Hafshejani, Fakharzadeh Jahromi
and Peyghami, 2018)
Legal Factors
 Airbnb is the online option which provides accommodation to individual and this is the
main legal factors which affect the business of Marriott.
 Airbnb found illegal in many hotels.
 Marriott also faces the problem of increased in minimum wages which lead to high labor
cost and reduced the services.
Environmental Factors
 it is the biggest factor which affect the performance of Marriott fall in the price of oil will
affect the transportation facility especially in airlines and due to this it affect the decrease
in number of tourism.
 Marriott business is also affected by the climatic change and raise water level in oceans
and this will lead to flooding resorts which discourage people to go in beach area.
Porter’s Five Force Model helps to know the competition performance of Marriott which
is described below:
Buying Power Buying power helps to know strengths of a hotel as having high buying power
will help to lead a strong competition.
 Hotel is always trying to innovate new products in order to attract more customers like
recently it provide extra facility in their gym, spa and resort (Grünig and Morschett,
2017).

Supplier Power Hotel owners have trust on their staff and they always add new innovation to
add in their existing service in order to gain more profit.
 Managers are mainly based on their technology and advance system.
 If the quality of training is good then it will show a result of new and attractive services.
Threats of New Entrants The treats of new entrants are higher because tourist is continuously
increased.
 The degree of growth and development is high in hotel and industry which will attract
more customers with their new products and services. To create more revenue in small
market there is need of huge capitals and this present itself as a strong entry of new
products (Taghavifard and et.al 2018).
Threats of new substitute If the chances of new substitute increases then the customers are also
start switching.
 If this substitute exists then the cost of switching is low and it will may not provide those
facilities which hotel does.
 There is threat of new substitute but they are not provide all the facility like gym, spa
which a strong brand or hotel provide in order to satisfy the need.
Degree of Rivalry
 the threat of rivalry is low for Marriott hotel
 larger companies have their independent chains which are not depend on others but on
the other hand smaller companies depend on others and they struggle for their survivals
Recently, many larger companies start their new model business in order to compete from
its rivals and expand business and raise capital which increases level of competition
SWOT analysis :To know the strengths and weaknesses of Marriott it is necessary to do SWOT
analysis

Strengths It mainly focuses on innovation because it will help to generate more revenue.
 It is one of the most popular brands and has many rivals.
 It also motivates its employees and create positive environment. The hotel is present in
122 countries and has 600 properties with millions of rooms.
 The company establishes public relationship in order to encourage more visitors.
 It occupies the biggest and strongest position in the world regarding customers.
 It also has strong financial positions because of having debts (McLean, 2018).
Weaknesses It does not have proper management system because of such a large business.
 Having many financial issue it is now facing heavy debts (SWOT analysis of
Marriott.2018.)
 it is not having proper infrastructure system and also did not use the latest technologies in
I.T. Sector Because of having high debt ratio, the market position of Marriott is also
declining and it also loss its market share too.
Opportunities It wants to merge with many companies in order to occupy the biggest position in
the world.
 To occupy the loyalty of customers, Marriott should develop new technologies to grow
its service power.
 To generate more revenues, hotel should plan different strategies and hire supervisors
who take care all the work.
 They should use direct marketing plan to grow in the market.
I
llustration 2: Swot analysis

Threats Heavy competition in the market will fluctuate the rate of products and services and this
decreases the profit margin.
 Threats related to terrorism and fluctuation in politics will also affect the market.
1.3 Ansoff's Growth Matrix
MARKET DEVELOPMENT PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
 Open new branches of Marriott in
different areas in order to attract many
customers
 for example, open new branch in
Morocco will help to attract those
people who love nature and
adventurous thing
 Use new product to attract customers
For example use helicopters, to
transport special guest from airport to
hotel.
 Offers new discounts to reduce the cost
production of the services offer.
 Online system of booking should be
used for easiness of customers.
MARKET PENETRATION DIVERSIFICATION
Illustration 3: Ansoff's matrix

 Hotel should target middle class
customers with new offers and
discounts.
 Sponsoring different clubs will help to
improve the marketing and name –
fame of the brand
 Marriott host different programs which
help to raise their brand name.
 It wants to offer new coffee and its
name will be Marriott Coffee, which is
the best meal to attract customers.
 Establish more hotels nearby sea shore
in order to encourage more customers
to take advantages of Hotels services.
2.1 Review the effectiveness of business
To know how effectively a business run, company must focus on different areas such as:
Products/ services: as the Marriott provide accommodation facility to the customer with neat
and clean restaurant and the hotel provide best services and recently it wants to open online
services for the easiness of customers.
Marketing: whenever a new product is developed, hotel did not display it with proper manner
and due to low marketing people does not know about the latest services offer. That is why
Marriott did not have proper marketing facility and social sites.
Sales: the hotel selling power is effective as it provide all the extra facilities which are needed by
the customers and they always takes care of their wants. They attend customers in different way
and help to let them know about their services (Taghavifard and et.al., 2018).
Finance: the financial status of company is quite strong as the sales are increases with increase
in number of visitors.
Staffing: this is the best key factor of Marriott, as there is good communication between staff
and its management team and they follow all the rules and complete the responsibilities which
are allotted to them.
Business Image: it has a brand image and consider biggest and strongest position from all over
the world. Earlier the image is damaged due to low service but now it retains its position again.
Record keeping: as having strong financial position, it also keep all the records safely but it
does not provide hard copy of bill and all the data are saved in computer only there is no written
documents present in the premises (Grünig and Morschett, 2017).

2.2 plan to improve the business.
To develop and improve the business, planning must be done. Proper business planning
will help to evaluate the performance. Marriott is also plan and it trying to develop its services
using new products as it is not using proper infrastructure.
For marketing and sales productivity, Marriott try to develop new process like it display
its new service on social sites and offer different discounts in order to increase the popularity of
hotel. The production level of a company is also enhance as it trying to provide best service to
their customers. To increase the buying power it also tries to start online business which help in
convenience of customers. With the latest use of technology, Marriott can achieve the targets and
complete its need by establishing proper public relationship (Jiang and et.al., 2018).
Marriott financial management system is very effective as there is continuous growth in
its sales because number of tourism travel. The management system can be enhance by proving
proper training and conducting seminars. Staff and management system is also affect the
financial position of a system and proper communication and coordination will help to achieve
the targets and aims of a firm.
3.1 evaluation of current skills of management and staff
Technical skills: the skills which are required to complete a specific task.
Operational skills: the ability to complete the task by transforming data into resultant services.
Managerial skills : the plans and ability or skills which are need to manage all the performance
to run a business.
Staff and management team always try its best to run the company in effective way. In
Marriott, it has many staff and well developed management team. It hire some technical skilled
labors which help to solve the problems related to particular task only, hotel also try to evaluate
many. Recently, the hotel also provide lunch break and 15 min break during completion of 2
hours, it also provide many training system which help to motivate the staff as well as
management team (Abdel-Basset, Mohamed and Smarandache, 2018). It has best leaders which
help employees to solve their problem and the working experience of employees is also strong as
they immediately apply new innovations in their services and products. The management system
of Marriott hotel is quite impressive but some time there is communication gap between the staff
and management which affect the growth of company and it will lead to not achieve its target .

3.2 Plan for the development of skills for management and staff
To improve the existing skills of management and staff, it is necessary to develop a plan.
Firstly, analyses the performance level of each and every individual and let them know about
different goals of business so that they increases their skills in order to achieve the targets. Face
to face discussion will also help to let knowing each other. After analyzing the employees must
plan what a person is lack himself. Measuring the employees ability will help to let them know
closely. After it, conduct a seminars and training sessions in order to enhance the ability and
skills in every individual. Take feedback in order to let know about what they learn from those
seminars and training (Leiber, Stensaker and Harvey, 2018). Then evaluate the performance of
each employee by assigning different works and then hire proper trainers and leaders to solve
staff problems. It may be possible that people did not understand during their training and
seminar periods. Then for those people allot supervisors who take care their work and let them
doing their work. Through this plan, authority can easily develop skills and abilities to their staff
and management team .
CONCLUSION
From the above report it is concluded that business health check up affect the
performance of Marriott. It help to understand the meaning of business and its objectives which
meet the smart criteria. From above report, it is also concluded that there are many internal and
external factors which affect the business growth and development. The report shows different
improvement operations which help to run Marriott more effectively. It also presents strength
and weakness of hotel and how Ansoff's growth matrix will help to achieve its target. It also
shows its financial position and review the effectiveness of different areas such as product or
services, marketing and sales etc. It also present plans to improve the effectiveness of hotel and
help to gain more profit and generate revenue. The report shows the current skill of management
and staff and developing new plan in order to develop more skills in the management team.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abdel-Basset, M., Mohamed, M. and Smarandache, F., 2018. An Extension of Neutrosophic
AHP–SWOT Analysis for Strategic Planning and Decision-Making. Symmetry. 10(4).
p.116.
Cubas‐Díaz, M. and Martínez Sedano, M. Á., 2018. Measures for sustainable investment
decisions and business strategy–A triple bottom line approach. Business Strategy and the
Environment.27(1). pp.16-38.
Fathi-Hafshejani, S., Fakharzadeh Jahromi, A. and Peyghami, M. R., 2018. A unified complexity
analysis of interior point methods for semi definite problems based on trigonometric
kernel functions. Optimization.67(1). pp.113-137.
Grünig, R. and Morschett, D., 2017. Determining the Target Markets. In Developing
International Strategies (pp. 85-104). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Jiang, R. and et.al., 2018. A SWOT analysis for promoting off-site construction under the
backdrop of China’s new urbanisation. Journal of Cleaner Production.173. pp.225-234.
Leiber, T., Stensaker, B. and Harvey, L. C., 2018. Bridging theory and practice of impact
evaluation of quality management in higher education institutions: a SWOT
analysis. European Journal of Higher Education, pp.1-15.
McLean, M., 2018. Understanding your economy: Using analysis to guide local strategic
planning. Routledge.
Menon, A., 2018. Bringing cognition into strategic interactions: Strategic mental models and
open questions. Strategic Management Journal.39(1). pp.168-192.
Taghavifard, M.T. and et.al., 2018. An Extension of Fuzzy SWOT Analysis: An Application to
Information Technology. Information.9(3). p.46.
Online
Pestle analysis of Marriott international. 2018. Available through:
<http://pestleanalysis.com/pestle-analysis-of-marriott/>
SWOT analysis of Marriott. 2018. Available through: <https://www.marketing91.com/swot-
analysis-marriott/>