Strategic Agility in the Hospitality Industry: A Case Study of Oak Tree Inn

This report examines the strategic agility of Oak Tree Inn, a hospitality industry based in the UK. It provides an overview of the organization, analyzes the macro environment using PESTEL analysis, evaluates competition using Porter's Five Forces, and conducts a SWOT analysis. The report also suggests two potential strategic options for Oak Tree Inn and critically evaluates them. The focus is on cost and adopting digital marketing as strategic choices. The report concludes with the importance of strategic agility in the hospitality industry.

Consultants Strategic
Report

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Overview of Oak Tree Inn..........................................................................................................1
PESTEL, Porter's Five Forces and SWOT Analysis...................................................................1
Create and critically assess two potential strategic options form SWOT Analysis....................4
Critically Evaluate the two strategic choices.............................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Strategic Agility refers to the ability to respond appropriately and quickly to or drive
modify while managing flexibility and focus. It is also for business to see transfer inside the
organisation as well as externally in environment of business in which they perform. Strategic
agility is about holding competitive by observing and opportunities capitalizing and analyse
potential mitigating and threats or preventing from materializing in the place first. The strategic
agility development will provide competency to measure market modifications to leaders that
could be affect in bad or in good manner to company and implement quickly and explore new
ideas. This report is based on Oak Tree Inn, it is hospitality industry based in Balmaha in United
Kingdom and this is founded in 1997. The below report includes the overview of organisation,
apply Pestle, Porter's five forces and Swot analysis, from Swot analysis create and critically
evaluate two potential strategic options and measure the two strategic choices in business
(Ahammad, Glaister and Gomes, 2020).
MAIN BODY
Overview of Oak Tree Inn
The Oak Tree Inn based on hospitality industry situated in Balmaha Village in UK, the
Balmaha village is peaceful and attracted place, the hotel provide accommodation like cottages
of twins, double, singles and family rooms. They have restaurant and bar where they serve food
and drink. In village there are many facilities such as toys shops, groceries shops and many other
item's stores. They have separate cafe for Tea, cakes, ice cream and many other items the name
of cafe is St Mocha Coffee Shop. Hotel provide play area for children and customer are highly
satisfy with their services and their rand value also in positive manner. They have trained and
skilled staff. They generate high level of profit every year because this hotel is situated at peas-
full environment so tourist are always prefer Oak Tree Inn.
PESTEL, Porter's Five Forces and SWOT Analysis
PESTEL Analysis
It explain the structure of those factors which is included in macro environment that used
in scanning elements (Buhalis and Sinarta, 2019).
Political factor: The hospitality industry is totally depend on tourism and rules or
regulations framed by the country's government. Political factor play major role in business to
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run their organisation without any barriers. Hotel industry is backbone of country's government
because increasing tourism in country it helps in growth and raise GDP of UK. So this factor is
opportunity for Oak Tree Inn, they run their business without any restrictions because they have
government support (Chung and D’Annunzio-Green, 2018).
Economical factor: This factor include the taxation charges, interest rate, inflation,
economic growth and exchange rate. Hospitality industry one of biggest investment sector for
investors in UK. The currency of UK is stronger and but recently due to Covid situation it affect
the economy condition and also hospitality industry because of tourist are restricted to visit
another country and this affect the Oak Tree Inn hotel industry in negative manner. This factor is
threaten for hotel industry because of Covid pandemic.
Sociological factor: This factor includes the social environment of market, population
analysation, trends of cultures and etc. Oak Tree Inn serve best services and provide peaceful
environment so customers attract more towards this place and in market people are highly
satisfy for this industry. They follow trends of cultures because people visit from different
country and places so it is important to fulfil their needs and expectation. This factor is
opportunity for hotel organisation.
Technological factor: This factor includes the innovation, new technology, current
marketing strategy and many more. In current scenario technology have huge role in business
growth and success. Oak Tree Inn adopt technology in marketing strategy, they use digital
marketing in effective manner and also use social media, because digital marketing's reaching
rate is very high in market. Through social media and digital marketing lots of influencers are
visit their place and promote this place. So this factor provide opportunities to hotel industry.
Environmental factor: This factor includes the climatic and whether changes in country,
so in UK their climatic changes are not stable and mostly environment of that place is peaceful.
Oak Tree Inn open for tourist for 365 days and this factor is not affecting the business also, so
this factor is provide opportunity to hotel (Darvishmotevali, Altinay and Köseoglu, 2020).
Legal factor: This factor includes the consumer law, employment law, health and safety
law and many other also included. In UK their legal laws are very strict and hotel industries also
follow in effective manner. In hospitality organisation mostly focus on health and safety law,
because it is important for customers who visit their place and Oak Tree Inn effective follow this
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law and provide better facilities to customers, it helps in attracting more people in market and
also provide more opportunities.
Porter's Five Forces
It is structure of methods for analysing the competition of organisation in market.
Threat of substitute goods: In hospitality industry there are very substitute available in
market, mostly hotel industries are provide similar services and facilities at lesser cost, Oak Tree
Inn have unique location so mostly people prefer location not cost. Somehow the threat of
substitute affect the business growth (Haider and Kayani, 2020).
Bargaining of power of buyers: In hospitality industries the customers are very
demanding and every one have different taste and preferences so it become challenge for Oak
Tree Inn to fulfil their needs. Consumer needs value added services it helps in increase
bargaining power of consumers, it also helps in build a loyal relation with customers.
Rivalry among existing competitors: In UK the competition among hospitality
industries are increasing on regular basis due to this outcomes also changing of business,
changes in behaviour of customers, rising cost and many more. Every hotels have different
services, location, food and facilities so customers get different experience from various places,
so company needs effective marketing strategies and fulfilling customer needs.
Barriers to new entrants: The major barrier to entry in hospitality industry involve the
starting cost of investment because hotels need modern tools and equipments. In current scenario
technology is more advanced and it provide more reaching rate in market. Oak Tree Inn have
high rate of reaching power and they focus marketing strategies, an effective strategies helps in
reduce competition in market.
Bargaining of power of suppliers: This affect the operation of hospitality industry in
terms of products and services supply. Less availability of suppliers affect the quantity of supply
and influence their price. In context of Oak Tree Inn, they have high availability of suppliers in
market and also maintain good relationship with them.
SWOT Analysis
It is tool of planning used to understand the organisation's strength, weakness,
opportunity and threats (Kale, Aknar and Başar, 2019).
Strength: Oak Tree Inn have strong government support in UK and reaching rate is high
in market because of effective marketing strategies, they use digital marketing to explore new
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market to reach out more people from different locations and in market they have loyal
customers because of hotel location and their unique services.
Weakness: In hospitality industry they require more implementation and good support of
infrastructure so in context of Oak Tree Inn the have slow implementation and some people are
not happy with their price factor they charge high and low level income based people are not
afford their services (Khan, Majid and Yasir, 2020).
Opportunity: Oak Tree Inn follow different cultures and provide best services to
customers it helps in attracting people from different areas and technology factor provide more
opportunities in market.
Threats: Due to Covid pandemic their economical factor is not strong so it is biggest
threat for Oak Tree Inn and this situation affect the business as well as country also.
Create and critically assess two potential strategic options form SWOT Analysis
As per SWOT analysed there are two potential strategic options;
 Focus on cost: In market availability of substitute services and products at lower cost can
increase the competition in market and people attract in less amount. In context of Oak
Tree Inn their price factor is high and some people not afford their services in this case
they lose customers because of high cost. Company should focus on price strategy such
as they can add more services and products in high price list so (Koch, Gerdt and
Schewe, 2020).
 Adopting digital marketing: Digital marketing is more effective as compare to
traditional marketing because in this reaching rate is high and get competitive
advantages. In current scenario the social media marketing is more popular in market for
promotional activities because it is cost friendly and company can target more audience
in different location (Kim, 2020).
Critically Evaluate the two strategic choices
This below part is evaluate as per above potential strategic options which is describe as
below:
Digital marketing Adoption: It refers to the promoting services and products through
online channels and platforms. Digital marketing includes the email marketing, social media
marketing, and many other also, this provide more advancement to business and in hospitality
industry digital marketing is must because it provide different benefits in positive manner and
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under budget (Livingstone, 2019). Today's generation are more attracted towards the social
media so for business it is become more easy to reach people and target more audience. For
digital marketing business needs effective content strategy. Digital marketing helps in many
ways such as increasing conversion rate, reduce bounce rate, increase sales and many other
advantages (Lakatos and Arsenopoulos, 2019).
Focus on cost factor: Oak Tree Inn charge high cost for their services and location. Due
to high price factor some people are not afford their services and place so it affect the people
mentality in negative manner. Due to high cost mostly people shifted towards substitute
hospitality industry this affect the Oak Tree Inn's business. Company can improve their price
strategy to adopting different techniques such as they provide extra services and facilities in price
also they make packages for different income level, it helps in providing services to every people
or every income level. They can make services at low level to high level cost so people can
select as per their budgets. Effective strategies helps in achieving objectives and business goals
in effective and efficient manner (Mak and Chang, 2019).
CONCLUSION
It is concluded the above report, strategic agility is essential part of business because it
provide more flexibility and quick modification in organisation. More analysing internal and
external market there are used Pestle, Swot and porter's five force, all models helps in identify
internal and external environment in effective manner and also provide competitive advantages.
In hospitality industry the government support is must to grow business without any barriers. All
pestle factors are provide opportunities to company but one factor is threaten for industry for this
company can focus on marketing strategies. They have lots of competition in market for
differentiate form other business should focus on promotion activities so it helps in increasing
reaching rate. Evaluation procedure helps in find out effective strategies for achieving success
rate with hight level. There are two potential strategic options are analysed one is focus on cost
and another is digital marketing. Both are essential for business growth in positive manner.
REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
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Ahammad, M.F., Glaister, K.W. and Gomes, E., 2020. Strategic agility and human resource
management. Human Resource Management Review, 30(1), p.100700.
Buhalis, D. and Sinarta, Y., 2019. Real-time co-creation and nowness service: lessons from
tourism and hospitality. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing, 36(5), pp.563-582.
Chung, K.L. and D’Annunzio-Green, N., 2018. Talent management practices in small-and
medium-sized enterprises in the hospitality sector. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism
Themes.
Darvishmotevali, M., Altinay, L. and Köseoglu, M.A., 2020. The link between environmental
uncertainty, organizational agility, and organizational creativity in the hotel
industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 87, p.102499.
Haider, S.A. and Kayani, U.N., 2020. The impact of customer knowledge management capability
on project performance-mediating role of strategic agility. Journal of Knowledge
Management.
Kale, E., Aknar, A. and Başar, Ö., 2019. Absorptive capacity and firm performance: The
mediating role of strategic agility. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 78, pp.276-283.
Khan, S.H., Majid, A. and Yasir, M., 2020. Strategic renewal of SMEs: the impact of social
capital, strategic agility and absorptive capacity. Management Decision.
Kim, Y.R., 2020. The impact of spatial clustering on the labour productivity of the UK tourism
and hospitality industry (Doctoral dissertation, University of Surrey).
Koch, J., Gerdt, S.O. and Schewe, G., 2020. Determinants of sustainable behavior of firms and
the consequences for customer satisfaction in hospitality. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 89, p.102515.
Lakatos, E. and Arsenopoulos, A., 2019. Investigating EU financial instruments to tackle energy
poverty in households: A SWOT analysis. Energy Sources, Part B: Economics,
Planning, and Policy, 14(6), pp.235-253.
Livingstone, R., 2019. Oak Tree Inn: growth challenges facing a family-run tourism business.
In Exploring Strategy: Text and Cases (pp. 723-730). Pearson Education.
Mak, A.H. and Chang, R.C., 2019. The driving and restraining forces for environmental strategy
adoption in the hotel industry: A force field analysis approach. Tourism
Management, 73, pp.48-60.
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