Managing Operations and the Supply Chain - A Case Study of Marriott International Hotel

This case study analyzes the managing operations and supply chain of Marriott International Hotel. It covers the organization's size and shape, products and services, main customers, literature review, Frey's Osborne's findings, change in the performance of the company, and conclusion.

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Managing Operations and the Supply Chain
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Managing Operations and the Supply Chain
Contents
Organization its size and shape........................................................................................................3
Products and services of the business corporation..........................................................................3
Main customers................................................................................................................................4
Literature review..............................................................................................................................5
Frey's Osborne's findings.................................................................................................................6
Change in the performance of the company....................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

Managing Operations and the Supply Chain
Organization its size and shape
The organization is Marriott international hotel company, it was established back in 1927 by
J.Williard Marriott in Washington D.C., U.S. Initially J.W Marriott started with a "nine-stool
root beer stand" which later developed into one of the top restaurants which is Marriott
International Hotel and now it’s growing globally. Marriott has made a tremendous development
which helped in making it leader performer in this hospitality business. Marriott hotel was the
first hotel to provide motor hotel and it also designed a hotel chain for those who have to travel
continuously regarding their business and also developed the first drive-in in the east coast.
According to facts The Marriott International owns more than 6500 properties all over the world
that is why it is the worlds largest organization in the hospitality field, it has successfully
provided 127 countries with more than 1.2 million rooms, across 30 brands. The main motto of
Marriott is to put people first and serve them with the best services, and they make it happen by
taking care of people and about their wellbeing and that is why they mainly focus on evolving
diversity and expanding their area to reach more and more people thus creating a greater number
of opportunity all around the world in different communities (Chiu and Choi, 2016). With an
ever-growing portfolio all over the world, the Marriott international has become the largest
hospitality industry. A partnership is an essential factor that helped Marriott to expand its
business, around 30 diversity organization is in partnership with Marriott and they all share the
same thought as Marriott when it comes to diversity factors as well as inclusion efforts.
Products and services of the business corporation
Marriott international hotel is one of the top leading organization in the hospitality sector and to
prove this statement they provide so many brilliant services in all their branches for instance,
new and stylish hotels and resorts in different places and upgrading their services and launching
new content and idea related to trips and travel (Jabbour and Jabbour, 2016). Marriott provides
services especially for business travelers and these services include, lodging, complimentary
food, gym, spa drink, premium Wi-Fi, clubs, bars, live hotel lab, golf and even TED Talks in the
guest room (Frey and Osborne, 2017). Marriott has achieved a lot of excellence in their services
by giving it a new touch and redesigning it, for example, refurbishing the hotels with walk-in
showers which are spa-like, making the space flexible for the guests so that they can use the

Managing Operations and the Supply Chain
space as they like and also be giving it a stylish touch with new designs. Marriott has taken
hospitality to a whole new level like “M beta”, which are live hotel lab where they give people
the chance to experience innovation and also ask for their real-time feedback about their
innovations which is a really unique idea and lets more and more people to get connected to it
(Quarshie, Salmi and Leuschner, 2016). Another amazing service is TED Talk in rooms, and
with this service they want the travelers to learn as much as they want while traveling along with
a positive vibe. All the locations of where the Marriott hotel chain exists are breathtaking. They
also provide a Great-room bar where the travelers can meet other travelers and can experience
handcrafted cocktails and also the bourbon flights curated by experts.
Main customers
Marriott International is a multinational and also a diversified company in the hospitality fields it
owns a large number of hotels all over the world and the lodging facilities related to them.
Marriott has more than 6,500 properties in around 127 countries and 1.2 million rooms or more
than that. It was the first hotel to provide roadside lodging and motor hotels and also confirming
reservation through mails along with that Marriott was the first company who offered the
portfolio of a large number of brands (Snyder et al., 2016). Marriott mostly focuses on the
travelers and especially business travelers because those are in working industry, has to travel
often frequently due to business, let it be meetings or business deals. They believe in providing
the customers with the luxury that they deserve with their innovative ideas and excellent
customer services. Mostly luxury travelers are the main customers of Marriott but apart from the
Marriott also provide reservations for marriages, any ceremony, and for spending holidays also
(Su et al., 2016). The main customers are those who want a luxurious experience during their
journey and mainly concerned about the increased standard of living apart from that Marriott is
also focusing on diversity and trying to expand its chains in many different areas.
Literature review
According to the research executed by Loi, 2015) it has been noted that the concept of
technological unemployment has been termed as the process of loss of jobs due to the changes in
the technological environment. And such changes comprise of the elements like the introduction
of labor-saving "mechanical–muscle" or more efficient mechanical mind and processes. For

Managing Operations and the Supply Chain
instance, horses were employed as the major medium for moving and gradually made obsolete
by the automobile and such an example presented by author depicts the impact of technological
changes on the jobs of individuals and the same has been demonstrated in modern history
(Yawar and Seuring, 2017). Authors also tried to present the concept by making use of historical
some historical examples, such as artisans and weavers reduced to poverty, after the emergence
of mechanized looms. But it has also been observed that technological change will bring short-
term job losses of jobs for individuals but it will lead to lasting increases in unemployment has
long been controversial (Monczka, Handfield, Giunipero and Patterson, 2015).
Frey’s Osborne's findings
“The Future of Employment: How Susceptible Are Jobs to Computerization?,” by Dr Michael A.
Osborne from Oxford University’s Department of Engineering Science and Dr. Carl Benedikt
Frey of the Oxford Martin School, also predicted that 47% of jobs in the US are “at risk” and the
prime reason for the same is automation in the upcoming 20 years. The presented research has
been executed and from which they found out that jobs in transportation, logistics, as well as
office and administrative support, are at “high risk” and due to automation. More surprisingly,
occupations within the service industry are also highly susceptible, despite recent job growth in
this sector (Christopher, 2016).
Change in the performance of the company
Although Marriott has advanced in the hospitality field and has made a special place among all
the hotels but there are some loopholes that need to be plugged, for instance, providing more
luxury hotels in more destinations which desperately requires a luxury hotel and giving them an
experience of furbished lodging and lifestyle hotels (Ross, 2016). Another change could be
optimizing their presence online because the only website would not be enough for the customers
are new to the company and to make sure that the targeted audience is watching them they have
to come up with new ideas to maximize their presence and visibility and also be available for the
consumers all the time and that can only be achieved by going through each and every feedback
on every social media and responding to them immediately and also keep reviewing the social
sites from time to time (Kirchoff, Tate and Mollenkopf, 2016).

Managing Operations and the Supply Chain
Many brands make so many promises to their customers but afterwards miserably fails to give
the customers everything they were promised and here comes the greatest failure and to
overcome this the company needs to first analyze their customers and then provide the customers
with everything in order to meet their expectations thus being true to their brand (Kamalahmadi
and Parast, 2016). For Marriott hotel to gain competitive advantages they must use better
technologies than their rivalries and provide their customers with the best and to achieve this
they would need a creative and innovative team which would be loyal to their brand and believes
in the success of the brand established (Swink, Melnyk, Hartley and Cooper, 2017).
Conclusion
In the limelight of the above-executed analysis, it has been concluded that managing operations
are a mandatory action that should be executed with a high level of efficiency and effectiveness
for leading the organization towards prosperity and success. Supply chain management is
another business operation that is required to carry out by the organization in an effective
manner. The above-presented report is analyzed and evaluated for Marriot that is a multinational
brand name in the sector of hospitality.

Managing Operations and the Supply Chain
References
Chiu, C.H. and Choi, T.M. (2016) Supply chain risk analysis with mean-variance models: A
technical review. Annals of Operations Research, 240(2), pp.489-507.
Christopher, M. (2016) Logistics & supply chain management. Cambridge: Pearson
Frey, C.B. and Osborne, M.A. (2017) The future of employment: how susceptible are jobs to
computerisation?. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 114, pp.254-280.
Genovese, A., Acquaye, A.A., Figueroa, A. and Koh, S.L. (2017) Sustainable supply chain
management and the transition towards a circular economy: Evidence and some
applications. Omega, 66, pp.344-357.
Jabbour, C.J.C. and de Sousa Jabbour, A.B.L. (2016) Green human resource management and
green supply chain management: Linking two emerging agendas. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 112, pp.1824-1833.
Kamalahmadi, M. and Parast, M.M. (2016) A review of the literature on the principles of
enterprise and supply chain resilience: Major findings and directions for future
research. International Journal of Production Economics, 171, pp.116-133.
Kirchoff, J.F., Tate, W.L. and Mollenkopf, D.A. (2016) The impact of strategic organizational
orientations on green supply chain management and firm performance. International Journal of
Physical Distribution & Logistics Management, 46(3), pp.269-292.
Loi, M. (2015) Technological unemployment and human disenhancement. Ethics and
Information Technology, 17(3), pp.201-210.
Monczka, R.M., Handfield, R.B., Giunipero, L.C. and Patterson, J.L. (2015) Purchasing and
supply chain management. Cengage Learning.
Quarshie, A.M., Salmi, A. and Leuschner, R. (2016) Sustainability and corporate social
responsibility in supply chains: The state of research in supply chain management and business
ethics journals. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 22(2), pp.82-97.

Managing Operations and the Supply Chain
Ross, D.F. (2016) Introduction to e-supply chain management: engaging technology to build
market-winning business partnerships. California: CRC Press.
Snyder, L.V., Atan, Z., Peng, P., Rong, Y., Schmitt, A.J. and Sinsoysal, B. (2016) OR/MS
models for supply chain disruptions: A review. IIE Transactions, 48(2), pp.89-109.
Su, C.M., Horng, D.J., Tseng, M.L., Chiu, A.S., Wu, K.J. and Chen, H.P. (2016) Improving
sustainable supply chain management using a novel hierarchical grey-DEMATEL
approach. Journal of Cleaner Production, 134, pp.469-481.
Swink, M., Melnyk, S.A., Hartley, J.L. and Cooper, M.B. (2017) Managing operations across
the supply chain. McGraw-Hill Education.
Yawar, S.A. and Seuring, S. (2017) Management of social issues in supply chains: a literature
review exploring social issues, actions and performance outcomes. Journal of Business
Ethics, 141(3), pp.621-643.