Report: Entrepreneurship, Marriott International Inc. Analysis

This report examines the concept of entrepreneurship and its significance in business growth, using Marriott International Inc. as a case study. It provides an overview of entrepreneurship, different schools of thought, and their impact on a company's success. The report analyzes Marriott's current challenges, including increased competition, economic downturns, and changing consumer behaviors. It also delves into the company's history, financial performance, and pioneering role in the hospitality sector, highlighting the influence of entrepreneurial leadership. Furthermore, the report discusses emerging trends affecting the industry and proposes new strategies for Marriott to overcome its challenges, such as offering discounted rates, creating attractive family packages, and leveraging digital marketing. The conclusion emphasizes the crucial role of entrepreneurs in business development and the importance of selecting the right entrepreneurial approach for effective company management.

Running head: ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN CONTEXT
Entrepreneurship in Context
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Executive Summary
This report intends to shed light on the concept of entrepreneurship and the role they play in
the overall growth as well as the development of a company or business organization. This
report will give an overview of the concept of entrepreneurship and the various schools of
thought related to them. The report will also provide an overview of the company Marriott
International Inc. and discusses the issues which they are facing at the moment. Finally, the
report will conclude with a discussion of the strategies which the company can implement for
overcoming the issues which it is facing.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Entrepreneurship........................................................................................................................3
Marriott International Inc...........................................................................................................4
Entrepreneurial Schools of thought............................................................................................5
Emerging trends which might impact the company...................................................................6
New strategies............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................8
References..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
“…the entrepreneur always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an
opportunity.”
The above quoted lines of Peter F. Drucker from the book “Innovation and
Entrepreneurship: Practice and Principles” clearly outlines the role of an entrepreneur in the
modern day world. The modern world of business has become much more competitive than
the traditional one and a reflection of this is the launch of several new small as well as
medium scale enterprises (Drucker, 2014). It is here that the role of the entrepreneurs
becomes very significant. The entrepreneurs are imbued with the role of “designing,
launching and running a new business” (Kirzner, 2015). Therefore, they form an integral part
of the new business organizations as well as companies and their contributions often help the
business organizations or the companies to expand and also to increase their business
(Kirzner, 2015). However, a miscalculated entrepreneur policy can even lead to the decline of
the prospects of the company or the business organizations. Therefore, the role played by
them becomes very significant in this particular context (Kirzner, 2015).
Entrepreneurship
“The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer.”
The above quoted lines of Nolan Bushnell clearly indicate the character or the
personality that an entrepreneur should possess. An entrepreneur is someone who is attributed
with the major responsibility of not only designing and launching a new business but also
with the successful running of that particular business (Schaper et al., 2014). In the opinion of
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, “If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up the men to gather
wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless

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sea”. Therefore, an entrepreneur should be able to inculcate the virtues of competitiveness
among the various employees of the company or the business organization for which he or
she is working. In other words, entrepreneurship can be defined as the "capacity and
willingness to develop, organize and manage a business venture along with any of its risks in
order to make a profit" (Kuratko, 2016).
Marriott International Inc.
Marriott International Inc, founded in the year 1927 by J. Willard Marriott, is an
American company which provides services in the hospitality sector ("JW Marriott Hotels &
Resorts", 2018). The company manages as well as offers franchise to “a broad portfolio of
hotels and related lodging facilities” ("JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts", 2018). The company
has more than 6,000 hotels and related lodges in more than 122 other nations of the world
("JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts", 2018). The company is the 117th largest business
organization of the world in terms of the revenue which it generates on yearly basis ("Forbes
Welcome", 2018). Some of the financial details of the company are provided by the below
given figure-
Figure 1: Financial Statistics of Marriott International Inc.

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Source: Forbes, 2018
The above given figure clearly indicates that in the recent times the profits of the
company has considerably decreased. Although the company has its humble beginning in
Maryland, it has emerged as one of the major companies in the genre of the hospitality
industry offered more than 1.2 million rooms to the customers from diverse parts of the globe
("JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts", 2018). The company is one of the best rated service
providers in the hotel industry and most of the hotels belonging to the company have an
impressive rating of 5 star ("JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts", 2018). It is to be noted that the
company is a pioneer in the genre of the hotel industry and was the first hotel of the world in
the year 1995 to offer the facility of online reservation to its customers ("JW Marriott Hotels
& Resorts", 2018). In addition to this, the company also takes the help of the latest
technology as well as innovations to cater to the needs and the requirements of the customers
in the best possible manner. However, it is seen that in the recent times the business of the
company has suffered a setbacks due to various diverse factors. In the recent times the
business of the company is shrinking due to various factors like the rise of several
competitors in the same sector who are offer quality services at a relatively cheaper price, the
issues with the supplier system, the economic downturn which the world is facing at the
moment and others (Al-Zoubi & Alomari, 2017).
Entrepreneurial Schools of thought
An “Entrepreneurial School of thought” tries to examine the various factors which are
specific to the concept of entrepreneurship (Abosede & Onakoya, 2013). The focus of this
particular school of thought is also on the internal “locus of control” (Fisher, 2012). The
various entrepreneurial schools of thought also concern itself with the identification of the
various “major market segments as well as interstice (in-between) markets that arise from

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larger markets” (Fisher, 2012). The two major schools of thought in the entrepreneurial genre
are the “Entrepreneurial Trait School of Thought” and the “Strategic Planning School of
Thought” (Abosede & Onakoya, 2013). J.W. (Bill) Marriott, Jr. was the CEO of the company
Marriott International Inc. till March 2012. His leadership saw the rise of the company from a
meager one to one of the largest ones in the world. It is to be noted that he was the one was
who came up with the innovative idea to offer the option to the customers to make online
reservations in the year 1995 ("JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts", 2018). His leadership also
saw the expansion of the company in more than 122 nations of the world. It is to be noted that
the ideas used by him belonged to the “Entrepreneurial Trait School of Thought” ("JW
Marriott Hotels & Resorts", 2018). The present CEO of the company Marriott International
Inc, Arne M. Sorenson, on the other hand, belongs to the category of the “Strategic Planning
School of Thought” ("JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts", 2018). As already mentioned, the
company Marriott International Inc., is facing a crisis at the present moment because of
various reasons. Therefore, to overcome the problem the present CEO of the company has
undertaken several collaborations with other major companies of the world like Alibaba
Group, Bulgari Spa and others in order to reduce the competition faced by it and also to
expand their business in lesser explored parts of the world ("JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts",
2018).
Emerging trends which might impact the company
It is to be noted that the world at present is undergoing a kind of a economic recession
while trying to recover from the economic recession which originated in the United States of
America a way back (Bridge & O'Neill, 2012). Therefore, the buying pattern of the
customers has changed in the present times and many people avoid taking the services of the
luxury hotels which charge them extravagant amount of money for providing the services.

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This is one of the factors which might affect the prospects of the company in the longer run.
It is to be noted that the social environment of the world is changing in a very rapidly. A
common trend noted among the present world is its fragmentariness (Bridge & O'Neill,
2012). It is to be noted that the people these days very seldom go on vacations with their
entire family. This has affected the prospects of the company in a negative manner. The
company specializes in providing hospitality services to the customers and therefore this
fragmentariness of the world has affected the business of the company. Another interesting
trend to note is the over-reliance of the present world on technology. It is true that the
company was the first one to provide online reservation facilities to the customers however
since then the company has not made any significant use of the modern technologies as well
as modern innovations. This has tremendously affected the prospects of the company as the
majority of its rivals take the help of the digital media to offer better services to the
customers.
New strategies
The company in order to overcome the economic recession which it is facing at the
moment can offer discounted offers to the customers (Drucker, 2014). This will allow the
company not only to retain their loyal customers but will also help in the future when they
will increase the cost of the services offered by them in the near future when the condition of
the market turns better. In order to overcome the social trend which the world is facing at the
moment, the company can provide attractive family packages to the customers in order to get
more customers. In addition to this, the company can take the help of the digital marketing
and digital media and also provide online services to the customers in a bid to increase its
business (Drucker, 2014).

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Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion it becomes clear that entrepreneurs play an
important role in the overall growth as well as the development of the entire company or the
business organization concerned. In addition to this, the type of the school of thought selected
by the entrepreneur also goes a long way in deciding the effectiveness of the services
provided by the entrepreneur to the company.

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References
Abosede, A. J., & Onakoya, A. B. (2013). Intellectual Entrepreneurship: Theories, Purpose
and Challenges. International Journal of Business Administration, 4(5), 30.
Al-Zoubi, A. F., & Alomari, M. (2017). The Role of Internal Customer in Improving the
Quality of Hotel Services in Jordan: A Case Study of the Marriott International Hotel
in Amman. International Journal of Marketing Studies, 9(6), 82.
Bridge, S., & O'Neill, K. (2012). Understanding enterprise: Entrepreneurship and small
business. Palgrave Macmillan.
Drucker, P. (2014). Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Fisher, G. (2012). Effectuation, causation, and bricolage: A behavioral comparison of
emerging theories in entrepreneurship research. Entrepreneurship theory and
practice, 36(5), 1019-1051.
Forbes Welcome. (2018). Forbes.com. Retrieved 17 March 2018, from
https://www.forbes.com/companies/marriott-international/
JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts. (2018). Marriott News Center. Retrieved 17 March 2018,
from http://news.marriott.com/p/jw-marriott/
Kirzner, I. M. (2015). Competition and entrepreneurship. University of Chicago press.
Kuratko, D. F. (2016). Entrepreneurship: Theory, process, and practice. Cengage Learning.
Schaper, M. T., Volery, T., Weber, P. C., & Gibson, B. (2014). Entrepreneurship and small
business.