Strategic Analysis of Four Seasons Hotel in Dubai (Report)

This report provides a comprehensive strategic analysis of the Four Seasons Hotel Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). It begins with an introduction to the hotel industry and the Four Seasons brand, followed by an analysis of the hotel's past performance, including firm and industry performance, and an external analysis using the PESTLE framework. The report then delves into an internal analysis using the TWOS framework, assesses the company's competitive advantage through Porter's generic strategies, and identifies key lessons learned. The analysis continues with an examination of the current performance using VRIO analysis, defines current issues, and applies Porter's Five Forces model. The core of the report focuses on the implementation and evaluation of strategies, including investment in a shopping complex, budget-friendly rooms, service innovation, employee retention, and redesigning. The report aligns these strategies with the Balanced Scorecard dimensions before concluding with managerial implications and recommendations for the future.

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STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
[Type the document subtitle]
7/30/2019
Student name

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 1
Contents
1. Summary/ Introduction............................................................................................................3
2. Analysing firm’s past performance and issues........................................................................4
Firm and industry performance...................................................................................................4
External analysis (PESTLE analysis ).........................................................................................4
Political factors........................................................................................................................4
Economic factors.....................................................................................................................5
Social factors...........................................................................................................................5
Technological factors...............................................................................................................6
Legal factors............................................................................................................................6
Environmental factors..............................................................................................................6
Internal analysis...........................................................................................................................6
TWOS framework...................................................................................................................6
A critical assessment of strategy..................................................................................................7
Key lessons learned from the past...............................................................................................9
3. Analysing firm’s current performance and issues...................................................................9
Analysing information(VRIO analysis )......................................................................................9
Defining the current issue(s) and problem statement................................................................10
Problem statement.................................................................................................................10
Porters five force model.........................................................................................................10
4. Implementation and Evaluation of Strategies........................................................................15
Investment in shopping complex within the hotel.................................................................15
Budget friendly rooms...........................................................................................................16
Service innovation.................................................................................................................16

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Redesigning...........................................................................................................................16
Employee retention strategies................................................................................................16
Alignment of Recommended Strategies with Balanced-Scorecard (BSC) Dimensions...........17
Stage 1...................................................................................................................................17
Stage 2...................................................................................................................................20
Stage 3...................................................................................................................................20
5. Conclusion & Managerial Implication......................................................................................22
References......................................................................................................................................24

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1. Summary/ Introduction
The hotel industry is one of the dynamic and challenging industries, which has faced various
transformations for years. Thus, it can be said that along with the efficient opportunity for the
hotel brands, there are various problems faced by the companies as well. The purpose of the
report is to critical assess the internal and external environment of a hotel organizational case so
as to understand the recent problem faced and recommended a strategy for the same to sustain
through that problem. The organizational case considered in the report is Four Seasons, which is
one of the popular hotel brand providing accommodation and dining services across the globe.
The report will focus on analysing the strategic management elements for “Four Seasons Hotel
Dubai International Financial Centre (Ahlin, 2014).”
Four seasons is one of the popular international luxury hotel company, operating in more than a
hundred hotels across the globe. The company has been following the glocalization strategy that
is adapting the base global strategy with innovation and alterations as per the local area in which
the company is operating. This reflects the study of the brand in particular Dubai region would
be somehow different from other nations in which the company is operating (fourseasons, 2019).
The company is one of the successful companies located in Dubai heart with a boutique style
sanctuary. Four season DIFC are providing accommodation that will provide the feel of home to
the guest visiting that is designed in the way for productivity and relaxing time with
extraordinary services provided by the company. DIFC is generally dedicated to professional and
financial services in the free zone of Dubai. The key benefit that the company enjoys through the
free zone that is Dubai International Financial Centre is 100 percent foreign ownership, zero
percent tax rate on profits and income, free capital convertibility (riaabarkergillette, 2019). The
major problem is increasing competition in the luxury hotel brands near DIFC, which will be
considered as the preliminary motive for the company to assess the internal competences and
resources of the company and factors of the external business environment that leads to such
challenging situation for four seasons DIFC (riaabarkergillette, 2019).

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2. Analysing firm’s past performance and issues
Firm and industry performance
The hospitality industry performance, especially in case of luxury segment, can be reflected
through the facts that by DTCM that is a department of tourism and commerce marketing that
stated that at the end of 2017, the inventory of total hospitality industry was 107,431
(khaleejtimes, 2019). Moreover, the statistics from the send quarter of 2018 presented an
increase in 10 percent, which reflect the growth stage of the industry in Dubai. Moreover, Dubai
is considered to be one of the largest tourism industry across the globe, which also reflect the
increasing need for accommodation services in the nation (cavendishmaxwell, 2019).
To assess the performance of four seasons in DIFC, it can be assessed through the rating by the
customers through various official review sites like trip advisors, and in hotel.com. the brand as
per current rating got 9.0 rating out of ten, which reflect the customer satisfaction, and
company’s performance. Moreover, the company when entered into the Dubai hospitality
business, the company introduced the market with another hotel started constructing within two
years. The reason being, as the company was expected to have the highest revenue per room,
which is one of the reliable key performance indicators in the hotel industry (arabianindustry,
2019). The higher performance of the company reflects through the customer ratings, which
would eventually reflect the occupancy rate and sales of the company. Moreover, as per the news
on November 2016, the company eyes second considering the property in DIFC
(press.fourseasons, 2019).
External analysis (PESTLE analysis )
In order to assess the external factors of Dubai those will eventually affect and could turn out to
be either threat or opportunity for the company, which would be critically analysed through a
PESTLE analysis framework. The factors of the framework include
Political factors
The political environment of the UAE included the inclusion of 7 free emirates. Each emirate is
selected by Sheik of the nations, which has the highest position in the political system of the
company. However, it can be said that due to rigid rules and regulation framed and implemented
by sheiks depicts high control of corruption, which is better for the company dealing in the

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 5
nation. However, democracy is not true to the level, as in case of western countries, which could
be a threat for the company that will result into long legal requirements and frameworks to be
followed (Andersson, 2016).
Economic factors
Figure 1: GDP UAE (Source: (tradingeconomics, 2019)
The GDP of the country seems to be increasing, and as discuss that the tourism industry is one of
the major sources of income. This reflects that the economic environment of Dubai can be an
opportunity for Four seasons hotel in the nation. As already discussed, the free zone that is DIFC
also comes with economic benefits like zero percent tax, which also makes four seasons to
increase the revenue earning (tradingeconomics, 2019).
Social factors
Social factors are a major element as the country is very involved and consider culture to be very
important and restrictive. The religion that is majorly found in the nation is Islam, that reflects
that the maximum population is of Muslim, which needs to be considered while offering product
and service sin the nation. Thus influencing the business and marketing activities of the company
in this nation (Tarhini, Rouibah, & Yammahi, 2018).

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Technological factors
Technology includes the infrastructure level in the nation, which is considered to be one of the
favorable element in the UAE that supports the business, and technological adaptability in the
nation. For example, the system operated in Dubai includes the feeder transport system, making
management and ease for the residents. Other than transport the financial transactions are
managed using technology, that included the availability of cards like MasterCard and visa. This
turned out to be an opportunity for Four seasons to conduct business online (thenational, 2019).
Legal factors
The legal frameworks are the major aspect in the country that has to be followed by every
citizen, people visiting the place, and most importantly corporates conducting business. The
change of laws related to hotel industry included licensing regulations of the hotel in 2013. The
new rule makes the official body for the tourism and hotel industry to be the Dubai Department
of Tourism and Commerce Marketing. Moreover, four seasons also have to abide by the legal
framework for DIFC specifically (gulfbusiness, dubais-ruler-issues-new-hotel-law, 2019).
Environmental factors
The environment of UAE priory included the dry climate, which makes the products and services
to keep the temperature low and effective electric appliances in order to keep the hot climate in
control and do not increase the business productivity affecting the global warming. For this, the
company needs to consider a climate action plan. However, this could be an opportunity for the
hotel companies, the reason being the luxury consisting air conditioners would be preferred
(Bruns, 2013).
Internal analysis
TWOS framework
Strengths
Customer satisfaction
Central location
Extraordinary room
amenities
Cleanliness (tripadvisor,
Weaknesses
Targeting high income
group only
High employee turnover

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2019)
Opportunities
Product development
Service innovation
SO strategy
 Customer engagement
 Technology use in-
room amenities
 Differentiation strategy
WO strategy
 Training and
development program
 New product
development
Threats
Increase in competition
Increased bargaining power
of the buyer
ST strategy
 Customer loyalty
program
 Customer retentions
strategies
WT strategy
 Employee engagement
 Compete for the
budget friendly hotel
as well
From SWOT analysis it can be said that the key past challenges faced by the company included
higher employee turnover, difficulty in finding highly skilled employees that are challenging
recruitment process. This may affect the firm’s performance as the human resource are the key
asset in the hotel industry responsible to serve the customers and enhance customer satisfaction
(Chiang, Chen, & Ho, 2016).
A critical assessment of strategy
For analysing the competitive advantage strategy of four seasons hotel DIFC, Porters generic
competitive advantage matrix will be used. The four optional strategies that the company could
have adopted in order to gain a competitive advantage in the industry includes cost focus
strategy, cost differentiation strategy, differentiation focus strategy and lastly differentiation
leadership strategy. These two strategies are based on two major aspects that are the market size
that the company is targeting and Source of the competitive advantage. After analysing the
external and internal environment of four seasons, the strategy that seems to be adopted by the
company is differentiation leadership strategy (Oral, 2014). The reason being the company is
adopting premium pricing strategy as the company is focused over luxury premium hospitality to
be offered to the customer, along with this the company has been focus over the service
innovation and extraordinary good experience to be offered to the customer when they are

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visiting four seasons resort and hotel DIFC. Moreover the locational advantage is another part of
this strategy that has found to be affected for the brand which has also been accepted by
customers through the ratings are different review sites like TripAdvisor and hotels.in. However,
a disadvantage that the company has faced due to the strategy is that they are only able to target
premium customer that is high income group and not the middle income group. Moreover, the
company has always focused more on business travelers which seems to be a good strategy as
most of the travellers across the globe are travelling due to the business purpose (Muller &
Nagle, 2017).
Figure 2: Porters generic competitive advantage matrix (Source: (refreshbreeze, 2019)

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Figure 3: Trip advisor ratings (Source: (tripadvisor, 2019)
Key lessons learned from the past
Key sources of competitive advantage in the hotel industry in Dubai included one of the supports
from external factors that are the enhanced tourism industry in Dubai. Another key advantage is
the global presence of four season’s brand, which will eventually help the company to increase
brand recognition and increase customer loyalty. The unique services provided by the company,
along with the high quality products and services that is the accommodation rooms designing and
service from human resources of the company have to get them being able to be sourced as a
competitive advantage for four seasons D I FC. Some of the key factors that will influence the
firm’s performance and will affect the industry are the technology, technology is identified to be
obsolete very quickly in repeatedly changing the digitalised world. This eventually affects the
industry concerning marketing activities, amenities provided by the company, services offered to
the customer (Oral, 2014).
3. Analysing firm’s current performance and issues
Analysing information(VRIO analysis )
Resource and
capability
Valuable Rare Imitable Organized
Location yes Yes Yes Yes

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Customer
experience
Yes Yes Yes Yes
Customer
feedback
Yes No No Yes
Human resource Yes No No No
Technology Yes Yes No Yes
Online presence Yes No No Yes
Through VRIO analysis it can be said that the company resources that stand out to be sustained
competitive advantage is location and customer experience, as these resources are valued to four
seasons DIFC, it is rare for the company, it cannot be easily imitable as legal requirement in
DIFC is very long and not easily available, which reflect competitive advantage (Puck &
Mudambi, 2016).
Defining the current issue(s) and problem statement
Problem statement
The major problem is increasing competition in the luxury hotel brands near DIFC, which has
increased the switching level of the customer. Therefore, it can be said that retaining the
customer due to the increase in completion is the major problem faced by Four seasons hotel
DIFC (Menon & Edison, 2015).
Porters five force model
The current issue identified through increasing competition, which would be analysed and
justified thorough understanding of the forces of the industry impacting the performance of Four
Seasons DIFC (Liedtka, 2018).
Forces Discussion
The threat of new entrants The new company entering into the market are
not the major problem to the company but may
influence the competition level in the industry

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after some time span. In other words, it can be
said that the investment in luxury hotels are
very youth, which makes the new entrant a
major barrier to entry into the luxury hotel
market in the IFC, this reflects listen to
influence on four Seasons DIFC. However,
The existing brand may enter into the market in
Dubai like Marriott brand, Radisson brand near
the DIFC, which will become a close
competition to four seasons, this reflects a
major threat to the company as the competition
will be increased and the options for customers
to switch will also be increased. Moreover, the
company entering into the industry may come
with new technology and innovative idea. In
addition to this, customers are looking for new
designs that are more innovative and latest that
a new company in Entering may include while
offering accommodation services to the
company near DIFC (Baker & Bowen, 2015).
Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining power of buyers is one of the major
threat to the company and major cause for an
issue related to customer retention. The
increasing competition has influenced one of
the external stakeholders that is the customers
by increasing the bargaining power to
negotiate, the reason being the customers can
easily switch from one branch to another
because of lots of an ability of services near the
IFC. This has reduced customer loyalty and it
has decreased customer retention by four

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 12
seasons (bimpos, 2019). This reflects that the
bargaining power of buyers is high and could
be a threat to the company while adding up the
issue raised for four seasons regarding the
increasing competition.
Bargaining power of supplier Bargaining power of suppliers are not too high
for four seasons, the reason being the company
has a global presence and has large supplier
relationship because of which suppliers are not
in the condition to negotiate as the company
may switch to another supplier in case of any
Prices change by one supplier or unavailability
of resources from one supplier. Wiki suppliers
for four seasons include food material benders,
personal care products vendors that the
company provides to customers as amenities.
Therefore, it can be said that this force is not a
major threat to the company and is not
affecting the problem identified previously
(Betton, 2017).
Threat of substitute It has been identified that there are no
alternatives to 5 Star hotels or luxury hotels in
which four seasons are dealing with. However,
there could be rental rooms available for the
business travelers, guesthouses of the
companies that are fulfilling the similar needs
of the customers. Nevertheless, the
expectations by the customers including
luxury, amenities, and other activities like spa
and dining are not available through these

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 13
substitutes which makes the threat of the
substitute or are not considered as major
competition by four seasons D I FC.
Competition Industry rivalry is the major force that was
responsible for increasing competition in the
industry. The meeting competitors that have
found all for four seasons hotel DIFC include
industrial rivalry is the natural force that was
responsible for increasing competition in the
industry. The major competitors that have
found on for four seasons hotel near DIFC
included Ritz Carlton with 8.8 reviews and 0.2
km to DIFC; Jumeirah Emirates towers that are
0.3 km from DIFC WITH 9.6 rating. As these
two are the close competition, the chances of
customers to switch from four seasons to these
two hotels are high. Jumeirah has exceptionally
9.6 ratings according to the trip advisor, where
the reviews given to this hotel are from 3899
customers, whereas the reviews for four
seasons hotel DIFC 215 reviews only, which
reflect a major problem to four seasons hotel D
I FC (in.hotels, Dubai International Financial
Centre, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, United
Arab Emirates, 2019).
The above forces from porter’s five forces people justify the problems faced by four seasons,
which are affecting two major stakeholders that are the customers and employees of the
company. The customers are affected in the way the customer satisfaction may be decreased or
customer may switch from four seasons to other options available in the luxury hotel market
considering the reviews as customers are becoming smarter and check for the reviews from

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 14
authentic sites like trip advisor before making purchase decisions. Due to an increase in
competition, employee turnover of the company will also be increased, it has been identified that
the company has always been facing employee turnover, which is a general case in the hotel
industry. This may increase due to increase in competition as the options for doing a job would
also increase for the existing employees of the company. Therefore, it can be said that immediate
issue from this problem is employee turnover rate that needs to be controlled and employee
retention has to be increased in order to serve customer will an increase the customer loyalty in
long run. Therefore, it can be said that the issue identified for the company has a major effect on
the profitability of the company, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, morale of employees of
four seasons and a source of competitive advantage (Biemans, 2018).
Figure 4: The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai International Financial Centre (Source: (in.hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, Dubai
International Financial Centre, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 2019)

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Figure 5: Jumeirah Emirates Towers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Source: (in.hotels, umeirah Emirates Towers, Dubai,
United Arab Emirates, 2019)
4. Implementation and Evaluation of Strategies
After analysing the internal and external environment in previous sections the recommended
strategy for four seasons DIFC include the diversification strategy. The key reason to suggest a
strategy for four seasons is to grasp the opportunity by developing a new product, or investing in
further more industry. In order to implement the strategy, The recommended further strategy that
a manager must adopt for four seasons DIFC included
Investment in shopping complex within the hotel
According to this recommendation, the company must invest in this new product or services to
be offered to the customer within the four season Hotel DIFC. The reason being people traveling
to the nation as per the tourism industry forecasted to be increased with time, shopping is one of
the activities that they may prefer while visiting a new place which would include the products
Reflecting Dubai’s culture. This will increase the attraction of the customers as they will be
enjoying accommodation along with such leisure time activities other than a spa, Jim and
amenities that all luxury hotels are providing by now (Chari & Feng, 2018).

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Budget friendly rooms
One of the key problems is that the company is only targeting high income group people, where
the middle-income group people are not being targeted which are found to be large in number.
Therefore, it is recommended to 4 seasons to include a floor within the hotel that will include
budget friendly rooms, the service quality must be maintained for these rooms. However, the
luxury of fact and services will not be as same as premium rooms. This will lead the company to
have price differentiation strategy in order to target more customers and on more profit, this may
also result into a competitive advantage over the above discussed major competitors (Aksoy,
2018).
Service innovation
Innovation is the key to competitive advantage in the hotel industry as the industry is very
competitive. The increasing competition is due to the introduction of new services and additional
the manatees provided by the brands that are not able to imitate by the competitor. Therefore it is
important for four seasons to increase its competencies or resources in order to provide
innovative service to the customers that will not be able to imitate by the competitors. This may
include technological innovation, as the key issue is unavailability of highly skilled human
resource which leads the company to use of automatic machines replacing most of the human
resource. Moreover, use of advanced technology or updating technology will also help the
company to attract more customers and retain the existing one, which is one of the major need
for the company to overcome the problem (Bruns, 2013).
Redesigning
Interior, designing, and ambiance of the hotel are one of the major element that the customer is
seeking while making purchasing decision related to the hospitality industry. Therefore it is
recommended to the company to Integrate updated technology to their infrastructure and
designing of the hotel. This may include change in the lightning system or 3-D flooring, personal
pools availability with music and personal space for couples (Kaur & Ma, 2015).
Employee retention strategies
Even after implementing advanced technology, the need for the human resource will always be
high in the hospitality industry. Moreover, the increasing competition has identified to increase
the employee turnover of four seasons. Therefore, it is recommended to the company to retain

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 17
their employees through some of the employee retention strategies like increase in bonus,
training and development, an employee benefit plans (Kearns, 2010). Moreover, it is important
to keep the employs motivated in such industries, especially through the financial motivational
tools like incentive system or a trip to a location. It can be said that the diversification strategy
will not be able to implement if there is lack of competencies and resources especially human
resources in the company, therefore, it is recommended to retain the existing employees and
attract highly skilled employees in the company to implement the growth and diversification
strategies discussed above effectively (Davis, Cutt, & Flynn, 2016).
Alignment of Recommended Strategies with Balanced-Scorecard (BSC) Dimensions
In order to align the recommended strategy the performance measurement model used would be
balanced scorecard through which the vision and mission of four seasons will be translated into
operational actions and it will reflect the strategic planning in the process. Balance scorecard
elements or the dimensions of the model included customer perspective, innovation and learning
perspective, internal perspective and financial perspective. Therefore it can be said that in order
to develop a balanced scorecard model the three stages that are to be followed included the
establishment of vision and mission, objectives and the above-mentioned perspective of the
company. The second stage is to identify the key performance indicators of four seasons in order
to measure the performance of the above recommended strategies. The third and last stage that
will be followed to develop balanced scorecard model is the establishment of targets that is each
key performance indicators are required to provide with target that the company design two and
willing to meet in order to accomplish strategic objectives and reach the vision and mission of
the company (Duggan, 2018).
Stage 1
The vision of four seasons DIFC is to provide accommodation services to the customers and
retain maximum customers so that the company will gain a competitive advantage over its
closest competitor near the DIFC, specifically in the luxury hotel brands. Where the company
mission is to attract maximum customers and adopt a diversification strategy (Feng & Chari,
2018). Moreover, the strategic objectives of the company included while integrating with the
phone perspective of balanced scorecard

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 18
1. Customer perspective
 Increase customer satisfaction
 Increase customer reviews at trip advisor
 Increase customer loyalty
 Repetitive purchased by each customer
2. Financial perspective
 Cost reduction
 Asset utilization
 Increase in the number of services and products
 New product development including shopping complex within a hotel
 Increasing in sale of four seasons
3. Internal process perspective
 Increase service quality and service efficiency
 After sale services
 Customer complaint resolution
 Agile supply chain
 Enhanced supplier relationship
 Decrease operating cost

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 19
 Total quality management
4. Learning and growth perspective
 Employee training and development program
 Employee motivation strategies
 Campus recruitment
 Increase employee alignment
 Employee retention (Zhang & Tan, 2017)
From this stage it can be said that the key customer perspective strategic objective is to retain the
customer includes increase in satisfaction among the customers and increase the customer loyalty
this may also include environmental efforts by the company so as to implement corporate social
responsibility is by the company and attract more customers due to increasing business ethics.
Considering the financial perspective the key strategy: Jack tips included the increase in revenue
of the company, which will be increased through increase in number of customers, increase in
sales, increase in number of products that are introducing services like shopping complex and
improving us that utilization in order to decrease the cost of the company (Hawkey, 2017).
Considering the internal process the key strategic objectives created for four seasons include a
relationship with stakeholders like enhance customer relations, in hand supplier relationship,
operations are a major part of the internal process so the strategic objective is to increase the
operating efficiency of the company through technological innovation. Considering the learning
and growth perspective the company strategic objectives included increase employee motivation
that is the adoption of strategies in order to motivate employees, Enhancing the skills and
competencies of employs through training and development program and enhancing employee
alignment to manage the organization well. All the strategic objectives decided for four seasons
the DIFC are directed to words the vision of providing accommodation to the customer and gain
a competitive advantage to overcome the problem of increased competition (Chou & Shao,
2016).
Stage 2
According to this stage, the key performance indicators are identified. After analysing the four
perspectives strategic objectives of the company it can be said that the key performance
indicators for four seasons DIFC included

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 20
1) Average room rate
According to this KPI, the average rate of each room available reflects the total room revenue
per room occupied this will reflect the revenue of the company.
2) Occupancy rate
The occupancy rate reflects the number of rooms occupied. For example, if there are bedroom
capacity of the hotel are ten rooms and the rooms taken by the guest are eight rooms then the
occupancy rate is 80%. This will reflect the number of customers visiting the hotel and
purchasing the services of the hotel. This is one of the effective ways to assess or measure the
number of customers visiting the hotel and will help to analyse customer database (Jawoski,
2018).
3) Revenue per available room
According to this key performance indicator developed for four seasons reflect their rooms
revenue for each room available this is considered to be one of the vital KPI for financial
calculation for four seasons as this will depict the revenue level that the company has attained
within a specific time span. The formula for this KPI is room revenue divided by available
rooms.
4) Cost for occupied room
According to this key performance indicator, four seasons will be able to analyze the operating
cost of the company as one of the objectives is to reduce the cost to the company. This KPI
reflects total rooms cost on each room sold (Hafenbrack, Lu, & Wang, 2017).
Stage 3
Targets for the KPI in the next 12 months are
1) Average room rate – Increase by 10 %
2) Occupancy rate – Increase by 20 %
3) Revenue per available room – Increase by 10%
4) Cost for the occupied room – Decrease by 12 % (gulfbusiness, dubai-aims-to-treble-
tourism-income-to-82bn-by-2020, 2019)

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 21

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 22
5. Conclusion & Managerial Implication
From the report of four seasons hotel DIFC, it can be concluded that four seasons is one of the
popular international luxury hotel company, operating in more than a hundred hotels across the
globe. The company is one of the successful companies located in Dubai heart with a boutique
style sanctuary. DIFC is generally dedicated to professional and financial services in the free
zone of Dubai. The inventory of total hospitality industry was 107,431at the end of 2017,
through the facts that by DTCM, which reflect the growth stage of the industry in Dubai.
Democracy is not true to the level, as in the case of western countries, which could be a threat to
the company. The GDP of the country seems to be increasing, which also makes four seasons to
increase the revenue earning. The legal frameworks are the major aspect in the country that has
to be followed by every citizen, people visiting the place, and most importantly corporates
conducting business. After analyzing the external and internal environment of four seasons, the
strategy that seems to be adopted by the company is differentiation leadership strategy. Moreover
the locational advantage is another part of this strategy that has found to be affected for the brand
which has also been accepted by customers through the ratings are different review sites like
TripAdvisor and hotels.in. The major problem is increasing competition in the luxury hotel
brands near DIFC, which has increased the switching level of the customer. Therefore, it can be
said that retaining the customer due to an increase in completion is the major problem faced by
Four seasons hotel DIFC.
Bargaining power of buyers is one of the major threats to the company and major cause for an
issue related to customer retention. The major competitors included Ritz Carlton, and Jumeirah
Emirates towers, which reflect a major problem to four season’s hotel D I FC. The recommended
strategy for four seasons DIFC includes the diversification strategy. The recommended further
strategy that a manager must adopt for four seasons DIFC included budget friendly rooms,
investment in shopping complex within the hotel, redesigning, and employee retention strategies.
Balance scorecard elements or the dimensions of the model included customer perspective,
innovation and learning perspective, internal perspective and financial perspective. The company
mission is to attract maximum customers and adopt a diversification strategy. the key

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 23
performance indicators for four seasons DIFC included Occupancy rate, Average room rate,
Revenue per available room, and Cost for an occupied room.

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT 24
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