Business Strategy Analysis and Recommendations for Grand Plaza Hotel

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the business strategy of the Grand Plaza Serviced Apartments Hotel. It begins with an introduction to business strategy and relevant terminology, followed by an examination of strategic planning and related issues. The report then delves into organizational and environmental audits, including an assessment of the hotel's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Strategic planning techniques like SPADE are discussed. The report evaluates the appropriateness of various strategies for the hotel, including market entry, growth, and retrenchment, and recommends the most suitable future strategy. Finally, it outlines the roles, responsibilities, and resource requirements for implementing the new strategy, along with a plan for monitoring its effectiveness. The report uses frameworks like the five Ms and McKinsey 7S to analyze the hotel's internal and external environments, providing valuable insights for strategic decision-making.

BUSINESS
STRATEGY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1.......................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Strategic context and terminology.....................................................................................................3
1.2 Strategic Planning and Relative issues...............................................................................................4
1.3 Strategic Planning Techniques...........................................................................................................6
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Organizational Audit for Grand Plaza Serviced Apartments Hotel....................................................6
2.2 Environmental audit for Grand Plaza Serviced Apartments Hotels...................................................8
TASK 3.....................................................................................................................................................10
3.1 Appropriateness of strategies in relation with market entry, substantive-growth, limited-growth,
retrenchment for Grand Plaza................................................................................................................10
3.2 The most appropriate future strategy for Grand Plaza.....................................................................11
TASK 4.....................................................................................................................................................12
4.1 Roles and responsibilities for implementing new strategy...............................................................12
4.2 Requirement of resources for implementation of new strategies.....................................................13
4.3 Monitoring the strategies.................................................................................................................13
Conclusion................................................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES........................................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Business is defined as an entity which is related to an organization and the organization have so
many elements like products, services, customers and so on. In this report the business strategies
and business environment of Grand apartment hotel one of the leading organization in UK for its
best hospitality. It is established in 1990 in London, UK. The strategies for the planning and to
resolve the issues came during the various operations of business are also discussed in this
report. Objectives, missions and competence, these factors are the part of the terminology of an
organization and that terminology is also have a brief in this report(Scholes, 2015). The
organizational and environmental audit is also done in this report. Different strategies have
different roles and responsibilities, this report also have those strategies which are helpful in the
growth and retrenchment of the organization. The requirements of resources and the targets of
the hotel are also explained in this report.
TASK 1
1.1 Strategic context and terminology
The grand plaza serviced apartment hotel have a vision to work for their customers and
provide them better service. Apart of the hotel have some objectives which they want to achieve
by serving the better service to their customers. Some core competencies are also there.
Vision- the customers can be happy with the good response of the management of the hotel and
for that the hotel management have a clear vision to provide the services that are personalized
and the best facilities to their customers.

Mission- The hotel is a four star hotel so to maintain that they have the innovation in their
services as they serves each thing with a unique touch. As the expectations of the guests has
exceeded so the hotel team is working with more perfection and dedication(Leonidou, and et.al.,
2015
Goals- The primary goal is to catch the people from all over the world and different places. The
people who are rooming in London either it is individual or in group, the management wants that
those people should attract with the name and fame of the hotel. The Grand plaza serviced
apartment hotel wants to cut the cost to manage the department of front desk. The hotel is
becoming a property which can be used by the family and friends, and this achievement will help
to increase their revenues..
Objectives-
 Grand plaza services apartment have the desire to increase 15% of the guests every year.
They want to deal a contract with new travel agents.
 The hotel wants that expenses on the operations of the hotel should be less from to the
5%. For that they have reduced the employees as 3 to 2 in each shift.
 They have modified their apartments as now more family members can live in the
renovated 30 apartments.
They are refurbishing their rooms and offering some variety, in coming 5 months it can increase
their 20% of capacity.
Core Competencies-
 The staff of the hotel also wanted to achieve the same objectives. They are working to
stand on the expectations of their guests as the team is highly skilled so it is better enough
to satisfy the customers
 The management of customer relationship has that ability that it can provide the customer
services that is quite exceptional(Verbeke, 2013).
 The technology, processes of business and behavior, these all things are understood by
the experts of revenue.
 Strategy to manage the channels on the hotel is working is so great and those channel are
distributed.

1.2 Strategic Planning and Relative issues
Plan of the strategies which are helpful to operate a successful hospitality organization, can be
made by evaluate the visitors that are visiting in the London. There strategic analysis of Grand
Plaza Serviced Apartment Hotel is done with some internal factors that is controlled by the
organization.
Internal Appraisal
These are the factors which can be controlled.
Strengths-
 The employees of the Grand Plaza Serviced Apartment Hotel have professionalism and
they have the motivation to serve the guest and work as the best host in the London.
 The hotel is so popular in the industry of hospitality so it is an advantage for the hotel.
 The location has the key role in the success of the hotel as it is placed in the Central
London, it also have branch near Hyde park which is one the areas that are so popular in
London.
Weaknesses-
 The rooms have the furniture of old style and some of them have not that much space so
it needs to be some renovation in those rooms.
 The building is so poor conditioned so it should be refurbished to make the areas more
attractive from inside like gallery or corridor as outside.

 The department of housekeeping still using the old style equipment which are so
inefficient, it needs to be replaced by the latest one which have required efficiency.
External Appraisal
These are the factors which cannot be controlled by the hotel.
Opportunities-
 There is a new feature called Guestfolio, providing the solutions that are customized for
the hotel, which can give more satisfied experience to the guests.
 The marketing team can do the evaluation of the location of their area then they can
have the option to do the location marketing in Central London and the specific
landmarks of London, this will help them to make connections(Rothaermel, 2015).
 The hotel can have the benefit to improve their management of marketing which is
already exists and they can distribute the new channels..
Threats-
 The price of other competitors can make a negative impact on the Grand Plaza Serviced
Apartment Hotel, in that situation the hotel have to reduce their price to hold its name in
the industry.
 The budget of the hotel for the guests can be affected in the situation of recession or
financial crisis. In that particular stage the management have to take some important
decisions which can impact the profit of the hotel in future.

There are platforms which can reflect the strategy related issues. As the PEST analysis is the
better way to know about the issues regarding the strategic planning
Political and economical issues-
 The industry of hospitality do have some limitations as the VATE rate is getting double
in UK as per the European average. Due to this tourists which are so substantial are
decreasing and the potential of the hotel cannot be seen by the customers.
 The margin of the wholesalers is revealed to the clients from 2014. There is also a
disadvantage on the competiveness as the taxation with the account based on transaction
by transaction.
Social issues-
 In the hospitality industry, the hotels are renovated and refurbished because of the
concept ‘Green Hotels’ in which the hotel management have to build eco-friendly rooms
and retrofitting for energy which have so much efficiency.
 The building of the hotel is placed in a posh area, also there are so many competitors so
they have to maintain the socialism in their workplace.
Technological issues
 The market has high congestion so the Grand Plaza Services Apartment Hotel have to
upgrade the existing technologies and facilities to be in the market as a
competitive(Blackburn, and Wainwright, 2013). The management have to consider these
aspects as a requirement to be successful.
1.3 Strategic Planning Techniques

In order to know about the techniques which are used to make the strategic planning for the
Grand Plaza Services Apartment Hotel, the SPADE is an approach that is so useful.
Start- The plan will affect the people, from the commitment has engaged.
Purpose- Defining the objectives and setting the target
Analyze- SWOT and PEST analysis
Decisions- Option for Strategy evaluation and strategy choice
Execute- Strategic planning and its implementation
Product Life Cycle
Stage 1 Introduction
In this the service quality is decided by the managers which will be offered by the hotel,
the renovated apartments of various types and the other facilities. In this stage the funding is
more than the profit and the hotel makes its well image by strong strategy of marketing.
Stage 2 Growth
The hotel needs better funding and apartment’s high profit to be popular. They do research to
improve their services a campaign for marketing.
Stage 3 Maturity
The clients are coming regularly to the hotel but now they are focused to improve and hold their
name in the market.

Stage 4 Decline
In this situation the customers will go the other hotels and the Grand’s profit will go down as
their sales are going down. They have to make new products and make some reduction in the
prices of their apartments.
TASK 2
2.1 Organizational Audit for Grand Plaza Serviced Apartments Hotel
The organizational report of audit is prepared to know about the performance of the Grand Plaza
Serviced Apartment Hotel and also the effectiveness of this hotel on the people’s mind and
market. The organization should know about the strengths and weaknesses.
Five M’s of Business-
Man (Labor)- The man is defined as the employees of the hotel. The Grand Plaza gave
the training and development program for their employee to develop their personal and
professional skills. The man can be utilize in the productive manner. The human resource
management is responsible for all the operations regarding the employment.
Money (finance)- The funding in the organization of hospitality industry should be
calculative. The management of money is so essential factor for the organization to maintain
their ventures. An organization should require more money to maintain their workers, materials,
purchased machines.
Machine (equipment)- Equipment in the Hotel industry makes the operations so easy. The
upgraded equipment has to be in this Grand Plaza Apartment hotel as they can manage their
work so easily and the time will be also managed.
Minutes (time)- The management of time have the key role in the success of an
organization. The Hotel business can make their market value only by serving the services on
time. The customer always wants the services on time. There are so many schemes that can be
used to manage the time in a hospitality industry.
Materials (factors of production)- The resources which are being used by the Hotel
Grand Plaza have made from the material. If there is no material than the all human resources
will be redundant. Is the material is of poor quality then the entrepreneurship will be ruined from
it.
The Mckinsay 7S- There are 7 elements in this which are divided into two parts, some are hard
and remaining are soft.
Strategy- The industry has high competitors, to be in the competition the Grand plaza
Hotel mustr have the plan to operate their business.
Structure- The building of hotel and the rooms and the functionality of the hotel, these
are the main part of the structure of the organization.

Systems- The working environment and the various procedures that are processed in the
hotel.
Shared value- The each employee have their particular goal that will help to maintain the
ethic of work and culture in the industry of hospitality.
Style- Adopting the leadership style to manage the organization with a better approach.
Staff- Capabilities of the employees those are working in the Grand Plaza Apartment.
Skills- The personal and professional skills the employees and their competencies which
can make a difference in the market value.
SWOT Analysis-
Strengths-
 The employees of the Grand Plaza Serviced Apartment Hotel have professionalism and
they have the motivation to serve the guest and work as the best host in the London.
 The hotel is so popular in the industry of hospitality so it is an advantage for the hotel.
 The location has the key role in the success of the hotel as it is placed in the Central
London, it also have branch near Hyde Park which is one of the areas that are so popular
in London.
Weaknesses-
 The rooms have the furniture of old style and some of them have not that much space so
it needs to be some renovation in those rooms.
 The building is so poor conditioned so it should be refurbished to make the areas more
attractive from inside like gallery or corridor as outside.
 The department of housekeeping still using the old style equipment which are so
inefficient, it needs to be replaced by the latest one which have required efficiency.
2.2 Environmental audit for Grand Plaza Serviced Apartments Hotels
PEST Analysis referenced by the Porter’s Five model
Political and economical issues-
 The industry of hospitality do have some limitations as the VATE rate is getting double
in UK as per the European average. Due to this tourists which are so substantial are
decreasing and the potential of the hotel cannot be seen by the customers.

 The margin of the wholesalers is revealed to the clients from 2014. There is also a
disadvantage on the competiveness as the taxation with the account based on transaction
by transaction.
Social issues-
 In the hospitality industry, the hotels are renovated and refurbished because of the
concept ‘Green Hotels’ in which the hotel management have to build eco-friendly rooms
and retrofitting for energy which have so much efficiency.
 The building of the hotel is placed in a posh area, also there are so many competitors so
they have to maintain the socialism in their workplace.
Technological issues
 The market has high congestion so the Grand Plaza Services Apartment Hotel have to
upgrade the existing technologies and facilities to be in the market as a competitive
(Blackburn, and Wainwright, 2013). The management have to consider these aspects as a
requirement to be successful.
Porter’s Five Forces-
Bargaining power of customers-The Grand Plaza Serviced Apartment Hotel have so many
customers that have a power to bargain for such product and services.
Bargaining power of suppliers- In the suppliers have the power of bargaining and also their
customers have the power of bargaining so the so number of suppliers matters for the hotel.
Threat of new entrants- The cost of the suppliers will be switched, if the performance of
substitute is better than it can be the customer’s willingness. New entrants and the products
which are substituted are also threat.
Competitive rivalry- The rivalry competition is so high in the industry of hospitality because the
so many hotels are there in the market that are having the competitive price of their products and
services.
Threats of substitute- In the hospitality industry so many hotels are there and all are linked with
so many suppliers as the each suppliers have substitution product in case of break down. So the
Grand Plaza Serviced Apartment hotel have this substitution threat also.
2.3 Significance of stakeholder analysis
Any member or person that is affected by or affects an organization, its strategy or project of it,
is termed s stakeholder (Scholes, 2015). The stakeholders of a company generally include

government, employees, customers, customers, suppliers, creditors, community, trade unions,
owners and investors.
The reviewing and consideration of the impact, those stakeholders’ posses over business is
termed as stakeholder analysis. Understanding the interests of stakeholders has become a
necessity since they are the key towards the success of a business.
While analyzing the stakeholders of Grand Plaza Serviced Apartments hotel, it was found out
that some of them could have a major impact over the business strategies that are planned by it.
These have been discussed below:
Many arguments are going on with respect to the configuration of hotel. The Canadian
shareholders are not agreeing with changes made in it (Leonidou, 2015). So carrying out any
sort of new configurations would be typical and as a whole the strategy that has been planned
will definitely be affected.
 The investors and shareholders also posses some part of the ownership with respect to the
hotel. Investors invest their money in form of capital in order to earn share and profit
from business. So they play a major role for carrying out each and every activity that is
associated with the hotel. For every strategy that is planned they must be agreed to that
strategy so they could invest their capital money.
 Furthermore, there are some customers that are not satisfied with the services provided by
hotel because of which they give bad reviews over the hotel’s website that affects the
business of hotel.
 If the operational staff is unable to perform their duties then the performance & business
of hotel will be hugely affected.
Government is responsible for issuing license to the hotel for running their business (
Verbeke, 2013). The profits earned by Grand Plaza involve share of government also which is
used for building of various infrastructures, etc.
 Also, effective management of the activities associated with the hotel ensures enhanced
performance.