Strategic Planning for River Cafe: Competitive Hospitality Industry

This report provides a strategic analysis of River Cafe, a London-based Italian cuisine restaurant, within the hospitality industry. It critically examines factors for implementing chosen strategies, researches creative business strategies for future competitiveness, and evaluates performance metrics like critical success factors (CSF), key performance indicators (KPIs), and the balanced scorecard. The report emphasizes the importance of strategic management, customer loyalty programs, feedback mechanisms, technological advancements, quality service, email marketing, mobile applications, and website development. It also delves into the significance of social media, restaurant ambiance, menu diversification, and online presence for enhancing customer engagement and brand value. Furthermore, it explores performance indicators to measure long-term performance, focusing on customer retention, satisfaction, and revenue generation. The report aims to provide a comprehensive overview of strategic planning and performance measurement for River Cafe to achieve sustainable growth and success.

Strategic Planning for
the Hospitality Industry

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................2
TASKS.............................................................................................................................................2
Critically analyse the most appropriate factors to implement a chosen strategy........................2
Research about creative business strategies for your chosen organisation’s future strategy
selection to be competitive in the hospitality industry................................................................3
Analyse and evaluate the different performance metrics (critical success factors, key
performance indicators and the balance scorecard)....................................................................5
Critical success factors(CSF)......................................................................................................6
Performance indicators................................................................................................................6
Balance scorecard .......................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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INTRODUCTION
Strategic planning is a planning to make the strategies of the company for the overall growth and
objectives. In the process being sequential goals can be achieved for which productive efforts are
produced that relate to avoiding wastages of resources in the operational firm. The company
chosen for the project is the River Cafe is a restaurant located on the north bank of the Thames in
Hammersmith. The given hotel is headquartered in London which is owned by Ruth Rogers
specialised in the Italian cuisine. The provided report document will be inclusive of a selection of
appropriate strategies to establish critical success pathways for the chosen hospitality firm. In
addition to this, appropriate standards will be established in response to the strategy for
researching creative business strategies to shape the upcoming activities of the business firm.
The report further explains the different performance metrics such as critical success factors, key
performance indicators, business performance metrics, sales performance metrics, employee
performance metrics, project management performance metrics and the balance scorecard.
TASKS
Critically analyse the most appropriate factors to implement a chosen strategy
Strategic management is one of the most important activities in any business since it covers the
complete span of strategic decision-making (Amason and Ward, 2020). It allows the organization
to establish sets of decisions, actions and measures collectively known as strategies that are then
applied to achieve organizational goals and objectives through the strategic management process.
The stage of strategy implementation necessitates the involvement of the entire organisation. It is
an ongoing process of using knowledge in the direction of business in order to prioritize the
efforts to properly allocate the resources to coordinate the employees, consumers and
shareholders. With the help of strategic plan one can track the progress of the objectives and
goals mainly of the department, business units, individuals and team. Proper use of strategic plan
allows to guide the marketing tricks, sales and business decisions to generate the profit in order
to be stronger in the market position (Velikorossov, 2020) .
The strategic management team, with the help of senior management and important staff
is in charge of formulating the strategies. When it comes to execution, however, the strategic
plan will be carried out by the workforce, with senior or senior management leading the way. It
is a major business practice that must be followed for any strategy to succeed. In reference to
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operational working at chosen restaurant that is River Cafe takes consideration of following
factors to implement a strategy in their business working. The strategies which are adopted by
the business firm relates to customer insight strategy are explained below- Changes in legislation- Changes in legislation for example governing taxation,
healthcare and environment have an impact on strategic management. Present business
plans are required to comply with the new regulations and obligations. To follow up
with new regulations, legislation mandating to reduce the carbon footprint, for example,
may need a review of your production or supply chain management strategy. By taking
key considerations to such factors, managers at respective hospitality firm can
implement productive business strategies and develop critical pathways to success of
business plans (Mallon, 2019). Social and cultural factors: Changes in strategic management may be prompted by the
social and cultural characteristics of given target markets. When entering new markets or
creating new goods for certain market groups, managers make sure that their company's
strategic direction is realigned to account for demographic and cultural sensitivities.
Therefore, provided factor needs to be taken care of by managers of the respective firm
to develop better productivity of the business firm by initiating effective business
strategy.
 Suitable technical capabilities : Because of the availability or lack thereof of suitable
technical capabilities the organization may have to adjust and modify the plans. Capital
resources, such as automated equipment and innovative machinery, may inspire your
company to raise production volumes and change supply chain roles. Changes in
strategic management are also influenced by information technology trends. The
expanding importance of e-commerce (Mallon, 2019).
Research about creative business strategies for your chosen organisation’s future strategy
selection to be competitive in the hospitality industry.
While making a business strategy, different factors are required to be followed and considered
are the competitors, business environment and market. The business strategies are the set of
plans and goals which allows the business to compete with the competitors in the market for the
future strategy of the restaurant industry are explained below-
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 Companies can maintain customer loyalty through organising various loyalty programs.
In the act of choosing the services over the competitors and being loyal to one restaurant
. Maintaining customer loyalty is an essential tool that aids in improving the business
operations of the hotels. Because in this competitive world, customer loyalty has become
significant tool for any organisation in the restaurant sector (D’Cruz, 2018).
 Feedback allows the restaurants to improve the development of services and lead to
improve the services and marketing operations. The feedback given by the customers can
support in enhancing the reputation of the restaurants in the market and asking guests
regarding the food, ambience, services or quality of food so that the improvements can be
done on the basis of feedback given by the customers (Kemp, 2018).
 The technologies that are being developed for cafes are truly exiting as well as game
changing. The improvements within restaurants can be in the form that there should be
installation of new innovative decor that assists in attracting the new customers and
retaining the old one. Nowadays, tablets are considered as an effective communication
tool for the customers while taking orders as well as staff that helps in giving response to
the to the human resources of the restaurants.
 Proper providing quality service and satisfaction to the clients can results in providing
additional values to the food industry. As the customers care about how they get treated
by the restaurants. Any cafe has best food with reasonable prices but if they has rude staff
or unhelpful front line that can be a drawback for the cafe and the business is not able to
win the profitability in t he market.
 By implementing the E-mail marketing can be a powerful tool to carry off the marketing
strategies of the hotel and that can be a unique opportunity to expand the brand by
maintaining the relationship with the customers. E-mail marketing is a way to
communicate and coordinate with the customers to inform about their services to drive
the sales and build a connection with the restaurant. (Deiss and Henneberry, 2020).
 In order to make a direct connection mobile application can be a good strategy for the
restaurant for contactless approach in the industry which results in increasing efficiency
and effective as it reduces time and efforts. These initiative efforts will facilitates in
attracting more advance bookings and furthermore, these initiatives will result in building
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strong social networks and promotes healthy relationship among customers and providers
of facilities ( Gray and Rogers, 2018).
 Well made website can be the medium to maintain good client relationships with
retaining the guests back to the hotel. A good and presentable website can be an
important aspect in the business and for the purpose of online marketing strategy.
 Various campaigns can be started to improve the brand value and communicate with the
customers. In order to increase the revenue, the company can use the social media to set
the realistic goal in order to enhance the brand awareness. Social media is the direct link
between the business and customers. The chosen hotel can make use of the upgraded
information on the social media sites to grab the attention of the customers.
 The furniture and the overall look can be changed by using modern and budget- friendly
seating options for the customers to hang out in. Fresh colours can be added with eye
catching wall arts or by using various highlights in display item. New theme can be used
to implement a new design for the décor.
 Cafe can refresh its menu by adding new and different options for the consumers like
healthy options, gluten free, sugar-free or vegan to attract the wide range of customers
with different taste because healthy options are getting popular these days and gaining
popularity.
 Having an online presence is a type of two way communications with the audience to
understand the consumers in better form. Restaurants should have an online presence as it
can make the business more accessible. There will be less requirement of marketing as
customers reviews and engagement on the social media help to capture the customers. It
can contain website, contact information, work hours and address (Chaffey and Ellis-
Chadwick, 2019).
Analyse and evaluate the different performance metrics (critical success factors, key
performance indicators and the balance scorecard).
Performance indicators refers to the data and figures of the overall qualities and the
representation of the actions with abilities. Performance metrics are discovered by representation
of company's actions, quality served, and abilities in the form of data and figures .All the
organisation have their own indicators which can be easily managed and improved. For example
sales performance metrics, financial metrics, people metrics, business performance metrics,
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employee performance metrics or project performance metrics. It is an integral part of the
success of the company and it has various forms such as profit, customers, quality and abilities .
Processed KPIs focus to measure the operational performance across the company and be
customer focused such as retention of customers, efficiency and satisfaction of the customers.
Moreover, the KPIs vary from company to company based on the criteria of performance (Long,
2019).
Critical success factors(CSF)
Critical success factors are necessary and was developed by D. Ronald Daniel in 1961. CSF are
used to support the teams and employees. In reference of River Cafe, it can follow the success
factors to get support in prioritizing the allocation of resources. As the factors allow to identify
the main resources of the company which are required for greater performance of the
management. The chosen company can set the goals and benchmarks to compare the
performance. If they are lack in goals that can cause an issue for the employees and achieving
the new level of the company. For example quality service, increased customer feedback,
marketing strategies or executive support. Critical success factors are the tools of strategy which
are required for new opportunities to achieve the objectives for the goals. For the success of the
company These are the elements which helps in implementing the strategic objectives. CSF are
necessary to determine the ways of success and to plan a new business initiative (Kemp, 2018).
Performance indicators
These are the indicators which are required to measure the overall long term performance of the
company. It is mainly focused on the consumer retention, customer retention and efficiency to
monitor the operational performance of the company. River Cafe can enhance its customer
satisfaction by using the specific KPI to positively affect the customer satisfaction. It can also
empower the employees by tracking and measuring the improvements. For the company, the
indicators can be a good opportunity for the company and its employees. It can allow to
understand the performance of the business to achieve the strategic tools. Theses indicators
measure the customers, employees, revenue and the level of customer satisfaction. During the
problems, the company can make use of the KPI so that the it can get the information to tackle
with problems and bring new opportunities too. For example employee turnover rate, labour
utilization, operating margins or employee absence rate. The performance of the employees
create a major impact on the goals of the company if they are not motivated enough then they
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will not be able to meet the KPIs target and chances to succeed in the organisation. KPIs are
helpful in making the system more productive and sustainable to implement the strategies and it
targets to make progress in the company to make better decisions which are required for future
purpose. These factors can be monitored and measured by the reporting tools and analytical
software. Processed KPIs focus to measure the operational performance across the company and
be customer focused such as retention of customers, efficiency and satisfaction of the customers.
Moreover, the KPIs vary from company to company based on the criteria of performance.
Balance scorecard
Balance scoreboard measures the past performance and provides the feedback so that the better
decisions can be taken for the future purpose (Velikorossov, 2020). It is a part of strategic
planning system which tends to communicate about the goals in order to accomplish the strategic
goals. It is a tool which supports in tracking the activities of the employees to monitor, control all
the actions and to measure the performances. River Cafe can enhance the performance easier
with the help of balanced scorecard. In order to make the communication easier to deal with
different team members and departments. It can also connect the individual worker with the
goals of the organisation (Long, 2019).
The balanced scorecard contains various strategies, budgets, analytics and risk
management are focussed to meet the goal of the company. One thing that is required to
understand that the accurate data is used to create the balanced scoreboard. For any company, it
is necessary to tell the stakeholders about the plan of the company in an easy and effective
manner to keep them informed. The main benefit of balanced scorecard is to save the resources,
time and money and make proper utilisation to execute the reviews to improve the operations
and procedures. In the internal processes, it allows the company to measure the financial data
(Henry, 2021).
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above report that strategic planning allows to allocate the resources
and proper time management to set the focus and priorities to improve the operations of the
company. By these implications management of the given firm can easily attain the competitive
advantages which can evaluate their business functionality properly. The report also explained
the creative business strategies for the chosen organisation for the future strategy for
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competition in the hospitality industry. Several metrics were also created to ensures the
effectiveness of created planning with the completion of such KPI showed the reliability of
strategies and efficiency.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Amason, A.C. and Ward, A., 2020. Strategic management: From theory to practice. Routledge.
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson uk.
D’Cruz, J.R., 2018. Strategic Management of Subsidiaries 1. In Managing the multinational
subsidiary (pp. 75-89). Routledge.
Deiss, R. and Henneberry, R., 2020. Digital marketing for Dummies. John Wiley & Sons.
Gray, R. and Rogers, R., 2018. The River Café Classic Italian Cookbook. Penguin UK.
Henry, A., 2021. Understanding strategic management. Oxford University Press.
Kemp, R.L., 2018. Strategic planning in local government. Routledge.
Long, T.B., 2019. Sustainable Business Strategies. In Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable
Development Goals: Decent Work and Economic Growth (pp. 1-11). Springer.
Mallon, W.T., 2019. Does strategic planning matter?. Academic Medicine, 94(10), pp.1408-
1411.
Velikorossov, V.V., Genkin, E.V., Balakhanova, D.K., Sidorov, M.N., Maksimov, M.I.,
Sulimova, E.A. and Loshkov, B.D., 2020. Strategic management.
(Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019)(Amason and Ward, 2020)(D’Cruz,, 2018)(Deiss and
Henneberry, 2020)( Gray and Rogers, 2018)(Henry, 2021)(Kemp, 2018)(Long, 2019)
(Mallon, 2019)(Velikorossov, 2020)
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