Analysis of Contemporary Business and Management at Marriott

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Marriott International's business and management strategies. It begins with an executive summary highlighting the importance of contemporary developments in adapting to organizational changes to increase profitability and market share. The report then delves into the external influences on Marriott, utilizing a PESTLE analysis to examine political, economic, social, technological, legal, and environmental factors. Task 1 provides a comprehensive overview of these factors and their impact on Marriott's operations. Task 2 analyzes the relevance of socio-demographic trends to Marriott, exploring how these trends influence policies and decision-making within the organization. It critically evaluates Marriott's response to these trends and suggests areas for improvement, focusing on customer satisfaction, technological advancements, and employee skills to enhance the customer experience and drive business expansion. The report concludes with a summary of key findings and recommendations.

Contemporary
Developments in Business
and Management
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Contemporary Development plays an important part in business and management. This helps in
the current changes of the organization which should be adopted by the hotel to increase their
profitability and market share. Furthermore, the organizational external factors which is described
through PESTLE analysis have both negative and positive impact. Marriott hotel should provide better
quality services such as accommodation and food services to their employees by which they gets happy
and try to visit again to the hotel. The company is making the policies and decisions in the relevance to
the consumers' needs and requirements through which they can expand their market share and increase
their revenue in the organization. Marriott International can improve their market share and
profitability through adopting some socio - demographic trends which helps visitors to feel
comfortable. The improvements which can organization provides are improvisation in food services,
innovative technology, skilled employees and other activities. Through this, more customers can gets
attracted and profitability of the business will increased which results in expansion of the Marriott
Hotel.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................4
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................4
A brief overview of the primary external influences to Marriott International...............................4
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................6
2. i) Analyse its relevance to Marriott International and how it influences policies and decision-
making within the chosen organization...........................................................................................6
2. ii) Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s response in context to the social –
demographic trends..........................................................................................................................8
2. iii) Areas of improvement according to socio - demographic trends...........................................9
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
Contemporary Development plays a significant role in business and management. The
organization should be adaptable to new changes in the environment then only it will benefit the
organisation. This development is all about the key aspects that include innovation, effective corporate
governance, and social responsibilities (Epstein and et. al., 2015). For conducting the current research,
Marriott International has been chosen. This hotel is diversified hospitality industry which manages
wide ranges of hotels and resorts. Marriott International deals with accommodation and food services
sectors as well as other facilities (Marriott, 2016). The company has expanded its business into a chain
of restaurants and hotels. This report is bifurcated into two tasks. The first task comprises of impact of
external business environment factors with its importance. The second task includes influence of
policies and decision – making within the Marriott International. Furthermore, it also evaluates the
effectiveness of the organization's response and the improvements needed in the business enterprise.
TASK 1
A brief overview of the primary external influences to Marriott International
The external factors of an organization help in knowing various business operations which is
useful in day to day activities. The external environment comprises of customers, competition, the
industry and market and legal factors. These all can be described through PESTLE analysis in which it
includes political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors and they are as
follows:
 Political Factors: This factor is important because of the political conditions of the country in
which the company operates. Without following any political guidelines, the firm cannot
operate in that country. The political factors which are affecting Marriott International can be
influenced through terrorism, international relations and political stability of the UK. The
terrorist attack can influence customers to visit less to the hotel and places (Kolios, Read and
Ioannou, 2016). This is because it will influences the people to travel less. Naturally, if the air
travel would decrease then it directly decreases the demand for hotel rooms. If there is a
political instability then it is difficult for the hotel to manage their business operation. In the
time of economic crisis, the hotels have lost many of its customers because people cannot travel
in the recession period that much, as they usually do.
 Economic Factors: This factor helps in analysing the economic growth, interest rates,
exchange rates and the inflation rates. This factor affects business operations and decision
making. The economic crisis is main factor which impacts the Marriott international in their
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profitability. This greatly affects organisation by reducing customers' purchasing power and
their ability to take high cost rooms. The exchange rate is the other factor which influences the
customers and this is happening because of Euro, which is becoming strong. This is because
high exchange rate can restrict the business and leisure travel (Chataway and Lichten, 2016). If
the UK government increase their interest rates on products and services then it will
automatically increase the prices of the hotel products and services. Through this, the customer
will visit less the hotels and it will affect the organization's profitability. The economic factors
play an important in increasing revenues of the firm.
 Social factors: Customer satisfaction is the main factor which is needed in every organization.
Social factors comprises of health conscious people, various culture of the consumers, age,
gender, attitudes of an individual etc. Marriott International should make changes in their hotels
according to tastes, preferences, lifestyles and needs of the customers. This is because if
customers are happy then only it will visit hotel again and through this, the profits and the
market share of the business will be increased (Epstein and et. al., 2015). Marriott recruits their
employees from various cultures so that customers can get connected with them easily. The
business entity can attract more customers by giving them various offers and discounts. The
company should make changes according to the customers' attitudes, needs and requirements.
For example, if the users are health conscious then hotel can provide foods which contain few
calories or according to the preferences of the customers.
 Technological Factors: This is the most important aspect of the organization. This factor
includes aspects like R&D activity, technology incentives and the innovation in the technology.
It helps the company to gain competitive advantage and help in increasing their revenues.
Marriott hotel can influence their customers by giving them free Wi-Fi facilities, free internet
in each rooms and lobby areas. It can also give computers, tablets and laptops for accessing the
internet (gliński and et. al., 2016). Furthermore, the company can also introduce various
services on the company websites such as booking rooms online etc. The organization can
provide online rental services to their consumers. This will take the customers directly to their
Marriott hotel from Airports. For instance, Marriott international comprises of various product
range which interfaces with their brand which gives benefits to the guest of the hotel.
 Legal Factors: This factor can affect business operations, its costs as well as its demand of its
products and services. The company should have to follow various laws of the country in which
it operates. In this case, Marriott has to follow different rules and regulations as well as legal
framework of the United Kingdom. UK government has introduced some mandatory rules in
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hospitality industry in which one rule is no smoking. This rule have the strong impact on
hospitality industry. So, the hotel has removed all smoking vending machines from the hotels to
follow rules and regulations (Bennett and Chorley, 2015). On the other hand, to overcome with
this, the firm has made strategy in which Marriott has introduced the smoking zone area in the
hotel which is attracting smokers to the Marriott. In addition to this, the business enterprise has
developed smoking friendly rooms for the smoking guest. Moreover, the hotel is also practising
minimum wage law in which they are giving equal wages and salaries to their employees.
 Environmental Factors: It constitutes ecological and environmental aspects which includes
weather and climate change which may give negative impact on industries such as hospitality
etc. It is helping in creating new markets as well as eliminating existing markets. The important
environmental factor which could restrict Marriott business its high fuel cost (Sadgrove, 2015).
Rising in the fuel prices will lead to less travel which in result in decreasing the demand of the
accommodation in the hotel. The long term environmental factor can impact Marriott through
the increasing of electricity prices. This will create attempt to increased greenhouse gases by
limiting the burning of coal in power plants. The climate change also affects productivity of
hotel’s because customers prefer to travel in favourable climate. Marriott environmental goals
include reducing energy and water consumption 20% by 2020 (Marriott, 2016). The company
will build green hotels as well as take initiative to educate and inspire employees and
consumers to conserve and preserve the plants and trees.
TASK 2
2. i) Analyse its relevance to Marriott International and how it influences policies and decision-making
within the chosen organization
The theme which is chosen in relevance to Marriott International is Socio – demographic trends
which is the main factor in the hospitality industry. Customer satisfaction is important aspect of any
business enterprise. The company should considered customer preferences in their policies and
decision making to make the profits for the company. There are different policies which is the part of
the various decision making process. Social – demographic plays an crucial role in the hotel company
because these both factors are the major factors of the business. Social trends can affects the hotel in
many ways (Demographic Trends & Economic Research Lead International Tourism Conferences,
2016). The hospitality industry is wholly based on the customers perception and its perspectives.
Marriott International should know its customers needs and requirements and do changes accordingly.
The organization should makes its policies and decisions as per the view of the target market so that
they can attracted and increased their profitability. For example, some customers are health conscious
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which needs the foods of less calorie so for this, Marriott international should offers the foods
accordingly. The growing competition and capacity amongst hotel, lower the room fares and more
relaxed travel restrictions in many of the countries have made international travel a viable option for an
increasing number of customers. Increasing of the tourists to the London will lead to the rising of the
consumers in the Marriott hotel (Marriott, 2016). The increase in the the traveller can lead to the
increase of the consumers in the hotel. They both are inter connected to each other. The one factor
influences the other factor directly. Traveller demographics are continuously evolving which are
directly influencing the customers of the hospitality industry. The younger workforce is driving more
diverse and informal working patterns, with an expectation that hotels can cater for flexible working
arrangements. A growing ageing population with the desire and means, to travel is also expected to
significantly increase travel flows. In addition to this, now the customers wants the comfortable and the
accessories in their rooms rather than to search for it. Now, the consumers are the quality conscious not
the price conscious (King and et. al., 2015). So, they are spending more in the hotel to gets the better
services. In context to this, Marriott hotel should provide better quality services to their employees by
which they gets happy and try to visit again.
The policies should be according to the customers preferences and its attitudes so that they can
get better facilities and became loyal to the company. For instance, Marriott International should give
various facilities to their guests such as free Wi-Fi connection in the rooms and lobby areas, tablets and
computer are given in each rooms through which customers can access to the internet. There are other
facilities also which can be given to the consumers so that they gets satisfaction (Zander and et. al.,
2015). The other facilities can be laundry and linen services, housekeeping and bed tea with breakfast
etc. If the organization add these type of facilities in their policies and decisions then they can make
their existing customers happy as well as can attracted the new customers effectively. These type of
policies and decisions will affect the company in positive ways through which it will gained the
profitability and extend their market share. The policies should be flexible so that if customers are
unable to follow it then the firm should make some strategy according to meet the requirements of the
customers. For example, UK government has make the regulations that no smoking should be done in
the hotel openly because some of the people are allergic to it and some has the breathing problems.
This will give the negative impact on the organization, so for this, Marriott has make the effective
strategy so that their customers should be maintained and gets satisfaction from the services
(Goldscheider, Bernhardt and Lappegård, 2015). The strategy which Marriott has make is, to create
smoking friendly areas in the hotel so that smoker can gets attracted and do the smoking in the
smoking zone. The company should make policies in the relevance to the consumers' needs and
requirements trough which they can expand their market share and increase their revenue in the
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organization.
2. ii) Critically evaluate the effectiveness of the organization’s response in context to the social –
demographic trends
Marriott International is one of the successful hotel in the hospitality industry. It is one of the
classic hotels in United Kingdom. The hotel has 236 luxurious bedrooms and 45 Club Level bedrooms
with many facilities like Club Lounge, Wi-Fi Internet access, versatile meeting and event space, Maze
Restaurant, Maze Grill, Complimentary, fitness centre, 24-hour room service. The effectiveness of the
Marriott Hotel can evaluate through the policies which are made in context to the social demographic
trends. According to Beard and Bloom (2015), states that this hotel has a very unique method of
marketing which makes the customers' stay as a pleasure and comfortable which makes them to visit
again (Beard and Bloom, 2015). One of the reason of the effectiveness in Marriott hotel is storing of
the personal information of the guests securely so that non- breaching can be prevented. To keep the
customer happy and satisfied, hotel is giving the additional services to their customers so that they can
able to maintain their target market. As per the view of Ryscavage (2015), Marriott ensure that they
can send a greeting card such as 'good morning' or a gifts to their guests on the occasion of birthdays
and anniversaries if they are residing in the hotel or not (Ryscavage, 2015). This will benefits the
organization because customers will gets motivated and try to become loyal to the Marriott
International. These shows that hotel is adapting socio demographic trends in their company to make
effective relationship between customers and Marriott which will ensure excellent customer care. An
effective customer service strategy should be followed with the considerable change which is based on
the customer and their requirements.
George and Ferraro (2015) has asserted that, each customer is unique, so are their needs so
hotel should meet the the needs, tastes and preferences of the target market to enhance their
profitability (George and Ferraro, 2015). In a customer service based roles, the colleagues will develop
the capacity to differentiate the types of customers. If the situation permits, more importance can be
given to customers with a higher value and who are more prone to be a regular customer. This just
ensures that the specific customer goes through a different level of service hence providing equal
service to all the customers. This will results in, establishing effective customer satisfaction which
gives the company a high return and helps in maximizing the profits (Coale and Hoover, 2015). The
company is giving extra services to their loyal customers because they are most trust worthy then
others. But also giving good services to the new guests also to make them loyal to the hotel. In this
competitive world, the competition in the market is also very high. Bulmer (2015) has evaluated that,
customers are demanding for good service, good response to the complaints and are demanding for
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extra bit of attention for the facilities which they need (Bulmer, 2015). Thus it is necessary for the
organisation to prove a point to the customer that they really care for their customers. The expectations
of the customers have been constantly rising because they need a comfortable stay with all the
facilities. To meet these expectations, the organisation must consistently analyse the level of service. If
the requirement is not fulfilled by the organisation, then it will become a hurdle for the progression of
the hospitality sector. On the other hand, Giménez Sifontes, Marín and Cedeño (2015) critically
assessed that, the guests which are not satisfied will spread the negative news about the hotel that will
results in, creating many obstacles to the business (Giménez Sifontes, Marín and Cedeño, 2015). Ng
and Austin (2015) concluded that, the hotel should make arrangements according to the customers
needs and requirements and the hotel is making it (Ng and Austin, 2015). Through which it getting
benefits in the organization by their good performance.
2. iii) Areas of improvement according to socio - demographic trends
Marriott international is a American hospitality company which involves in managing a broad
portfolio of hotels and related facilities. They can improve their market share and profitability through
adopting some socio demographic trends which helps visitors to feel comfortable. Some socio
demographic factors are their through which Marriott international can improve their performance.
This are as follows:
 Improvement in food services: Marriott international can improve their performance by
offering a range of food products to the customers. Company should work for providing food to
customers according to their choice and demand. As different people has different food habits, a
range of food product should be available such as availability of fast food for kids and
youngsters, healthy and hygienic food for old age people because they do not want to eat fast
food in their diet (Marriott, 2016). Apart from this different kitchens should be there where veg
and non-veg food is cooked. This thing make customers more comfortable to eat, because a
vegetarian customer do not want to eat food where it is cooked with non-vegetarian dishes. For
this different food court should be there where they can eat and enjoy freely and happily. Improvement in technology: Now-a-days people spent their major time on internet. For this
Marriott international should provide better technology such as giving best Wi-Fi services, not
only in room but also in lobby and gardens of hotel. This will attract both youngsters and
services class people. Apart from this it include online booking system of rooms which save
time of both visitors and hotel management. In addition to this a new software Customer
Relationship Management(CRM)is their which allows to manage all the contacts in one place.
It helps the management to build ongoing relationship with the visitors. Other than this market
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automation is an another thing which provide facility of sending personalized email and
information to customers (Tugores and García, 2015). More advance software of market
automation will help Marriott international to perform complex task. Facility of providing good
technological services will always attract youngsters and service class people, as they have to
spent their majority of time on internet. Recruiting skilled staff: Marriott international should recruit skilled staff who have proper
knowledge about all the social and cultural things. A good team of employees is always one of
the major reason of customer satisfaction. Staff should be trained according to attitude of
different people, which they have to face while performing their duties. This will help the
workforce to handle people more effectively (Xu, He, P. and Hua, 2015). Hotel management
should work on training programs of employees which make them understand nature and
attitude of people of different religions. If the staff doesn't know how to behave according to
the nature of visitor, it make bad impression of hotel for customers. For recruiting good
workforce company should use effective recruiting strategies , that helps to find best people.
 Improving entertainment activities: Marriott international should work on providing different
entertainment activities for youngsters and old age people. As youngsters and kids want game
zone or like to listen music while on contrary to this most of old age people like to read books.
So, hotel should provide their best facilities to all type of customers which make them feel
comfortable and good. Apart from this different section should be their for kids also (Jervis,
2015). As kids neither loves music nor books, they loves to play, so a well organized game zone
and gardens should be maintained by Marriott international which helps them to feel good
within hotel. In addition to this organization should work on providing best television facility
which shows all the programs according to needs and demand of peoples. Other than this hotel
should organize a program in which all the visitors will be taken to visit the nearer sites and
areas, that will make them happy to visit new place.
CONCLUSION
This report concluded that the external factors plays an important role in the organization and
the external factors can be carried out through the PESTLE analysis. These factors have analysed the
various aspects of the organization by which they can affect the Marriott International in a positive or
negative way. If they are identified in correct way then it will generate revenue for the company.
Moreover, second task is all about the social demographic trends which are affecting the organization
in different aspects. The company is making decisions according to the needs and requirements of the
consumers which can comprises of the tastes, preferences, lifestyles and attitudes of the guests.
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Online
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Marriott. 2016. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.marriott.com/marriott/aboutmarriott.mi>.
[Accessed on 6th April 2016].
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