Strategic Management in Hospitality: A Case Study of Marriott

This report provides a strategic analysis of Marriott Hotel within the United Kingdom's hospitality industry, utilizing Porter's Five Forces model to assess competitive intensity. It examines the threat of new entrants, substitutes, bargaining power of customers and suppliers, and competitive rivalry. The report critically evaluates Marriott's industry practices, emphasizing the importance of corporate strategy formulation, including growth, portfolio, and parenting strategies. It highlights the need for Marriott to ascertain environmental factors, define its strategic mission, set strategic objectives, and define its competitive advantage. Furthermore, the report discusses the systematic series Marriott follows for strategy implementation, defining the strategy framework and ensuring effective execution to maintain competitiveness and achieve its objectives in the dynamic hospitality market. Desklib offers a variety of study tools and solved assignments for students.

Strategic management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
Task..................................................................................................................................................3
Critical analysis of industry practices ........................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management refers to the process of setting goals and objectives for the organisation
and to conduct procedures to make the organisation more competitive in the market. The value
and importance of the strategic management are increase day by day as the competition in the
market are increasing. Strategic management is one of the most important and valuable concept
of the organisation which helps to established effective standards for the company. Strategic
management is based on the use of different types of models and procedures in the organisation
to maintain the competitiveness of the organisation. One of the most important task which the
managers of the organisation has to done in strategic management such as to develop effective
goals and objectives for the organisation. The goals and objectives has provide direction to the
management as well as the employees of the company towards the mission and vision of the
organisation. This report is based on the hospitality industry of the United Kingdom. The
organisation which is chosen here to demonstrate this report is Hotel mariott.
Task
Porters five forces model was founded by Michael E Porter of Harvard University. Porters five
forces model is a technique for analysing the operating environment of a competition for a
business organisation (Abutabenjeh, 2021). It has five forces that derive and shows the
attractiveness or lack of it of a business organisation in the terms of profits of the organisation.
These five forces also determine the competitive intensity of the business. The five forces are as
follows:
Threat of new entrants.
Threat of substitutes.
Bargaining power of customers .
Bargaining power of suppliers.
Competitive rivalry.
Porters five forces model's five forces that shape competition of Marriott are as follows:
Threat of new entrants:
Current organisation face competitions with the entry of new entrants in the existing industries.
The new entrants come in the industry with the aim of acquiring or gaining market share from
the existing business organisations. This results in the increase in price leading to the pricing

pressures, costs reduction , loss of sales, distribution of profits etc . The competition is high if the
entry of new entrants is easy as the barriers are low or if the barriers are high then the entry is
restricted and less . Marriott is a well established and leading hotel chain company. It is very
difficult for a new entrant to enter in competition with Marriott as it will require great capital
investment in hotels, infrastructure, and advertisements (Anokhina, et. al. 2019) . There is a
huge loss to this hotel industry because of covid, having work from home, even this has lead to
demotivate the entry in this hotel industry as people have to be at home. Moreover, being an
international hotel, it has great rules and regulations. And being a part of five star hotel, it has
loyal customers .
Threat of substitutes :
Using different manufacturing or other strategies for the same economic need of a product is the
work of a substitute. For example dominoes and pizza hut or havmor and baskin robbins etc. they
give each other a tough competition . Being a hotel in this pandemic , the biggest substitute of
Marriott is a home. And even with the gain in popularity of work from home, it has faced loss.
With the increase in unique ideas hotels and unique destination preferences of people that is
tourists have changed. Innovative ideal hotels like bubble rooms, underwater rooms, ice homes
etc has been playing a major part in capturing hotel industry and are being substitute to Marriott.
However Marriott being a reputed one, has loyal customers who still prefer it over everything.
Bargaining power of customers:
Also known as market of outputs, as the product price and demand depends on customers . They
can have a great control and can lead pressure on the organisation resulting in the changing of
prices of the products. If there is a variety of the same product then the power of buyers has high
impact whereas it is low if they have less choices within their reach. Bargaining power is
moderate for Marriott. Marriott has its customer base divided in two parts, one for the customers
travelling for their vacations in luxury hotel, and their bargaining power is low. The other
customer base is that of big business organisations who send their employees for business deals.
They have a tie up with Marriott and are our regular customers.

Bargaining power of suppliers:
Also known as market of inputs, as the suppliers are the one that supplies the organisation with
the raw materials , labour, components and services ( such as expertise) , these things hold a
special power over when there are less substitutes of an organisation. The bargaining power of
suppliers in of Marriott is low. The suppliers of Marriott Hotel include the suppliers of
infrastructure, maintenance, raw materials for food and many other (Bodrunov, and Plotnikov,
2019) . Marriott picks its suppliers very cautiously because of the brand value and then it
maintains a long-term relationship and trust with its suppliers.. Suppliers also value Marriott as it
is one of their biggest clients. Marriott, with its excellent brand value, has lots of options for its
appliance, and this reduces the bargaining power of the suppliers.
Competitive rivalry:
The number of competitors determine the competitiveness of the industry for a business
organisation. For a product to be successful, a vital information is needed for a business
organisation. An organisation should be well aware of its competitor's marketing strategies,
policies, pricing rules and regulations and other various factors , and be always ready to make
changes accordingly. Positioning of a product is determined by the buyers or the public , then
after considering all the facts and factors of all the rivalry organisations of the industry.
Competition in the industry for Marriott can be said to be high. Hotels like Hyatt, Cilton and
many other are its competitors as they also charge same pricing policy and same hotel facilities.
They compete with each other on a high scale and try to gain customers of each other and build
long term relations. But hotel industry has lacked down because of covid, and this has resulted in
more competition between hotels.
The various other factors that determine a firm's strategic position are industry growth rate,
technology and innovation , government, complementary products and services , legal factors
and various other ones.
Critical analysis of industry practices
It is one of the important factor and function of the organisation to established effective
corporate strategies which cam help the organisation to encompasses the competition present in

the market. The poor strategic structure of the company disables the management to make efforts
for their organisation because they does not have proper planning and resources to make efforts
to counter the competition in the market. There are different types of theats and weaknesses are
present in the company which restricts them to work for the company,an effective strategic
structure of the organisation to minimise these weaknesses and provided them opportunity to
make different strength for their company.
Strategic management are one of the broad concept of the organisation under which all
the decision related to the operations of the company are taken. Corporate strategy formulation
refers to the process of the company under which the management has develop different types of
goals and objectives for the company and also develops series of plan for the achievement of
these goals and objectives (Bolland, 2020). The importance of corporate strategy are very high
in the business of hospitality organisation because the level of function and the accuracy required
in it are very high. There are different types of strategies are developed in the hospitality
organisation such as portfolio. Parenting and growth strategies. Growth strategy is one of the
most important and critical strategies of the business under which the management develops plan
related to expand their business in other geographical areas. It is essential for the management of
the organisation that they analyse all the internal and external factors so that it becomes easy for
them to established effective growth strategy in the business. Portfolio strategy refers to those
strategy of the company under which the management has develop strategies for the product and
services of the organisation. Parent strategy refers to effective allocation of all the resources of
the business in different operations of the business. The management of the Marriott hotel is one
of dynamic management of the world which has developed many strategies for their success of
their business and becomes successful in their plans because of their effective execution powers.
The management of the organisation has provides different types of services in their portfolio
such as parking, beaches, rooms and different types of family services. There are some points are
described below which the management of the Marriott hotel has to consider while formulating
the strategies for their business.
Ascertain environmental factors- There are large number of external factor are present
outside the organisation but impacts the strategies of the organisation in different manner. It is

essential for the management of hotel that they have analysed these factors so that the chances of
strategy failure can be minimised. At the time of lock down when the government of respected
countries orders for the closing of hotels. Then the management of the hotel has to bear huge
losses which becomes very important for the management that they analyse the external factors
and develops survival strategy for their business.
Define the strategic mission- The communication of all the strategies and mission of the
company to all the all the stakeholders of the company are very important such as employees and
others. These stakeholder plays a important role in the working of the company if they are not
aware about the mission of the company then it is not possible for the company to achieve their
targets (Chofreh, et. al. 2021) . It is very important for the management of Marriott hotel that
they develop effective strategic decision and aware all the employees about them. The
management of the hotel has develop mission to provide personalised experiences to their
targeted customers.
Identify and set strategic objectives- Strategic objectives refers to those objectives of the
company which helps to deal with the competition in the market. It is very important for the
management of the hotel that they analyse all the internal and external factors which can impact
the strategy formulation process of the company. It is the duty of the managers of the
organisation that they allocate all the resources of the company in different aspect which helps
the management to achieve all the objectives effectively in the organisation.
Define competitive advantage- There are large number of companies are working in the
same industry which creates competion in the market. It is very important for the management of
the organisation that they develop effective strategies for their competitors which helps them to
protect the profit margins in the market. It is very important for the management of the Marriott
that they develop effective and efficient strategies for their business so that competitive
advantage can be achieved.
Only the development of the strategy are not sufficient for the success of the business but
implementation of these strategies in the organisation also plays a important role in the

management of the organisation. The management of the Marriott hotel has followed the
systematic series which helps the management of the organisation to execute the effective
strategies are given below:
Define strategy framework- It is very important for the management of the organisation
that they define and identify the strategy of the business in proper manner. These strategies has
has serious impact on the pricing and other factors of the organisation. In context of the Marriott
hotel, the managers of the organisation has check the effectiveness and importance of the
strategy.
Create a strategic plan- The another step in the formulation of the strategy is to provide
direction to all the employees towards the achievement of organisational goals and objectives. It
is essential for the management of the organisation that conduct proper orientation of their
employees which makes the employees aware about their roles and responsibilities in the
organisation. The management of the Marriott hotel has to aware all their employees about the
strategies of the company so that it becomes easy for them to achieve these goals.
Define key performance indicators- It is important to identify varied KPIs which helps in
measuring the performance of an establishment. In accordance with hospitality industry, varied
key performance indicators are accommodation facilities, energy management, customer
feedbacks, profitability and many more (Ivanov, 2019) . For instance, these key performance
indicators act as benchmarks or standard which managers of Hyatt Regency needs to consider
while implementing their strategies for successful business operations.
Prioritization of strategies- It is essential for the management of the organisation that they
provide priority to the strategies of business because the varacity of the project can maximised.
In relation to the business of Marriott hotel, it is essential for the management of Hotel Marriott
that they provide considerable importance to their strategies so that it becomes possible to
achieve these objectives.

Strategy formulation and its implementation in the organisation are a hard task to perform as it
is concerned with lots of challenges, difficulties, hardships and issues (Tosun, Sezgin and Uray,
2022). Varied challenges or hardships faced by hotel managers in relevance with hospitality
industry are as follows:
Weak strategy – framing of organisational strategies and then evaluation of each and every
situation is a necessary step to be taken in consideration by organisational managers and if its a
weak strategy it can create issues in the working and operations of organisation. In relevance
with hospitality industry, due to unclear roles and responsibilities, hotel managers face a lot of
issues with this.
Ineffective training- This is yet an another challenge in strategic management process which
needs to be undertaken by hoteliers or hotel managers while formulating strategies and different
techniques(Tung and Au, 2018). It is necessary to provide effective training to employees that
will enhance their working and operating while bringing some new to hotel hospitality. In
context to hospitality industry, ineffective training to employees before introducing a strategic
change can result in hampering the image of hotel. For instance, at the time of global pandemic,
managers of Hyatt Regency failed to provide training to their new employees in dealing with
visitors. However, it has been restored in few days. But this caused a loss in its image because of
pandemic condition.
Lack of resources- It is also an another significant issue in implementation of strategies in an
effective manner. Proper and critical checking should be a done by managers regarding resources
while implementing strategies. In relevance with hospitality industry, it creates an issue in not
achieving the desired objectives on a timely basis, that results in the ineffectiveness of working
and its operations.
Lack of proper communication channels- It can another significant issue while implementing
strategies for organisation. Communication is considered as a key for proper execution of any
strategy and is necessary at every step in working and operating (Keding, 2021). It is important
for all managers and management team to check the effectiveness of communication plan at the
initial period of strategy formulation. Proper hierarchies are needed for creation of better
communication channels, resulting in complete exchange of information. In context to

hospitality industry, this can act as a crucial issue as miscommunication among management and
employees can distort the actual meaning of strategy and can result in the loss of value of hotel.
Lack of follow through- evaluation or follow through of all the implemented strategies is
necessary which will help in tracking progress strategically of employees, staff, and of other
things in hotel. However, if strategy formulation is not followed up properly, it can create
hindrances in effective performance of business operations resulting in poor performance and
issues. In relevance with hospitality industry, ineffectiveness in follow up process can act a as
problem for not achieving pre-determined objectives. For instance, if marketing strategy of Hyatt
Regency of maintaining competitiveness in industry is not tracked by managers it can create
problems for the established hotel industries.
If all the strategies has been implemented and becomes the part of the business operation then it
becomes the turn of control part. One of the most biggest reason behind the failure of many
strategies in the business is that the company does not have proper control structure. It is very
important for the success of any strategy that company has various tools for the control of the
strategies (Kolesnikov, 2018) . One of the effective tools can be development of standards for
the company which can be used by the managers to compare the actual performance so that the
deviations present in the strategies can be solve. In context of the hotel it is very important for
the management of the organisation that they conduct effective internal and external analyses of
the business which is very important for the management of the organisation.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from this report that the development of strategic management is one of the most
important and valuable aspect of the organisation. The main function related to the development
of the strategic function is that it helps to deal with the competition in the market are concluded
in this report. This report concludes description brief discussion related to the porter five forces
theory which helps to develop effective competitive strategy for the business. In order to
measure effectiveness of implemented strategy, an efficient system or framework should be used
by organisations. It is desirable to take use of key performance indicators which help them to
assert the effectiveness of business operations.

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