Ramada Hotels Case Study: SWOT, Strategies, and Leadership

This case study report provides a comprehensive analysis of Ramada Hotels, focusing on its strategic overview and position within the hospitality industry, specifically in Philip Island. The report delves into the current strategies employed by Ramada Resorts, including its differentiation approach aimed at providing unique services such as free Wi-Fi and private beach access to attract premium customers. It also presents a detailed SWOT analysis, evaluating the company's strengths (rare resources, luxury services, modern technology, strong brand image), weaknesses (ineffective resource utilization, focus on premium customers, failure to attract local tourists), opportunities (attracting lower-middle class customers, strategies for local tourists, lower raw material costs), and threats (high competition, substitute products). Based on the analysis, the report proposes new strategies to address weaknesses and maximize performance, including efficient resource utilization, targeted marketing strategies (social media), and two-way communication. Finally, the report suggests democratic leadership styles and behaviors for effective implementation of the proposed strategies. The report concludes that while Ramada Hotels possesses strengths and opportunities, it must address its weaknesses and threats to achieve competitive advantage and enhance financial and operational performance.

Case Study Report

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Current Strategic overview of organisation............................................................................1
2. SWOT analysis........................................................................................................................2
3. New strategies.........................................................................................................................3
4. Leadership style and behaviour...............................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Ramada Hotels is a hospitality chain which is located in approximately in 60 countries of
the world and has more than 800 properties. Present report discusses about the current strategic
overview of the organisational business and what has been its strategic position within the
hospitality industry. Also, this report includes the SWOT analysis of the company with a brief
explanation of its key points and based on the analysis this report will include the strategies for
improving the current performance of the company. Current report will also include the different
leadership styles as well as behaviour which will be implemented for proposing strategy.
MAIN BODY
1. Current Strategic overview of organisation
It is the the strategy of Ramada Resorts to become a premium choice company of for the
customers of Philip Island by offering them unique services in order to improve the customer
experience. Also, hotel is following the differentiation approach in order to offer unique services
to customers to gain the competitive advantage and to attract customers. This is an effective
strategic approach of company which has been adopted by the company to satisfy its customer of
Philip Island. Company provides the unique services like free Wi-Fi to customers, private beach
and various other facilities. Main strategy of the Hotel is to focus on their premium customers
which can afford high cost of their services have been targeting the upper class customers. So,
for this hotel is offering various luxury facilities to their guests in the hotel. Also, hotel have
updated its technology and uses modern technology in order to attract the customers. In order
provide unique services to its customers company has got well trained management in the
organisation. Another strategy which have been adopted by Ramada Resort is that hotel has well
placed communication system in an organisation, there is an effective communication between
the different departments of the hotel. This has resulted in effective management of resources
and people in the hotel. This communication strategy has helped hotel to improve its operations
to higher levels and has also increase its effectiveness. It is the strategic approach of the hotel
attract huge number of customers towards the hotel and for this company is focusing on
customer needs and wants in order to attract them towards its services which are unique from its
competitors in the market. So, this is the current strategy which is being followed by Ramada
Resorts in Philip Island to increase its sales and profitability to higher levels.
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2. SWOT analysis
Swot analysis is can be referred as a framework which can help a company to evaluate
Ramada Hotel's competitive position in the market by analysing its strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats. With the help of this framework, hotel improve its strategies for
competing the market by optimising its strengths and minimising its weaknesses and identifying
its opportunities and minimising its threats in the markets of Philip Island (Yun and et.al., 2017).
There are various strengths of the company which can help hotel in achieving the business
objectives. One of the major strength of the hotel is its rare resources which can help in
achieving the competitive advantage in Philip Island in achieving the competitive advantage, the
resources like island view and destination wedding facilities (Paudel and et.al., 2015). These are
the two major strengths of the hotel to attract the potential and existing customers which can
prove to be profitable for the hotel. Another strength of the hotel is that it offers unique and
luxury services to guests which can help in attracting premium class customers. Also, Ramada
Resorts uses modern technology which is really hard for its competitors to copy and this can
prove to be a major strength for the company as in current scenario customers get attracted by
the hotels which are technologically advanced. Its internal management is also the strength of
the hotel which consist of highly qualified employees and has also well established
communication system in the hotel. Company has a huge customer bases and has a strong brand
image which is also a strength for Ramada Resorts in achieving competitive advantage.
There are also some weaknesses of the hotel which can restrict the growth of the
company in Philip Island one of the major weaknesses of the hotel is that company is not able to
make effective use of its resources in which can hamper its growth in market and may even lose
competitive edge. If company is unable make optimum use of its rare resources this is a major
weaknesses of the company (Ghazi, 2016). Another weaknesses of the hotel is that it is offering
luxury services to customer which can help the company to attract only its premium customers,
which also target high income level customers. So, due to this strategy company is ignoring
lower and middle income customers which customers which decree the profit margin of the hotel
in the future. Also, Ramada Resorts has failed to attract the local tourists of Philip which has also
decreased the profitability of the hotel to greater extent. These are the weaknesses of the hotel
which can hinder the growth and profitability of the hotel
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There are also various opportunities for the hotel within the Philip Island hotel industry,
one of the major opportunity for the hotel is that it has a capability to attract lower middle class
and upper middle class customers towards the hotel (OH, 2016). Also, hotel has an opportunity
to formulate various strategies to attract the local tourists of Island, if it is able to attract local
tourists it can prove to be the best opportunity to increase its profitability and revenue to higher
extent. In order to decrease the cost purchasing raw materials Ramada Resorts has an opportunity
to buy resources at low costs which can also increase the profit margin of the hotel. There are
also various threats which are faced by hotel is threat is high level of competition within Philip
hotel industry as it is the most competitive market of the Island which has been attracting tourist
from various destinations of the world. This has given rise high competitive rivalries between the
companies operating in this industry. Another threat for Ramada Resorts is threat from substitute
products which can negatively affect the hotel's brand image and profitability.
3. New strategies
Ramada Resorts in order to overcome the weaknesses and threats for maximising the
performance of the hotel both financial and operational company can use various strategies. In
order improve the performance of the hotel company should make effective use of its resources
in an organisation particularly rare resources of the hotel. Company can even make effective
used of its human resources in a hotel by building a proper collaboration between the employees
of various departments of the hotel. Also, hotel in order to improve the financial performance it
can adopt two basic strategies for attracting local tourists and middle income level customers,
Ramada Resorts can adopt low cost pricing which can help the company to further expand its
customer base by offering appropriate values to its customers (Thompson, Strickland and
Gamble, 2015). If hotel offers its services at affordable prices it can attract the middle income
people towards the hotel which can surely increase the financial performance of the hotel. Also,
in order to attract local tourists of Philip Island, Ramada Resorts can use various marketing
strategies to attract them, on of the best strategies which can be adopted by the hotel is Social
media marketing which can help the company to attract the local tourists (Sajid, 2016). Also, in
order to attract local tourists Ramada Resorts can provide various offers and discounts for local
tourists which can prove an effective strategy for the hotel to attract local tourists. Also, in order
to improve the operational performance of the hotel, it can one of the best effective
communication strategy which is two-way communication process (Thompson, 2018). As there
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are various departments of the hotel such as house keeping, front office, kitchen department, etc
and to increase the operational performance two-way communication process can be best
effective way. As there departments need to frequently interact with each other and with high
management which can be done by two-way communication process. Also, in order to minimise
the threats from substitutes and minimise the competitive rivalry, company can make its service
more technical and keep in up grading its technology in regular basis and should offer best
unique products and services to potential customers.
Company should organise various training session for improving the performance of their
employees within the hotel. It can prove to be an effective strategy for the company. In order to
organise such type of training programs. Ramada Resorts can develop a setup for Boardroom
style conference room. It mainly consist of rectangular table in the centre of the hall with number
of chairs around it. This can prove effective training sessions because this will allow to conduct
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the training sessions in a close proximity which can make training programs effective. As
training session are not so long for day which will be conducted for one hours which is enough
so, it effective style for shorter sessions. Beside trainees will be sitting face to face which can
prove for group discussion. So, this setup can prove effective for the company for providing
training sessions for the company.
4. Leadership style and behaviour
In order to successfully implement the new strategies, leadership style and leaders
behaviour plays an important role. Best leadership style which can be adopted is democratic
leadership style, which is also known as participative leadership styles. This leadership style will
allow leaders to involve employees of the hotel in a decision making process and gives every
employees to participate in the decision making process of various strategies which is to be
adopted. For example, leader can get opinions for the employees of different department about
pricing strategies to be adopted like price of food and beverages, or house keeping charges. This
can help the Ramada Resorts to come up with the best pricing strategies for attracting local and
middles income level customers. Democratic leadership style also encourages employees to
share ideas, opinions and views about the problems faced by the hotel which can help in
developing an effective strategy for facing various problems (What Is Democratic (Participative)
Leadership? – 5 Main Principles, 2019). For example leaders of hotel can take opinion for
technical departments about up gradating its technical standards of the hotel which can help in
gaining competitive advantage over others. Democratic leadership behaviour also increases
engagement of employees in various task which are assigned to them which can increase the
operational and financial performance of the hotel. Also, this leadership style can enhance
creativity which can help the hotel improvise the adopted strategies as the per the different
situation faced by the hotel. So, democratic leadership style and behaviour can be an effective
style in order to effectively implement the strategies in the hotel.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded form the report that company has various strengths which can help in
achieving the competitive advantage and also has certain weaknesses which can affect the
financial and operational performance of the hotel. Also, Ramada Resorts has various
opportunities available in Philip Island markets that can prove beneficial for hotel in achieving
success and is also facing threats which needs to be minimised by the company. It is essential for
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hotel to attract local tourists and middle income level customers by setting low cost strategies
and using effective marketing strategies and should also adopt effective leadership style.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Derkinderen, N., 2017. KNOWLEDGE ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE TOWARDS HIV/AIDS
PREVENTION AMONG MYANMAR FEMALE SEX WORKERS IN MAE SOT DISTRICT,
TAK PROVINCE, THAILAND (Doctoral dissertation, Chulalongkorn University).
Ghazi, K.M., 2016. Maintenance Management Practices in 5-star Hotels. International Journal
of Heritage, Tourism, and Hospitality. 10(1/2).
OH, S., 2016. Navigating Learning, Employment and Economies in the Mae Sot-Myawaddy
Borderland1. Myanmar's Mountain and Maritime Borderscapes.
Paudel, S and et.al., 2015. Prevalence of Clostridium difficile infection among solid organ
transplant recipients: a meta-analysis of published studies. PLoS One, 10(4), p.e0124483.
Sajid, S. I., 2016. Social media and its role in marketing.
Thompson, A., Strickland, A. J. and Gamble, J., 2015. Crafting and executing strategy:
Concepts and readings. McGraw-Hill Education.
Thompson, N., 2018. Effective communication: A guide for the people professions. Macmillan
International Higher Education.
Yun, S. J and et.al., 2017. Accurate analysis of harmonic Hall voltage measurement for spin–
orbit torques. NPG Asia Materials. 9(11), p.e449.
Online
What Is Democratic (Participative) Leadership? – 5 Main Principles. 2019. [Online]. Available
Through: <https://status.net/articles/democratic-leadership-participative-leadership/>
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