Industry Practicum: Business Report on Shangri La Hotel in Sydney

This business report provides a detailed analysis of the Shangri La Hotel in Sydney, focusing on its business strategies within the competitive hospitality industry. The report begins with an overview of the company and its industry context, followed by an examination of industry synergy and trends. It delves into the hotel's marketing mix, assessing its competitiveness and service management approaches. Key areas of focus include staff retention and development, as well as the hotel's ethical considerations and social responsibility. The report utilizes relevant management theories to analyze the organization's practices and strategies, offering insights into its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Ultimately, the report aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the Shangri La Hotel's operations and strategic positioning in the market. The report covers topics such as industry synergy and trends, the organization's marketing mix, competitiveness, service management, staff retention, and ethical considerations.

Running head: INDUSTRY PRACTICUM
Industry Practicum
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Executive summary
The purpose of the following business report is to demonstrate the business strategies of the
Shangri la hotel in Sydney. This report focuses on some relevant theories relating to the
management and connecting it to the organizational context of Shangri la hotel. The other issues
have been highlighted in this part like the industry synergy and trends. The marketing mix of the
Shangri la has been discussed with a focus on the competitiveness of the organization. The staff
retention issues of the hotel have been discussed. The ways by which they maintain their ethics
and social responsibility are discussed as well. The service management of the organization has
been discussed by drawing on some relevant theories.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the company and industry...........................................................................................3
Industry synergy and trends.............................................................................................................4
Organization’s marketing mix.........................................................................................................5
Organization’s competitiveness.......................................................................................................6
Organization’s service management................................................................................................7
Staff retention and development......................................................................................................8
Ethics and social responsibility.......................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
The following is a business report on the analysis of the organization. The organization
that has been chosen for this organization is the Shangri la hotel in Sydney. The analysis will be
done to focus on the various issues that the organization faces in the competitive business
environment. It is very important to understand the factors that work behind the success of the
organization. The trends of the industry they are working in will be focused in this business
report. The chosen works in the tourism and hospitality industry.
This industry has been very competitive in Australia. Lots of new hotels have opened in
the country and they are making great profits. This is why it has become a great challenge for
Shangri la hotel to survive in this situation. The marketing mix of the organization will have to
be given to analyze how they can benefits in the market. The competitiveness of the organization
will be discussed. Another important task is to discuss on the service management of the
organization. Some of the HR issues in the organization like staff retention and development
through proper training will be described. The ethical factors and social responsibility of the
organization will be highlighted.
Overview of the company and industry
The chosen company for the report is Shangri la hotel in Sydney (Shangri-la.com, 2018).
The hotel was inaugurated in the year 2003. The general manager of the hotel is Craig Hooley.
The hotel is located in the Rocks district at Sydney across the Sydney Harbor. There are almost
565 rooms in the hotel (Shangri-la.com, 2018). The hotel has won several awards over the years.
The headquarters of this company is mainly situated in Hong Kong. The branch in Sydney is one
of their most important branches in Oceania (Shangri-la.com, 2018). There is a club lounge for

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the VIP members in the hotel naming the Horizon Club (Shangri-la.com, 2018). They offer the
food and beverage services to the VIP members. The primary focus of the organization is to
satisfy all the needs of the guests. They provide quality services regarding food and beverage and
the accommodations for the guests.
It is commonly noted factor that there is a huge margin of competition in the hospitality
industry. The competitive environment in this industry is very high as well. It is due to the fact
there are many hotels being set up in the current times (Walker & Walker, 2016). There are high
scopes for improvements in this industry since the guest satisfaction has to be given the utmost
importance. The organizations operating in this industry should be very much aware of all the
issues that are strong and high risks since the reputation of the organization is the ultimate thing
here. The recent use of the technology in the field of hospitality industry is very high so many
improvements can be done (Verma, Stock & McCarthy, 2012).
Industry synergy and trends
The hospitality industry is said to be a very competitive marketing industry and it has
been growing because of the interest of the guests. However there are lots of uncertainties in this
industry since the competitors are posing high competition all around (Walker & Walker, 2016)
All of them are trying to implement the best policies and strategies that will satisfy the customers
to the most. The users want to experience new facilities so they can get the best benefits
according to their needs specifically.

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Organization’s marketing mix
The marketing mix is one of the most important strategic tools that help the organizations
to grow after analyzing the marketing trends. The business strategies of the organization will
help them to get the best opportunities in the current business environment (Gordon, 2012). It
has been seen that many competitors are trying to take the spot of Shangri la Sydney. It will be
very highly important for the organization to make a thorough analysis of the business
environment through the 4 P’s of marketing (Gordon, 2012)
Promotion
Promotion is one of the most important things for understanding the business strategy.
They generally have four business segments on which their entire business relies (Londhe,
2014). This is why it will be highly important for the organization to provide the customers with
the best facilities. They have to promote their services through the use of the social media. Thye
can also promote their latest offers on VIP suites through banners all over the city of Sydney and
other cities. The Asian Hospitality has been their USP, they will have to attract the customers
through this only.
Price
This Shangri la Sydney hotel is taken as a four star hotel so they will have to apply the
premium pricing method to their organization (Londhe, 2014) This will be very important for
them to attract the customers and maintain their infrastructure properly. Thus the organization
will be able to implement the basic strategies for the growth. They can also offer some special
offers for all the budget conscious travelers. The main target market of this hotel is the business
travelers who can pay any price for the sophisticated experience.

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Product
The products and service they offer are really exquisite ones and they have to provide the
best experience for the customers. The Asian Hospitality model is said to be their most important
services (Prasad, Wirtz & Yu, 2014). The customers are very much satisfied through this service.
The spa and resorts are very exquisite experiences for the business travelers as they will very
relaxed in this environment. The guest satisfaction and loyalty should be achieved through
providing the best services and products through their offerings. The service providers should
focus on catering to the needs of the loyal customers and satisfying all the needs they have. They
can recommend new customers as well.
Place
The organization Shangri la Sydney is located at a place that will be a dream location for
the business travelers and the people on vacation. The hotel is located in the central area of
Sydney that gives a 360 degree view of the city. It is very close to the Rocks Harbor Bridge. The
tourist attractions near the hotel are Opera House and Botanical gardens. So the people are even
agreed to pay more money to stay here.
Organization’s competitiveness
The competitiveness of the organization is a very important issue regarding the growth of
the organization and gaining the competitive advantage. The model of Buckley is very important
in this context because the two most important things in this model are performance and
potential of the company (Fraj, Matute & Melero, 2015). The performance of the companies
must be sustainable so the organization can thrive in the industry. The organizations must be able
to generate new resources so they can provide better performance. They have to showcase the

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potential of their employees so they can achieve the best performance. The market share should
be improved by Shangri la hotel to gain the edge over their competitors firmly. The cost-
effective strategies should be implemented by Shangri la hotel so they can achieve the best
performance (Fraj, Matute & Melero, 2015) Many deluxe hotels are nowadays in the hospitality
and tourism industry. The boutique hotels are also a threat to the growth of this company. The
staff payments in Australia are very high as well so they will have to take this matter into
consideration. The business is much centered on their customers so they have to provide the best
facilities to their customers. They want to earn the competitive advantage over the other rivals so
they have to focus more on adopting some unique strategies mostly beneficial for them (Slack,
Brandon-Jones & Johnston, 2013). The training of the employees should also be done in a way
that they should present their best service skills in front of the guests.
Strengths
 They represent the Asian culture
through Asian Hospitality
 They are a luxury hotel group
 The brand value is very high
Weaknesses
 The brand awareness is very limited
 They focus on the business travelers
only
Opportunities
 They have to focus on technology and
app related booking for their luxury
suites
 They have to increase their brand
awareness as well
Threats
 The labor costs have increased
 The increase in the terror attacks in the
region has been a serious threat

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Organization’s service management
The service management is a very serious issue for the organizations. It is also a very
important one for Shangri la Sydney as well. The service management of Shangri la can be very
much beneficial for them as well. The management of the hotel must adopt some strategies by
which the organization can achieve the ultimate organizational success. Some of the important
theories regarding the successful management are contingency theory, systems theory and chaos
theory. The service management in the Shangri la hotel should bring in the changes in their
organization (Bratton & Gold, 2017). This would cater to the improvement of the services. The
change cannot be controlled according to the chaos theory and the managers must take the
initiative to bring in the changes.
The organizational systems should have impacts on the employees and the same way
around. The different events that take place in the workplace should be controlled by the
managers effectively. The different departments like the finance, human resource and others
should work with coherence (Bratton & Gold, 2017). This would bring the best results for the
organization. They have also offered to provide the servitization procedure that will help the
organization to provide more services than the ordinary ones. This will be very helpful for the
Shangri la hotel to gain the loyalty of the guests and achieve the competitive advantage (Barney,
2014). They must sort out the complaints by the guests. They have also launched their official
app by which their customers can let them know their issues and challenges.
Staff retention and development
One of the most important issues in the human resource management is the staff retention
and development (Eshiteti et al., 2013). Shangri la hotel has also looked on to utilize the talents

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of the skillful employees. The most common theory in the employee retention in the human
resource management is the Herzberg’s theory (Deery & Jago, 2015). The job satisfaction has
been identified as the most important issue in this theory. The employees can be retained if the
dissatisfaction among the employees can be lessened and the satisfaction can be heightened. The
working environment, supervision of the senior members, policies of the company and other
things should be taken under consideration (Eshiteti et al., 2013). The Shangri la hotel has been
very much active and enthusiastic about providing the employees with the incentives. They
motivate their employees to behave with their employees with the most polite ways. They also
ask the feedback from the customers and give the customer delight awards to the best employees.
The ways the employees should behave with the employees are trained by the managers and the
strategies are made to prevent the staff burnout (Jehanzeb & Bashir, 2013. The employees are
allowed to use the staff rates on discount to use the different facilities of hotel. The staff retention
practices are very important for Shangri la hotel. They provide the staffs with the training
programs that motivate the staffs in a big way. The attraction of the staffs should be drawn by
Shangri la by providing them the proper entertainment. The managers should help the staffs to
get all the knowledge. This has been a very interesting aspect for the organization. They have a
firm establishment in the hospitality industry that helps them to retain the employees. The
trainings should be given as per the technological and tactical development of the employees.
Some other issues that relate to the staff retention and practice are compensation and rewards,
job security, training and development, corporate culture, reducing the work pressure and others.
Ethics and social responsibility
Ethics and social responsibility are also very important elements of the Shangri la hotel as
well. The managers give the employees the special training on maintaining the decorum with the

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customers (Greenberg, 2014). The quality of the services along with providing the employees
with the various benefit are maintained. The employees are empowered to do the things which
are very important for the organization. The emotional part is very much integrated within the
operations of the organization (Crane, Matten & Spence, 2013). This is why Shangri la hotel will
need to operate with much efficiency and cater to the various needs of the society. The staffs
should keep connected with the customers and always want to know what things are needed to
improve the quality of the operations (Slack, 2015). The primary target for the employees
should be guest satisfaction and this is why they try to make campaigns where they can provide
some health check up camps for the poor children in the society and donate funds for the medical
institutions. These things are very important for the organization to set up their good reputation.
Conclusion
This business report can be concluded by saying the basic strategies for the Shangri la
hotel have been discussed here. The trends of the industry have been portrayed. The marketing
mix of the company has been discussed along with their position in the market competition. The
service management of the organization has been discussed in this report. The staff retention
tactics have been discussed as well. Other issues like the ethics and social responsibilities have
been highlighted as well.

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References
Barney, J. B. (2014). Gaining and sustaining competitive advantage. Pearson higher ed.
Bratton, J., & Gold, J. (2017). Human resource management: theory and practice. Palgrave.
Crane, A., Matten, D., & Spence, L. (2013). Corporate social responsibility in a global context.
Deery, M., & Jago, L. (2015). Revisiting talent management, work-life balance and retention
strategies. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), 453-
472.
Eshiteti, S. N., Okaka, O., Maragia, S. N., Odera, O., & Akerele, E. K. (2013). Effects of
succession planning programs on staff retention. Mediterranean Journal of Social
Sciences, 4(6), 157.
Fraj, E., Matute, J., & Melero, I. (2015). Environmental strategies and organizational
competitiveness in the hotel industry: The role of learning and innovation as determinants
of environmental success. Tourism Management, 46, 30-42.
Gordon, R. (2012). Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix. Australasian Marketing
Journal (AMJ), 20(2), 122-126.
Greenberg, J. (2014). Behavior in Organizations: Global Edition. Pearson Higher Ed.
Jehanzeb, K., & Bashir, N. A. (2013). Training and development program and its benefits to
employee and organization: A conceptual study. European Journal of business and
management, 5(2).