Business Process Analysis and Improvement Strategies for Starwood

This report analyzes the business processes of Starwood Hotels, addressing key areas such as workflow management, the roles of dynamic and static stewards, and the impact of the POI (Point of Interest) team. It examines potential improvements in efficiency and customer satisfaction, highlighting the importance of benchmarking to measure performance against competitors. The report identifies mistakes in the current processes, such as the failure to fully implement re-engineering changes and the need to consider the impact of changes on both customers and employees. It also discusses the benefits of the POI team in identifying inefficiencies and the application of benchmarking to set performance criteria. The report provides recommendations for improvement, including the establishment of benchmarks, the consideration of customer and employee needs, and the proper implementation of process changes to enhance the overall business performance of Starwood Hotels. The analysis emphasizes the importance of continuous improvement and the need to adapt to changing customer demands and operational challenges.

Business Process
Ques-Ans
System04104
1/8/2019

Answer-1
In order to maintain a large number of customers and make the stewards more flexible
and active in during work, Starwood can create two types of steward i.e. dynamic stewards
and static stewards. Through these two stewards, Starwood can easily address both forecasted
coverage as well as dynamic coverage that depend on the number of customers visiting in the
Starwood’s restaurant and hotels. The dynamic stewards would be assigned task if the
number of customers vary time to time or the customer's demand would be infrequent in the
hotel (Noonan & Rankin, 2016). These stewards completed their assigned task on time
whenever they are required to complete it. However, when the dynamic stewards completed
their assigned task and they do not wait for the other task rather than they would report for a
set period of time to a nearby static assignment that may or may not be assigned to other
person (Gemkow, 2010). It means, even in leisure time they will not rest rather they were
searching for another assignment and work with other static stewards. The other advantage of
the dynamic stewards is that in their waiting time they will not only utilise time but also do
those works which are at least not time-sensitive, but still must get done as a priority basis.
Alternatively, the static steward’s position assigned to those tasks, which covers assigned task
with predictable flow positions, and take cares of customers demand and their requirements.
But when they get pause or rest in their task they will have local rounds around the
customer’s table and take very less time (considerably few minutes) to spend with customers
to enhance their customer experience. It is only because they have assigned fixed rounds
between the tasks and a set of time allocated to them to complete their assigned tasks, they
can be allowed only a few minutes for extra rounds in a task (Tarí, Claver-Cortés, Pereira-
Moliner, & Molina-Azorín, 2010).
Report to Static
assignment
Complete
tasks
Make rounds
Static
steward
shift
begins
Static
steward
shift end
Fig. 1 Static Steward Workflow chart

Thus, a manager should care about the time allocated to a particular steward and their
assigned work. This can enhance the capability of a manager to measure the performance of a
steward, because a static manage can accurately measure the break in workflow and make
decisions that the break will be sufficient or not for the steward to complete the rounds in
between two or more tasks.
Complete tasksMake rounds
Report to
dynamic
assignment
Dynamic
steward
shift
begins
Dynamic
steward
shift ends
Fig. 2 Dynamic Steward Workflow chart

The above diagram clearly shows the way Starwood can enhance its workflow
management quality in the organisations and also enhance the stewardship process. Both
dynamic and static stewardship helps Starwood to save time and minimise the cost while
processing the activity in the kitchens and in the hotel areas as well.
Answer-2
Starwood is one of the leading luxury brand hotel of the world and currently it is
merged with hotel Marriott. As it is a luxury brand hotel, they must be doing many things in a
rights way. Still, there are several mistakes done by the company that create risks for
Starwood that is related to their business process and managing process outlined. One of the
major mistakes is that they are not satisfying with their fundamental re-engineering changes
(Talib, Rahman, & Qureshi, 2011). Starwood always expected big results in every activity
and process because of their designated POI team, but the reality is that some processes need
a small change in order to see great benefits. Although POI team is working well to improve
the process and enhance the quality of each business process, but sometimes it is not needed.
The impact of these changes are also considerable, because every change also affect the
customer base, such as distance between two kitchens, distance between kitchen to customer
table, time is taken by a steward during attending a customer, way of dish-washing, time
consumes in dish-washing, etc. (Benavides-Velasco, Quintana-García, & Marchante-Lara,
2014).
The second major problem is that Starwood should analyse the impact of change on
customers and must analyse in what way the changes affect and what are the consequences of
it. If the POI team making a change in any process, it is also necessary that employees of the
organisation adopt it and continue the new processes in such a way that improves the process
quality. To ensure the success of POI team it is essential for the management team to
implement the changes properly to get the expected benefits (Köseoglu, Topaloglu, Parnell,
& Lester, 2013). Thus, changes in the processes should consider the needs and requirements
of customers and employees both.
The last problem associated with the process is that improper arrangements of
furniture, building design, and landscaping limitations not enable the POI team to execute the
continuous improvement process. The success or failure of change in the process depends on
how well people accepted the change and how well it is monitored and executed by the staff
on ground level (Sainaghi, Phillips, & Corti, 2013). Thus, considering acceptance of ground

staff and other teams involves in the process is more important than any other things. The
resistance of people sometimes causes failure of change and the organisation could not be
able to get the expected results. This is one of the major process issue faced at the Starwood.
To solve this problem the POI team should educate the staff about the change process and its
impact and advantage on the organisation (Fu, Chu, Chao, Lee, & Liao, 2011). The POI team
must ensure the organisational staff that how new change in the business process can enhance
their work performance that further leads to better organisational work performance. Properly
planned change in work process definitely reduces the work hours and save the cost of
operation in any hotel industry. Thus, these are the universal problems and should be
considered by any hotel or restaurants on a priority basis while bringing any change in the
business process.
Answer-3
POI (Point of interest) is an accurate point location where someone finds a fresh set of
eyes on any given process, which is very useful in the Starwood. POI provides the facility to
examine the exact work process and makes time for what is missed in the shuffle of day-to-
day operations. With a team of experts appointed in the POI team, the Starwood can easily
focus on continuous improvement process and identify those unusual practices and processes
that are inefficient, costly, unsafe, and time-consuming. After a close analysis and
observation through POI at any process, Starwood can easily decide which activity is not
necessary to perform, and which activity or process is important during any work or
assignment (Li, Ye, & Law, 2013). A close observation and analysis of work through POI
also helps to understand what is happening now and what is obstructing the productivity in
that process. As a cross-functional team POI program focuses on quality of work process and
maintains perception on competitive significances, so any reform or new initiatives could not
affect the corporate urgencies. These benefits of POI help the Starwood to enhance their
quality work process and also enhance the productivity within the organisations. The quality
of work enhances the good customer experience and creates opportunities to enhance the
effectiveness of other tasks at the same time as well (Alonso-Almeida, Rodríguez-Antón, &
Rubio-Andrada, 2012). These process and could be beneficial in other processes and
activities of Starwood. It definitely should be implemented in the other process and priorities
in the Starwood system. POI is the best technique to apply in those processes, which are not
meeting the expectations, and improves the process quality. POI application can also be used

with those processes, which are performing well because there is no reason that POI program
could not work on improving already good work process so that they may become great.
In order to improve the work process in Starwood, POI team assigned each kitchen to
a steward as coverage for the executive chef that result as more than one steward may be
assigned to an area. In pick season where numbers of customers are increased in the hotel,
POI team examines each and every process such as staff availability, the number of rooms
occupied, banquet events, restaurants, and other areas which are supported by stewards
(Noone, McGuire, & Rohlfs, 2011). The POI team can also analyse the time spent on a
particular process and set a standard time for each activity that should be followed by a
steward during performing his/her assigned task. POI team also found that requirement of
stewards in a kitchen is not permanently, so they could be assigned multiple kitchens to fill a
work shift. This helps Starwood to save time and cost involved in an activity. POI can be
termed as a tool of both business process reengineering and total quality management tool as
well, because it not only improve the quality of work process rather it also change the
business processed which consists causes inefficient, costly, unsafe, and time-consuming
effort and process.
Answer-4
To identify potential improvements in the Starwood, it is essential to set a benchmark
for every business process. Benchmarking is a continuous process that helps the organisation
to measure the performance against the toughest competitors and serve as a tool that enables
an organisation to perform their best in any given business process. Therefore, from the
above analysis and problems identification of Starwood, we can say that there should be a
benchmark for such type of activities and it will definitely help the organisation to improve
its business performance and also improve the work processes (Pearlman, & Chacko, 2012).
The benchmark helps to set a criterion that helps the organisation to measure the performance
of every stewards and staff in the organisation (Roger, 2016). A solid reason behind
implementing benchmark is that it helps to analyse best practices venues and learn from their
success that further leads to the high performance of people in the hotel industries (Nicolau &
Sellers, 2012). Through setting a benchmark, Starwood can easily enhance the organisational
performance as well as individual performance. If Starwood implements the benchmark for
their business process, they must be able to easily identify their strong areas and gain
competitive advantages against their competitors.

Benchmark is not only set the performance criteria but also motivates people to
achieve those limits that are set by the organisation as a benchmark. It reduces the time limits
and motivates people to do their best for the organisation and thus they improve the quality in
the work process. In such conditions, performance benchmarking is a more suitable tool to
measure the performance of people and set the target in such a way that can compete with
other competitors. Performance benchmarking should be implemented in the Starwood and it
must be ensured by the management that this benchmark must follow the quality factor in the
business process (Jeou-Shyan, Hsuan, Chih-Hsing, Lin, & Chang-Yen, 2011). The frequency
of the benchmark could be based on a monthly or quarterly basis. The benchmark should
follow the quality factors and time allocated for each task. Time spend by a steward should
be considered while we measure the performance through a benchmarking. The overall
objective of performance benchmarking is to minimise the cost of the business process,
minimise the time consume by people in a single task assigned to them and should consider
the safety concern while performing a task (Nield & Kozak, 2016). The benchmark set in
such a way that not negatively affect the performance of a steward or organisational people,
rather it improves their work efficiency and they will consume less time while they
performing any task or serve any customer in the restaurant or hotel.

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