Strategic Management for SMEs: Bryson Hotel Case Study Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the strategic management practices employed by Bryson Hotel, a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) operating in the UK's hospitality industry. The report begins with an executive summary and an introduction to strategic management, emphasizing its role in business success and growth. The main body of the report is structured into three key steps: strategic analysis, strategic choices, and strategic actions. The strategic analysis involves assessing Bryson Hotel's strategic direction, including its mission, employee recruitment, financial sources, and commitment to quality services. The report conducts a PESTLE analysis to evaluate external environmental factors and Porter's Five Forces model to assess the competitive landscape. Furthermore, it incorporates VRIO and SWOT analyses to identify internal and external factors influencing the organization. The report uses these analyses to formulate strategic choices and recommend actions to enhance Bryson Hotel's strategic direction, concluding with suggestions for improvement.

STRATEGIC
MANAGEMENT FOR
SMALL AND MEDIUM
ENTREPRISES

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report covers that how strategic management contributes to business success and
growth. It involves planning, decision making, goal oriented strategies in order to accomplish
organisationla objectives. In the context of Bryson Hotel, which is a small and medium business
operating in UK, it renders all the different customer valuing hotel services which includes
quality room stays, restaurants to its customers. Bryson use strategic management in order to
function business activities in most effective manner. Bryson uses different models in order to
evaluate the internal and external business factors in order to formulate strategic business
policies and planning. Different models applied by Bryson involves SWOT, PESTLE, VRIO,
PORTER’s five forces model all these helps to analyse the business environment and determine
different functions in order to accomplish organisationla objectives. With the help of strategic
management, it helps Bryson to formulate effective market offerings which best suites the
orgnaisational objectives and contributes to accomplish high profitability goals of the business.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
STEP 1 Strategic analysis............................................................................................................4
STEP 2 Strategic choices...........................................................................................................16
STEP 3 Strategic actions............................................................................................................17
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................19
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management is defined by managing the business objectives in way which
contributes to business success and growth. It involves managing the internal and external
environment of the business in a way to formulate business policies. Whereas, small and medium
enterprises are defined the business with low capital and share. Strategic management for small
and medium enterprises is defined by planning and managing the business which involves
financing, internal management, producing market offerings, creating value chain and different
strategies in order to engage with the customer and build the goodwill in the market place. In the
context of Bryson Hotels which is a small and medium organisation in hospitality industry which
focuses on delivering the quality services like quality room stays, restaurant services, laundry
services, parking, taxis and airport transfers services to its customers. Bryson hotel operating in
London, UK which was named after an architect named as Sir John Miller Bryson, the hotel was
built in the year 2016. This report covers strategic direction of the implemented by Bryson Hotel,
conduct PESTLE and PORTERS’s Five Forces model in order to identify the internal and
external analysis of the business environment of Bryson Hotel, VRIO and SWOT analysis of
determine the external and internal factors of the organisation and how it contributes to the
business success, on the basis of SWOT analysis find out suitable direction for Bryson Hotel,
and determine recommendations to improve strategic direction of Bryson Hotel (Abdullah,
2019).
MAIN BODY
STEP 1 Strategic analysis
Strategic direction of the Bryson Hotel
Bryson Hotel implements and formulates strategic plans policies in order to determine the vision
and mission of organisation (Acosta, Crespo and Agudo, 2018). Strategic direction is being
discuses with the employees in order accomplish the organisational goals. These strategic
directions are being implemented by the organisation are as:
Setting strategic direction:
Formulating the strategic direction, it is most crucial stage of defining the right objective which
the organisation want to deliver it through the business objectives. Bryson hotel formulates

strategic directions in order to define the organisational objectives. In strategic direction it
involves description of task that each employees needs to do right from the management of
employees, objects and objectives in order to accomplish business success.
Recruit the employees
Staffing the right employees for the right job position is the important job in order to deploy
highly efficient workforce in organisation. Recruiting employees efficient in the organisation
helps to accomplish the goals and objetives in the most effective and efficient manner. Highly
efficient employees help manage and maintain good customer relationship conducts smooth
functioning of organisational objectives (ALI, HAO and AIJUAN, 2020).
Sources of finance
It is important to determine the sources of finance, Bryson Hotel determines the sources of
finance which involves finances of government and private investors. It becomes important for
Bryson hotel to evaluate the sources of finance and allocate them in organisation purposes in
order accomplish smooth functioning of the organisation.
Quality services
It is important for hospitality industry to render quality services to the customers in order to
improve customer experiences. Bryson Hotel delivers quality services to its customers to develop
string customer base and achieve business success.
Determine opportunities and threats from PESTLE analysis
PESTLE analysis is defined by conducting external business environmental factors in order to
evaluate the best business policies which suits the external environment Bryson hotel conducts
PESTLE analysis in order to evaluate the external business environment (Baporikar, 2015).
These factors in context of Bryson Hotel are as:
POLITICAL FACTORS
Political factors include all the policies and legal framework implemented by the political forces.
Bryson complies with all the legal policies framed by the current political forces in order to
conduct business activities in the most effective manner. Complying to the political factor is
important because it helps to develop the ethical and legal image of the company in the market
place. Moreover, customer feel reliable for business which complies with all the rules and norms
framed by the political bodies. Bryson conducts its business activities with compliances to the

political norms and rules which helps to deliver reliable services to its customers. With the
current scenario of COVID-19 where government of different countries frames different
guidelines and policies in order to prevent the transmission of the virus. Bryson hotel complies
with all the legal policies framed by the government, it implements different safety measures in
the hotel which involves social distancing, sanitization in regular intervals, mandatory of wearing
masks and carrying sanitizer by the staffs and guest (Bigliardi and Galati, 2016).
ECONOMIC FACTORS
These factors involve the current economic position and stability of any country. The good
economic stability might the positively impact the business performs of any business whereas
economic downturn might result in the negative way to the businesses. Due to the economic
stability in UK, it results the hospitality businesses in profitable manner. Bryson offers the
services to its customers with different budget ranges which helps to deliver the survives to
different to all the customers right from affordable prices to the high priced room stays. BREXIT
have impacted the business performances of Bryson hotel in a negative way which includes high
increased takes, difficulty of acquiring raw materials which have impacted the sales of the
business. Due to COVID-19, the sales of the Bryson have dropped as people prefer les to travel
and take services in Hotel.
SOCIAL FACTORS
Social factors include the lifestyle patter, cultural beliefs to the people living in specific location.
Bryson follows these social factors, the rooms are designed in a way that reflects the luxurious
pattern of lifestyle of people in UK, with comfortable ranges of beds, washrooms and all the
other facilities in the room. Moreover, the employees in Bryson hotel effective manages the
guest relations and renders them all the required services. As of COVID-19, in Bryson hotel, the
customer pre-books their rooms and restaurants services. Which helps to reduce the chaos and
mass gatherings in the Hotel which helps to develop the social image of the company in the
market place (Bonnafous-Boucher and Rendtorff, 2016).
TECHNOLOGICAL FACTORS
It is important to stay updated to the latest technology in the marketplace in order to accomplish
business efficiencies. Bryson hotel implement updated technologies in business for carrying the

business in the most effective manner. Bryson adopt technologies like customer relationship
management and cloud based technologies in order to accomplish efficiencies in the business
activities. Customer relationship management is a software which helps to store information of
its customers, which helps to deliver better services to its customers, through CRM platforms
customer’s needs and preferences can be easily identified a right offering can be produced which
best suits their needs and wants. It helps to engage with the customer in a better way, when
different customer takes their services, CRM collects and store all the relevant information
related to the customers, and it helps to engage with the customer after the service offered, CRM
platforms keeps on sending text messages and emails to the customers about new exciting prices
and offerings. Moreover, it helps the employees in Bryson hotel to better serve and engage with
the customers. Where the employees can exactly know their preferences and it helps to deliver
the best suited service which satisfies customer needs. Bryson hotel also helps cloud based
technologies which is also a software that helps to store all the important information of the
company. It reduces the cost for purchasing physical units to store the information and data.
Cloud based technologies are cheaper but reliable source of collecting and storing the data. Due
to Covid-19, all the marketing and customer engagement are through online channel to reduce
the person contacts (Campbell and Park, 2017).
LEGAL FACTORS
These involves all the legal laws and policies framed by the government and legal bodies. For
conducting the business, it has to comply and follow all the legal policies and laws for smoothly
running the business in ethical manner. When government does not find that if any business is
not complying the law, the government can even sue or take legal actions against the company.
Due to COVID-19, legal bodies have framed different legal norms of lockdown, no mass
gatherings and other which have negatively impacted the profitability of Bryson hotel and other
business.
Bryson hotel complies with these all the hospitality industry and business laws framed by the
government and the legal bodies in UK (Cosenz and Noto, 2016). Some of these laws complied
by Bryson hotels are as:
Business names act 1985: This laws defines that the name shown in the notice is different from
the name of the business.

Trade description act 1968: The business should render all the necessary and complete
information of all the facilities provided and does not hide any details.
Thus, complying with these laws and legislations is crucial to conduct the business in the most
effective manner. It helps to develop ethical goodwill of the business in the market. When
business does bot complies with these legal laws, it can negatively impact the performances of
the business.
ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
Environmental factors include different factors to climate and natural environment. Business
must take the social responsibility take measures to save the environment. Covid-19 has
impacted the environmental in positive way by reduce in the pollution level and other hum
activities which disturbs the nature. With the increasing pollution, Bryson takes different
measures to protect the environment. It uses economic measures which includes transaction in
digital payments, recycling of waste and use of solar energy of generating electricity and other
uses. Moreover, it also adopts the concept of green computing and carbon footprints. Carbon
footprints is defined by measuring the carbon emitted from the electrical appliances. Bryson
hotel different measures to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide in the environment from the
business activities (Demir, Wennberg and McKelvie, 2017).
Evaluate industry competitive analysis from PORTERS’s Five Forces Model
Porter’s five forces model helps to evaluate the competitive environment of any business. It
determines that what are the factors which are strengths and weakness to the business. It is
basically a competitive analysis s pf all the external factors which may affects the business both
in positive and negative way. Porter’s five forces model helps to formulate long strategic plans
and policies in order to determine the business position in the competitive environment. Its helps
to determine the competitive strategy that whether the business will be also to sustain in the
market place and what are the factors which brings profitability to the business. Bryson hotel
uses Porter’s five forces of model in order to determine the competitive analysis of the business
in the market place (Dvorsky and et.al., 2020). These forces in Porter’s model are:
Competition in the market

Bryson hotel analyse the competition in the market, as it becomes important for the company to
evaluate the new and existing competitors in the market. Bryson hotel analyse different factors
which involves that what are the pricing policies of the competitors, what are the product and
services of the competitors, the market position of the competitor brand, how good often
customers purchases the competitor’s product and services, how competitor’ business affects the
sales of the company. By evaluating all these factors Bryson hotel determine the competition in
the market. Moreover, by measuring the competitive position in the market, Bryson hotel
scrutinises the marketing offerings of the competitors and adopts service development with
effective pricing strategies (Evans, 2015).
Potentials of new entrants
This factor involves to measure the potentials of the new entrants, that what are the marketing
strategies used by the new entrants in the market, how innovative offerings does the new entrants
takes in order to capture the market share. Bryson hotel evaluates all the new businesses in the
market and compares their market offerings with the company. It helps to determine that what
are the better marketing offerings rendered by both new and existing companies. It helps to
Bryson to identify that what are the changes that needs to implemented in order to attracts the
customers. Bryson continuously uses different innovative marketing offerings in order to attract
the customer share of the market place. Innovative services offered by the Bryson hotel involves
improved customer engagement, effective packages with low budget prices, quality services like
housekeeping, restaurants, availability of linens, highly skilled staffs and others related offerings
of the company (Henriques and Catarino, 2016).
Power of suppliers
Suppliers play an important role in timely delivering all the items to the business at right time. It
involves delivering all the business related raw material to the purchaser. Bryson hotel chooses
the right supplier with good reputation in the market, which helps the company to get all the
desired business items on time. Bryson hotel makes sure to get the items to maintain the
availability of the stock with addition to the lowest and affordable possible prices of the product.
Selecting the supplier is an important factor in order to get quality business items be it linens,
cockeries, beds, mattresses, table, chair, interior decoration, electronic equipment, computer
embedded software and so on. It becomes important to maintain the good working relationship

with different suppliers to maintain supply chain and timely acquire all the business items at low
or affordable cost.
Power of customers
Power of customers defined by the power of the customers of drive products and services at low
prices. Bryson hotel sets the right prices for all the products and services rendered by the
company. The research and development department in Bryson conducts market survey to
identify the right prices of the market offerings of the company. It uses competitive pricing, price
skimming, market penetration pricing strategies in order to set the right prices of the services
offered. Too high prices might disappoint the customers and they might switch to another
competitor’s brand and too low prices might bring loss of the competitors. Thus, right prices of
the market offerings of the products is important to deliver value to the customers (Herliana,
2015).
Threat of substitute products
Threat of substitute is last factor in porter’s model, which determine substitute or products and
services that can be replaced with another product and services. Bryson hotel develops the
effective marketing which are innovative and unique in the market place which further makes
offerings different with services offered by the other Hotels in the market. Bryson hotel adopt
policies to brings changes in the services offered and improve customer engagement (Hilman
and Kaliappen, 2015).
Determine internal analysis to find out internal strengths and weakness from VRIO
analysis
VRIO analysis is the strategic framework which determines that how different the market
offerings of the company are in the market. And different approaches that the company can adopt
in order to brings changes and improve the market offerings of the company. Bryson hotel adopts
the VRIO analysis in order to determine the effectiveness of the market offerings of the company
and how different it is in the market. VRIO involves value, rarity, imitability, organisation.
VRIO is an internal analysis which helps to evaluate the resources of the company and formulate
decisions in order to accomplish the competitive advantage in the market. These four criteria of
VRIO analysis in context of Bryson hotel is discussed below:

Value
Value of resources is determined by the how beneficial the resources are to the company. Bryson
hotel determines the benefits determined resources and compares it with other competitor brand
to evaluate the market positioning in the market, when products are giving rendering advantage
to the business, that the resource is not valuable to the business.
Rarity is defined by the uniqueness of the resources in the market. How unique is the market
offerings of the company than its competitors in the market place (Inan and Bititci, 2015).
Difficult to Imitate
Imitability is defined the extent to which the resources can be easily copied by others in the
market. The imitability of the resources of an organisation can be of the substitute products by
the competitors which affects the profitability of the existing businesses.
Organisation competence and capability
It is defined by how far the organisation is competent and capable for to manage rare, valuable
and difficult to imitate the resources of an organisation.
Strengths
Internal management
Bryson hotel recruits highly competent workforce in the organisation which helps to delivers
superior customer value. The manager and leaders in Bryson manages the work by allotment
of teams and department, each team is being deployed by a team member who continuously
monitor the activities of the team members.
Local presence
The local presence of Bryson Hotel in the market defines by the brand identity of the
organisation in the market. With the improved customer services, Bryson renders quality services
to its customers which helps to develop brand image in the marketplace (Johnson, 2015).
Weaknesses
Financial resources

As Bryson Hotel is a small and medium enterprise, identifying the sources of finance becomes
difficult. Bryson Hotel depends of governmental grants and commercial financial institution in
order to function the business operations.
Supply chain
As Bryson hotel is a small and medium enterprise, so it unavailability to develop effective supply
results as weakness to the organisation. Effective supply chain market research, huge investment
and others. Further ineffective supply chain leads to insufficient business resources for
conducting business activities (Kliuchnikova and Pobegaylov, 2016).
RESOURCES VALUE RARE IMITABLE ORGANISATIO
N
COMPETITIVE
ADVANTAGE
Internal
management
Yes Yes No Yes Strong
competitive
advantage
Local presence Yes Yes No Yes Strong
competitive
advantage
Financial
resources
Yes No Yes Yes Temporary
competitive
advantage
Supply chain Yes Yes Yes Yes Keeps business
operating
Conduct SWOT analysis to summarise strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of
the organisation
SWOT analysis is the internal business environmental analysis model which involves
determining the strengths and weaknesses of the internal business and finding out opportunities
and threats in order to determine that what all are the factors that will positively or negatively