Strategic Planning for the Hospitality Industry Analysis Report

This report delves into strategic planning within the hospitality industry, using The Waldorf Hilton as a case study. It begins with an introduction to strategic planning, emphasizing its importance in enhancing performance and profitability. The main body critically analyzes factors crucial for strategy implementation, such as commitment, dedicated resources, clear market position, and workforce. It also explores creative business strategies for achieving competitiveness, including pricing strategies, product differentiation, customer service improvements, technology adoption, promotional strategies, and maintaining quality and hygiene. Furthermore, the report evaluates distinct performance metrics like Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and the Balanced Scorecard used by The Waldorf Hilton to assess its performance. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and reinforces the significance of strategic planning in the hospitality sector. The report provides valuable insights into how organizations can develop and implement effective strategies to achieve their goals and maintain a competitive edge.

Strategic Planning for the
Hospitality Industry 11

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
Critical analyse of most appropriate factors for implementing a strategy...................................1
Researching about creative business strategies of organisational future strategy selection for
being competitive in hospitality industry.....................................................................................3
Analysis and evaluation of distinct performance metrics............................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Strategic planning is continuous process and art of creating unique business strategies,
understanding them, implementing and evaluating the by formulating plans that can help to
increase the performance and profitability. The word strategy is very effective that being uses to
manage the task and increasing the abilities for the purpose of generating higher income and
revenues (Vij, 2019). The aim of every organisation is to analysis the situation and formulate
plans for the purpose of increasing business performance and maintain higher profitability. This
can help to develop the new ideas and thoughts for accomplishing business goals and foster the
entrepreneurship by contributing in success. This report is based on The Waldorf Hilton Hotel
that is providing better quality of foods and services to its customers. The management of such
hotel understand the changes and bring new technology for maintaining competitive advantages.
This report covers factors implementation by organisation, creation of business strategies that
become competitive in hospitality industry and performance metrics that uses to measure
performance.
MAIN BODY
Critical analyse of most appropriate factors for implementing a strategy
Strategy can be said to a general plan that is adopted by firm to achieve all the short and
long term objectives within uncertain situations. It is crucial for al business to devise a strategy
as it is key element for becoming successful. It is direction together with scope of business over
long term (Bagnaresi, Barbini and Battilani, 2019). Moreover, strategy assists in attaining
benefits for the company by configuration of resources in dynamic and challenging business
environment for the purpose of meeting market needs addition to fulfilling stakeholders
expectations. The Waldorf Hilton is franchisee of Hilton Hotels and Resorts. The company
features wide number of guest rooms that also includes suites. While implementing franchising
strategy, there are certain appropriate factors which are required be consider by managers. In
case with The Waldorf Hilton, the suitable factors to execute franchising strategy are as
analysed:
Commitment: It is an agreement of pledge to perform things or actions with full
dedication. It initiates at top, however it should not end there. While implementing a strategy,
commitment is a key factor as it requires commitment from all people including management
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and employees to involve in implementing devises strategy. There are various kinds of
commitment which are important for executing franchising strategy (Waters, 2020). Some
includes continuance commitment, normative commitment and affective commitment. In context
to franchising strategy of The Waldorf Hilton, commitment from Hilton Hotels and Resorts,
employees and other stakeholders is one of factor required for executing the strategy. It is
analysed that commitment is crucial factor which makes all the involved people dedicated for
working passionately to attain objectives.
Dedicated resources: For becoming successful in implementing franchising strategy,
dedicated resources is signifiant factor. Resources are any type of personal talent as well as
outside supply which are tapped for support and assistance (Buhalis and Leung, 2018). Key
resources that are required in implementing strategy are human resources, intellectual resources,
financial resources and many more. While implementing franchising strategy, key factors
required by managers of The Waldorf Hilton is dedicated resources because these are netter
options that vastly reduce costs together with offers quick turnaround duration. It is vital that a
franchise champion have high skill levels that are trusted as well as empowered for making and
executing key strategic decisions. The factor helps widely in streamlining the entire process of
implementing a strategy.
Clear market position: Market position is the factor that includes phases of establishing
image as well as identity of company for generating awareness among customers in certain way.
The factor helps businesses and its audiences to aim for similar target market. To execute
franchising strategy, administrators of The Waldorf Hilton needs to analyse market position of
brand so to gain aggressive shares that are required for sustainable future of business. Having
clear market position is an evolutionary factor that pressurise franchising systems to manage
relevancy addition to perception of brand in the manner which exceeds set expectations (Cabral
and Jabbour, 2020). The factor help franchise brands in differentiating them from rivals and
strengthening emotional bond with potential and prospective customers. It is crucial for
franchisees to follow the business structure that are set out by franchisor. From clearly defined
market position, team of The Waldorf Hilton implements the franchising strategy effectively.
Workforce: Implementation of franchising strategy is ultimately driven by a factor that is
workforce. It needs to be within win-win relationship among people and company. In many
cases, execution of strategy is seen as failing or disappearing because of insurmountable
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relationship issues among workforce due to lack of commitment or trust among parties. It is
necessary for franchisee, for example, The Waldorf Hilton should ensure adequate presence of
adequate workforce with sufficient knowledge to deliver sound advises as well as quality
customer services while implementing the strategy. However, it depends on the sector as the
ways it works (Daghfous and Belkhodja, 2019).
Researching about creative business strategies of organisational future strategy selection for
being competitive in hospitality industry
From the discussion and study about business strategies it has analysed that strategies are
most important for any organisation as it formulated after deciding the goals and managing the
activities. If proper strategies are made by management in relation to increasing productivity then
it become easy to accept the changes and bring the performance.
The future business strategies which have been selected by Waldorf Hilton Hotel in order to be
competitive are:
Pricing strategy: The prices of any products matters a lot for customers as they are price
sensitive who select the best products at reasonable prices. If organisation is providing products
and services at affordable cost then it will be an opportunity for organisation to attracts the huge
customers and encourage them to make buying decisions (Varelas and Apostolopoulos, 2020).
Therefore, for performing better in future and becoming the competitor organisation should
focuses on prices of products. This future strategy which will be adopt by Waldorf Hilton Hotel
to offering the services at lower price than competitors, which would help to attain the
competitive advantages.
Product differentiation: This means products and services which provided by
organisation should be different and attractive that can help to capture the large market area and
increase the competition. In changing environment needs and taste of customer is changing
where it is important to produce different products and services that can help to increase the sales
and profitability (Zeng and Wang, 2018). This is another future strategy in which management of
Waldorf Hilton Hotel will provide unique taste of food, beverages and services that different
from their rivals and will help to attain the competitive benefits.
Improvement in customers services: This is important business strategy which should
be uses by organisation for improving the customer service and becoming the competitive.
Sometime, customers are facing many challenges and problems in selecting and booking the
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products so they are demanding customers services at any time which can solve their problems.
The management of chosen Hotel analysis the situation of business organisation and bring
changes in their customer services as 24/7 hours which will help to influence number of
customers and increase the competition (BURKE, ROBINSON and Choi, 2020).
Uses of new technology and digitalisation: The world is changing where all manual
activities are reducing day by day. This change has introduced as challenge in front of other
business concern as they need to adopt the new technology for the purpose of sustaining in
competitive market and attain the business goals. For becoming a competitive in hospitality
industry Waldorf Hilton Hotel will focus on new technology such as chatbots, robotics delivery,
digital entry, easy check out etc. that would help to increase the large are of customers and
maintain the competitive advantages in upcoming period (Zobnina and Rozhkov, 2018).
Promotional business strategy: Whenever organisation launches new products and
services, promotion is required at high level which can help to inform the people regarding new
products and encourage them towards buying option. For promoting the products there is need to
use different sources and new procedure which can help to capture high customer insights. In
context to Waldorf Hilton Hotel, management will uses online marketing, websites, magazines,
newspapers and others for the purpose of informing people and delivering them best services.
Maintaining quality and hygiene: As world is facing the Pandemic where people
become more health consciousness as they are looking proper hygienic and sanitized rooms with
organic food facility. This demand can be opportunity for selected organisation as create the
competitive advantages by providing such facility. The management of Waldorf Hilton Hotel has
adopted such strategy by offering proper hygienic and sanitized rooms that make them healthy
and safe from diseases. This will help to increase the business performance in changing
environment and increase the profitability (Espellita and Maravilla Jr, 2019).
Therefore, after researching it has critically analysed that by adopting all by business
strategies the chosen organisation will influence the large number of customers and increase the
profitability. These all strategies will help to be competitor in challenging environment and
maintain the competitive advantages.
Analysis and evaluation of distinct performance metrics
Performance metrics is said to process that includes collection, analysing addition to
reporting information concerned with performance of a person, team, business or component. It
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is used for measuring activities, performances addition to behaviour of entity. Measuring
performance with suitable metrics is crucial to see the ways workforce are working addition to
whether targets are met or not (Johnsen, 2018). These are integral for success of institution.
Effective performance metrics provides hard information along with yields outcomes which
measures properly identified quantities in range for permitting further improvements. in The
Waldorf Hilton, departmental managers uses performance metrics for evaluating usability of
organisational offerings. It is because these are cornerstone of usability as well as inform about
key decisions for future. It is analysed that there are various kinds of performance metrics which
are adopted in the hospitality enterprise for tracking business process together with assessing
their status. Certain performance metrics which are used in The Waldorf Hilton are as evaluated:
Key performance indicators: It is termed as set of numerical measurements that are
adopted for gauging overall performance of business. It helps determining strategic, operational
along with strategic achievements for comparing with other businesses in similar industry. It
measures firm's success with set of objectives, targets or industrial peers. In case with The
Waldorf Hilton, important financial KPIs which informs for strategy are revenue growth,
profitability over time, income sources, revenue concentration and working capital. At same
time, there are various meaningful non financial metrics such as competitiveness, organisational
repuation, innovation and customer influence that are adopted in the company. As per George
(2017), it have been evaluated that all the KPI benefits the managers in setting business
objectives, offering rewards or incentives to the team, searching issues in business strategy,
discovering strengths, saving expenses and aligning efforts with goals. In contrary, it is evaluated
that the metrics emphasis only on short term goals and restricts workings for achieving long term
goals which is its limitation.
Balance scorecard: It can be described as strategic performance metrics that determines
and improve numerous internal organisational functions together with their external results. The
main purpose of using balance scorecard is to measure as well as share feedbacks within the
entity. In The Waldorf Hilton, hospitality consultant uses the metrics for measuring key business
aspects that are customers, processes, finance, learning and growth. With this, the consultant
easily determines the factors which hinders performances together with outline strategic changes
which are tracked through future scorecards. It is evaluated from the research of Liang and Wong
(2020) that balance scorecard offers strong framework so to construct and communicate effective
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strategy. It improves communication along with execution of identified strategy and engage
workforce together with external stakeholders to delivery set tactics effectively. The metrics
align projects and initiatives with distinct goals that ensures that all these tightly emphasis on
delivering important strategic intent. The approach also helps administrators in designing
indicators, improving performance reporting, better process alignment and collecting data easily.
In contrary, the performance metrics mislead various terms, do not emphasis towards
competitors or external factors, lacks analysis of risk and creates complexities in maintaining
strategic mapping.
Critical success factor: It is an effective performance metrics that indicates
opportunities, situations along with activities needed for accomplishing practices for reaching
heights of project. It includes all those variables and circumstances that are important to enable
positive results for organisational program or strategy. In relevance to The Waldorf Hilton, the
metrics helps in ensuring success. It determines areas of projects that are key for the attainment.
The success factors of The Waldorf Hilton are people, finances, strategic focus, marketing and
operations. For identifying critical success factors, project manager require determining crucial
goals, prioritising objectives, deciding success metrics, communicating all to members and
documenting all factors. As per Peters and Kallmuenzer (2018), major benefit of the metrics lies
on the aspect that it provides objectives as well as benchmarks for the organisation. For example,
critical success factor of The Waldorf Hilton is to capture proportion of market share and to
generate certain profits, all the employees must be aware about the objective. Moreover, Critical
success factor allows corporate institutions to emphasis more on energy of identified objectives.
At same time, it is also evaluated that identification of wrong success factors proves to detriment
the organisation. There are chances that a business emphasis on generation of profit, but ignore
evacuation of long term debt that results in vulnerable situations.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that strategies are most important part of
organisation as it involves different plans to regulate and sustain in the competitive environment.
In business environment there are different factors such as commitment, dedicated resources,
clear market position, and workforce arises while operation that should be consider and manage
them properly. All theses factors are important as it helps to maintain the higher productivity and
profitability. Moreover, business strategies like customer support service, new technology,
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promotion, quality maintain etc. are uses to become a competitive in upcoming period in relation
to hospitality industry. KPI, critical success and balance scorecard is uses to evaluate
performance and bring improvements accordingly.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Bagnaresi, D., Barbini, F. M. and Battilani, P., 2019. Organizational change in the hospitality
industry: The change drivers in a longitudinal analysis. Business History, pp.1-22.
Buhalis, D. and Leung, R., 2018. Smart hospitality—Interconnectivity and interoperability
towards an ecosystem. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 71. pp.41-50.
BURKE, K., ROBINSON, P. and Choi, M., 2020. Developing meta-strategies for hospitality
experiences. Managing Hospitality Experiences, p.141.
Cabral, C. and Jabbour, C. J. C., 2020. Understanding the human side of green hospitality
management. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 88. p.102389.
Daghfous, A. and Belkhodja, O., 2019. Managing Talent Loss in the Procurement Function:
Insights from the Hospitality Industry. Sustainability. 11(23). p.6800.
Espellita, S. and Maravilla Jr, V. S., 2019. Employable Skills for Hospitality Graduates as
Perceived Among Hotel Supervisors in Cebu City. Journal of Economics and Business.
2(2).
George, B., 2017. Does strategic planning ‘work’in public organizations? Insights from Flemish
municipalities. Public Money & Management. 37(7). pp.527-530.
Johnsen, Å., 2018. Impacts of strategic planning and management in municipal government: An
analysis of subjective survey and objective production and efficiency measures in
Norway. Public Management Review. 20(3). pp.397-420.
Liang, T. C. and Wong, E. S. F., 2020. Sustainable development: an adaptive re-use solution for
the hospitality industry. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes.
Peters, M. and Kallmuenzer, A., 2018. Entrepreneurial orientation in family firms: The case of
the hospitality industry. Current Issues in Tourism. 21(1). pp.21-40.
Varelas, S. and Apostolopoulos, N., 2020. The Implementation of Strategic Management in
Greek Hospitality Businesses in Times of Crisis. Sustainability. 12(17). p.7211.
Vij, M., 2019. The emerging importance of risk management and enterprise risk management
strategies in the Indian hospitality industry. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism
Themes.
Zeng, G. and Wang, D., 2018. A review of studies on hospitality in a global perspective: based
on a quantitative content analysis of IJHM from 2006 to 2015. Tourism Tribune. 33(5).
pp.114-126.
Zobnina, M. and Rozhkov, A., 2018. Listening to the voice of the customer in the hospitality
industry: Kano model application. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes.
Online:
Waters. C., 2020. The six key success factors for franchises. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.smartcompany.com.au/business-advice/franchising/the-six-key-success-
factors-for-franchises/>
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