Strategic Planning, Factors & Metrics: Hospitality Industry

This report provides an analysis of strategic planning within the hospitality industry, focusing on The Dorchester hotel as a case study. It critically examines the factors essential for implementing a chosen strategy, such as changes in executive management, organizational structure, social and cultural factors, technological forces, and laws and regulations. The report also explores creative business strategies for future competitiveness, including social media marketing, website optimization, customer feedback utilization, email marketing, and mobile application empowerment. Furthermore, it analyzes and evaluates different performance metrics like critical success factors (CSFs), key performance indicators (KPIs), and the balanced scorecard, highlighting their importance in achieving strategic objectives and improving overall performance within the hospitality sector. The report emphasizes the need for companies to adapt to changing environments and leverage technology to maintain a competitive edge and enhance customer satisfaction.

Strategic Planning for the
Hospitality Industry

Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
Critically analyse the most appropriate factors to implement a chosen strategy...................3
Research about creative business strategies for your chosen organisation’s future strategy
selection to be competitive in the hospitality industry...........................................................5
Analyse and evaluate the different performance metrics (critical success factors, key
performance indicators and the balance scorecard)................................................................5
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................5
References........................................................................................................................................6

Introduction
Strategic planning refers to a process for which leaders of operational firm develops
effective standards of working for the attainment of desired vision and objectives of the
company. It is planning which comprises of various departments such as marketing, accounting,
human resources and finance. In the process being sequential goals can be achieved for which
productive efforts are produced that relate to avoiding wastages of resources in the operational
firm. In the provided report document, operational working at The Dorchester will be taken into
consideration. The given hotel is headquartered in London, UK which was owned by Brunei
Investment Agency in 1931. The provided report document will be inclusive of a selection of
appropriate strategies to establish critical success pathways for the chosen hospitality firm. In
addition to this, appropriate standards will be established in response to the strategy for
researching creative business strategies to shape the upcoming activities of the business firm.
Main Body
Critically analyse the most appropriate factors to implement a chosen strategy
Strategic management is one of the most important activities in any business since it
covers the complete span of strategic decision-making. It allows the organization to establish sets
of decisions, actions and measures collectively known as strategies that are then applied to
achieve organizational goals and objectives through the strategic management process. The stage
of strategy implementation necessitates the involvement of the entire organisation. The strategic
management team, with the help of senior management and important staff is in charge of
formulating the strategies. When it comes to execution, however, the strategic plan will be
carried out by the workforce, with senior or senior management leading the way (Velikorossov,
2020).
It is an ongoing process of using knowledge in the direction of business in order to
prioritize the efforts to properly allocate the resources to coordinate the employees, consumers
and shareholders. With the help of strategic plan one can track the progress of the objectives and
goals mainly of the department, business units, individuals and team. Proper use of strategic plan
allows to guide the marketing tricks, sales and business decisions to generate the profit in order
to be stronger in the market position.

A strategic plan provides a road map for a firm to follow in order to achieve a certain
strategy direction and set of performance goals, provide customer value, and prosper. This is
merely a plan; it does not ensure that the desired results will be reached, any more than having a
roadmap assures that the company will be able to give an adequate outcome of the business
firm's goals. It's really infuriating for companies that have a strategy in place to squander time
and energy on the planning process just to fail to put the strategy into action. Despite the fact that
the subject of execution may not be the most fascinating. It is a key business practice that must
be followed for any strategy to succeed. In regards to operational working at chosen hotel i.e.,
The Dorchester, takes consideration of following factors to implement a strategy in their business
working. The strategy which is adopted by the business firm relates to customer insight strategy. Changes in executive management: Changes in the composition of the board of directors
or the departure of top executives have an influence on strategy. Incoming management
team members may find it difficult to analyse existing tactics in order to incorporate fresh
ideas that will help the firm grow. This is regarded as one of the most important factors
that may have an impact on the business strategy of the chosen hotel, The Dorchester
(Kemp, 2018). Transformation in organisational structure: Structured changes such as mergers and
acquisitions, as well as development into new markets, necessitate strategic
reorganisation. Changes in management, capital, ownership, and market structures all
impact any organisation, prompting strategic management reforms. Managers at a
particular firm must adjust existing strategies and develop new ones to reconcile and
realign the organization's goals and objectives. Social and cultural factors: The social and cultural aspects of certain target markets may
induce changes in strategic management. Managers ensure that their company's strategic
direction is realigned to reflect for demographic and cultural considerations when going
global or generating new commodities for certain target groups. As a result, managers of
the particular firm must take care of the offered component in order to improve the
productivity of the business firm by implementing an efficient business plan. Technological forces: The company's plans may need to be adjusted owing to the
accessibility of appropriate technological skills. The organisation may be inspired to
increase production volumes and modify supply chain responsibilities as a result of

capital resources such as automated equipment and new machinery. Information
technology trends have an impact on strategic management changes. For example, the
growing importance of e-commerce may cause your organisation to abandon traditional
distribution methods in favour of online distribution.
 Laws and regulations: Legislative changes affecting taxation, the economy, and
healthcare have an influence on strategic management. To comply with the new
legislation' demands, you'll need to alter your current company strategy. New laws, such
as legislation requiring you to reduce your carbon footprint, may need a reassessment of
current production or supply chain management plan. Managers at separate hospitality
firms may execute effective business strategies and build important routes to success of
company plans by paying close attention to such elements (Long, 2019).
Research about creative business strategies for your chosen organisation’s future strategy
selection to be competitive in the hospitality industry.
Number of factors are required to be followed and considered while making a business strategy
are the competitors, market and the business environment. The business strategies are the set of
plans and goals which allows the business to compete with the competitors in the market for the
future strategy of the hospitality industry are as follows-
 In order to increase the revenue, the company can use the social media to set the
realistic goal in order to enhance the brand awareness. Various campaigns can be started
to improve the brand value and communicate with the customers. Social media is the
direct link between the business and customers. The chosen hotel can make use of the
upgraded information on the social media sites (Ansoff, 2018).
 A great website can be an important aspect in the business and for the purpose of online
marketing strategy. A well made website can be the medium to maintain good client
relationships with retaining the guests back to the hotel.
 The main focus can be on the feedback given by the customers which can support in
improving the reputation of the hotel and asking guests about the ambience, services or
quality of food so that the improvements can be done on the basis of feedback.
 By implementing the E-mail marketing can be a powerful tool to manage the
marketing strategies of the hotel and that can be a unique opportunity to expand the
brand by nurturing the relationship with the customers.

 In today's world, the hotel industry should have an online presence as it can make the
business more accessible. There will be less requirement of marketing as customers
reviews and engagement on the social media help to capture the customers (Cosenz and
Noto, 2018).
 Empowering mobile application for contactless approach in travel and tourism
practices which results in increasing efficiency and effective as it reduces time and
efforts. These initiative efforts will facilitates in attracting more bookings in the
industry. Furthermore, these initiatives will result in building strong social networks and
promotes healthy relationship among tourists and providers of facilities (Jean and Kim,
2021).
 Providing quality care and satisfaction to tourists and travellers results in providing
additional values to the culture and tourism industry. This initiative also involves
providing services even after checkout and keeping the tourists updated for further
events.
 The technologies that are being developed for hotels are truly exiting as well as game
changing. The improvements within hospitality industry can be in the form that there
should be installation of smart room keys that assists in allowing the guests to open the
door of their room with the help of a simple swipe of their smartphone. Nowadays,
tablets are considered as an effective communication tool for the guests as well as staff
that helps in giving response to the to the human resources of the hotels.
 Maintaining customer loyalty is another important tool that helps in improving the
business operations of the hotels. Because in this competitive world, customer loyalty
has become significant tool for any organisation in the hospitality sector. Companies
can maintain customer loyalty through organising loyalty programs.
Analyse and evaluate the different performance metrics (critical success factors, key
performance indicators and the balance scorecard).
Performance metrics is determined by representation of company's actions, quality served, and
abilities in the form of data and figures. It is an integral part of the success of the company and it
has various forms such as profit, customers, quality and abilities. All the organisation have their
own indicators which can be easily managed and improved. For example sales performance

metrics, financial metrics, people metrics, business performance metrics, employee performance
metrics or project performance metrics (Amason and Ward, 2020).
Critical Success factors
Success factors are the tools of strategy which are required for new opportunities to achieve the
objectives for the goals. For the success of the company Critical success factors are necessary
and it was developed by D. Ronald Daniel in 1961. These are the elements which helps in
implementing the strategic objectives. CSF are necessary to determine the ways of success and to
plan a new business initiative. CSF supports the management by contributing in the stratgeic
goals of the company for the business unit, department or function. Such factors are necessary to
support the teams and employees. In reference of Dorchester, it can follow the success factors to
get support in prioritizing the allocation of resources. As the factors allow to identify the main
resources of the company which are required for greater performance of the management. The
chosen company can set the goals and benchmarks to compare the performance. If they are lack
in goals that can cause an issue for the employees and achieving the new level of the company.
For example quality service, increased customer feedback, marketing strategies or executive
support.
Performance indicators
These are the indicators which are required to measure the overall long term performance of the
company. It is mainly focused on the consumer retention, customer retention and efficiency to
monitor the operational performance of the company. Dorchester can improve its customer
satisfaction by using the specific KPI to positively affect the customer satisfaction. It can also
empower the employees by tracking and measuring the improvements. For the company, the
indicators can be a good opportunity for the company and its employees. It can allow to un
understand the performance of the business to achieve the strategic tools. Theses indicators
measure the customers, employees, revenue and the level of customer satisfaction. During the
problems, the company can make use of the KPI so that the it can get the information to tackle
with problems and bring new opportunities too. For example employee turnover rate, labour
utilization, operating margins or employee absence rate. The performance of the employees
create a major impact on the goals of the company if they are not motivated enough then they
will not be able to meet the KPIs target and chances to succeed in the organisation. KPIs are
helpful in making the system more productive and sustainable to implement the strategies and it

targets to make progress in the company to make better decisions which are required for future
purpose. These factors can be monitored and measured by the reporting tools and analytical
software. Processed KPIs focus to measure the operational performance across the company and
be customer focused such as retention of customers, efficiency and satisfaction of the customers.
Moreover, the KPIs vary from company to company based on the criteria of performance.
Balance scorecard(BSC)
BSC is a part of strategic planning system which tends to communicate about the goals in order
to accomplish the strategic goals. It majorly measures the past performance and provides the
feedback so that the better decisions can be taken for the future purpose. It is a tool which
supports in tracking the activities of the employees to monitor, control all the actions and to
measure the performances. Dorchester can make the performance easier with the help of
balanced scorecard. In order to make the communication easier to deal with different team
members and departments. It can also connect the individual worker with the goals of the
organisation. For any company, it is necessary to tell the stakeholders about the plan of the
company in an easy and effective manner to keep them informed. Under the balanced scorecard
strategies, various budgets, analytics and risk management are focussed to meet the goal of the
company. One thing that is required to understand that the accurate data is used to create the
balanced scoreboard. The main advantage of BSC is to save the resources, time and money to
execute the reviews to improve the operations and procedures. It allows the company to measure
the financial data in the internal processes. Under a report, the data is complied from the basis of
past performance to prioritize the employees and other stakeholders. A balanced scoreboard is a
tool to manage the performance management tool to monitor the consequences bringing from the
actions. Nowadays, BSC has become a key component for the corporate strategic management
and it is the mixture of financial and non-financial measures to target values within the report.
BSC is a framework which is used for managing and tracking the various strategies of the
organisation. The factors and measurements should be focused on the main strategy to be
mutually consistent (D’Cruz , 2018).
CONCLUSION
From the analysis of above report it is clearly stated that strategic planning played a vital
role in order to enhance the company operations more effectively and setting up the sense of

direction. The strategic plan states the mission statements, long term goals and actions of the
company. In above several strategies and ideas were provided in order to enhance the company
performance because strategies creates a direction and vision for the whole company. By these
implications managers of given firm can easily gain the competitive advantage and can evaluate
their business functionality more significantly. Further several metrics were also created to
ensures the effectiveness of created planning. by the completion of such KPI showed the
reliability of strategies and efficiency.

References
Books and Journals
Amason, A.C. and Ward, A., 2020. Strategic management: From theory to practice. Routledge.
Ansoff, H.I., Kipley, D., Lewis, A.O., Helm-Stevens, R. and Ansoff, R., 2018. Implanting
strategic management. Springer.
Cosenz, F. and Noto, G., 2018. A dynamic business modelling approach to design and
experiment new business venture strategies. Long Range Planning, 51(1), pp.127-140.
D’Cruz, J.R., 2018. Strategic Management of Subsidiaries 1. In Managing the multinational
subsidiary (pp. 75-89). Routledge.
Jean, R.J.B. and Kim, D., 2021. Signalling Strategies of Exporters on Internet Business‐to‐
Business Platforms. Journal of Management Studies, 58(7), pp.1869-1898.
Kemp, R.L., 2018. Strategic planning in local government. Routledge.
Long, T.B., 2019. Sustainable Business Strategies. In Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable
Development Goals: Decent Work and Economic Growth (pp. 1-11). Springer.
Velikorossov, V.V., Genkin, E.V., Balakhanova, D.K., Sidorov, M.N., Maksimov, M.I.,
Sulimova, E.A. and Loshkov, B.D., 2020. Strategic management.