Strategic Management Report: Environmental Analysis of Westin Sydney

This report presents a strategic management analysis of The Westin Sydney, a leading five-star hotel in Sydney, Australia. The analysis begins with an environmental assessment, employing SWOT analysis to identify internal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Porter's Five Forces framework is utilized to evaluate the competitive landscape, assessing the threats of new entrants, substitutes, and industry rivalry, along with the bargaining power of suppliers and customers. The report then delves into an internal environmental analysis, examining the hotel's resources and capabilities, including facilities, location advantage, financial capabilities, human resources, technologies, and organizational culture. A TOWS matrix is constructed to formulate strategic recommendations by matching internal factors with external opportunities and threats. The report suggests actions such as employee training, expanding room choices, leveraging brand image, and CSR initiatives. The analysis is supported by references to academic literature on strategic management and the hotel industry.

Running head: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Strategic management
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Environmental analysis of The Westin Sydney
Internal environmental analysis
The Westin Sydney is one of the leading hotels in Sydney, Australia. They are rated as
five stars and are known for rich and effective service offerings. SWOT analysis will be used in
order to identify the internal factors of them.
SWOT analysis

2STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Porter five forces analysis
Threat of new
entrants
 Hotel industry requires huge capital for investment. This causes
the smaller brands to stay away.
 Hotel market in Australia is already saturated.
 Thus, the threat of new entrants is low.
Threat of substitutes  Direct substitutes are the competitors of them. Indirect substitutes
are other restaurants and home stay services such as Airbnb.
 Switching cost is also lower.
 Thus, the threat of substitutes is high.
Bargaining power of
the suppliers
 Huge number of suppliers is present in the market.
 However, Westin is depended on their suppliers for their major
activities.

3STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
 Thus, the bargaining power of the suppliers is moderate.
Bargaining power of
the customers
 Number similar service providers present in the market.
 Thus, customers are having more options to select from.
 Thus, the bargaining power of the customers is high.
Industry rivalry  Competition is high in the market due to the presence of number
of similar service providers.
 There are different five stars hotel available only in Sydney.
 Thus, the industry rivalry is high.

4STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Threats of new
entrants
Threats of substitutes
Bargaining power of
customers
Bargaining power of
suppliers
Competitive rivalry
Fro
m
To
High
High
Low
Low
High
Low
Low
High
Moderate
High

5STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
The above tables discussed about the negative and positive factors faced by the Westin
along with the market trend in their sector (E.Dobbs, 2014). Some of the proposed
recommended steps are:
 Having number of suppliers in order to have the upper hand in bargaining.
 Opening properties in exotic locations.
 Having more effective training process for the employees.

6STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
Strategic capabilities analysis
Categories Resources Capabilities
Facilities provided  Different range and types of
rooms.
 Added facilities such as
visitor parking and
childcare.
It enhances the level of
satisfaction of the employees.
This is due to the reason that
providing complementary
facilities over the core service
offerings helps to enhance the
customer value over the
competitors.
Location advantage  Global locations of Westin
provide varieties of location
for their customers.
Well connectivity to the hotel
will provide extra attributes to
the customers to choose the
particular hotel (Cuervo-
Cazurra, de Holan & Sanz,
2014).
Financial capability  The Westin is having their
properties in different
locations around the world.
Thus, they are having
financial capability to
maintain all those.
The more will be their
financial capability, the more
will be their ability to compete
in the market.
Human resources  Diverse workforce Diverse workforce helps them

7STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
 Trained and equipped
employees.
to cater to the diverse
customers coming from
different cultural and social
backgrounds (Podsiadlowski
et al., 2013).
Technologies used  CRM software
 Keyless entry
 Cashless service
Westin is having the capability
to initiate latest technologies
in customer service.
Organizational cultures  Effective training program
 Transformational leadership
Having motivated and
engaged employees in place,
which helps to provide
effective service and
enhancement of the employer
branding.
Corporate social
responsibilities
 Tribal community
development
 Food waste management
Having positive image in the
society and known for their
ethical practices.
Some of the suggested steps are:
 Should invest more in providing training to the employees.
 More initiation of the CSR activities. It will helps in enhancing the brand image.
TOWS matrix