- Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Critical success factors and industry strategy for Hilton Hotel
- Swot analysis
- Strength
- Weaknesses
- Opportunity
- Threat
- Internal and external stakeholders considered in strategic plan
- Internal stakeholders
- External stakeholders
- Analysis of the company vision and mission statement
- Mission statement
- Vision
- Objectives
- Functional and operations objectives of the following departments
- Marketing department
- Increase sales
- Improve the product awareness
- Brand management
- Production department
- Offering of quality services
- Optimum utilization of resources
- Teamwork maintenance
- Human resource department
- Training
- Conducting research
- Performance management
- Finance department
- Risk management
- Effective coordination with other department
- Strategic planning method
- Product development strategies
- Benchmarking strategies
- Suitable competitive strategies
- Striving to be the low cost producer
- Product differentiation
- Communication strategies
- Open
- Inclusive
- Multichannel communication strategies
- Showing progress
- Barriers to effective strategy implementation
- Cultural barrier
- Organization barrier
- Psychological barriers
- Recommendation to deal with the barriers
- Conclusion
- Reference
- Introduction
- Hilton hotel is a global chain of full service hotels and resort that is known as flagship brand of Hilton worldwide. In addition, the original company originated from Conrad Hilton but recently was owned by Hilton Worldwide. In 1927, Hilton opened its first hotel that encompasses cold running water and air conditioning in the public rooms. Hilton Hotels were the first coast-to-coast hotel chain of the United State in the year 1943. In 1948, it was the first hotel company to offer multi-hotel qualms. Previously there is about 530 Hilton branded hotels across the globe in about 78 countries across six continents. In addition, it has involved in purchasing medium sized hotel in 1970, but it has expanded its operations in UK. It is the largest lodging company in the whole world. Its customers include tourists and business travelers. In addition, tourists are categorized into low medium income category and high income groups. The high income tourist stays in the upscale luxury while low income may not afford them. Hilton Hotels offers diverse services that meets the need, amenities that are needed by the customer. The major achievement of Hilton Hotel is that it leads its competitive set in all operations. In addition, the company hotels and resorts products have the biggest growth pipeline. The plan of Hilton Hotel is that they will strive to create a consistently superior lodging. This will earn the loyalty of their customers by surpassing their expectations in anyway.
- Critical success factors and industry strategy for Hilton Hotel
- Critical success factors are factors that are essential to the success of any organization within a specific industry. Hilton hotel in UK must purse the following critical success factors in order for it to be a success industry. In addition, it is crucial to put together these critical success factors in the corporate strategy in order for it to make use of them. One of the critical success factors for Hilton Hotel is that they should offer price packages and other discounted facilities ('UK hotels star as Hilton profits rise' 2004, p.12). This will in advance help them to encourage their customers to keep on visiting Hilton hotel more often than how they normally visit. This in advance will help them to keep their customer’s loyalty. Another critical success factor for Hilton hotel is the quality services that they will provide. Hilton hotel in UK are focused about their service level. For example, they provide excellent care and reliable services to their customers. This issue of service standardization is a difficult task in industry, as one has to operate in different geographical areas (McNeil & Chernish, 2001, p.107). For them to resolve these problems and maintain steady service delivery it is vital that they install integrated technology infrastructure. They should also expand in the emerging market thus there will be more tourists and travelers. This in advance will result more retained profit for the entire company. The other critical success factor is that all the corporate should adhere to certain financial security and safety requirements. This will enable them to keep the license for gambling and hotel services (Maxwell & Watson, 2006, p.1153). This in advance will enable the Hilton hotel to remain successful and most profitable hotel in the globe. In conjunction it is essential for all of the corporate participants to remain competitive and remain with specific cost brackets. This will generally increase their effort and become successful and profitable hotel. In relation, all the participants should always explore the new market trends in order to assure that there is a proper position placement for all kinds of services offered in the hotel. The other critical success factor that Hilton hotel should put in place is that they should increase their sales ('UK Hilton hotels in line for £20 million revamp' 2010, p.8). This means that they should ensure that their profit and sales are maximized in a way that it will meet their customer’s needs. They should also focus on the development opportunity, which they offer to their employees. This in advance will help them to retain their customers thus increasing their success.
- Swot analysis
- The following is the swot analysis of the Hilton hotels.
- Strength
- The company enjoys several competitive advantage related to its large-scale operation. The company is one of the global leaders in the hotel industry with several hotel chains worldwide. The company also offers diversified products, which are based on the price and services. Through offering diversified products and services the company is able to provide their customers with the good and services they require. Moreover the company also has a strong management team that has helped to promote its growth and development. In relation to this the management of the hotel is also pursuing a growth strategy to consolidate the foreign markets. In addition the company has also introduced a loyalty programs that has helped to reward the loyal customers and ensure that they are satisfied with services offered in the hotel. Most importantly the company has a strong market share both in local UK market and in the international market.
- Weaknesses
- Despite the companies operating in large-scale the company also faces some internal and external problems that limit its expansion. One of the major weaknesses of the company can be linked to the complexity in the communication channel. This complexity in the communication channel in turn also limit the growth and development of the company. The company also has a major weakness with regard to international expansion strategies compared to some of the world leading hotel brands such as Hotel intercontinental. Private ownership of the hotel is another major factor that limits the growth and expansion of the hotel. This can be linked to the fact that only a few individuals are involved in making various decisions. The rising cost of the real estate in various countries is another major factor that limits the growth and expansion of the business. This high cost in turn has makes it hard for the company to lower the cost of the brand in different countries.
- Opportunity
- One of the major opportunities that the management of the company needs to utilize is with regard to the new emerging markets especially in the African countries. There has also been an increase in the number of foreign tourism in countries such as china, Russia among others. The management of the hotel also needs to implement strategies to help encourage the customer to be innovative in order to ensure that the company continues offering innovative product and services into the market. In addition there is also need for the management of the company to take advantage of the new technology in order to improve their service delivery.
- Threat
- The company also faces major threats especially from some of the world-leading brand such as the hotel Intercontinental. In order to deal with such threat there is need for the management to implement measures to help that the company continues offering quality products and services to their customers. The recent economic depression is another major factor that has affected the operation of the company limiting the growth and expansion strategies. A change in individual consumer choice is another major factor that limits the growth and expansion of the hotel. This is because in countries such as United States there has been an increase in the number of tourist who prefers independent hotels. In addition the recent increase in the fuels prices has also limited the growth and expansion of the business since it has interfered with the tourist travelling plans.
- Internal and external stakeholders considered in strategic plan
- Stakeholders refer to the individual who are affected or can affect the outcome of project. Involving the stakeholder in the strategic planning is an important step since it helps to promote the implementation of the product. According to Glynn and Woodside (2009, p.392) the stakeholders shape the project outcome at early stages ensuring that the resources are available to ensure the project is successful. There are two major categories of stakeholders involved in the strategic planning of the company goals and objective.
- Internal stakeholders
- The internal stakeholder refers to the influence of the management and the employee. The focus of the internal stakeholders in most cases is to ensure that the company creates value for the good and services that they provide to their customers. The internal stakeholders are also held accountable in terms of making strategic planning for the organization. The internal stakeholders are involved in the estimation of the product lifecycle, project effort and cost among other planning logistics. There is need for the management of the Hilton hotel to ensure that they involve the employee in the strategic planning. In this case involving the employee can help to ensure that they are eager to accept and implement the necessary changes required to ensure that the company achieves their growth objectives.
- External stakeholders
- The external stakeholder also plays a critical role in determining the success of a project. The external stakeholders include the suppliers, government and the community at large. Involving the external stakeholders can help to facilitate implementation of the various projects. For instance there is need for the management of the hotel to involve the suppliers in their plans to adopt new technology. In this case involving the suppliers in such plans can help to ensure that the suppliers supply high quality goods and services that match with the current technology. However, the role of the external stakeholders should be limited to only consultation services rather than direct implementation (Glynn, & Woodside, 2009, p.392).
- Analysis of the company vision and mission statement
- Mission statement
- Hilton hotel mission statement is mainly to become one of the leading businesses in the hospitality industry. In order to ensure the company achieves their mission the management has implement policies to help train their employee on the best ways to provide quality services to the customers. Another mission of the company is engaging the employees in the various developmental activities that the company wishes to undertake. In addition the company mission is also strengthening partnership with other companies especially in the hospitality industry in order to promote quality service delivery. Moreover the company also aims at becoming one of the leading companies in providing services to the community. It is also evident that the company has committed effort in protecting the global environment.
- Vision
- The major vision of the company is to be the best luxury hotel choice for the discerning travelers. In relation to this the company aims at offering unique guest experience to all its customers. Offering of unique customers experience is one of the features that have helped to distinguish the company from other competitors. In addition the company has a vision of providing people with an opportunity to realize their own potential through offering real luxury of today.
- Objectives
- The management of the company has devised strategic objectives that which play a critical role in determining the success of the business. First major objective of the business is to improve the brand of the company in order to ensure that the company is able to penetrate the international markets. Another major objective of the business is to have a balance scorecard that helps in assessing the overall performance of the business. Most importantly the management has devised a strategic objective of driving the business forward and ensuring that the business continues to increase their international market share. The human resource manager of the company has also implemented various programs aimed at improving the performance. For instance the human resource manager has implemented the elevator program that aims at ensuring that the company recruits only the high-qualified people that can help the company to achieve their objectives. The management of the company has also implemented strategic objectives aimed at ensuring that the company becomes environmental friendly as possible through reducing the amount of carbon dioxide that is emitted into air. It is also evident that the management of the company have implemented strategic objective aimed at reducing the water consumption levels. With regard to the marketing strategy the company has a strategic objective of becoming one of the leading companies in the hospitality industry.
- Functional and operations objectives of the following departments
- Marketing department
- The following are some of the functional objectives that can be adopted in the marketing department.
- Increase sales
- One of the most important objectives of the marketing department is to help the company improve on their sales. According to Frain, (1999, p.79) marketing department of any organization needs to make good return on investment. Increase in the sales can help to ensure that the company continues to generate enough profit that can enable the company achieve their growth objectives.
- Improve the product awareness
- There is also need for the marketing department to develop strategies to help ensure that they increase the product awareness in the market. Improving the product awareness in the market can help to increase the demand of their services in the market. In this case the Hilton hotel need to promote itself as one of the leading the companies in offering quality services to their customers.
- Brand management
- The sales department should also be involved in the brand management. Improving the company can help to increase the sales and ensure that the company achieves their growth objectives. In addition improving the company brand can help to improve the emotional connection of the business with the customers. Most importantly implementing brand management strategies can help to promote the uniqueness of the brand offered to the customer.
- Production department offering of quality services
- In order to ensure that the company achieves their growth objective there is need for the management of the company to commit effort in offering quality products and services. Through offering quality product the company can increase their sales since of most of the customers in the hospitality industry are interested with the companies offer quality services. The management of the company therefore needs to put in place quality measures to monitor the products and services offered.
- Optimum utilization of resources
- The production department should also aim at optimizing the utilizations of the various resources that may be available. Maximum utilization of the resources can help to ensure that the company can help to reduce the cost of production and hence ensure that it continues to make profit. Maximum utilization of the resources should also involve maximum utilization of the available labor.
- Teamwork maintenance
- There is also need for the production department to ensure that they maintain teams in their service delivery. Working as team can help to ensure that the workers in the production department are able to deliver quality services to the customers. In addition working as team can help to ensure that the employees working in the production departments are able to accept the various changes proposed in this paper.
- Human resource department
- Training
- One of the best strategies of ensuring that the company achieves their objectives is through providing ofemployee training. Providing training can help to equip the employee of the company with the necessary skills they need in order to continue offering quality products and service (Armstrong, 2007, p.19). In addition providing training can help to equip the employee with the current technology needed to improve production.
- Conducting research
- The human resource manager department also needs to embark on research in order to indentify the best possible method offering quality services to their customers. The department can therefore search the strategies that are used by some of the world-leading brand in the world in order to improve the performance.
- Performance management
- The human resource department also needs to improve on their performance management techniques. Improving the performance management strategies can help to motivate the employee to continue working for the company (Armstrong, 2007, p.24). Most importantly improving the performance management can help to ensure that the company achieves their growth objective and become one of the leading companies in the hospitality industry worldwide.
- Finance department
- Risk management
- The finance department should be involved in the implementing risk management strategies. Improving on the risk management strategies can help to ensure that the company has necessary contingency plans to deal with any interruption in the production (Marsh, 2012, p.52).
- Effective coordination with other department
- In order to ensure that the company achieves its objective there is also need for the finance department to ensure that it works closely with other department (Great Britain 2008, p.8). For instance the human resource manager should ensure that all the employees receive their respective salaries at the right time.
- Strategic planning method
- The planning method suggested in this paper is the top-down approach where the leaders in an organization initiate the improvement plans. With regard to the top-down approach the leadership in an organization should first take an orientation of how to improve the performance in an organization. According to Kelly (2006, p.3) top-down approach is suitable in the situations where the leadership of the organizations are highly respected. In this case considering that the Hilton hotel is private owned then it is evident that the top-down approach is the most suitable approach since the management of the company is highly respected.
- Moreover adoption of the top-down approach can help to ensure that the management of the company support the plans and commit effort towards implementation of the plans. In relation to this involving the management in training can help in ensuring that the employees are equipped with the necessary skills need to implementations of plans. It is also evident that the implementation of the top-down approach can help in ensuring a level playing field since all the decision are made by the management of the company therefore eliminating competition among the employee. However, the application of the approach in planning may also limit level of innovation among the employees. It is also evident that the method may lead to loss of potential talent in an organization. According to Kelly (2006, p.67) the method may also be expensive to implement since it requires implementation of measure to deal with any employee resistance.
- Product development strategies
- Development of new product in the market requires first the analysis of the target market and how they will benefits from this new product. In order to facilitate the development of new product in the next five years this papers suggest that the implementation of the benchmarking strategies
- Benchmarking strategies
- The company needs to compare some its services it offers into the market with one of the world leading companies in the hospitality industry. In this case the company needs to compare their product lines, marketing strategy. In order to implement the benchmarking strategy the management of company needs to carry out research to establish the different strategies used by the rival companies. After carrying out the research the next step involves analysis of the new strategies in order to establish the best ways to implement the policies. After the analysis of the strategies the next step involves integration of the strategies within the business process. During the implementation there is need for the management to establish strategies to manage any resistance to the change implementation. Applying the benchmarking strategies can help to close the performance gap that exists between the company and some of the world leading brands.
- Suitable competitive strategies
- The following are some of the competitive strategies that the management of the company can adopt during the implementation of the benchmarking strategies.
- Striving to be the low cost producer
- The main aim of adopting the low cost producers is to open up cost advantage of over their competitors. The management of the company can therefore adopt a low prices compared to other companies in order to attract more customers to purchase products and services. However the low prices adopted should be fixed in such a way that it allows the business to make enough profit.
- Product differentiation
- The management of the company should also develop product differentiation strategies to ensure that the customers are able to distinguish the company product from their competitors (Pride et al., 2012, p.362). The management of Hilton hotels should therefore aim at becoming one of the leading companies in offering luxury services. Most importantly incorporating product differentiation strategies can help in improving the customer product knowledge.
- Communication strategies
- In order to adopted the above outlined strategies this paper suggest that the management of the company need to adopt the following the communication strategies
- Open
- The management of the company needs to ensure that they implement an open type of communication strategies where all the employees feel free to contribute to the feedback regarding the implementing of the various strategies (Denton, 2003, p.48). In this case the leaders in the company need to commit effort in building an environment where the employees trust the management.
- Inclusive
- The management of the company also needs to ensure that the communication strategies developed is inclusive where the management involves all employees in the company. Applying inclusive mechanism in this case is suitable since most of the strategy suggested in this paper affect the day-to-day operation in the company. In addition involving the employee in the implementation can help to eliminate any possible resistance from the employee. In relation to this the management of the company also needs to adopt two-way communication strategies where they also incorporate the opinion of the employee during the implementations of the proposed strategies.
- Multichannel communication strategies
- Considering that the fact that the Hilton hotel has a complex organizational structure then there is need for the management to adopt multi-channel communication strategy in order to deliver messages multiple times in the multiple ways. Adopting this strategy can help to ensure that the company gets feedback from all its branches worldwide regarding the proposed strategies (Hirsch, 2004, p.4)
- Showing progress
- In order to facilitate smooth implementation of the various proposed strategies there is need for the management to ensure that they update the employee regarding the progress of the proposed strategies. Keeping the employee informed enables the employee to become actively involved in the planning. Showing progress also plays a role in motivating the employee to commit effort towards successful implementation of the project. According to Harris et al., (2004, p.52) disclosing the implementation plans plays a critical role in promoting transparency and ensuring effective monitoring the project.
- Barriers to effective strategy implementation
- The following are some of the barriers that can hinder successful implementation of the project.
- Cultural barrier
- The cultural barrier is one of the factors that can hinder successful implementation of the proposed strategies. The cultural factors interfere with the implementation of the proposed strategy mainly due to the difference in attitude and beliefs of people in different regions where the hotel operates. In addition considering the hotel operates in the hospitality industry then it is evident there is need for the management to ensure that they factor in the different cultures in the regions where the company operates during the implementations.
- Organization barrier
- The complexity of the organization is another fact that can hinder successful implementation of the proposed strategies. With regard to the organization barrier it is evident that the status difference among the employee is one of the factors that hinder communication (Mazzola & Kellermanns, 2010, p.170). Information overload is also another factor that can hinder implementation of the strategies since the employee may not be able to respond to the direction issued by the management effectively.
- Psychological barriers
- Psychological barrier is one of the barriers of effective communications and hinder smooth implementation of the proposed strategies. Lack of interest from the employee may be one of the possible causes of effective communication in the organization. Possible distrust among the employee may also hind smooth implementation of the proposed strategies. In addition presence of emotions among the employee may also delay the implementation of the strategies.
- Recommendation to deal with the barriers
- There is need for the management of Hilton Hotel to implement measures to deal with any resistance from the employee during the implementation of the proposed strategies. In order to deal with the employee resistance the management of the hotels should ensure that they follow the proposed plan to the latter to avoid any confusion in the implementation. The management should also ensure that they deal with any problem, as soon it occurs in order to avoid delay in the implementation (Ashkanasy et al., 2002, p.42). There is also need for the management of the hotel to provide sufficient training to the employee to enable them adapt to the proposed changes. In relations to this providing training can help the employee to gain the necessary skills they need to improve on their production. Moreover, there is also need for management of the hotel to strengthen their reward system in order to encourage the employee to adapt to the proposed changes. Implementing a strong reward system can help to ensure that the employee are motivated to continue working for the organization.
- Conclusion
- From the above it is evident that Hilton Hotel is one of the leading businesses in the hospitality industry in UK. The management of the hotel has also committed effort toward improving the quality of services they offer in the market. Benchmarking strategy proposed in this paper can help to improve the performance of the company and ensure that the company acquires a significant market share in the international market. Implementing the benchmarking strategy suggested in this paper can help to close the performance gap that exists between the company and some of the world leading brands in the hospitality. In order to ensure that the company achieves the proposed strategy there is need for the all the department in the hotel to continue working together. With regard to the human resource department there is need for the department to introduce reward strategies to motivate the employee to adopt the changes recommended in this paper. In addition there is also need for the marketing department to embark on the brand management strategies to increase the company product awareness in the market. Most importantly there is need for the human resource manager to involve the employee in the planning and implementations of the proposed strategies.
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