Strategic Analysis of Hospitality Companies - Case Study Example

362159 - Consultant Report (Strategic Analysis of Hospitality Companies) 3/17/2010 Consultant 1. Evaluation of Carlson Hotels Current Strategy Carlson private limited was basically founded in 1938 with a paid up capital of only Dollar $ 55, as the Gold Bond stamp company and is a largest hospitality company that employee 115000 people in the world. Since, 2001 this company has been named as a best company working mothers by the working mother magazine (www.tmcnet.com/.../3108-customer-success-carlson-hotels-worldwide.htm). It has been declared as the 100 best companies as an employer as reported by fortune magazine in 2002. The human rights campaign declared as the best place to work for GLBT equality. This success of the strategy of Carlson Hotels is due to several reasons. The first reason is that this company offers congruent and comprehensive hospitality, leisure, and holiday making services under one window (www.carlson.com). The company has only one internet address under one IP number that is www.carlson.com. The server for this internet company is located in the Unites States of America. The IP has only 489 organic key words and there are only 217 in-links for a period of over 17 years (www.carlsonmarketing.com). Strategically Carlson Hotels as a company are placed at a much advantageous position with respect to many other hotels companies of the world. Carlson Hotels have so far showed their presence in more than seventy five countries of the world at 1060 various commercially viable locations. The brand names of the Carlson Hotels company are Park Plaza, Radisson Hotels, Country inns and suits, Park Inn and Regent Hotels (The Carlson Companies' saga, Star Tribune, May 1, 2007). The success of Carlson companies lays in the holistic and comprehensive hospitality services under one brand name of Carlson Hotels. This company is involved in travel, restaurants, cruise and hotels. At One Time Carlson Hotels Company is serving million of clients in the world. The services of this company speak for its efficiency, quality and consistency of individually customized service to each and every client in the world. The head quarters of Carlson Company lies in Minnesota, USA and is connected with Carlson Wagonlit travel management services which are known in the world for their highest quality (www.carlsonwagonlit.com). The strategy of this company is successful because of the design and delivery of loyalty, engagement with the clients and event management programs of the world’s biggest hosts. The motto of the company, while marketing the services of company the customers are branded as the most valuable asset (http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/investment/article2399656.ece). The best sort of planning for the clients is done through data management. There are extremely creative designs for this client management through the experience of this company in loyalty management. The state of the art technology is employed by this company on all the service centers irrespective of their location (David Phelps and Rochelle Olson, from hospitality to hostility, Star Tribune, May 1, 2007). A customer form, or at an African region is given the same services and attention as a customer of Minnesota. The global offices include the regions like Asia Pacific and America while, these global offices work through their head quarters which are located at Minneapolis Minnesota, USA (www.carlsonhotelsasiapacific.com). The global offices cover the Middle Eastern regions like Kuwait city, Dubai, Abu Debi and the European centers are located in Northampton and Isle worth. The loyalty specialists are also working in Doha and Riyadh with their licensed partners in Lisbon, Istanbul, Madrid and Barcelona (http://aol.careerbuilder.com/Jobs/Company/C8F4KL72B4F0M0V1874/Carlson-Hotels-Worldwide). The company has so far gathered a successful experience of having launched more than 1000 successful programs of loyalty relationship marketing over the last 70 years. The marketing services of Carlson Company has been out-sourced to in December 2009 to Groupe aero plane, which has come up as a global partner of this company in the loyalty services. This change of paradigm in the relationship services has turned into greater profitability for the company. The engine of success for this successful strategy is the sophisticated loyalty services which are creative, innovative and because the company believes in that the actions always speaks louder than the words .The company has adopted the best client relationship management (CRM) by employing the best market research professionals. There are big ideas that are exchanged for targeting the clients, there are different propositions that are put forth and there are various timing experiment that are done with these propositions in CRM. There are many creative genius people who work for this company to make the customers act in the favor of Carlson Hotels (The Tisch Family, Founders of Loews Hotels, Honored with the AH&LF's Fourth Annual Hospitality Heritage Award / Nov 2001). The name of Carlson Hotels has become a promise for the real, encourage able, advantageous, relationship with the customer. Since, Carlson Hotels is involved in hotels, restaurants, inns, travel management, event management like conferences, seminars, holiday making etc, the combination of all the services in the best possible manner through an interactive internet client service has made the strategy of Carlson Hotels a success. 2. An Assessment of Carlson Hotels Sources of Competitive Advantages The sources of competitive advantages of Carlson Hotels are its global presence in almost all regions of the world, an experience of over 70 years and a combination of all the loyalty and hospitality services for its clients. Innovation, research, design, internet based service centers, the best food, drinks, cultural and religious considerations, locations of hotels, resorts, inns and restaurants close to the commercial centers, international offices, beaches and picnic spots give added advantage to this company being a very successful in relation to the contemporary hotel chains in the world (Curtis Nelson, 39, Named President and Chief Operating Officer Carlson Companies / March 2003). The loyalty and relationship marketing of this company through face to face interaction with individual clients their groups and organizations along with the best possible management of meeting and events by this company makes this company an advantageous for its clients then all the others in the same business. The company engages with the clients and audience during the meetings before, in the currency and afterwards through a variety of communication methods in order to get the best possible feedbacks and constantly strives to improve its services on the complaints and suggestions of its guests and clients (Curtis Nelson Awarded the Hospitality Industry Diversity Institute (HIDI) Lifetime Achievement Award / Feb 2003). The other big advantage of this company is that the employees are involved in the decision making process of the company at all strategic and practical levels. The employees are given due incentives and they are valued as much as the clients themselves(http://www.hotelonline.com/News/PR2003_4th/Nov03_HeritageAward.html) The employees feel so comfortable and benefitted at this company that they always prefer not only to join but also advise their friends and relatives to join this company whenever and wherever an opportunity of employment with this company arises. So, the clients, management and employees and their loyalty with the organization is another big advantage which the other companies seldom enjoy. The company has another big edge of using the creative and innovative research professional at its head quarters and the global offices so that new avenues of improvement keeping into consideration the aspirations of the clients from all over the world are not only incorporated in the business plan but also put at center (http://content.usatoday.com/communities/hotelcheckin/post/2009/09/68499554/1). The state of the art technology in architecture of the hotels, experience designs, data management, data security, quality assurance and management of the data platform received through the customer’s phones, emails, SMS in various languages of the world at the equal and the highest possible standard. The other best possible advantage for this company is that there is full safety and security which is being provided to its clients at every cost by the company (www.carlson.com/media/article.cfm?id=822&group=corporate). The company is also responsible for providing the travel advisories containing travel risks; this service gives the clients an edge over the intelligence about their destination, thereby getting travel alerts and incidence reports (profiles.hospitalityonline.com/204177/). The company remains with the business clients throughout their trip in the world and looks them after till they get back home. All the ways and means of sophisticated safety and security is provided to the clients before their travel, after travel and during the travel. The company always keeps in view that the clients and their companies should be spending only optimized expenditures while conducting their meetings and events (www.tmcnet.com/.../3108-customer-success-carlson-hotels-worldwide.htm). The local operational needs for the clients are kept in view while arranging the meetings and events for them. The company arranges and closely works with the clients while deciding about their travel and transportation within a city or in the outskirts of a city. This aspect of clients comfort is catered for the Carlson Wagonlit travel services, who are the leaders in the world for the provision of the above services (www.startribune.com/business/11227436.html). This business partner of the Carlson Hotels gives it another big advantage and a leverage of the experience with the cutting edge technology in the savings of time, fuel and cost of travel, the best possible services in travelling under the best possible security and sustainability. Therefore, it can be said that the support and services for the clients provided at Carlson Hotels is not only unique but also second to none in the world (www.speakyourtruth.com/testimonials.php). The regulatory standards are being stringently employed at the company which has been duly credited by CCA and it is ISO 9001 certified (www.awpagesociety.com/images/uploads/Carlson.pdf). The latest technology is employed through the internet services for supporting the incoming and outgoing E-mails, data capture, SMS, and inland telephony. So it can be said that there is not a single advantage of the Carlson Hotels but there are multiple advantages which give it a leverage and edge over the contemporary hotel chains of the world and make it a successful business in the hotel industry in the world. References 1- www.carlson.com 2- www.carlsonwagonlit.com 3- www.carlsonmarketing.com 4- www.carlsonhotelsasiapacific.com 5- Sam Dunn; Judith Heywood 2007-09-07, http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/investment/article2399656.ece. Retrieved 2009-11-04.  6- David Phelps and Rochelle Olson, From hospitality to hostility, Star Tribune, May 1, 2007. 7-The Carlson Companies' saga, Star Tribune, May 1, 2007. 8- http://aol.careerbuilder.com/Jobs/Company/C8F4KL72B4F0M0V1874/Carlson-Hotels-Worldwide 9- Curtis L. Carlson, Founder and Chairman of Carlson Companies - an International Leader in Hospitality and Travel Services - Dies at Age 84 / Feb 1999 10- The Tisch Family, Founders of Loews Hotels, Honored with the AH&LF's Fourth Annual Hospitality Heritage Award / Nov 2001 11- Curtis Nelson, 39, Named President and Chief Operating Officer Carlson Companies / March 2003 12- Curtis Nelson Awarded the Hospitality Industry Diversity Institute (HIDI) Lifetime Achievement Award / Feb 2003 13- http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2003_4th/Nov03_HeritageAward.html 14- http://content.usatoday.com/communities/hotelcheckin/post/2009/09/68499554/1 15- www.carlson.com/media/article.cfm?id=822&group=corporate 16- profiles.hospitalityonline.com/204177/ 17- www.tmcnet.com/.../3108-customer-success-carlson-hotels-worldwide.htm 18- www.startribune.com/business/11227436.html 19- www.speakyourtruth.com/testimonials.php - 20- www.awpagesociety.com/images/uploads/Carlson.pdf Read More