Author: Andre Coleman

Pakistan is a good place for tourism as it has the most appealing and breathtaking views of mountains, plateaus and deserts. It has the high potential to attract a large number of foreign tourists, along with that, Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) had set up 27 motels and 3 restaurants for the convienience of these foreign tourists, PTDC need to intensify their marketing ability in order to attract tourists from countries like, China, Middle East Korea, Japan, and many other countries. Moreover Pakistan government need to take certain actions, in order to promote and acknowledge Tourism in Pakistan, as doing so will not only benefit us financially but will also bring unity, compatibility and harmony among nations. Moreover government also need to encourage private sector to develop tourism-friendly environment which will result in financial stability.

Source: PTDC page on mountaineering, http://www.tourism.gov.pk/mountain.html

Research methodology:

Most of the data obtained for this research will come secondary sources including book, internet, magazine etc but to increase the accuracy of information I will conduct primary research to validate my results from secondary data .

Primary research for this assignment was conducted through a telephonic interview with people who are influence by the tourists. I have taken a sample size of 30 people who belong to different places but have one thing in common and that is they have interest in tourism in Pakistan.

The sample selected [people who are either potential customer for tourism in Pakistan ir those who belong to promote tourism in Pakistan together with those who earn their living by providing service to foreign tourist.

Following are the few questions which I have ask to these people in order to gather the data for my research.

How are conditions in Pakistan for foreign tourists

Do Pakistan has got enough place for foreign tourist to visit.

How is security situation across the country

What place would you suggest to foreign tourist to visit

Do government of Pakistan taking enough steps to promote tourism

Do people of Pakistan welcome tourist in their country

In response to first question 70% of people interviewed responded that conditions in Pakistan are good enough to tourist. The condition include security situation but also include infrastructure road network and other conditions while the raining 30% were quall divide for example 15% said conational Pakistan are not favourable for foreign tourist while remaining 15% said they were not really sure.

Out of the total sample I have selected 90% people do believe that Pakistan has enough place for many tourist to see and therefore had the other issue such security etc resolve Pakistan has much to offer foreign tourist while 10% people were not sure if Pakistan had enough place to offer to foreign tourist.

In response to question of security conditions most people who were outside the Pakistan believe that Pakistan is not very secure country for foreign tourist and that accounted for the 80% of them while remaining 20% whom majority were Pakistanis in United Kingdom believe that Pakistan is though affected by terrorism and other issue but still security conditions in the country are satisfactory enough for the foreign tourist. While remaining people who were inside the country and when whether foreign tourist should Pakistan without risking their security have replied positively.

When I ask on few places that people know should be interesting for tourist many people replied by pointing out historical place such Taxila, Mohn Jo daro to sea beeches of Karachi and beautiful natural place in Gilgit-Bilistan. But sadly people who were outside the Pakistan were not really sure the famous places to visit in Pakistan.

In response to the question of whether government of Pakistan is promoting tourism in Pakistan whether it’s domestic tourism or foreign. Almost 70% of people said that government of Pakistan should do more and is not doing enough to promote positive image of the country. While remaining 30% were not sure about the government action to promote tourism.

When I ask the question whether Pakistani people welcome tourist almost 90% agree that Pakistani people do welcome tourist either they are coming from other part of the country or from the other of the world.

Tourism in Pakistan

Due to its diverse culture, people and landscape, Tourism is growing industry in Pakistan, even after considered as one of the most dangerous country in the world, According to British Magazine “The Economist”. In Pakistan there are number of varieties of attraction that ranges from the ruins of ancient civilization such as Mohenjo-Daro, Harappa and Taxila, to the Himalayan hill-stations that attract those interested in field and winter sports. Moreover, Pakistan has several mountain peaks of height over 8,000 metres (26,250 ft), that attract adventurers and mountaineers from around the world, especially to K2. Many domestic and International tourists visit these areas most often in the month starting from April to September. Tourism has become the source of income for local people.

In 2009, Pakistan was ranked 113 out of 130 countries to visit, According to the World Economic Forum’s Travel and Tourism Competitiveness Report (TTCR). Although due to Political instability, suicide attacks, religious conflict, kidnapping of foreigner and uncertainty in the country had badly affected the Tourism throughout the country, especially NWFP, which is currently renamed as Pakhtoonkhwa.

Source:

Eco tourism:

For decades, Ecotourism has become the significant part of the tourism business in Pakistan, as it has offered much tremendous experience along with the stunning mountains of NWFP, attracting number of tourists all over the world for hiking, skating, forest camping, climbing, and exploring the region’s natural parks and forests. Pakistan ecotourism destination is unforgettable for those who have ever visited it.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pk

Especially, Swat, Huns, Aruba, Abbott bad, Murfree, Narran and Kahn have yet been known as the ideal tourists spot for both summer and winter season. The snow-peaked mountains, the natural parks and the wildlife in the forests offered a thrilling experience especially for the one who is in search of adventure.

The natural beauty of this mountainous scenery has attracted number of tourists generating vital jobs for local people in the hospitality-related businesses. Moreover the Swat valley alone – known as the “Switzerland of the East” – has become the centre for 800 hotels. Over 40,000 local people Pakistan employed directly in hospitality.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pk

Impact of war on tourism in Pakistan:

Over the past decade, and especially since 2007, the rapid spread of terrorism have not only created uncertainty in the country but also crushed the major sector of economy that causes unemployment, Suicide bombing has become common in everywhere likewise, in shops, markets, public places, business centres and institutes. War and conflict is not limited to a particular city. Its effect is everywhere, anybody can be victim of it.

Due to fight between military and religious forces, the NWFP- which is considered 70% of the country’s tourists site, and where millions of people involved in the tourism industry are badly beaten. Continuous war and terror has weaken both the economy and defence of the area.

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/tellis_pakistan_final.pdf

Due to worst security situation and many of the popular location are converted into war zones, hardly few travellers now visit Pakistan. Although after 9/11 attack in USA, there was a slow decline of tourists in Pakistan but the recent military operations and suicide attacks have been the last nail in the smashing of tourism industry.

Since the initiation of the major religious and military offensive, the earning that comes from tourism has been declining dramatically. From Rs 16 billion in 2007, revenues halved in 2008, with a further major fall in 2009. The industry is now facing a $50 million annual loss as a result of the military operations.

The hospitality business had experienced a major fall of 40% in room occupancy countrywide. Moreover in NWFP, the insurgency has caused the shutdown of tourist industry. From the last three years the hotels have been closed while the industry has lost of Rs 600 billion. Moreover the transport industry is also going through tough times. Due to huge job losses in tourism and other related industry, majority of the people have migrated to other cities in the search of employment.

Moreover the revenue that was generated from tourism has been declined by 11.8% in 2008, while 12% in 2009. The average family involved in tourism business used to earn around 40,000 per mouth and soon after war their earning has dropped to 5000/ month.

With more than 25,000 people killed and more than a million displaced in the past year, planned hotel projects have been put on hold. The number of mountain climbers and foreign trekkers has reached zero. Barbarism and bloodshed now run rampant in places which once offered peace and tranquillity. No-one would dream of visiting these places for pleasure now.

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/tellis_pakistan_final.pdf

Moreover adding to the crises faced by these shattered tourism industry, the federal budget has also been cut by 36 percent for 2010-2011 comparatively with the previous year. The only project this year will be to reconstruction and renovation of existing buildings. There isn’t any scheme introduced in order to help overcome terrorism.

With the Pakistani political leadership appears to unaware of the real potential of industry, that show little or no prospect in the coming years of tourism attaining momentum that it lost. With the whole industry standing on the boundary of collapse the future looks blank for Pakistan most spectacularly beautiful locations.

http://www.carnegieendowment.org/files/tellis_pakistan_final.pdf

Pakistan strategy to control extremism:

In the eighth year of the global war on terror, the international community has realized that it is a war of ideas that cannot be won through force. Eventually Pakistan sees that countries today have adopted unique approaches towards deradicalization according to the requirements of their cultural, political situation, and social specification. The aim of these practicing deradicalization programmes in Middle East and South East Asia, at a collective level, is to change the worldview of the affected persons. Private sectors or at some places government and private sectors together adopted the approach of ‘rehabilitation and re-education of the detainees’.

The reason behind the failing of war on terror on both sides of Pak-Afghan border has also some structural causes such as refusal of Taliban from Afghan government, public perception of Pakistan’s policies as a key US ally, use of force as a priority option, continued US drone attacks, denial of any relief and transitional justice to the victims of military operation, issue of Afghan refugees, and lack of trust between US, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

There is a strong tie between lack of human security and terrorism. Rise in extremism can lead to human insecurity and vice versa. Since independence, government of particular south Asian states have not been providing their people with minimum security. Governments and ruling classes, instead of focusing on dealing with the issues of human survival and development, embarked upon perpetuating their poPakistanr and influence. Subsequently, no South Asian country has been able to free itself from discriminatory and exploitative policies, which led to increased insecurity and to the rising number of communal and terrorist outfits. Even after the problem these outfits have made, no serious action has been taken by the government or civil society in order to diminish rise in extremist trend at the initial stage. All of the regional states are facing the menace of extremism and terrorism in one or other form.

http://www.rferl.org/content/Analyst_Defeating_Extremism_In_Pakistan_Requires_Regional_Strategy/1368724.html

Currently south Asian region are facing serious security threat which is due to increment of terrorism and extremism. There are various factors that have led towards this situation.

The politics of violence and extremism in South Asia is mainly the result of faulty national policies and interference of external powers. The region’s vast potential is hostage to unresolved inter-state and intra-state conflicts. In most of the states, the governments (either democratic or military) have failed in providing good governance and solving social problems such as unemployment, social injustice, and poverty. The political culture in these states was unable to meet the imperatives of globalization. In addition, instead of promoting unity and integration (both at national and regional levels) it led to ethnic solidarities and identification with religion and culture.

Source : http://www.cssforum.com.pk/general/news-articles/articles/26177-causes-extremism-south-asia-pakistan.html

How tourism situation could improve in Pakistan

The tourism sector is being overlooked by the successive governments and quite tiny amount is allocated in Public Sector Development Programme that hardly caters for it demands. At global level, Pakistan is wrongly projected in the media and tourists are advised not to visit this south Asian country, which offer four-season tourism opportunities.

Security is just not only the issue that has haunt the terrorism but there are also some other factors involved which add to woes of this multibillion dollar trade the world over. These factors involve like,

Moreover, Lack of infrastructure, facilities to the tourists, transport, discouraging response from officials circles etc are also some of the areas that are need to be improved.`

Until and unless take this (tourism) industry on priority basis, Pakistan are not going to see it flourishing. Pakistan also needs to put in maximum resource in our tourism sector.

Pakistan has very diverse and rich culture to offer tourist together with lots of opportunity for adventure tourism as the four provinces and three territories of Pakistan are very diverse and so different that it doesn’t look like to foreign tourist that they are in same country with different culture, attractions and different seasons.

Pakistan should improve the image of country by first of improving security situation in order to convince foreign tourist that they are safe in the country because in the past the incident like kidnapping of American journalist and attack on srilankan team together with bomb blast in big cities of the country lead to a feeling among the west that Pakistan is not a safe country which is main cause of declining tourism in the country especially tourist from western countries are reluctant to visit Pakistan because of the fear that country is not safe enough.

Together with these measure Pakistan need to improve its image by promoting itself on various platforms around the world and together promoting hospitality industry through giving them incentives, Pakistan can catch significant number of tourist looking for adventurism or natural beauty visit Pakistan and contribute significant revenue for the government of the country while providing employment to big number of its population.

Security situation for tourist in Pakistan:

Pakistan have got a number of places where tourist can visit and these places are safe and secure especially the southern part of Pakistan is very much safe together with northern areas like gilgit and biltistan which are very beautiful and well received by tourist that even though when war on terror going on bu the tourism in northern areas is increasing and every more and more foreign tourist are visiting these areas. The mountain there are very clean and beautiful which catch the attention tourist and that s the prime reason why many people who visited Pakistan will be able to tell you that how beautiful the place which is though not very promote but well received by people around the world.

Source: http://www.eturbonews.com/15162/diversity-adventure-story-and-false-media-news-pakistan

Every year thousands fo people from the countries such India and china are coming to see the Pakistan and they came here andseee the country hwile goi ng back they told their families and friends about the country which is not told on media.every Pakistan receive a grea t number of adventure tourist who came here because they believe that Pakistan is safe when they return with positive experience they act as advertisement for the country.

Source: http://www.eturbonews.com/15162/diversity-adventure-story-and-false-media-news-pakistan

The people of Pakistan are welcoming and they give respect to visitors and greet them, show them local custome anad tribal way of doing things which tourist find attractive and interesting.

For the adventure tourist especially Pakistan is very good place, as in Pakistan there are huge mountains like the eastern Himalaya and other, these mountain have a height of over 8000 metres and are longest chain of mountain where people can do tracking, exploration, or anything in this beautiful area.

Source: http://www.eturbonews.com/15162/diversity-adventure-story-and-false-media-news-pakistan

Pakistan is unique ! Situated in the heart of the South Asian sub-continent, it is a country with its own history and cultural heritage, fascinating in its own right. Pakistan was the site for one of the world’s earliest human settlements, the great prehistoric Indus Valley Civilization, the crucible of ancient empires, religions and cultures.

The land of Pakistan ranges from lofty mountains in the north, the Karakoram and the Himalayas, through dissected plateaus to the rich alluvial plains of the Punjab. Then follows desolate barrenness of Baluchistan and the hot, dry deserts of Sind blending into miles and miles of golden beaches of Makran coast. Come and Explore the Treasures of Pakistan with us. A visitor to Pakistan is more than a tourist – to us he is an honoured guest.

Competitive advantage of Pakistan over other countries:

In order to compete in this environment every country in the competition to catch tourist have to offer competitive advantage which is the things that country can do best. The possession of competitive advantage is in itself is not enough but countries like industries to communicate it to potential tourist in rest of the world. The basis of competitive is always lie in the resources of the country with prime important is the way that country use these resource in order to get competitive advantage and also with the fact that the resource which formed the basis of competitive advantage are of sufficient quantity and quality. The three major resources for country are financial resource, physical and human resource . While these resource of financial human and other physical are in economics refer as land, labour and capital with the basic skills entrepreneurship.

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/pakistan/images/badshahi-mosque-pakistan$24057-10

It’s a open secret that northern areas of the country are very rich for attracting the potential tourist where the natural beautify of landscape with their traditional cultural heritage have made a heaven for eco tourist especially. But sadly those northern areas of the country are not very well developed and considered by government and therefore are not very well protected and their natural beauty with their unique cultural heritage couldn’t effectively conserved by government of Pakistan till today.

Though when considering adventure tourism we think about Nepal and other countries located in the region but Pakistan has enough to offer in adventure tourism such as five out of fourteen mountain peaks of K2 are situated in the Pakistan where there height reach to as much high as 8000 meter and together with this some of the largest glaciers are situated within the territory of gilgit-bilistan as these are largest glaciers outside the polar region.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilgit-Baltistan

Mohenjo-Daro was a city located in the south of Modern Pakistan in the Sind Province, on the right bank of the Indus River. It was built between four and five thousand years ago, and lasted until 3,700 BP. It was part of the Harrapan Civilization, and the city had at least 35,000 residents. Mohenjo-Daro means “mound of the dead”. The city was approximately one square mile in size. In 1922-1927 large scale excavations at Mohenjo-daro Pakistanre carried out by R. D. Banarjee and continued by M. S. Vats and K. N. Dikshit under the direction of Sir John Marshall. E. J. H. MacKay carried out further excavations from 1927 to1931. Sir Mortimer Wheeler made small excavations in1950.

http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pk

In Balochistan there are many caves for cavers and tourists to visit especially the Juniper Shaft Cave, the Murghagull Gharra cave, Mughall saa cave, and Pakistan’s naturally decorated cave, the Mango her Cave. Pakistan is a member country of the Union International de Speleologie (UIS).

The northern parts of Pakistan are home to several historical fortresses, toPakistanrs and other architecture including the Huns and Chitral valleys, the latter being home to the Kalash, a small pre-Islamic Animist community.[Punjab is also the site of Alexander’s battle on the Jhelum River. The historic city of Lahore is considered Pakistan’s cultural centre and has many examples of Mughal architecture such as the Badshahi Masjid, Shalimar Gardens, Tomb of Jahangir and the Lahore Fort. The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation (PTDC) also helps promote tourism in the country. HoPakistanver, tourism is still limited because of the lack of proper infrastructure and the worsening security situation in the country. The recent militancy in Pakistan’s scenic sites, including Swat in Khyber Parkton Kawa province, have dealt a massive blow to the tourism industry. Many of the troubles in these tourist destinations are also blamed on the frail travel network, tourism regulatory framework, and low prioritization of the tourism industry by the government, low effectiveness of marketing and a constricted tourism perception. After these areas Pakistanre being cleared off the militant groups in late 2009, the government, with financial support from the USAID, started a campaign to reintroduce tourism in Swat valley. Pakistan receives 500,000 tourists annually, with almost half of them heading to northern Pakistan

http://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/pk

Strategies to improve tourism in Pakistan:

1. Safety

2. Emergency evacuations

3. Easy bookings of hotels and resorts, train and air services, cabs etc.

Tourism is, in the current period, one of the areas that can provide regional and country, a profitable and economic development. Natural and anthropogenic potential which Romania has is necessary to be properly exploited, providing promotion and development of investment programs, able to attract a large number of tourists. The project is presenting a series of specific mountain tourism development through investment programs focused on strategic quality tourism services and protect the natural environment.

Airports are the gateway to the country. Facilities and handling provided at the

International airports from a lasting impression on the foreign tourist. Our airports suffer from a number of drawbacks despite the vast improvements undertaken in recent years.

Sufficient attention has not been paid to the periodic training and education of personnel involved in handling immigration, security and health checks. Personnel at the airports would be encouraged to learn at least one foreign language. Suitable financial incentive will be provided for this purpose. Facilitation counters located in the immigration area will be manned by the personal of PTDC. Accredited representatives of recognized travel agencies would be given identity cards valid up to airline and immigration counters.

Baggage handling and clearance system should be improved.

The tour operators will arrange insurance cover for the tourist groups handled by them. The existing requirement of police registration and restriction of movement of foreigners would be removed except where specifically required under security considerations. Most tourists visiting Pakistan require visas, which are issued by Pakistani Embassies or High Commissions in other countries. While implementation is satisfactory, visas are an irritant to tourism and add to the cost of a holiday. Visas for nationals from some neighbouring states include considerable restrictions, which puts significant limitations on the development of regional tourism.

However, as a part of its policy to facilitate tourism, the government has recently eased restrictions on visas.

Source : http://www.tourism.gov.pk/travel_guide.html

The Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation maintains 21 Tourist Information

Centres at various sites across the country; in addition, there are information offices

Operated by provincial tourism authorities. However, the standard of service offered invariable and a rationalization of all centres is required, with staff training in foreign languages and customer relations. High-tech Tourist Information Centres of the kind available at Karachi International Airport, with e-mail, fax, and website facilities need to be established at the other major airports and city centres.

A website of 1500 pages showing Pakistanis scenic tourist sites and cultural heritage has recently been launched which will greatly enhance awareness both nationally and internationally.

Source : http://www.tourism.gov.pk/travel_guide.html

There are approximately 41 tour operators in Pakistan that provide destination

Management services for domestic and foreign tourists. As their services are critical to the development of international tourism, they need to be treated as a primary sub-sector and supported accordingly.

Several areas of regulation impact negatively on tourism, such as the forbidden

Photography of bridges and airports, and restricted zones where trekkers require special permission to enter. These restricted areas could be limited and perhaps renamed permit zones. Tribal leaders may be involved in the development of tourism activities in their areas.

Although Pakistan possesses world-class tourist attractions, the international tourist

Potential of areas such as the Swat Valley has been considerably reduced because of the lack of planning regulations, over-development and environmental degradation. Due to lack of co-ordination between the tourism industry and authorities in charge of natural, historical or religious sites, the tourism potential of such sites is not fully realized.

Source : http://www.tourism.gov.pk/travel_guide.html

Conclusion:

It’s the only industry, which needed more and more exploration’ (Zamar Sheikh)

Pakistan is a major tourist attraction because it is blessed with natural beauty and

Historical places that can yield huge foreign exchange if properly and methodically

Exploited. Tourism could become foreign exchange earning industry for the country.

Though Pakistan, has lately taken initiative but still there is dire need of tireless efforts to exploit this sector and to add more dimensions to attract the tourists.

No proper attention was paid to harness the God gifted opportunity to earn more and

More foreign tourists and foreign exchange which would open up new vistas of

Employment in the tourism sector. Moreover the tourists may find and explore the market of their interest in Pakistan.

Involvement of private sector was important to give boost to tourism. Private sector

Should be given not only tax exemption but they also should be provided with vast

Opportunities to invest and they must be facilitated also in terms of money; a network of five stars hotels and motels should be constructed at all tourists’ spots and tourist

Operators may be provided necessary facilities, which on the one hand helped reduce unemployment while on the other harness foreign exchange.

Private sector should take initiative to develop and exploit all tourist attraction and

Historical location in the province, which unfortunately, has suffered due to negative

Concept about its law and order.

Good hotel industry acceptable to the international standards would give boost to the

Tourist industry, which has suffered because of a number of reasons and one of them, was lack of proper accommodation for local as well as foreign tourists. At present there are about 4000 to 4500 rooms available in five star hotels throughout Pakistan, which were insufficient to the demand.

There are problems n Pakistan which prevent this country from attracting its due share of international tourist and therefore to attract the tourist and to boost economy the government of Pakistan have to take serious measure to prevent threat of security to tourist together Pakistan need to promote itself as tourist destination at international forums but these both measure are equally important .

The most important aspect security concern of tourist and therefore without taking proper measures to avoid security threat of security. the government of Pakistan should be conscious and careful when people visit this country and must show them how humble and welcoming they are and how interested people in Pakistan are to greet the foreign tourist as well as local tourist alike. Pakistan has truly potential for being a hot tourist spot in region especially for adventure tourism and eco tourism its potential is not unseen but need of the hour is promote itself and to reduce the concerns tourists.

Marriott International, Inc.is a worldwide operator and franchisor of a broad portfolio of hotels and related lodging facilities. Founded by J. Willard Marriott, the company is now led by son J.W. (Bill) Marriott, Jr. Today, Marriott International has about 3,150 lodging properties located in the United States and 67 other countries and territories.

Marriott International was formed in 1992 when Marriott Corporation split into two companies, Marriott International and Host Marriott Corporation.

In 2002 Marriott International began a major restructuring by spinning off many Senior Living Services Communities (which is now part of Sunrise Senior Living) and Marriott Distribution Services, so that it could focus on hotel ownership and management. The changes were completed in 2003.

In April 1995, Marriott International acquired a 49% interest in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company LLC. Marriott International owned Ramada International Hotels & Resorts until its sale on September 15, 2004 to Cendant. It is the first hotel chain to serve food that is completely free of Tran’s fats at all of its North American properties.

In 2005, Marriott International and Marriott Vacation Club International comprised two of the 53 entities that contributed the maximum of $250,000 to the second inauguration of President George W. Bush.

On July 19, 2006, Marriott announced that all lodging buildings they operate in the United States and Canada would become non-smoking beginning September 2006. “The new policy includes all guest rooms, restaurants, lounges, meeting rooms, public space and employee work areas.”

Marriott International announced today the signing of four additional hotels for its portfolio in India, bringing the total to 29 properties now under construction or in planning in India. When all are opened by the end of 2013, Marriott International will have 40 hotels under management in the country; today, Marriott manages 11 hotels in India represented by five brands

Marriott International will introduce its moderately-priced Courtyard by Marriott brand in Vietnam, under a management agreement announced today with CY – Ham Tan Resort Limited Company. When opened in 2012, the property will be the first high-quality, internationally-branded mid-tier hotel in the area.

ORGANIZATION CULTURE:

Handy suggests that we can classify organisations into a broad range of four cultures. The formation of ‘culture’ will depend upon a whole host of factors including company history, ownership, organisation structure, technology, critical business incidents and environment, etc.

The four cultures he discusses are Power’, ‘Role’, ‘Task’ and ‘People’. The purpose of the analysis is to assess the degree to which the predominant culture reflects the real needs and constraints of the organisation.

Strong Culture

“Culture is the life-thread and glue that links our past, present, and future.” – J.W. Marriott, Jr.

Fair treatment of associates and to providing advancement opportunities

“Do Whatever it Takes to Take Care of the Customer”

Actively supports community and volunteerism

Pay extraordinary attention to detail

Creativity

Pride in their physical surroundings

Our people are the most important asset

Environment that supports associate growth & personal development

Reputation of employing caring, dependable associates, who are ethical and trustworthy

Home-like atmosphere

Performance-reward system

Pride in name, accomplishments, & success

“Courtyard is a very popular brand in India and is expanding rapidly,” said Rajeev Menon, area vice president for India, Pakistan, the Maldives and Malaysia. “It offers excellent value in the mid-tier market that is currently underserved. The hotels adapt well to the lifestyle needs of both its domestic and international guests.”

COMPARISON WITH HOTEL INDUSTRY:

In the world of hospitality the customer reigns supreme. In order to remain competitive it is essential for hoteliers not only to meet consumer expectations, but also to exceed them. Hilton International – the hotel part of The Hilton Group plc that also includes betting and gaming, and Living Well Fitness Centers – realized that in order to deliver the quality service associated with the brand, it needed to invest in the training and development of staff who are essential to ensuring that guests have a good experience during their stay.

ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE SUITABLE TO ITS CULTURE:

The overall structure of the Marriott is tall, however

within each different department there are both tall and flat

structures.

Marriott finds that its own properties are often a source of innovative new practices. As a result, the company has adopted formal and informal communication channels to encourage employees to share best practices. For example, through a quarterly program called the Worldwide Business Forum, managers in Poland can learn from practices in Peru.

TASK 3:
Human Resources

This department in a business ensures that the associates have a

comfortable relationship with their managers, so that they are more

motivated in their jobs. This involves providing the staff with the

professional abilities to take on more jobs. Staff are encouraged to

study for non work related subjects. This means that the management

allow each member of staff to have a variety of responsibilities, so

that they can improve in different areas. Staff training is viewed as

very important and large amount of money is put into the training and

development project. It tries to motivate subordinates to work harder,

this makes the job security effective for that individual. Therefore,

the staff provides excellent customer service. The Human resources

department is considered to spend more money to provide facilities for

staff personnel development and training, in order to make staff more

efficient. However as the human resources department has a low staff

turnover rate of 9%, this means that recruitment costs are much lower

compared to departments like the food and beverage.

Human resources makes sure that each member of staff is treated

fairly, and advices the staff on the certain things they can do and be

involved in to improve themselves. This department ensures the health

and safety of each individual, guaranteeing that the environment they

work in is not dangerous. This department looks for the well being of

all the associates in the hotel. Human resources gives training, which

tries to increase staff motivation and loyalty within the organisation

so that they will become more efficient in what they are doing.

DEPARTMENTAL STRUCTURE:

The overall structure of the Marriott is tall, however

within each different department there are both tall and flat

structures. the human resources department has far fewer

subordinates (only 6 people) and therefore it does not have many

managers, assistant managers and supervisors compared to the food and

beverage department. Therefore it can be said that the human resources

department is a flat structure. Within the Marriott organization

structure every member of staff has a detailed job description, knows

his/her manager. It is a formal structure with clear lines of

communication.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF POWER AND AUTHORITY WITHIN DEPARTMENT:

There is a line of command from top to bottom of the hierarchy within

an organization. Information is communicated from each managing head

or director, and any orders are passed through this chain. Orders pass

through many different people within the hierarchy. For example a

“manager” sends information to an “assistant manager” within a certain

department, and then it is sent to a “supervisor”. Then they would

send the various messages to the “worker” in that department. This is

an example of how messages are sent down the chain of command with a

department in the Marriott. This type of structure can be effective as

it helps give a clear understanding to staff to whom he/she is

responsible.

STYLE OF LEADERSHIP OF THE HEAD OF FUNCTIONAL DEPARTMENT:

This is the number of subordinates directly supervised by one person

(manager). A narrow span means tight supervision, less discretion and

therefore less chance of making mistakes. A narrow span may mean more

levels in the hierarchy and therefore a greater chance of promotions.

A wide span of control reduces supervision and leads to greater

delegation. The span of control can change depending upon certain

circumstances. These can be seen below:

* The more difficult the supervision tasks as checking work can be

hard and time consuming, the smaller the span of control. Another

reason why supervision

tasks can be challenging maybe because the subordinates are not

specialised in their job.

* A small span of control maybe necessary if communication with

subordinates is time consuming.

* The better the supervisor, the more people he or she can supervise

and as a result there will be a wide span of control.

It can be seen from the organizational structure of the Marriott that

each department manager has some sort of span of control. It can be

said that the overall structure of the Marriott has both narrow and

wide spans of control, for example in the food and beverage department

there is a wide span of control as there are several restaurants and

therefore the number of people the worker controls is much more.

However within the human resources department there is a much narrower

span of control as there are only six people in the department.

PROPOSALS:

The longer the chain of command within an organization the

more difficult it can get for messages to get sent across. Messages

can get lost or distorted as they travel across the chain of command.

This problem has been prevented within the Marriott by having daily

meetings with departments so that each member of staff knows what

he/she is doing.

TASK 4
MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES:
Theory M: Motivating with money

Hourly workers are not motivated by programs designed to increase their enthusiasm and loyalty-they are motivated by being paid what they’re worth. Here is a motivational program that establishes a direct link between productivity and pay

Marriott recognizes and rewards loyalty and performance over time. Virtually all promotions are from within and transfers and special assignments go to those who have clearly earned them with their consistent performance in serving the guest’s interests. Various perks, benefits and compensation are awarded to those who consistently demonstrate a ‘guest obsession’. Tuition reimbursements are used to attract the best workers; good health benefits are aimed at attracting and keeping those with families; and dozens of timely smaal perks are used to add to personal thank yous, which leaders at all levels make a point of giving.

GOAL-SETTING THEORY:

Goal-setting theory refers to different types of goals motivate us differently.

Using a massive, five-year database of its own employment history, Marriott found that the cost of certain rewards was offset by lower turnover. And so it took a comprehensive look at its entire rewards program to align compensation and benefits with its associates’ needs; improve attraction and retention; enhance productivity; and increase its return on the billions of dollars it invests annually in people and achieve its required goals. It did this while demonstrating the bottom-line impact of the resultant strategy.

EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT:

High-performance businesses actively manage their talent, matching the right people with the right jobs and hiring for fit rather than for specific skills. As a result, these companies are rewarded with engaged, productive and creative workforces.

From recruitment to training and support to retaining employees, Marriott stands out because it focuses on the entire talent development chain. Hiring by gut instinct is frowned upon; instead, hiring managers use a quantitative, predictive model that combines an assessment of candidates’ job skills with an evaluation of their attitudes and values-attributes that Marriott considers more important than specific skills or experience.

Marriott’s success with employees at all levels makes for great press. The company regularly appears on lists of best companies to work for-for example, in the top 100 rankings for both Fortune (eight consecutive years) and Working Mother (15 years). And the company’s voluntary turnover rates are among the lowest in the industry.

Part of the reason can be found in Marriott’s benefits and compensation packages. “Our largest group of employees is housekeepers-largely women with families,” explains Keegan. “We’ve found that medical benefits are a critical driver of retention-it keeps our turnover low.” But that’s only part of the story. Training, career opportunities and the cultivation of emotional ties all play important roles in helping Marriott retain employees in an industry marked by high turnover.

Once it makes a hiring decision, Marriott devotes considerable resources to training and developing its people at every level. Senior managers attend a four-week, in-house executive development program designed to help them cultivate a broad, externally focused point of view. For hourly workers, the emphasis is on structured, task-driven, on-the-job learning. The company even incorporates a training budget requirement into its contracts with franchisees and managed-property owners. Career-growth opportunities are another key to high retention rates. Nearly half of the company’s managers were promoted from within the ranks of hourly workers.

Marriott keeps its managers engaged by providing many opportunities for development and advancement. Senior executives have spent an average of 22 years with the company, while their direct reports have an average tenure of 15 years. The company prefers to promote from within and provides cross-functional opportunities for key senior managers as a way to cultivate its future leaders.

Another reason for employee loyalty-and another important intangible-is the emotional connection workers have to the company. Marriott conducted research that showed that this connection was based largely on employees’ belief that Marriott treats them fairly. Marriott found that its survey results surpassed industry benchmarks, leading company executives to believe that their employees trust the organization’s leadership to look out for their best interests. HR Khief Keegan: Hiring managers use a quantitative, predictive model that combines an assessment of candidates’ job skills with an evaluation of their attitudes and values-attributes that Marriott considers more important than specific skills or experience.

Since the businesses are becoming more consumer driven because of the increasing completion retailing became a kind of science. The location of the store, its offerings and customer service are all parts that should be considered and studied in retailing. Not so long ago malls started to develop in different areas not only in the U.A.E. but around the world. In Dubai, which one of the fastest economically growing city there are several malls some of them are efficient and others aren’t. Due to this growing interest in retailing marketing students are required to develop an understanding of how an effective retail environment looks and feels. Also, they are required to develop an analytical capability to compare different retail environments in their efficiency and effectiveness.

Earlier this semester we performed a field trip to three malls in Dubai; Mirdif city center, Festival city and Dubai mall. We were required to evaluate each of the malls on a set of criteria that are important in retailing. These criteria included parking efficiency, car accessibility, shop assortment, layout of the mall, empty areas and several others. After evaluating each mall we had to compare the three of them and show the advantages and disadvantages of each one of them. In this paper I will be presenting the evaluations of each mall based on the criteria specified. This field trip helped us connect what we learned in theory with what happens in reality. Also, having a colleague walking around with me in the mall helped me discuss some of the observations.

Car accessibility towards the mall:-

This criterion discusses how easy it is for the shoppers to reach the mall, the number of routes available and the complexity of these routes. It is one of the criteria that people take into consideration when visiting malls. Some malls are located in areas where there are several detours and others are located near major high ways with clear signs showing the location of the mall. If the mall was well located and reaching it was easy then more shoppers will come in. if the mall was badly located then shoppers will decide to go to a more convenient mall.

Dubai mall can be accessed through Sheikh zayed road and business bay. The signs on sheikh zayed road are efficient enough to show the location of the mall. In addition there are several routes and bridges that give direct access to the mall parking lots. Also, there a metro station near Burj Khalifa for better access to the mall. Moreover, there is a big number of parking spaces, several bus stops around the mall and there is an area where the shopper can take a taxi.

Festival city can be accessed through four routes from Alramoul Bridge, from business bay, emirates road, and Algarhoud bridge. The business bay route is filled with traffic lights which is a bit inconvenient. However, festival city has got its own roads near the center which provides easier access to the center and out of it.

Car parking efficiency:-

This criterion evaluates the efficiency of the parking spaces. It considers the number of parking spaces, the easiness in which people park and the easiness in which people navigate through the parking area. Also, it considers the parking services offered to customers. This is an important criterion in retailing because if shoppers cannot find a parking they may choose to go another mall. Mirdif city center scored 8, festival city scored 9 and Dubai mall scored 7.

There are more than 7000 parking spaces in Mirdif city center. These spaces are located at different levels P1, P2 and P3. Each parking area has an access to the mall itself. The parking areas are designed in way to provide the shoppers easy access to and out of the mall. Unlike Festival city and Dubai mall the parking areas are not distinguished by names instead each one is named P1, P2 or P3. Similar to the other malls these areas provide access to different parts of the mall. P1 provides access to the western section of the mall, P2 provides access to the southern and eastern section, P3 provides access to the northern section of the mall.

Dubai mall contains several thousand parking spaces on different levels to contain as many shoppers. The main areas are cinema parking, fashion parking and grand parking with parking spaces on different levels. To make it easier for the shoppers to park their car there is a valet parking and a board that shows the number of parking spaces available. Also, there is a machine that provides the shopper with a card that shows where he/she parked. Festival city has valet parking but not electronic boards and electronic cards, instead they have a sensor at each parking. In addition, each parking area has got a color the grand area is red, fashion is blue, and cinema is green. In these parking areas each parking area has a number, as an example all the cars that park in the middle have number 42 parking spaces. Also, each parking area provides access to a different part of the mall the grand parking provides access to the grand atrium and the souk atrium, fashion parking provides faster access to the fountain, and cinema parking provides direct access to the cinema. A major drawback in the design of the parking area in Dubai mall is the signs, the location of the exit and the location of parking spaces. If a shopper is driving through the parking area in Dubai mall whether this shopper is exiting the mall or looking for a parking, this shopper goes through a maze. The shopper can see an empty parking space on the opposite side but the shopper has to go through several turns to reach the spot

Festival city has large parking spaces inside and outside the mall. The parking areas outside the mall provide the shoppers with easier access to and from the mall. Similar to Dubai mall the parking areas are distinguished spice, silk and gold. Each one of those parking areas provides access to different sections of the mall. The spice area provides access to the northern section, gold area provides access to the middle section and the silk area provides access to the southern section. There are out door parking areas for access to Ikea and Hyper panda. Each one of them has a different color spice is red, silk is blue and gold is gold. Each parking space has a sensor that turns red when a car is parked and those sensors are placed above the parking spaces so that they are visible. Dubai mall uses electronic boards to show the available spaces instead of sensors. Also, similar to Dubai mall valet parking is available at the main entrance to the mall. Unlike Dubai mall, there the parking is easy to navigate and the exit is easily found. Also, parking spaces are reached easily without going through a maze.

Efficiency of indoor pedestrian areas:-

This criteria can be defined as the number of shoppers in the mall and how easy it is for those shoppers to walk around in the mall. If the pedestrian areas were designed to be wide and the mall itself had appealing offerings, it will have a better efficiency. Mirdif city center and Dubai mall had a score of 8, and festival city had a score of 6.

In Mirdif city center the pedestrian areas were wide and easy to navigate. In addition there weren’t several kiosks located in the middle of those areas expect for a small area near Carrefour but it probably won’t disturb traffic. In addition, in some of the areas kiosks and booths for different companies were located under the escalators were no pedestrians will walk and these kiosks are noticeable. However, there weren’t several shoppers at the mall, maybe because of the time of the visit or because it was recently opened. When compared to Dubai mall and Festival city we can notice that there are several offerings in both of these malls that attract shoppers more than Mirdif city center.

Unlike Mirdif city center, the main pedestrian areas in Festival city were narrow and filled with kiosks in the middle of the areas which compresses traffic into one narrow area specially on weekends and that is not efficient. Other pedestrian areas that were hard to locate did not include any kiosks and there weren’t any people there. The inner design of the mall was different than the others I visited and it looked good but the narrow pedestrian areas and the way the pedestrian areas were deigned makes the shopper feel that the mall is too big and in fact it isn’t. Despite that, on the weekends the mall is filled with shoppers because it has several coffee shops located on the canal. At the time of the visit, a few were shopping and were sitting in the coffee shops. Dubai mall also faces a huge traffic flow, but the pedestrian areas a wide, so that that is not of a problem to them.

Similar to Mirdif city center, Dubai mall had wide pedestrian areas, wider that the ones in Mirdif city center. There weren’t several kiosks in these areas but some coffee shops had their outdoor area there which creates traffic for the coffee shop and does not disturb traffic because the pedestrian are is very wide. The inner design of the mall did not have a specific theme and the mall contained several turns and areas which gives the shopper the feeling that it is huge. Also, the mall has got several tourist attraction sites such as the fountain and the aquarium. Even at the time I visited the mall which was at 2:00 pm most of the shoppers were concentrated in that area. Also, it was nearly lunch time, so the food court was filled and there weren’t any places for me and my partner to sit.

Overall layout of the mall:-

This criteria discusses the general appeal of the mall, how it looks from the outside and the inside. Well designed malls look more appealing and can attract more shoppers. For this criteria, Mirdif city center scored 9, Dubai mall scored 8, and festival city scored 7.

Mirdif city center was designed similar to a rectangle where every shop is visible and reachable which makes walking around in this mall comfortable although it is big. From the inside the mall had bright colors and sufficient lighting which brings out the color. There is an area in front of the main gate were palm trees are planted in the middle with small fountains in some parts. I believe that this adds an atmosphere of comfort to the shopper. In addition, the mall stands out compared to the other establishments in the area because of its size and design.

On the other hand, Dubai mall is designed similarly to Mirdif city center but the way the areas are divided and because the mall is huge, it can take shoppers a whole day to walk around the mall. Similar to Mirdif city center, there were bright colors inside the mall and the way it is lighted reflects those colors and gives the shopper a good feeling. There were other areas that had different designs like the aquarium area that had a ceiling with shiny dots that looks like stars. Also, there is an area near Galleria Lafayette were the area looks like an alley in a European country. In addition, there is a separate entity that follows the mall called souk al bahar that has a unique design that reflects the traditional Arabian souk. I think that the shoppers enjoy those different designs.

When comparing Festival city to Dubai mall and Mirdif city center, it has a different layout and inner design. Festival city was different, this mall had a theme but I couldn’t identify it, most probably it was related to the Arab culture or history. Unlike the previously mentioned malls, this one was inefficiently designed, the mall isn’t too big but the length of the pedestrian areas and the location of others makes the shopper feel that it is large. On the inside, dark colors dominate the pedestrian areas and the lighting gives brightness to these colors but the colors are different than the other malls. In the section where IKEA and Hyper panda are located the inner design is different as it is much brighter with bright colors.

Empty spaces/ vacuum areas within the mall:-

This criteria refers to the places that are hardly accessible by the shoppers or hidden areas that the shoppers cannot find. If a shopping mall contained several vacuum areas then its design is inefficient and the shops in those areas are badly located. Even if these shops are destination stores it won’t be easy for the shoppers to reach them. For this criteria Mirdif city center scored 9, Dubai mall scored 8, and festival city scored 7.

Mirdif city center was efficiently designed and I did not locate several empty or vacuum areas inside the mall expect for one in an area opposite to fitness first where a spa and a health center were located. Those two are maybe destination stores because they are the only ones available but they should have made them more visible to the shoppers. There weren’t several shoppers in the mall at the time I visited so I could identify some areas as being vacuum or not. However, all the shops were visible and most of them can be accessed. Most of the shoppers where sitting in coffee shops probably because the time of the visit was early in the morning.

In Dubai mall there were several shoppers in some areas and in others there weren’t any although some of them were big. The gold souk is an empty area because of its location, the shop is located in the middle of other shops that sell garments and its not noticeable. Another area was on the right of Galleria Laffayette, in this area some of the shops on one side were open on the main pedestrian area but on the other side there are shops that nobody notices. The area was empty except for some coffee shops that viewed the world cup game. In addition, there weren’t any shoppers in souk al bahar although it had an appealing look. As I noticed from the several visits to Dubai mall shoppers go to the fountain, the coffee shops beside the fountain, the aquarium and the food court. This is where all the traffic was located.

In festival city there were two areas that were completely isolated and in one of them the fashion store Kelvin Klein was located. Even if Kelvin Klein is a destination store these areas are hard to be found. There were several turns that lead to different almost hidden areas in the mall but some of them were not completely dead. Also, there is an area that is accessed through a bridge on the canal in which some cafes like orchestra are located. In this area the cafes are full especially on weekends but there are shops that sell rugs and they are always empty. I’ve been to that area several times at different times of the day and those shops are always empty. Even on weekends all the shoppers are in the canal, the food court or the cinema.

Shop assortments:-

This criteria discusses the number of shops available at the mall and the different kinds of shops. Basically, the larger the assortment the more shoppers the mall will attract. A trend that is noticeable in most of the shopping malls is that all of them contain several clothing stores. Mirdif city center and Dubai mall scored 8, and Festival city scored 9.

Like most of the malls, Mirdif city center had a wide assortment of clothing stores in addition to other stores that sold electrical appliances, jewelry and confectionaries. Unfortunately, in some areas the shops were not organized, in one area there were several clothing stores on both sides and suddenly there was an optics store in the middle. Also, Patchi which is a confectionary store was located in the middle of an area were the electrical appliances shops were located. Also, Jewelry stores were located at different locations in the mall. At the same time, there were some well organized areas; there was an area where there were several kids clothing stores located. The other two malls were more organized probable because they have existed for a longer time.

Dubai mall was more organized that Mirdif city center but probably because Mirdif city center was recently opened. The thing that drew my attention was the area where Armani is located, the luxury stores are in one area located in two stories. There were some discrepancies; some areas had different kinds of stores all in one place. The shop assortment in Dubai mall is more than needed; I believe that they stuffed the mall with these shops while they could have used parts of the mall for different purposes. The way the shops are organized in this mall makes it easier for the customers to shop but I had the feeling that the mall owners just wanted to fill the mall with shops. From my point of view, there was an unnecessary wide assortment of shops in Dubai mall, Festival city and Mirdif city center had a similar assortment but a much lesser number of shops.

Similar to the shop organization in Dubai mall is Festival city were the shops are well organized. Also, there is a wide assortment of stores like clothing, jewelry and confectionary. The place where IKEA is located was a different part of the mall, the shops were located everywhere without a particular organization. The shop assortment in Festival city was similar to Mirdif city center but more organized.

Security and safety for customers:-

This is an important criterion for shopper since every shopper needs to feel safe and protected while shopping. Although robbery is not a common incident in the malls in Dubai, certain acts by the teenagers who visit the mall need to be controlled. Also, there are undercover intelligence personnel to control these acts and protect the customers. These personnel are found in every mall in Dubai and their number is determined by the amount of traffic in a mall. As an example, on weekends you find several of these personnel walking around in Dubai mall, mall of the Emirates and others.

In Mirdif city center and Dubai mall there were several security members at different locations. However, in festival city I didn’t notice several security guards but there were security cameras just like Dubai mall. In addition, each shop has got a theft detector at the entrance in case someone decides to steal which doesn’t happen often. Also, in every mall in the U.A.E. specially the crowded ones like Dubai mall there are undercover police officers who ensure that the shoppers are safe. In addition, our instructor informed us not to talk notes while walking in the mall because it may raise suspicion. Regarding emergencies I am not sure about the preparations at Merdif city center and Festival city. However, in Dubai mall when the aquarium broke and started leaking they contained the situation effectively and efficiently, they had a specialized team to fix the aquarium.

Prayer room:-

Since we live in a Islamic country several Muslims visit shopping malls. Each mall should have a number of prayer rooms located at convenient places for the shoppers. Although this is not a criterion for most of the shoppers to consider when visiting malls it has to be discussed. Dubai mall scored 9, festival city scored 8 and Mirdif city center scored 7. The prayer rooms are almost the same in most of the shopping malls, there is a place for wodou’ and sometimes there is a toilet, and there is a rack where the shoes are put. The difference is in the number of these rooms and their locations.

In Mirdif city center there was one prayer room located in the second floor near E-max. On the contrary, in Festival city there were five prayer rooms located at different places in the mall which is more efficient. One is located in Ikea, another near Hyper panda, one in the south oval court and another in the north oval court. In this mall the prayer rooms are located at different convenient locations. The shoppers can have access to a prayer room at different places in the mall.

Similar to festival city, Dubai mall had prayer rooms located at each floor. In addition, the prayer rooms are separate for men and women at each level. The difference between Dubai mall and festival city is that the prayer rooms’ locations were more scattered than in festival city. Also, it is easier to locate the prayer rooms in Dubai mall than in festival city.

Directions within the mall:-

This criterion evaluates the effectiveness of how the mall provides the shoppers with proper directions. It includes the signs in different areas of the mall, mal guides and location map boards. Mirdif city center and Dubai mall scored 8, while festival city scored 7.

Mirdif city center has a simple design, during my visit I found my way easily and the signs were efficient because of the efficient design. Also, the mall guide contains a simple map with the location of each store and entity in the mall. In addition there were location map boards with simple maps at different places. Furthermore, there were information desks at different locations.

On the other hand, Dubai mall was too large and the signs were not efficient enough to lead the shopper to where he/she wants to go. As an example, if a shopper wants to go to the fountain from the other end of the mall on the second level he/she have to ask for directions because the signs can be misleading. However, the mall guide is very simple and the names of the different sections of the mall written on the actual map for easier directions. However, the reader must discover by his own that each square on the map represents a shop, as an example square number f5 in the lower ground level refers to Aptic mobile. In addition to the several information desks at different places in the mall, Dubai mall is quite efficient in terms of providing directions.

Un fortunately, in festival city the signs are not very reliable and can be misleading probably because of the strange design of the mall that makes shoppers lose their way easily. Also the mall guide is a little confusing, there are not many information desks and on weekends they are always crowded.

Toilets:-

This criterion discusses the number, location and the availability of toilets at the malls. Mirdif city center scored 8, Dubai mall scored 9, and Festival city scored 7.

The toilets were located at the entrances to the mall in Mirdif city center, except for the toilets in the food courts. There are 7 toilets on the first level one of them is in the north food court. In the ground level there are 6 toilets at the entrances only. None of the toilets were found in the pedestrian areas but the locations aren’t efficient enough. Overall, there are several toilets and they are easily located.

In Dubai mall there are several washrooms on each level in convenient locations. There are toilets in the food courts and pedestrian areas. In festival city, the toilets are few and hard to locate but they are found at convenient locations such as the food court and the main pedestrian area. In the three malls the toilets were clean and well maintained.

Customer service/information counters:-

Usually, when shopper visit a mall they have queries or questions about directions, offers, shops and services in the mall. That is why it is important that a mall has an enough number of these desks with clerks who are trained to deal with customers. Dubai mall scored 9, Mirdif city center scored 8, and festival city scored 7.

In Mirdif city center there were information counters at different locations. The clerks there are friendly and provide customers with full information about any queries even on the phone. When I arrived at the mall I went to the information desk to ask for the directions to Starbucks. When I asked for directions she showed me the exact location. There was a man asking about a gift voucher and the clerk was very efficient when providing him with information.

In Dubai mall there are numerous information desks at different locations more than Mirdif city center. It is similar to Mirdif city in a sense that they provide people with the same information whether it is about directions or gift vouchers. The information desks are located at vital areas, there are two near the ice rink, one not too far from the aquarium and one near the cinemas. Other information desks are located at the grand atrium, star atrium and other locations. The ground floor has the largest number of information desks.

Unlike Dubai mall and Mirdif city center, Festival city did not have as many information desks, I think they have two only. The information desk on the first level near Paris gallery is always crowded and the other one is on the other side of the mall near Ikea. Just like the other two malls the clerks are friendly and provide customers with all information needed.

Entertainment offer:-

This criterion measures the number and uniqueness of the entertainment offerings at the malls. This is an important criterion for most of the families who want to visit the mall. The more entertainment the mall offers the more shoppers it gets. Dubai mall has the best offers that is why it is always crowded. Dubai mall scored 9, Dubai mall scored 9, Mirdif city center and festival city scored 8.

Mirdif city center had different entertainment offers but it was different from the other malls and did not offer something unique like the fountain in Dubai mall or momento in Festival city. In this mall they had play areas only, Magic Planet, Play nation and an area called aqua play in the north food court. Also, there is a cinema in the first floor. Play nation had different offerings from the other malls. However, these offerings are better suited for children.

Dubai mall has entertainment offerings suited for both adults and children. There is a huge aquarium, Ice rink, Sega Republic, underwater zoo kidzania and reel cinema. What differentiates this mall from the other malls is the huge aquarium and kidzania. People can go to the aquarium and watch different kinds of fish from the outside for free or they pay fees to watch these fish swimming around them in a tunnel. In kidzania, children have their own world, they ask the child what he/she wants to work then give the child fake money to buy daily needs with it just like an adult. This is one unique offering that most of the families like. There is nothing special about the ice rink except that Dubai mall is the only mall with an ice rink inside. It is better than Mirdif city center because of the different and unique offerings that are suited for adults and children.

In festival city there aren’t many entertainment offerings, there is momento, boat ride on the canal, a family entertainment center and a movie theater. Compared to the other malls, it is better than Mirdif city center because it has momento for adults but not as good as Dubai mall and Mirdif city center in the entertainment for kids.

ATMs:-

The ATM machines are very important to be found in malls since people use them to draw cash. They have to be located at different areas and near vital ones such as food courts. Mirdif city center and Dubai mall had a score of 8, festival city had a score of 7.

In Mirdif city there are 10 ATM machines available at the entrances to the mall. In the first level there are 10 ATM machines as well at each entrance. Since the north food court and the play areas are located near the entrances the ATM machines are close to those areas and the location of the ATMs is shown in the mall guide. Also, there are branches for two banks, Abu Dhabi bank and Emirates Dubai bank. Festival city has several ATM machines in different areas inside the mall.

In Dubai mall there were several ATM machines as well in different areas but their locations were not shown in the mall guide. The ones that I was able to see are the ATM near Reel cinema and the ones located in the parking lots entrances to the mall. These machines belonged to several banks such as HSBC and Dubai Islamic Bank.

In festival city, the machines were located in different areas near Ikea and Hyper panda and near the food court. The location of the ATM machines was shown in the mall guide map for easier directions. Similar to the other two malls they belonged to different banks. The difference between this mall and the others is the fewer number of ATM machines but they were easily located.

Food courts:-

This is another criterion for families to consider when visiting a mall. They consider the number of food courts available at a mall and the variety of restaurants it has. Usually, after a long day of shopping or running after the kids parent are too tired to go home to cook. Also, going out to eat is considered entertaining since it is different than home. That is why each mall needs to have a number and variety of restaurants and cuisines for its shoppers. Dubai mall scored 9, festival city and Mirdif city center scored 8 for this criteria.

Mirdif city center offers a wide range of assortment when it comes to food for its shoppers. There are two food courts each one with different restaurants. The north food court has the Chinese palace, Pizza Hut, KFC and several others that serve fast food, Chinese and Arabian food. The other south food court has Panda, Taco Bell, Somo and other restaurants. The problem is that the two are located on one side of the mall, north and south, so what if a family wants restraints that exist in both. Other than the food courts there are restaurants located at some entrance to the mall like Tony Romas that is located at the main entrance. Unlike Festival city and Dubai mall, Mirdif city center does not have an outdoor dining area but has almost the same variety of restaurants.

Dubai mall has a wide variety of restaurants located at the food courts and different areas of the mall. There is a food court in the lower ground level and a large one in the second level unlike Mirdif city center that has the two courts on one level. Both courts have outdoor areas so that people can enjoy the weather in the winter. The food court in the lower ground level is located near star atrium and the one in the second level is located near Reel cinema. Other restaurants are available in different areas of the mall especially in the lower ground level where people can sit in the restaurant to eat or smoke shisha and enjoy the fountain.

In festival city the food courts are located in the first level. These courts offer a variety of restaurants from different countries with an outdoor area similar to Dubai mall. What is different in this mall is that most of the restaurants are located on one level except for some restaurants near the canal. The food courts offer fast food from restaurants like Windeys, Hardees, and KFC. Other varieties include Aracian, Chinese and Indian. One major disadvantage in Festival city is that the pedestrian area in front of the restaurants is very narrow and gets crowded easily.

Coffee shops:-

Coffee shops are becoming the place where people like to spend their time drinking beverages and socializing. Each mall has a number of coffee shops at different locations to attract the shoppers. For this criterion Mirdif city center scored 9, Dubai mall scored 8 and festival city scored 7.

In Mirdif city center there was almost a coffee shop at every corner. The people can shop and drink coffee at anytime anywhere. Also, there was a book shop called borders with a coffee shop included for the shop visitors. Each coffee shop had the same offering but not similar decors. Similar to Dubai mall there are several coffee shops. However, in Mirdif city center none of the coffee shops served shisha and all were similar to Starbucks.

Since Dubai mall is large it has several coffee shops at different locations. Some of the coffee shops included in Dubai mall are Armani coffee shop, cafe blanc, cafe Havana and several others. These coffee shop do not vary by their offerings they vary by the atmospheric sense they provide. Armani coffee shop is located in front of Armani store in the middle of an area filled with fashion stores. This provides the shopper with a luxurious feeling, and Caribou coffee is a

The staffs available in EDC hotel are total with 60 people for all post. Amount the 60 people they are separate in 4 categories, which is permanent staff, contract staff, permanent part-time staff and temporary staff. The numbers of permanent staff are in 4 people, contract staff 34 people, permanent part-time staff are 8 people and the temporary staffs are 14 people.

The General Manager of Hotel EDC is Mrs Suzzaini. She has been a lecturer in UUM before and now her as a full time staff in EDC. She also as the head who interview us when we doing research in EDC Hotel. For the other position and names by all the staff are shows with organization chart below:

The human resource policies are under control by the Human Resource or HR Department. The HR department is using to manage and control the operation working of staff. Now, we are going to discuss about the human resource policies under EDC hotel.

The EDC hotel are choosing 2 types of staff when they making selection after recruitment. The 2 types of staff they taken are temporary staff and also permanent staff. The duty times for these 2 types of staff are different. For the temporary staff are getting shorter working time and the salary are fewer than the permanent staff. By the permanent staff working times are full times, that mean they are working whole days however is a public holiday.

The EDC hotel is facing the problems lack of staff. The cause of making this problem happen is most of the staff inside EDC Hotel are temporary workers of staff. So, the staff inside EDC are working more than 1 job however they are getting same salary. Like an example, For the security guard of EDC Hotel at the front exit are also working as a cleaner for guard house and also a staff of control rooms like control all the lights in EDC.

EDC hotel also provide the training program for the UUM students. The HR department is choosing the practical students from UUM as a temporary staff and also gives the take part in training program. This have helpful for solve the problems of workers shortage. After the students finish practical, EDC hotel are give them chance to choose stay or leave the hotel and the HR department will choose another practical students to work in hotel again.

Besides that, the EDC Hotel will also give chances for those students are wish to work in hotel when holidays or free times in hotel. The students who wish that will as a part-time workers, this mean the student can quit anytime and wont tight by a contract.

The HR department also working as confirms that all the staff inside EDC is working, because they must make sure that the hotel is keep operation smoothly. Through the information above we have know the types and the operation of managing of staff inside EDC Hotel.

The Sales and Marketing Strategies

Sales is an important part in a hotel operation, the sales are good or not can affect the hotel operation also. The sales can bring the income and also the famous of the hotel. Every hotels are trying to push their sales at the top, even if EDC UUM also.

Through the hotel we making the research, EDC UUM we have get the information of the sales of the hotel are separate in 2 parts. The first one is from the room sales of EDC hotel. The hotel EDC is located near the UUM so most of the consumers are students and their parents. And we also get that, the hotel EDC are get two peak season in every years, that is when the UUM running the week of orientation and during the convocation. The rooms of hotel EDC are fully booking by many students and their parents during peak season. So, for someone they are late booking they can’t get the room. Through the staff in EDC, we also get know that, for who like to get rooms when convocation or orientation weeks, they must booking earlier than 1 month before.

We also get the information from the GM about that, at the normal days the rooms are available in anytime. It means every people can get booking at the time u like or u can choose direct to EDC and asking for the available rooms’ u can get. So for those parents and friends come to visit their children and friends in UUM can get accommodation with easily by EDC Hotel.

One more part of the sale that supports the hotel income and operation is through the food and beverage department in EDC hotel. The restaurant in EDC hotel is available for public. This mean although u do not rent the hotel rooms in EDC u also can go enjoy the meals they provide after u pay it. This have attract many UUM students those are feeling boredom of the food provide in the food courts of UUM are going to EDC to enjoy the different meals in campus.

Management and Functions of Each Department

There were eight management departments in EDC – UUM such as front office, housekeeping, sales and marketing, food and beverage, human resources, finance and administrative, facilities and maintenance, and safety and security. Each department has their own function and responsibility to operate.

Front Office Department

Front office department plays very important roles in EDC hotel. The

department can be separate into two sections; there are front desk and back office. Each section of front office services has their own responsibilities. The main function of the department is selling, register and assign guestroom to the customers. They also responsibilities to handle the phone call in the hotel and make reservation for the customers. Front office service specialists also have a good understanding to take part in guest settlement such as resolve conflicts with customers and handle weirdly customers if certain cases had happen.

Housekeeping Department

The function of housekeeping department is maintained the cleanliness and order, building and furniture in the hotel. Besides cleanliness, housekeeping department must make sure the comfortable in the hotel such as softness of pillow, comfort of mattresses and quality of bed. These department personnel include chief of housekeeping department, supervisors, senior maids and maids which their jobs are checking the quality in the hotel periodically. Housekeeping department is one of the hotel services that are very strict regulation. Each position has its own well defined instructions.

Sales and Marketing Department

The main function of sales and marketing department is to promote the hotel products and services to the customers. They offer and selling the hotel’s room to individual guest for holiday purpose or diverse conferences facilities to certain customers. In addition, they also make an improvement on sales and public relations and brand image of hotel in the market. The department always acts as an agent to provide latest information and updating to the hotel.

Food and Beverage Department

The function of the department is providing food and beverage to the customers. They also provide food and beverage for meetings, groups, conferences and theme parties. Meanwhile, EDC hotel also responsibilities provided banquet events to customers. The banquet events involve many service styles; there are buffet services, family style service and so on. When during any festival, EDC hotel also provided Ramadhan package and offered to every customers to enjoy delicious food in the hotel.

Human Resources Department

Human Resource Department is a department that combines the traditional administrative function and well-being employees within the organization. They involve the activities such as planning, organizing, directing, and controlling employees at work. The department is responsible on hiring, terminating and training staff for the development and application of ongoing research on strategic advances. They also responsible for understanding their employees and identify their individual needs and career goal, develop positive interaction between workers to ensure verify and constructive enterprise productivity and provide remedial measures in the form of seminars or workshops for the worker who are lack of knowledge or insufficient training. On the other hand, HR also focuses on recruit the required workforce and manages staff effectively to success meet strategic goal.

Finance Department

The accounting department is monitoring the financial activities in the hotel. They prepare the budget and assign revenue to different department. They also prepare the financial statement of the hotel. Meanwhile, the department also collects the revenue from guests and giving salaries to employees. They always keep check on the account of F&B cost, other purchases and expenditure under several heads for each department.

Facilities and Maintenance Department

The function of facilities and maintenance department in EDC hotel is provide a well repairing and maintenance services included structural, mechanical and electronic services, painting, air-conditioners repair and maintenance and so on. The department is also responsible to maintain all the furniture and fixtures in the hotel. Furthermore, they also work closely with the front office to ensure the guests satisfaction. The department must always make sure there have a safety and healthy work environment to the employees in the hotel.

Safety and Security Department

The security officers in the EDC hotel is responsible provide a safety and security environment to the hotel workers to work and business man to do business even customers who are stay in the hotel. Apart from that, security in the hotel also became an essential and strongly force in preventing losses and missing property. In addition, security guard also working as cleaners in the guard house and staff in the control room to control all the air-conditioner and PA system in the hotel while any activities were in the progress.

Cost of Running Operation

We have been gone to the EDC hotel and interview their manager, Mrs.Suzzaini to interview how many the costs they are used in running a hotel. However, Mrs Suzzaini did not provide us very detail about the budgeting of the hotel because it is private and confidential. She just provided us the cost of electric and water cost; there are about 52 thousand and 400 thousand per month. Below is a general costs that always will use to run a hotel but its only can act as a references.

Basically, running a hotel need a lot of money to maintain stage. Cost of the publicity is one of the costs that cannot less. Most of the hotel are depend advertising and package to attract customers come and stay at their hotel. Then, a hotel needs some costs to make improvement on infrastructure and facilities and also maintenance on the building, electronic and water even any structural in the hotel.

Meanwhile, hotel management also needs to pay taxes of the building and other fixed asset. To prepare F&B to customers, hotel management also needs some cost to purchase food and do banquet for customers. And the last but not least, accounting department also needs pay salary, incentive and bonus to their employees in the hotel.

Common Problem Faced By Hotel

The common problem that faced by EDC hotel is administrative problem such as movement of the staffs. When the staffs are leave, the hotel management needs some time to hire and training news staffs. Therefore, EDC hotel always faced lack of staffs in hotel department.

Overbooking also is a problem that always faced by EDC hotel. When during convocation time and orientation week, there are many parents and graduate came to the hotel and stay at there. EDC hotel is one of the hotels that very near to the UUM compared to the other hotel, in order to convenience and no waste many time, EDC hotel always happen the rooms were overbooking. So, the hotel management now was build an extension of the hotel to overcame the hotel’s rooms overbooking in certain festival.

Customer’s complaints are very normal incident that always occurred in every hotel. The common problem that customers always complaints are poor customers service such as attitude and behavior of the workers, the food not delicious, waiting for more than 30 minute to eat in a restaurant and so on. Meanwhile, some customers also complaint about the pricing of the room, food even a service charge were very expensive. Therefore, hotel management must always train their staffs to fulfill the customer’s needs.

ABSTRACT:

Cisco Systems, Inc. (Cisco), an Internet technology company, had an organizational structure comprising of various cross-functional teams. The key decisions in the company were taken by councils, boards and working groups. These committees (around 60 as of 2009) working at different levels were cross-functional in nature, and according to the company, lent Cisco speed, scale, flexibility, and rapid replication.

Cisco had made the shift to this type of organizational structure in 2001 and had refined it in subsequent years. According to John T. Chambers (Chambers), the Chairman and CEO of Cisco, the company had reorganized to break free of the silo culture in the company prior to 2001, so that it could remain agile and innovative in a rapidly changing industry. The company felt that the traditional command-and-control model had lost its relevance, and the future would be about collaborate models of decision making. He also claimed that the new organizational model had served the company well and helped implement its aggressive growth strategy amidst the economic downturn.

Industry observers and organizational experts were divided in their opinion about Cisco’s organizational structure and approach to decision making. While some industry observers felt that such a model was effective, others felt that the management-by-committee approach would slow down decision making and impede innovation. Some experts were extremely critical of Cisco’s organizational model. But others believed that if Cisco could further refine the model by addressing some of the lacunae associated with it, it could very well be adopted more widely and be accepted as a radical management innovation.

Cisco was founded by a group of computer scientists, who had together designed a software system named IOS (Internet Operating System), which could send streams of data from one computer to another. Right from its initial years, Cisco had a flat organizational structure. Over the years, the company had brought about certain changes in its organizational structure focusing on cross functional teams…

Speaking about the organizations structure, Chambers, said, “Our organization structure leverages the power of communities of interest which we call councils which we believe are $10 billion opportunities, boards that we see as $1 billion opportunities and working groups. The idea for the new structure occurred during the economic down turn in 2001, when Cisco wrote off US$2.2 billion in losses. Realizing the Cisco’s hierarchical structure was preventing it from moving fast, Chambers started grouping executives into cross-functional teams…

In late 2008, while Cisco’s stock was witnessing a decline, analysts said that the company was still in a strong financial position with US$26 billion in cash. “Not only do we have the $26 billion, we now have 26 new market adjacencies that are not relevant to our revenue today, but they will be three to four years from now,” said Chambers. Some industry observers and analysts felt that Cisco’s organizational structure and its collaborative approach to decision making was an effective one – potentially the organization of the future. “Now instead of a small group of executives telling everybody else what to do, people have authority to figure out for themselves what to do.

However, some analysts and ex-employees of Cisco were not happy with the new organizational structure at Cisco. The structure led to chaos and slowed down decision making at times, they said. “Right now it’s chaos because there’s so much on everybody’s plate,” said Geoffrey Moore, a management consultant who has worked with Cisco. Chambers acknowledged that his critics could be right in their criticism of Cisco’s organizational structure and its approach to decision making. However, he said that the company had arrived at its organizational structure after giving a lot of thought to it, continuously refining it since it was introduced in 2001. In November 2009, speaking about Cisco’s future strategy, Chambers said, “The improving economic outlook combined with what appears to be a very solid execution on our growth strategy due to our organization structure and innovative business model enabled Cisco to move into 30 plus market adjacencies while reducing non-GAAP operating expenses by 10% year over year and also reducing headcount.”aa‚¬A¦.

Tips to answer the tasks:

CASE DETAILS:

Period: 2001-2010

Published Date: 2010

Organisation: Cisco Systems. Inc.

Industry: Information Technology

Countries: US ; Global

Consider key words like matrix structure, functional or operational structure and the like.

TASK -1

COMPARE: Cisco organizational structure.

The company use to organizational structure silo (flat) before use to 2001. But the company use to organizational structure cross (matrix) after use to 2001.

The company use to silo structure so the company communication is easily. but the company use to matrix structure so the company communication is difficult.

The company use to silo structure so the company work is hierarchic. But the company use to matrix structure so the company work is individual.

The company use to silo structure so the company is not made good product. But the company use to matrix structure so the company is made good product.

The company use to silo structure so the company is going to loss. But the company use to matrix Structure so the company are good profit.

CONTRAST: Cisco organizational structure

Silo (flat)

Cross (matrix)

This company is work hierarchic.

This company is not come to new idea made the product.

This company is same work of every people.

This company is made many IT product. But product is not good.

This structure is going to company loss to $2.2 billion.

This company is work of individual.

This company is come to new idea made the product.

This company is diffident work of every group.

This company is made IT product very good.

This company is made profit use to this structure.

TASK -2

ANALYSES: The company use to organizational structure silo (flat) before use to 2001.

The company use to silo structure so the company communication is easily. The company use to silo structure so the company is not made good product. The company use to silo structure so the company is not made good product. The company use to silo structure so the company is going to loss. This company is not come to new idea made the product. The company is same work of every people. The company is made many IT product. But product is not good. The structure is going to company loss to $2.2 billion. This reason company was decline stage. The company business process is slow. The company was going to market. The company sales are decline. So the company business performance is bad.

The company use to organizational structure cross (matrix) after use at 2001. The company use to matrix structure so the company communication is difficult. The company use to matrix structure so the company work is individual. the company use to matrix structure so the company is made good product. the company use to matrix Structure so the company are good profit. This company is come to new idea made the product. This company is diffident work of every group. The company is made IT product very good. The company is made profit use to this structure. The company use to this structure business performance is good. So the company work is improvement. The company is come to market. The company is financial strong. The company was made new product.In November 2009, speaking about Cisco’s future strategy, Chambers said, “The improving economic outlook combined with what appears to be a very solid execution on our growth strategy due to our organization structure and innovative business model enabled Cisco to move into 30 plus market adjacencies while reducing non-GAAP operating expenses by 10% year over year and also reducing headcount.”

TASK -3

Organization structures affect the individual behaviour at work. The individual behaviour at works affect the factorsaa‚¬A¦.

1. Flexibility

2. Motionvational

3. Authority

4. Scope / Idea

5. Environalment

6. Society

1. Flexibility: the company use to new organization structure .so the company employees are individual work do freedom. The employees work do end any time and go to home.

2. Motionvational: A group the works do end go home. So other group work is fast. So he is go to home. The employees performance is improvement of salary, promotion etc.

3. Authority: the company is made many products. So the company made product 1. So product 1 groups different. Product 1 any massages go to individual department. Product 1 groups any decision do them self

4. Scope / Idea: the company deviated the product different groups. The group made the product new idea. The product made new technology.

5. Environalment: the company in the work employees any cast. The employees do work in deviated. Employees are into the company happy for every people.

6. Society: the company is made in the good society. The employee is works in the company before give the company of money. The employees take the money and develop the your personality.

.
MERIT
TASK -4

Present and communicate the appropriate organisational structure and culture for the case in discussion. (M3.1)

This case in the company use to cross (matrix) organization structure. This organization structure company for very good. The new organizational structure at Cisco. The structure led to chaos and slowed down decision making at times, they said. “Right now it’s chaos because there’s so much on everybody’s plate,” said Geoffrey Moore, a management consultant who has worked with Cisco. Chambers acknowledged that his critics could be right in their criticism of Cisco’s organizational structure and its approach to decision making. However, he said that the company had arrived at its organizational structure after giving a lot of thought to it, continuously refining it since it was introduced in 2001. In November 2009, speaking about Cisco’s future strategy, Chambers said, “The improving economic outlook combined with what appears to be a very solid execution on our growth strategy due to our organization structure and innovative business model enabled Cisco to move into 30 plus market adjacencies while reducing non-GAAP operating expenses by 10% year over year and also reducing headcount. The company use to organizational structure cross (matrix) after use at 2001. The company use to matrix structure so the company communication is difficult. The company use to matrix structure so the company work is individual. The company use to matrix structure so the company is made good product. The company use to matrix Structure so the company are good profit. This company is come to new idea made the product. This company is diffident work of every group. The company is made IT product very good. The company is made profit use to this structure. The company use to this structure business performance is good. So the company work is improvement. The company is come to market. The company is financial strong. The company was made new product. the company use to new organization structure .so the company employees are individual work do freedom. The employees work do end any time and go to home. A group the works do end go home. So other group work is fast. So he is go to home. The employees performance is improvement of salary, promotion etc.

The theory relating to employee commitment to his organization has received increasing popularity as it will help the company to retain more staff and thereby increase in performance, productivity and profitability. Commitment of staff is important for several reasons, it will ultimately reduce employee turnover. Highly committed employees will tend to work for efficiently than less committed employees with more job satisfaction. Commitment of employees is a better indicator of effectiveness of an organization. Organizational commitment can be referred to as an individuals identification with and involvement in the specific company. It can be characterised by a minimum of three indicators such as Acceptance of the company goals and values. Secondly ability and willingness to contribute considerable effort to attain that goals and values and finally strong desire to continue with the company.

The nature of the job is playing a vital role in organizational commitment. Though several studies are conducted relating orgainzational commitment and Job design employee productivity and performance many aspects of the subject are still not covered. Attitude of employees or the motivation to work in relation with job satisfaction and organizational commitment are important in the field of human resource management and organizational behaviour perspective. Employee attitude has a direct impact on all aspects of business. Organizational commitment concentrates on total interest of the employee towards the organization rather than work. There is a relationship between organizational commitment and job satisfaction, commitment leads to job satisfaction however most studies treat commitment and satisfaction differently.

Managers and consultants across the globe believe that a company cannot achieve it aims and objectives without enduring commitment from all staff of the organization. Employee motivation is a key element that determine the degree of commitment towards work. This include all the elements that create sustain and channelize human behaviour to a particular direction called work. Motivation is assumed as a good thing one cannot feel to be a good situation if one is not motivated enough.

Organizational behaviour is a large concept of management that studies how people act in an organization. Management can use scientific theories regarding behavioural practise to effectively improve their relation with employees and improve overall objectives of the organization. Organizational behaviour is an interdisciplinary subject that include ideas and research from human behaviour and interaction.

Organizational Commitment

Organizational commitment is a bond which linking its employees to the company or organization. In United States employees are less committed to organizations than in Japan or elsewhere in Asia. It is common that some employees shows much commitment and acceptance to the goals and values of the company and they also shows a strong desire to maintain the membership in the organization.

Meyer and Allen (1997) call this form of commitment to the organization affective commitment. Another group of employees displays characteristics of normative ways of commitment (Wiener,1982). According to Wiener this groups of staff does not show or develop a very strong emotional attachment or commitment to the organization. How ever employees who has higher levels of these types of commitment continues to work hard and with good productivity. This is because of a total influence of their cultural, philosophy, family and organizational ethics than direct their behaviour. A third section of employees remain in the organization not because of any loyalty or commitment to the organization but because they have no other alternative job available or if they invested too much in the company that they can’t leave. According to Meyer and Allen this take the form of tenure, status, retirement benefit, and some other form of benefits. The third form of organizational commitment presented originally by Becker in 1960 is referred to as continuance commitment.

Meyer investigated some of the factors leading to the decision of an individual to join in an organization and their resultant commitment. The more the employee can match his qualities and skills with the job and its environment the better his job satisfaction and the better his commitment as well.

A number of studies shows that organization commitment can predicts many variables such as absenteeism, organizational citizenship, performance and turnover. A primary aspect of organizational commitment can be extra role behaviour. This means employees go beyond their job specifications and done some thing extra. Most of the managements appreciate initiatives by the employees, this shows their commitment and positive attitude to the company. But few of the management professionals argue that job descriptions can effective describe all the aspects of the work of an employee. Organizational commitment resulted in more positive outcomes, it reduces absenteeism and it improves and promotes job satisfaction. Many firms changing from simple work systems to highly motivating high commitment work systems that needs high discretion, motivation with less supervision from management. It involves more roles to employees so that their creativity and working efficiency would improve, this leads to high performance and job satisfaction.

While studying about organizational commitment various factors should be taken in to account. Some of this factors include age, gender and longevity of services of the employee, and Human resource management practices followed within the organization and organizational characteristics.

Strategies of motivating Employees

Salary: Salary can be one of the most successful factor influencing motivation and job satisfaction. For using salary as motivation factor managers must consider several factors such as job rate, personal allowances, length of service, performance, personal traits etc.

Incentives: Money has the power to attract and retain. Giving various types of incentives will keep staff motivated and better committed to the organization. Basically every staff is working for some sort of financial benefit, so the monetary benefit paid to the employees should be adequately cover their standard of living and competitive enough in the industry otherwise employee turnover will be higher for the company and the existing employees will not be motivated, instead frustrated employees cause reduced commitment to the organization. So management must take sufficient interest and care to maintain their employees with good pay and incentives it will help to improve organizational commitment.

Staff training : This is an important motivational factor for all the organizations It is an indispensable strategy for motivating employees. This will give information with latest development and technologies in their respective field of work. So that the employees will feel confident and equipped with new strength to work more effectively and scientifically, ultimately it will increase motivation and productivity.

Information and communication: Availability of information regarding the consequences of ones action on others help to keep employees motivated.

Local and national culture and its influences on attitude towards work

positive attitude towards work leads to resilience – It means the strength to quickly relieve from adverse conditions or failure. If one person is viewing failure as a learning opportunity rather than blaming themselves or others they can soon come out of the failure and be able to successful in a short span of time.

Optimism: Through optimistic approach one can attain success in life and profession. You will be able to influence the world and there by becoming successful in whatever you doing. Because of these features every employees should develop an optimistic approach to whatever he is doing in the organization. It will help to develop organizational commitment and better motivation.

Confidence: Confidence coming out of optimistic approach. If you are confident you believe in yourself and are ready to undertake new challenges. Confident employees is an asset to the organization and they will help to improve motivation not only to themselves but also all the people related to them with their work so the entire organization will keep motivated and better performance will be the result.

Creativity Positive attitudes are key to forward thing and there by innovation. Without all these qualities no one will be able to try and implement new business ideas.

Conflict resolution: In modern world every person is going through lot of interest conflict with one another. Conflict resolution is one of the major qualities needed to survive. A positive attitude towards ones work and company will increase a worker’s efficiency to conflict resolution.

Emotional intelligence: It is the ability or skill to manage ones emotions and to control behaviour. Emotional intelligence include personal competence such as self awareness, self regulation and self motivation and social competence such as social skills and social awareness.

Achievement drives: Positive attitude towards work also increase achievement drive.

Motivation: Motivation and positive attitude towards work go hand in hand.

Management Philosophy and Organizational Commitment in Retail Industry:

In India there a more than 100 very big retail malls are operating and a number of retail centers are under development. The developers are not worried about the retailers and they are not doing anything towards the promotional side of these malls, but in many other countries especially in Europe this is not the case. As a result the branding, marketing, budgeting and the financial side of running profitably of these retail centers professionally has much scope in developing countries. The retailers are simply treated as a means of exploiting cash for the development of properties and townships instead of treating them as integral part of such centers. The space available for business is also in an increasing trends so lot of possibilities for new and existing retails organizations to come and explore the vast expanding markets. They can make better results if they focus on scalability, vision and by making a better brand development.

The major challenges facing by most of the retailers are narrow margins, high cost in terms of rent and operating expenses, unpredictable and unreliable supply chains, competitive pressure etc. These factors affect not only their profitably but the very existence as well. As retail industry grows this competition become more vigorous so that management of retail sector needs much professional skills and qualifications. Professional retails managers can come to this and there are immense scope for them. They must have the ability to understand these business challenges and also have the ability to manage all the aspects of the business.

The type of customers who usually visit these type of shopping malls include focused buyers and impulse buyers. Focused buyers spent little time inside as compared to impulse buyers. Their shopping will completed quickly as they know what to buy. But in the case of impulse buyers they spend more time for window shopping. Shopping centers with entertainment zones and or promotional activities have more impulse buyers. The management of these shopping centers become critical to attract impulse buyers as they can do lot towards promotional activities so that customers will be attracted.

Managing retail centers is bit different from event management or simply facility management. The key elements which are taken in to account include Positioning, Zoning, promotions and marketing, facility management such as footfalls, ambience, infrastructure and finance management. Lack of market research is a major problem for retail management.

With regard to the nature of the retail labour market it is highly not organised. Many people with good educational qualifications and job experience are available to place in retail management. The success of a retail section is highly depending on the sales personnel’s. A sales man must know about each and every aspect of the item he going to sell to the buyer. What type of customers they are going to serve and what they want and what are their expectations and the market competitions and prices and the alternative products available as substitutes. It is important to know about the alternative products as well otherwise the sales personals would find sometimes difficult for the buyers to convince about their products.

Labour market for retail management is also depend on demographic trends and seasonality, population and unemployment etc. Unemployment is a major factor determining the availability of labour for the retail market. If the unemployment is higher more workforce is available to deploy in retail sectors. People will accept generally any types of job as a means of livelihood if they have no other job. But if the unemployment rate are low it is difficult for the retail sales sector to attract enough number of staff with low cost and in good time. This is because people with education and skills will prefer to work in more better sectors of employment and with good companies having some sort of brand value.

Population is also a major factor affecting the labour market. The age group of population is very important , where in a society the percentage of population with more youngsters have more availability of personnels not only to retail sector but also for any sectors of the labour market.

Demographic changes and the availability of labour market imbalance is often a complex issue. Migration of population to different regions within the country and to foreign countries affect the labour market. With regard to retail labour force this change is is significant. If more and more people are migrated to certain regions of the country in some parts of the country there will be unemployment and in other side there is labour shortages as well. This is also true with inter country migration as well. For this reason many countries bring some sort of regulation for migration. So that they can protect and regulate their labour market according to the needs of their respective economies.

Seasonality is also affecting the labour market to a great extent. Seasonality of demand is the key which determining the demand of labour force to any industry. In tourism industry this factor plays a major role. All the countries affected by this factor, in seasons with high flow of tourists the market needs more and more employees. The retail sector is also not exemption for this.

Retail management is responsible for running retail outlets and thereby managing targets and profits of a company. It is the duty of the retail manager to ensure that effective sales promotional activities are carried out at minimum possible costs. Retail managers are also responsible for customer satisfaction as well because they are the people who have first hand information about customers. They are ensuring that staff are fully meeting the company’s standards.

Managing the store include many important points to taken into consideration. The store manage will need to learn not only how to select the most ambitious candidate but also how to train them and keep them motivated and controlling every aspects of the job.

Depending on the size and structure of the business the company management can allocated different functions such as marketing, logistics, information technology, customer service, and human resources to the retail managers.

The work of a retail manager can include the following;

Motivating the sales team to maximise sales
Managing stock which include deciding and controlling re ordering levels and thereby ensuring sufficient commodities are available all the time.
Analysing sales amounts and there by forecasting sales. It will help top management to fix targets for the future.
Staffing issues such as interviewing and selection.
Conducting performance appraisals and reviews and prepare reports.
Provide organization training and development
Effective use of information technology within the store to record sales trends and customer behaviour
Organising special events and promotions to maximise sales
Collect data regarding trends in markets and customer initiatives and analysing competitor activities.
Make frequent visits to sales floor updating and resolving any relevant issues
Take initiative in changes such as new schedule in working hours in accordance with seasons and customer needs.
Take care of health and safety and related issues.
Updating colleagues on market information and business performance.
Promoting a business locally by doing liaison activities with local authorities and organizations
Respond to customer complaints and suggestions.

Customer satisfaction and in store experience: measuring customer satisfaction is key for a successful retail management. Customer satisfaction can be measured in terms of repeated sales, and better relations with customers. Consumer satisfaction is a response, it may be emotional or cognitive in relation to a particular product used, expectations or consumption experience which happens in a specific time.

Labour Turnover

Staff turn over is an ongoing problem in any industry resulting in implication over employee morale, production, organizational policies etc. Unfortunately in many of the companies in retail industry the Labour turn over is very high. In order to reduce staff turn over it is inevitable to identify factors leading to job frustration and low morale and resulting in low organizational commitment there by increasing employee turn over.The main factors affecting the labour turn over are demographical trends includes population and immigration etc. seasons, economic conditions, environmental factors, political factors national and state and local political influences are a considerable factors affecting labour turn over in any business. All these factors are inter related and organizational culture may directly or indirectly affect staff turn over.

Pay and other benefits: In developing countries the salaries in retail sector is very low. The nature of the labour market is largely non organised and lack of effective legislations to ensure workers well being is also a major factor towards this. In developed countries minimum wages is ensured by law so that employment opportunities for every body is fair and justifiable. As for example in United Kingdom with legislation of minimum pay Act every one get the legal minimum wages for working in every sector. Truly speaking the sections most benefited from this legislation is the workers in retail sector and other people who working in the agricultural sector etc.

Training and development: There is a large need for training and development in retail sector. Large chunks of the staff are given little or no training at all. A reason may be high employee turnover, because if companies are investing good sums in training and development and if the employees are changing frequently it is a loss of money for the organization.

An Analysis of Management Practices and commitment In China

As elsewhere in the world in China also organizational commitment is characterized by an attitude of attachment to an employer and organization. There are many factors contributing to then development of organizational commitment and the influence on job attitude. Some antecedents to commitment can be split into personal characteristics and factors arising out of situations. Personal characteristics include age, gender and employment tenure. Second set of factors include company specific situations such as working environment, management attitudes, remuneration packages and all other factors affecting motivation and work of an employee. Because of the increase in production and industrial facilitates in china there is much to explore about the similarities of studies that conducted in the western countries in relation to China.

Gender: Chinese people have much egalitarian attitude towards women in the work place compared to European countries and America. After the cultural revolution both men and women are expected to play equal roles in work and society. Since China is a more communistic approach there are limitations to change employment. That means in China situations are not easy for workers compared to Europe. There is more social anchoring in China. As a result of this egalitarian and communistic society there is limited skill transferability, increased commitment to work, lowered educational and technical skills opportunity and sufficiency.

Age and Tenure:

In studies concentrated on the United States revealed that age and the member of years service in a particular company can influence the organizational commitment. As one person gets older the relocation tendencies get reduced and while personal investment and attachment to the organization gets increased. So the more tenure one employee has with his organization the more will be his organizational commitment to the company. In China age would cause lower number of work alternative, more anchoring in community, low attractive for re location, low educational skills development and transferability, and therefore continuance commitment would be more.

Educational: Researchers have found that people with higher education would have more commitment. It is found that workers having high levels of qualifications may have higher expectations and they are more committed to their occupation at the same time they have more scope to choose other jobs and they can easily relocate compared to employees with lower qualification their continence commitment may be low. Chinese valued education highly, In a traditionalistic communistic society each person contribute in accordance with their skills and qualities. Higher levels of education also reflect in greater degrees of behavioural commitment as well. In modern Chinese society there is greater mobility and opportunities to move around in private sectors.

Situational Factors: Situational factors are the second major component of organizational commitment These factors include components that connected to the work and employees experiences and specific features of their organization.

There are many organizational characteristics that can positively influence commitment. For example the more better an organization can present the achievement of its goals and objectives the degrees of commitment it can attract from its employees. The organizational effectiveness questionnaire will demonstrate the achievement of the objectives of an organization in the views of the employees and their anticipated commitment to the organization. I modern China as well a organization with good achievement and positive relationship with employees have a relatively higher degree of employee commitment.

Leadership Behaviours

Those work experiences that occurring while working in an organization related with na role in decision making or collecting thinking can have an effect in organizational commitment. Leadership behaviour and participative decision making have an impact on organizational commitment.

Leadership behaviour include behaviour connected with productivity, managerial aspects such as planning, co ordination, discipline, clarification and problem solving etc. It is expected that these types of behavioural pattern will be predictive of organizational commitment.

Management practices and Organizational Commitment in Korean Culture.

Korea share common oriental culture with its neighbouring states whilst maintaining its own identity. Their unique culture combined with the geo political environment of the Korea resulted in a specific management culture different from their counterparts in other countries.

Since the 1960s Korean companies achieved a good deal of economic growth and their management style played a major role in this regard. Everybody connected to the organization owners, top executives, managers, supervisors and workers are all integral part of the process and they al perform well their assigned duties. The unique feature here is performance. Regarding the external system of the organization the support from government is important. No organization can perform long term without suitable government policies. In Korea particularly the role of government is prominent and in return for this the government is expecting some favours from the industry. For economic growth the government and industry acts as supplementary and complementary relationship.

Efficient use of human resource is key to success. Korean people are peace loving by nature and hard working. Koreans hate bloodshed and violent demonstrations. There were some incidents of violence but compared to the rest of the world in Korea this type of incidents are rare. This is a feature of the Korean culture and many of their specific charcetiscs and Korean management system and their culture are inte related. Japan occupied Korea from 1910 to the end of world war II so some of the management systems of Japan also influence Koreans. The features of Korean management system also include consensus decision making, Life time employment, very strong loyalty and commitment to the employer, personalistic approach, male domination, harmony etc are also can be seen in Japanese management system.

The hierarchical order of power within the organization are also sharing common characteristics with Japanese management style. In Japan a decision is not taken until every one agrees to the agenda, this is consensus in decision making according to Japanese culture. This is similar to Korean concept as well. For example a project proposal drafted by a lower division employee is circulated throughout the company hierarchy and reviewed and suggestions are included according to consensus. The company president affix his signature only after all this process so that there is no room for ambiguity and the project proposal aims and objectives and advantages are clear to everyone and the document will be a legitimate one. To implement such a project will be very easy, the co-operation from all levels of employees are guaranteed and the proposal will be a success.

The life style Koreans had practised was different from the rest of the world till the 1960s. Their geographic territory is surrounded by big powers like China, Russia and Japan. Because of this reason their military power was not developed because most of the times they were under the umbrella of China. There was no use to develop huge logistic systems for military activities which will help merchant also to flourish. So the business and trade were also not developed and the people depend on agriculture largely for lively hood. The business class did not have much interests in the country because there was no scope for them in a much agricultural society. But after 1960s Koreans gained much improvements in their industrial and business sectors and the management style followed by Koreans also got much popularity. Japan on the other hand was a military power in the past as well so also they had relations with another countries than Korea.

Organizational Commitment and Job Practices in Japan

In Japan the commitment to the organization is more because of Japanese culture and their willingness and dedication to work. Employees turn over figures shows that in America the turnover rate is almost double when compare Japanese workers. This because in Japan The commitment to the organization is more. An employees commitment is characterised by at least three factors. They are willingness to hard work, desire to remain with the organization, a strong belief and acceptance of the organizations goals and objectives. Because of these commitment in organization is more with Japanese workers their productivity is also very high compared to their U.S counterparts.

In Japanese culture education is highly valued. For getting a job in a reputed company in Japan the candidate must studied in top rated colleges and universities. This is the case with prestigious companies other candidates who did not able to secure admissions in top rated colleges usually satisfied with small and medium sized firms which cannot offer comparatively higher amounts of salary and other perquisites.

Another prominent feature of Japanese management is permanent employment or life time employment. Permanent employment covers only minority of the total work force that work for big companies. Usually employees are recruited directly from campuses and after the probationary period employees are not usually dismissed except on serious misconduct. The candidates can continue in the company for their entire career. This is a specific feature found in Japanese companies but in Eorpoe or America this type of management practices is not general. Since most of the companies practising life time employment inter company mobility is not possible for professional managers because most of the roles are promoted by the company internally. So the selection of most talented employees becomes critical.

In Japanese system of management rather than individualism collective behaviour and decision making and team spirit is important. Individual interests should he subjugated to group in order to maintain tem spirit. The concept of ‘quality circle’ used to enchance productivity and quality widely used in Japanese companies is an example of tem spirit oriented approach.

Active Company Unions are also a prominent feature of Japan. Company union is different from trade union in this case the company is closely related with the union and company has much influence on the union. Company unions are independent and not affiliated with trade unions. The proposers of company unions are claiming that they are mores closer to the employees in their problems and they are solving the problems keeping in mind of the company’s profitability and at the same time protecting the employee’s interests as well. Where as trade union are more dangerous and influenced by politicians with vested interests behind them. Strikes are usually rare. Every employee of the company have to join the company union. In some countries for example in the United States company unions are outlawed by the government. Opponents of company unions are in opinion that company unions are actually a shield against trade unions while they claim that they are protecting the employees interests they actually standing for the company first so the genuine interests of employees may be ignored.

Managerial Style in Japanese companies give much importance for the bottom level. Every levels of management is open to suggestions from their subordinates. Middle level management collects and evaluates feed back from lower levels and pass it on to the top management. Managers are getting their hands dirty to understand the trouble with working in low levels and acquire the skills and problem solving capacities. Informations are always passing from top level management to lower levels and vise versa. So that every one in the company is keep updating with what is happening with the company at all times. It is key to the company for maintaining commitment and motivation among the employees and attaining higher productivi

The philosophy of marketing needs to be owned by everyone from within the organization. Marketing focuses on the satisfaction of customer needs, Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialized activity at all It encompasses the entire business wants and requirements. Future needs have to be identified and anticipated. The marketing concept is a philosophy. It makes the customer, and the satisfaction of his or her needs, the focal point of all business activities. It is driven by senior managers, passionate about delighting their customers.Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialized activity at all It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of the final result, that is, from the customer’s point of view. Concern and responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise.This customer focused philosophy is known as the ‘marketing concept’. The marketing concept is a philosophy, not a system of marketing or an organizational structure. It is founded on the belief that profitable sales and satisfactory returns on investment can only be achieved by identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer needs and desires.

INTRODUCTION OF Q1;

Lost World of TambunTheme Parks in Malaysia

The latest attraction from Sunway City Ipoh in Tambun, the Lost World is a new water theme park in Perak set to provide you a fun-filled adventure for friends and family! Nestled among lush greenery and limestone hills, the Lost World has a host of exciting activities to keep you coming back for more.

Question 1:
Your role:

You are required to select a theme park of your choice. You are required to determine their organizational structure, products, markets, and competitors.

Introduction

As part of your research, you will need to define the structure of the franchise and the product that is being offered to the consumer.

Content

You are required to analyze:

Their market strength

Their zone of natural expansion

Brand positioning and marketability of their brand

Suggest steps to improve their sales and profits

Suggest how they can take their business to a global scale

Summary

Conclude your research by summarizing all the above and provide a final solution on how the theme park may thrive in a completion market place.

All cost for the event and portfolio must be self funding. Olympia College will not be responsible for any cost or any unforeseen circumstances occurred during this event.

Answer Q1

As part of our assignment, I have chose the Lost World of Tambun theme park as my choice for doing my assignment. From my own research, there is five main elements which make up this world of adventures which is as stated in the structure belowaˆ¦

Jungle Wave Bay
CLIFF RACER
Tiger Valley
Water park

Hot Springs & Spa

FIVE ELEMENTS

Water Park

An exquisitely beautiful Waterfall Beach Garden & exhilarating water rides in the theme park for everyone at the water park and where the water beach garden were the biggest wave pool in Malaysia where the waves could swell up to 3 feet high. At there, you could find a absolutely perfect landscaped beach which surrounded by 20 feet twin waterfalls with two rivers flowing into the pool. There is also a musical body wash as a refreshment before to the caption of Sandy Bay.

Explorabay, a kids – only zone which is specially designed for kids while Cliff Racer are intend for a adult and youth. And of course, the longest inflatable tube ride in Malaysia, Tube Raiders which is the family – favourite giant slides while Adventure River is more on relaxing water ride.

Cliff Racer

Sail through the jungle canopy in an old mine cart after a drop from dizzying heights; just like in the old Wild Wild West movies! The park is perfect for those family escapades. Be sure to bring spare clothes for a change after a whole day’s fun on the numerous water slides and water games. The park also plays host to a few tigers and albino tiger cubs and visitors can witness the tiger feeding times between 11.30am to 5pm every day. The park is open everyday except Tuesdays (school/public holidays excluded) from 11am – 6pm. One can have a cocktail at the Rum Jungle Bar between 6pm – 9pm every night. Entrance tickets start at about RM25 per adult and RM 19 per child (children under 90cm gets free entrance). The park also offers special food, entrance and rides packages.

Lost World Hot Springs & Spa

As the latest supplement for the visitors to enjoy the inimitable feel of the hot spring, the water in the hot spring come from a natural source, and this is a sanctuary for the visitors to relax and enjoy and to experience hygienic and rejuvenating hot water. Besides, there are many other elements which are catered for the visitors presenting the ultimate relaxation experience

Tiger Valley

There are feeding tigers show and their handles at play in the tiger valley. You can learn abit about how the tigers are cared through the valley’s educational program where you will be able to get close and personal with one of these exquisite tigers.

Lost World Petting Zoo

Visitors can take a walk on the wild side and The Petting Zoo allows the public to touch, feel, feed and play with the animals; giving those looking for a more personal encounter, a closer perspective.

Body
Market Strength

So many words packed into one, the Lost World of Tambun, where providing an action – packed with exciting adventures with the most sensational rides and glamour in Ipoh, Malaysia. A 60 million Ringgit theme park which located in this historical town of Ipoh, in the middle of the North – South corridor in Perak; and is set in the inborn landscapes of Ipoh, surrounded by exquisitely breath – taking limestone features.

The Lost World of Tambun has its own market strength just like the other theme park as well. As my research all over these theme parks, The Lost World of Tambun is the best theme parks if compared to all the competitors around within the northern region in Ipoh example like Bukit Merah. They has providing a variety services which provides leisure, relaxation, enjoyment as well as entertainment. Moreover, the price are quite reasonable for the services they are providing.

As another market strength, Lost world of Tambun is the only theme park with natural hot spring and the water come from natural source and the thermal water in the pool are not recycled. Furthermore, they got a formation of the stand alone rock formation – 10 storey building within the theme park. Based on the 4Ps, place, people, promotion and products, Lost World of Tambun had provides all these 4Ps if compared to other competitors as their market strength.

Place

800 parking spaces provided

Good transportation

Natural & pleasant landscape

People

Good services

Caring from staffs

Friendliness from staffs

Promotion

Invite international performance during parties; beach party

Promote online through hot websites; facebook, etcaˆ¦

Promote through travel and tour agencies for packages

Product

Water Park

Amusement Park

Lost World Hot Springs & Spa

Tiger Valley

Lost World Petting Zoo

Zone of Expansion

For your information, Lost World are exposed to the nature. Therefore, it has ample of natural resources around and within the park. As for the future expansion, they should take this advantage to make more for its zone of natural expansion usage from the natural sources. Currently, they are building a hotel of themselves which are rated as 4 – 5 star grades; visitors like foreign visitors do not need to look for other accommodations and can just stay inside the Lost World of Tambun’s Hotel which are surrounded by natural source. Besides, they are also upgrading the hot spring & spa section. As their future expansion, it could build up a monorail system for the overall accessibility within the theme park itself; visitors are able to travel from the theme park back to the hotel after explorer.

Moreover, wide natural resources in their theme park which enable them to have their own cave which creates jungle tracking and cave exploring experience for customers. They should expand more on dry rides in did of only focus in wet rides as there is already a lot of wet rides. This will enable the visitors to have more choices during their explorer and will not feel boring.

Brand positioning and marketability of their brand

A great theme park which have its own nature and gave us a refreshing feeling when you are living in a hectic lifestyle; a way to expose yourself to the nature. Besides, it is a time for every member in a family to spend their time together and have fun in Lost World of Tambun. This is a way for family bonding to happen. Moreover, we can spend our time with our friends during holiday at there for entertainment and leisure. And of course, it is a good place for a couple to have a great day.

What are they famous for? Their natural resources and it located in a historical place in Ipoh with natural thermal water sources. They are also considered as ‘under the umbrella of Sunway Groups’ which lead them to success because Sunway group had prove themselves in Sunway Lagoon.

Steps to improve their sales and profit

In order to improve their sales and profit, they should depend on the economy scale which is reduce their cost in order to get more people. Besides, it’s also depends on how they generate their profit through the existing products. They can also provide more new family packages and teenage packages. Another step to improve their sales and profit is to extend business hour for dry parks and more events should be organize example like beach party. International performances should be invite example like super junior, wonder girls and big bang in order to attract more visitors. And of course, special rates for senior citizen should be apply and toys should be given to kids to show that the management is caring enough even to every single matter.

How they can take their business to a global scale

Extend their business to global scale, they can deal with the travel and tour regencies for packages and brings the tourism to Lost World of Tambun and let them recognize it and bring back this information back to the country. Moreover, they can have a deal with a country ambassador to promote their theme park in their own country and to attract foreign investment example like an big organization and this will lead them to develop another branch in their country by the help in modal from the organization; targeting hot weather country like india. Besides, it should have a deal with large organization to have a big retreat ( international conference ). And of course, the lost world management should also advertise their theme park through hot websites example like facebook.com, youtube.com, twitter.com and etcaˆ¦

Conclusion

In any business success, marketing always plays a key part. You have to make a good relationship with your customers. You need to work out how you will reach and win new customers and make sure that they will be happy and remain satisfied of the services you are providing them. You need to always review and keep on improving everything you do to stay ahead of the competition.Although marketing plays an important role, it will not guarantee sales unless by doing it with a laid out plan. A well-researched and logical plan is important to have a better chance of building a long-term profitable relationships. A marketing plan will serve as a reference or your basis to execute a marketing strategy. By laying out plans, it will set out a clear objectives and explains how you will achieve them. You can define your business well if you have a written document that details the necessary actions to achieve your marketing goals. A marketing plan is considered a part of an over all business plan.

Boots PLC has a hierarchical structure, in a hierarchical organizational chart; the Chief executive officer is the top rectangle basically the most powerful figure in the organisation/firm. The level underneath the chief officer contains high-level managers or directors, and each succeeding level includes the lower of the line above. Boots PLC also have a centralised structure. The Executive chairman has a span of control of five people – the directors.

Some of the subordinates of Boots are: Some of the line managers include:

Ornella Barra – Tony de Nunzio (Director)

George Lumb – Chris Britton (Director)

Alex Gourlay – Nick Land (Director)

Marco Pagni – Dominic Murphy (Director)

Steve Duncan – Mattia Caprioli (Director)

Organisational Chart of London Heathrow Marriott

(Source: Interview with the HR Manager 2010)

The London Heathrow Marriott has a tall hierarchical pyramid structure; this particular structure helps the business to run smoothly and efficiently. Hierarchical organisational structures are normally used in large and complex businesses. London Heathrow Marriott also operates within a centralised structure which means the firm consists of a head office that will have the most power and retain major responsibilities. The General Manager has a span of control of five people – members of the executive committee. It has a layered employment; additionally the chart also consists of a fourth layer of assistant heads of department and a fifth layer for the associates. There are also approximately twenty layers above the General Manager these include (Cluster General Manager for London, Regional Vice President, etc). The line manager of London Heathrow Marriott is Jayne Hillner the general manager and the subordinates include:

David Thomas

Dawn Packham

Elaine Hudson

Jim Shields

Mike Taylor

Comparison of the Organisational Chart of London Heathrow Marriott and Boots PLC

Both the businesses have a hierarchical structure which helps London Heathrow Marriott and Boots PLC to be organised and run efficiently. They are also both centralised therefore the businesses can benefit from the decision making through an experienced head office or senior manager. Similarly, both the businesses have a span of control of five people- the directors in Boots PLC and the members of the executive committee in London Heathrow Marriott. The London Heathrow Marriott has approximately 20 layers above the general manager whereas Boots PLC have a complete structure with the CEO at the top.

Functional Areas

Functional area is a department or area which carries out specific business activity. Effectively, functional areas are used in businesses because it helps the business to be more productive, organised and efficient. In addition, functional areas are vital in businesses as it helps the business achieve its aims and objectives this is because specific departments are in charge or responsible for a particular aim or objective which makes it more easier, for instance: the sales and marketing area deal with aims linked to increase in sales or developing new markets, etc. Mostly businesses are organised in the following departments: Finance, Administration, ICT, Production, Administration, Human Resources, Marketing and Sales. (Source: Carysforth, R Dransfield, M Neild and C Richard: Edexcel GCSE Applied Business, 2009)

However, London Heathrow Marriott has the following functional areas:

Front Office

Food & Beverage – Allies Restaurant, Tuscany Restaurant, Room Service, Bar Conference and Banqueting, Executive Lounge.

Kitchen

Leisure Club

House Keeping

Human Resources

Finance

Marketing, Sales & Events

Engineering – Maintenance.

Administration (General Manager & Director of Operations).

(Source: Interview with the HR Manager 2010)

Front Office

The front office department is divided and split into a reception, concierge, nights and At Your Service. Within the reception, London Heathrow Marriott makes sure that the customer has checked in without any difficulties. At the concierge, customers can ask for directions, bookings for taxis and days out, they would greet the customers and take their bags up to the rooms. The Nights is basically the service provided at night. Another way in which London Heathrow Marriott indicates that they are supportive is the At Your Service department, it gives general help and deals with customers enquiries. By doing all of this they are taking care of their customers while they are accommodating, thus they have a pleasant atmosphere. The Front Office helps London Heathrow Marriott to meet their aim of guest satisfaction superiority because they would welcome and greet the customers this will keep them pleased and give them a sense of belonging with the service as a result the guests are more likely to visit London Heathrow Marriott again. Eventually, due to the service provided by the front office will allow London Heathrow Marriott to meet their objective of- Sales turnover ?20m because the customers would be satisfied by the service provided and as mentioned before they would either visit again or inform about London Heathrow Marriott to their friends or family, this would also increase their profit levels- another aim of London Heathrow Marriott. Without the front office guests wouldn’t be served, hence they are more likely to lose their customers to rival hotels; this would decrease the turnover and profits, thus the associates won’t be paid on time- high labour turnover and would create an overall negative effect on London Heathrow Marriott. Although, the front office allows London Heathrow Marriott to meet their aim of maximising profit but the most significant aim it meets is the guest satisfaction superiority because achieving this aim will then allow London Heathrow Marriott to achieve their aim of maximising profit as the more customers it has the more profit it will make therefore by keeping the guests satisfied London Heathrow Marriott is likely to gain more customers. (Source: Teachers Notes 2010)

Food and Beverage

The Food and beverage department develops and manages food and statements to decide how the Food and Beverage department is doing in terms of profits or budgets. London Heathrow Marriott has several restaurants to meet its customer’s expectation and make them satisfied. The Food and Beverage area helps London Heathrow Marriott to achieve their aim of guest satisfaction superiority as they are meeting the customer specification and satisfying their needs. The restaurants also are a source of income which helps London Heathrow Marriott to meet their objective of ?20m in sales. London Heathrow Marriott has a wide range of restaurants where the guests can have their meals such as:

Allies American Grille – this restaurant provides an American cuisine where they provide buffet, breakfast, lunch and dinner. This restaurant opens at 6 am and closes at about 11 pm

Bar Hemia – this is a bar where they provide different types of alcohol and snacks. Guests can also spend time watching sports programmes on wide screen TV’s.

Tuscany Ristorante – this is an Italian restaurant, it also has a visible kitchen where the guests can view the chef preparing the food.

Costa Coffee – it is a coffee shop that serves coffee, tea, etc with a light meal as a side eg: sandwich.

Room Service- this is where the guests or customers can choose their meal from a menu and it will then be sent straight to the room.

Executive lounge – in this area the guests can relax and interact with other people, etc.

(Source: Phoned Marriott on 24/01/11)

Kitchen

In the Kitchen department the chefs prepare the food for events, weddings, conferences, etc. They are also responsible for food stock, in other words they have to buy the exact amount of what they need this would help Marriott to reduce costs. London Heathrow Marriott can minimise costs by bulk buying from the supplier and benefitting from economies of scale. The Kitchen department helps Marriott to meet their aim of maximising profit as the costs are reduced from bulk buying therefore it allows them to increase their profit levels. (Source: Interview with the HR Manager 2010)

Leisure Club

Housekeeping

The Housekeeping department is responsible for public area cleaning, laundry and lost property. In order to keep the customers satisfied maids have been employed to clean the rooms at high standards. They clean about 15-16 rooms a day, London Heathrow Marriott cares about the health and safety of their customers hence cleanliness is one of their main priorities towards guest satisfaction. (Source: Phoned Marriott on 24/01/11). This particular area keeps the customers pleased as they fulfil the needs of their customers before any complaints therefore this helps London Heathrow Marriott to meet their aim of guest satisfaction superiority. London Heathrow Marriott is persistent in keeping their reputation at high standards so that they could meet their aim of maximising profit; the Housekeeping department helps Marriott to do so.

Human Resources

This functional area works with recruitment and selection, dismissal, payroll, employment laws, health and safety, training and legislation. This is a significant department for London Heathrow Marriott as one of their aims involves training and development, recruitment, pay and benefits and promotions to ensure associate satisfaction. Hence, by providing facilities such as training and recruiting experienced and skilful associates the London Heathrow Marriott is likely to meet this aim. The process of recruitment costs Marriott ?4000 so if they recruit the right associates suitable for the job they are likely to meet their objective of low labour turnover and also make more profits by cutting down the recruitment costs. Also, the HR department is responsible for IT and payroll. The IT functional area focuses on managing the businesses IT systems, setting up accounts for employees, updating software and hardware programmes, manage and updating the website and also backing up files. Moreover, the London Heathrow Marriott does not have an ICT section; the human resources department controls the majority of the ICT aspects. Also, the main office in U.S manages any problems and is also responsible to update the London Heathrow Marriott website. Additionally, the Marriott International had researched and found that having specialised employees working in America has a far more effective result in keeping information safe and dealing with technical issues. This reduces the London Heathrow Marriott costs and allows them in meeting their aim of maximising profit because they do not have to employ and pay IT specialist. The use of ICT such as internet in the hotel would keep the guest pleased because London Heathrow Marriott’s target audience are businessmen or women hence many of them would require internet, therefore this would keep the guest satisfied which is an aim of London Heathrow Marriott. The guest satisfaction survey can also be filled online and analysed by computers, this is cost effective and also environmentally friendly as not much paper is used. This helps the business to reduce paper cost and increases profits. All the data is sent to a centralised ICT department in U.S where the headquarters are based. However, this may take a lot of time but the costs are lowered through the use of less equipment, this also helps the business to meet its aim of maximising profit because the spending costs are reduced. (Source: Interview with the HR Manager 2010)

Finance

The finance department deals with the cash inflows (revenue made from sales) and outflows (paying for equipments, materials and wages). It is also about budgeting, forecasting sales and costs, monitoring productivity and banking (Source: Student presentations 2010). The London Heathrow Marriott sets budgets and aims to lower the costs. This department makes it easy for London Heathrow Marriott to meet their aim of maximizing profits, as the set budgets plan to lower the costs. The sector controls cash flow and ensures there’s enough within the business to pay the associates and suppliers on time. Furthermore, Finance has a vital role when customers make a booking for a function or event at the Marriott. Quotes need to be accurate and delivered fast so that customers can make swift decisions about their requirements from the Marriott. Suppliers need to be informed and the finance department need to present the information to its customers. One of the aims of London Heathrow Marriott is: Marriott Profitability and Owner Return on Investment- To meet this aim the Finance department must make sure they are constantly checking their budget and keeping tabs on the expenditure.

Marketing and Sales

The marketing and sales department deals with the consumer needs (Carysforth, R Dransfield, M Neild and C Richard: Edexcel GCSE Applied Business, 2009). The Marketing and Sales department are also responsible for advertising and promotions, ecommerce, responding to sales enquiry and keeping customer records, research about customer needs through market research and surveys. It is important to find out what the needs of the customers are before launching a new product or service. The marketing and sales department also responds to sale enquiries and keep customer records. In the London Heathrow Marriott the marketing and sales department present powerful advertising and competitive pricing. Furthermore, they also do spy checks where an associate visits one of the competitors of London Heathrow Marriott to find out more data and also monitors ‘Trip Advisor’. London Heathrow Marriott has a strong link with many airlines, especially Emirates. Many Emirates employees stay at London Heathrow Marriott. Additionally, 95% of the airline employees stay at London Heathrow Marriott therefore if any cancellations or delays occur the London Heathrow Marriott is their first priority; Emirates take an equivalent of 120 rooms a day. (Source: Teachers Notes 2010). This allows London Heathrow Marriott to gain more customers and meet their objective of guest satisfaction and maximizing profits as they are likely to get more customers hence making a greater profit. Lastly, the department deals with loyalty programmes such as enhanced facilities, long stay discounts, warm welcomes and spirit to serve. The offers might affect short term benefits but there are also long term benefits such as the offers will allow more customers to stay at London Heathrow Marriott through the loyalty programmes, discount scheme, etc. The more customers London Heathrow Marriott gets the more profit they will earn which means they will achieve their aim of making a profit. London Heathrow Marriott also aims to be profitable and in order to do this they must meet their sales target objective of ?20m- which the sales department is responsible for.

Engineering/Maintenance

Administration

Production/operations

Though the London Heathrow Marriott does not sell a product, the product does offer a service thus it has an operations department. This consists of kitchen and health club staff, cleaners and maids. They also ensure that the service is provided- this includes greeting customers, showing them their room. In addition, the department helps to meet their aim of satisfying guests; if the operations department satisfies the customers then they are likely to revisit London Heathrow Marriott hence this department helps to meet their aim of increasing profits. Marriott’s ‘Spirit to Serve’- operations department deal with customers as they do not have a customer service department. The Spirit to Serve the customers is evident in the adage, “the customer is always right”. (Source: Interview with the HR Manager 2010)

Customer Service

Generally, businesses include a customer service department but the London Heathrow Marriott does not consist of a customer service department. They make sure that the hotel is presentable and that services such as the mini bar, towels in rooms, etc are replaced before customers can complain about anything. However, the customer service department does not exist, London Heathrow Marriott keep their customers satisfied throughout by serving the customers with all their needs beforehand. Instead the Front Office deals with any customer enquiries, etc it acts more like the customer service department. (Source: Teachers Notes 2011)

Global competition increasing every day, while others theme restaurants have come and gone Hard Rock cafe is successfully response to complexity, risks and competition of global economy with flexibility and speed. From one London cafe in 1971, Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) has grown to over 163 locations in 52 countries, and most of that growth has occurred in the last few years. With the mission ‘To spread the spirit of Rock ‘n’ Roll by delivering an exceptional entertainment and dining experience. We are committed to being an important, contributing member of our community and offering the Hard Rock family a fun, healthy, and nurturing work environment while ensuring our long-term success’ (Heizer & Render, 2009).HRC enjoys a 92% name recognition world-wide, putting it in the top 10 of all restaurants. HRC has accomplished this by changing from a ‘themed’ restaurant into one participating in what is now called the ‘Experience Economy’.

. Let’s identify how each of the 10 decisions of operations management is applied successfully and effectively at Hard Rock Cafe.

1. Design of goods and services:

HRC is flexible and unique with their product and services design base on the local market that they enter into. Every different restaurant has unique design by combining traditional and culture of the locals with the view in mind such as when they open HRC in Ho Chi Minh, Viet Name and decorate the bar with lantern. One of the most popular mistakes of restaurant is trying to make their food be the best to be successful. But reality is quite different when Bugger King and McDonald’s don’t have the best food. I didn’t mean that restaurant shouldn’t try to make the most delicious food but in the process of making delicious food (tangible product) they should keep their eyes on providing the intangible product which is called experience and HRC sells experience. HRC is using food as medium to inspire exceptional entertainment and dining experience. As Professor C.Markides of the London Business School says, ‘ The trick is not to play the game better than the competition, but to develop and play an altogether different game’. (Markides, 1997)

2. Managing Quality:

One of the most operations strategy is quality. According Jay Heizer, quality as ‘the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs’. (Heizer & Render, 2009, pp. 222-225). In Hard Rock’s Cafe, the food is the product and quality must be top the charts. Menu and quality surveys are being constantly and regularly reviewed by operations personnel. In operation management, establishing quality standard and control to meet these standards is the key to success but HR do better when providing the unique experience. Hard Rock is quite successful when using food (tangible product) as the medium to deliver exceptional entertainment and dinning experience (intangible product) and customer almost satisfy with unique visual and sound experience not duplicated anywhere. (Heizer & Render, 2009, p. 83)

3. Process and capacity design:

When decide the locations of their facilities, Hard Rock cafe has the process and capacity design with effective analyses the whole production process from purchasing food ingredients, to preparing the food to ensure the products in an efficient manner, cost effectiveness and labour requirements.

4. Location:

According Oliver Munday, Senior Director Worldwide Cafe Development, ‘ when considering a new location, a careful decision making process is used, as the investment for a new location is large and for example usually includes agreeing to a longer term lease on the location of 10-15 years or more’ because it’s play a role to ensure organization recovered the initial investment capital as well as minimum profit. . HRC carefully looks at several factors when considering a location.

‘ Political risk: In general, stable political of country can impact the decision of economic activities. It can be seen by the consistency of government policies that helps to ensure the interest of investor. On the other hands, a stable political situation will make people feel safety in working and increasing number of people comes to entertaining places.

‘ Currency risk due to inflation causing the economic crisis. Consequence, enterprise faces with difficult in exchange rate when earning profit cannot enough to compensate. Currency discount means pricing escalate, people live from hand to mouth. At that time, consumer will be reduced and the resulting decline in business revenues and profits, even losses.

‘ Social norms: in perspective consuming capacity of customer, there are two factors dominant: people’s income and culture, spending habits. If people have high salary, they’re willing to spend much more money for better life. On the contrary, they just spend money on what they really need. Second, due to culture life and spending habit they spend money on entertainment, leisure activities that their culture allows. But there are places where even though people’s incomes are really high but they practice in saving and spending.

‘ Brand fit: This factor is very sensitive and important that Hard Rock should consider carefully before naming trademarks and deploying their business. Customer will be outraged and boycott immediately with goods or services that offend communities ethnic or their belief.

‘ Social costs: This is cost that businesses have responsibility to contribute to society including taxes’

‘ Business practices: Hard Rock interested in living standards and intellectual level where business located.

5. Lay out :

Another reason helps HRC stands out the crowded restaurant is their layout. Just looking their big guitar outside, definitely it stimulates your curiosity get inside. The wall is being slapped with lots of memorabilia: guitars, drums, shirts, pants, shoes, scarves, handwritten come from music band or legendary musicians, such as Jimi Hendrix, Elvis, John Lennon ‘HRC seems to be a ‘live’ museum.

6. Human Resources:

Company from small to large just only archive their operation management strategy with competent and motivate people. Many organizations have demonstrated that competitive advantage in operation can be build through a good human resource strategy. In Hard Rock Cafe, part of their missions is creating a friendly, funny working environment not only for employee but also for their family to make them feel not just come for work only but to enjoy the work since then they can deliver professional unique entertainment and dining experience to their guests and to ensure long term company success . Hard Rock has an employee Bill of Rights, outstanding pay, benefit and promotion that helps employee self-motivated individual, they also have policy hiring the best qualify not just best available. Human resource can be expensive, difficult to archive and hard to sustain but what we’ve seen in Hard Rock Cafe with practice training and treat employee as you need individuality that not only good for business but also definitely ‘rock’. (Heizer & Render, 2009, p. 445)

7. Supply-chain management:

Hard Rock has been explored new global resources to achieve maximum profitable via supply chain. Be aware the most advantages of outsourcing is cost saving and improve services level. Hard Rock has selected USCO logistics, a subsidiary of Kuehne & Nagel, to take over distribution and replenishment of collectible and fashion merchandise for its cafes, hotels, and casinos in North America. (Albright, 2004)

8. Inventory, material requirements planning, and JIT

Inventory is one of the most expensive assets of many companies and Hard Rock is not exclusive. With more than seventy thousand pieces of memorabilia, Hard Rock also has invested forty million dollars in one of the world’s largest collection of rock-and-roll memorabilia inventory. According Jay Heizer ‘ the objective of inventory management is to strike a balance between inventory investment and customer services’ and by using effectively software such as Excel OM, POM, Hard Rock has done a great of cataloguing every single item. With thousand memorabilia spread out 163 cafes world-wide in 52 countries, they know exactly what is on the wall in what cafe. Through inventory system and technology they’re quite comfortable to recall any memorabilia to refurbish it every 5 to 7 years. (Heizer & Render, 2009, pp. 500-501)

9. Intermediate and short-term scheduling.

In Service Sector such as restaurant and hotel, we must forecast capacity for long term, purchasing contract lending orders for intermediate term and for short term we must forecast schedule and purchase labour, food, supply. Hard Rock Cafe is using a lot of forecasting techniques such as moving averages, weighted Moving Averages, Exponential Smoothing and Regression Analysis that helps manager to see the impact on demand of other menu items if the price of one item is changed. For example, ‘if the price of a cheeseburger increases from $6.99 to $7.99, Hard Rock can predict the effect this will have on sales of chicken sandwiches, pork sandwiches, and salads. Managers do the same analysis on menu placement, with the center section driving higher sales volumes’ (Heizer & Render, 2009, p. 647).

10. Maintenance

Hard Rock Cafe got the goal of maintenance when they succeed to maintain the capability of the system over 52 countries and keeping a system’s equipment in working order in 163 cafes around the world. To get maintenance activities more effectively Hard Rock need to implementing or improving preventive maintenance and increasing repair capabilities or speed. (Heizer & Render, 2009, pp. 682-683)

In light of the above,’discuss’the operations management challenges and

opportunities for’Hard Rock when considering an’expansion of its business into Hanoi.

Opened the first one in December 2009 in Ho Chi Minh, Hard Rock is facing with challenges and opportunities to expand the second one in Hanoi capital of Viet Nam. Let’s using SWOT to analysis their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats when coming to Hanoi

1. Strengths:

‘ With more than 40 years strong experience deploying services: hotels, cafes, restaurant spread out over 52 countries. Hard Rock absolutely brand power with high capacity, technology and network relationship.

‘ Hard Rock had experienced about VN market through the first Hard Rock in Ho Chi Minh. Hard Rock absolutely has some lessons learn from the first one about human resource, supply chain, inventory that is a challenges factor for ‘Multi-Domestic’ strategy.

2. Weaknesses:

‘ Maybe need more research in emerging market as well as living habit in Hanoi.

3. Opportunities:

‘ Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and was formed 1000 years ago, the center of politics, culture and economy of Vietnam. Hanoi is the first stop of tourists on their way to visit Ha Long Bay which is a natural wonder of the world, Tuan Chau resort, The Hai Phong port city

‘ Hard Rock will create a exchange cultural bridge between Vietnamese singer and international singer.

4. Threats:

‘ Considerations should be taken as well on regional segmentation of the market, like we usually say in the marketing and advertising industry, in Vietnam:’ Saigonese makes 10 bucks, borrows 1 and spends 11 while Hanoiians makes 10 bucks, spends 1 and saves the rest.’ Don’t go rushing to Vietnam hearing the rosy stories. Take your time and breathe like a local before you make your move.

‘ Vietnam, like any other emerging market, is a long-haul market for any investor. While it is looked at as one of the 10 hottest emerging markets in the world with a very young population and a rising middle class, it is by no means providing a quick return on investment’especially when you are offering a new product or service concept.

‘ Educating the market on the specialty coffee category. Try to understand consumer perception towards the category and match it with what you have in your pocket. You either are a pioneer and spend money to educate the market or wait until your competitors have done so and piggy back on market growth. Nevertheless, if your pocket is real deep, buy out a local business in the category and take it from there.

Let me use the PEST framework for deep analysis and see other perspectives of challenges as well as opportunities to expand Hard Rock in Hanoi.

PEST Analysis:

Political:

‘ Government Stability:

Since 1975 up till now, the political situation in Vietnam is very stable. This is a country of no violence, no terrorism, no constant protests that causing the political situation, culture and economy of the country. People feel peace in mind to work and live, play and entertainment. Therefore, many foreign do invest to Vietnam, and many tourists from all over the world visited Vietnam. Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam so that it’s inherited all the best characteristics.

Economic:

‘ Growth, Inflation& Interest Rates:

In 2010, gross domestic product GDP in Hanoi increased 11% over the same period last year. Foreign investment in Hanoi reached $ 800 million, total revenue per capita GDP reached about 37 million per year (approximately $ 1,950 per year). But people who work in services, stock, handicrafts, owner of large, medium or small business have really high income.

Price index increases, especially food commodities increased to 5.37%. Beverages price index rose 4.17%. Cigarette price index is up 2.25%. General food sector services have increased the price index

‘ Real Estate Market: Hanoi is a growing and expanding city so that real estate prices increasing so fast. Wherever roads and public services are built, the property prices rose faster and quite high. Although the city is planning to expand but property prices in the old city still very high and that led the fact, although Vietnam is a poor country, but property prices is more higher than other countries in the world.

‘ Tourists/business visitors: According to statistics, the number of international visitors come to Hanoi in 2010 increased 62% compared to 2009 while a domestic tourists increased by 10%. And has more than 30,000 international tourists visited the capital in 10 days Hanoi organized the celebration of 1000 years of Thang Long ‘ Hanoi

‘ Hotel: There are lots of luxury five start hotels in Hanoi such as Hilton, Sofitel Plaza, Sheraton, Sofitel Metropole, Nikko.

‘ Convention Center: Hanoi National Convention Center Vietnam was built with scale and international level, located at 57 Pham Hung Street, Tu Liem district. It was held the Economic Cooperation Forum Asia – Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) in 2006.

‘ Retail: As well as other cities of a developing country, outside the supermarket and shopping center, the old town around Hoan Kiem’s lake where the famous retailer of the city including most of the essential goods from individuals and families stuffs to souvenirs.

Socio-cultural

‘ Population Growth/Age Profile

Population of Hanoi is about more than 6 million people. Especially, urban areas, downtown area and old town such as Hoan Kiem, Ba Dinh, Dong Da, Hai Ba Ba Trung district is very crowded. In these areas, the population density is up to about 35,000 people/km2 while other areas just 2000 people/km2. Age of working capacity is about 66% of the total population.

‘ Education, Social Mobility: Hanoi now has 52 elementary school, 27 colleges and 50 universities. There is also the Academy and the Center for scientific research.

‘ Transportation:

‘ Airport:

a) Age of airport: NoiBai International Airport had built in 1977 and official opened in 1978.

b) Number of Passengers: In 2010, Noi Bai International Airport has average 170 flights taking off and landing daily, and has served 9.5 million passengers

c) Airlines: Vietnam has three airlines Vietnam, Jetstar and Vietjet airline. And most major airlines around the world have representative offices in Hanoi .

d) Direct Flights: Noi Bai Airport has direct domestic flights to other cities in VietNam such as Ho Chi Minh, Nha Trang, Hue and international flights to other cities around the world as: Moscow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Seoul-Incheon, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo-Narita’.

e) Hubs: Currently, Noi Bai International Airport is not on transit routes the international flights. However, visitors can stop to visit the capital Hanoi in Vietnam on the way to Hongkong, Japan, Korea, China,Singapore’.

‘ Rail: Hang Co railway station is the center of the country, the starting point of five railway lines throughout the province from north to south and to the northern border. From the border, Vietnam railway connect to international railway to Beijing, China, and continue to many European countries.

‘ Road: Hanoi is the traffic junction of the roads in the country. Hanoi is the starting point of the route of Highway 1A entered into southern and route into Laos and Cambodia as well as go to the north border VietNam-China.

‘ Sea / River: Hanoi is laying on both sides of Red River, an important routes to Hung Yen, Nam Dinh, Thai Binh, Viet Tri, Pha Lai.

‘ Restaurants and Nightclub: Hanoi has many Restaurants and Nightclub and mainly concentrated in urban districts such as Hoan Kiem, Hai Ba Trung, Ba Dinh and Dong Da .

‘ Sports: My Dinh Stadium which was built in 2003, located in the south of the city, accommodating 40,192 seats. Sports Congress in Southeast Asia in 2003 and football Championships Southeast Asia 2008 was held here.

‘ Entertainment:

‘ Parks: There are lots of parks as Thong Nhat, Tuoi Tre, Thu Le which attracting visitors.

‘ Lake: One of the most prominent feature in Hanoi is a lot of natural lakes i.e Hoan Kiem, Dong Da, Thien Quang. The lakes in Hanoi are also attracting lots of visitor especially Hoan Kiem turtle lake associated with history.

‘ Theaters: Most of these theaters are concentrated in two districts of the city center is the Hoan Kiem and Hai Ba Trung district.

‘ In addition, the old city where the traditional villages and many other historical sites that tourists often come to Hanoi to first priority visit i.e ‘Quoc Tu Giam’ place where President Bill Clinton had visited in 2000.

Technological

‘ Impact of Emerging Technologies.

‘ Impact of Internet and Reduced Communication Costs.

‘ R&D Activity.

‘ Impact of Technology Transfer..

Vietnam is a developing country and all needs for life constantly increasing. Vietnam is also a place attracting many tourists from Europe, Americas..

Because of these reasons, the consideration of expanding Hard Rock Cafe in Hanoi in this period is a job should be considered.

Assume Ba Dinh Square or Hoan Kiem Lake is center point, the most potential area for business location should be placed on Ba Dinh or Dong Da district or adjacent to the Hoan Kiem or Hai Ba Trung district. Similar as people in Ho Chi Minh and other cities across the country, every night, people is going toward downtown. It has created resurgence of “City Centers” at night

Thus, Hoan Kiem and Hai Ba Trung district or near the Hoan Kiem area is absolutely a great ideal for location, but found available space here is extremely difficult.

Moreover, location decision is at a 10-15 years commitment. First, lease premises from 10 – 15 years to ensure have enough time to recover the initial investment capital and gain a profit. Second, the premises are not in the areas that the government put into the clearance plan within 10-15 years.

In the other hands, due to harsh natural conditions, Hanoi usually got flooded annually or disasters that damaged crops. Since then demand of entertainment will be cut off. The consumers will significant decrease.

Also consider psychological factors of Hanoi in particular and people in northern Vietnam general. Due to undergo the hardships of constant war

Due to undergo the hardships of constant war, the harsh natural conditions, people are saving as a precaution for the risks in the future, with hope to build a better life for next generations. Therefore people are considering on spending something.

The Hard Rock Cafe (HRC) was established on June 14, 1971 in London by two American businessmen who love Rock music are Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton. Hard Rock began its global expansion in 1982, when Tigrett and Morton agreed to develop the Hard Rock cafes in their different parts of the world. They opened the Hard Rock Cafe in locations as diverse as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago and Houston. In 1990, The Rank Group, Plc., a London-based leisure company, acquired and continued expansion of this concept in their geographic territory. In March 2007, Seminole Tribe of Florida buying Hard Rock International, Inc. and other relevant units from the Rank Group and owner of the Hard Rock Cafe until now.

Nowaday, with over 170 locations in over 51 countries worldwide, including 133 cafes and 15 hotels / casinos, Hard Rock has become a truly global phenomenon. Starting from London, England, to New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Tokyo, and still is now Hard Rock Cafe has extended to remote locales such as Kuala Lumpur and Ho Chi Minh … Currently, the Hard Rock Cafe activities in the areas of business such as casual dining in restaurants, casinos and hotels.

This report will critically evaluate the operations management strategy of Hard Rock Cafe and the operations management challenges and opportunities for Hard Rock when considering an expansion of its business into Hanoi.

II. Valuate the operations management strategy of Hard Rock Cafe.

As professor C.Markides of London Business School says, ” The trick is not to play the game better than competition, but to develop and play an altogether different game”. With strategic differentiation, managers of Hard Rock Cafe make effective decisions in 10 areas of operation management – these are the 10 Strategic Operations Management Decisions. In this section, report will analyze the evaluate the operations management strategy of Hard Rock Cafe as described in the attached case materials

1. Design of goods and services

Tr?°a»›c ha??t, cac nha qua??n ly ta??i Hard Rock Cafe luon luon ghi nha»› ra?±ng cac sa??n pha?©m ma ha»? A‘ang cung ca??p cho khach hang khong cha»‰ la ba»?a A?n, tha»©c ua»‘ng hoa?·c A‘a»“ l?°u nia»‡m maf con la intangibly kinh nghia»‡m A‘a?y A‘a» ca»a Rock & Roll.

Cac khoa??n thu ca»a Hard Rock Cafe co khoa??ng 40% ta»« ban hang va pha?n con la??i ta»« dining menus, A‘a»“ ua»‘ng, khach sa??n va song ba??c va ta»• cha»©c cac bua»•i hoa nha??c rock. Trong tha»±c ta??, ta??t ca?? cac A‘ong gop vao nha»?ng gi ma khach hang ca??m nha?­n A‘?°a»?c la “Rock & Roll kinh nghia»‡m” khi ha»? sa»­ da»?ng da»‹ch va»? ca»a Hard Rock Cafe. Sau A‘ay, chung ta co tha»? tha??y nha»?ng sa??n pha?©m va da»‹ch va»? A‘a»?u A‘?°a»?c thia??t ka?? va thia??t ka?? ta??i cac A‘a»‹a A‘ia»?m khac nhau.

(First, the managers at Hard Rock Caffe always understood that the product that they offer to customers are not only meals, drinks or souvenirs, but also intangibly full experience of Rock & Roll .

About 40% revenue of Hard Rock Cafe from selling merchandise and the rest from the dining menus, drinks, hotels and casinos and organized rock concert. In fact, all contribute to what customers perceive as “Rock & Roll experience” when they use the services of the Hard Rock Cafe. We can see the products and services are tailored and designed in different locations.)

a. Meals and drinks

Hard Rock Cafe building the system traditional menus beside the menu changes regularly depending on the time and place.

With traditional menus, Hard Rock Cafe was almost able to meet the expectations of traditional customers, although they may visit any HCR different in different countries, they also can be used Hard Rock Cafe ‘s familiar dishes. In fact, a Hard Rock Cafe’s customer said that he has visited Hard Rock Cafe in Japan many times during his bussiness trip because it is the only place he can get Mexican food in Tokyo.

Some other menu dishes and beverages regular change depending on the locations and different times through sales analysis and culture in each country, region different. For example, the Hard Rock Cafe in England, though there are still steaks and hamburgers, but the menu substitute beef by lobster and fish because the British are still concerns about mad cow disease.

b. Merchandise

Because 70% Hard Rock’s guest are tourist, so Hard Rock Cafe has designed a rich system of goods in each region, different country. Hard Rock Cafe ‘s items often rich in variety and unique. Besides, Hard Rock Cafe has developed clubs, forums for members worldwide to discuss trade and other unique goods that they collected from Hard Rock Cafe.

In addition, Hard Rock Cafe also has other services such as hotels, casinos, concerts… Hard Rock Cafe slogan “Love all – Serve all” so regardless of age, sex, rich or poor, class when come to Hard Rock Cafe, all people always feel welcome and service with attitude enthusiasm

2. Qua??n ly cha??t l?°a»?ng

Quality is one of the most important factors in all industries and it is not an exception for Hard Rock CafeThey do not even mention the quality in their mottos because for the fact that they see it as the core value of the brand. Quality management is an important factor relate to the success of the Hard Rock Cafe. “Be careful and don’t make a mistake in the first place. If a mistake does occur, correct it before it reaches the customer.”, that is principle each employee has to remember in their initial training.

HCR implement service tenet of “double checking” to minimize errors. In order to implement this service tenet, Hard Rock Cafe Orlando hires 02 extra staff. One to check the quality of food being put into cooking, one to check and compare the order to the servings before before bringing it to the customer. Besides Hard Rock Cafe also careful in selecting suppliers, even they give quality policies with standard indicators that suppliers must meet .

3. Process and capacity design

During 40 years of continuous development, Hard Rock Cafe has developed from a pub just to become a global chain of more than 100,000 meals served each day. Hard Rock Cafe has continued to modify and optimize their process and design capacity. In fact, Hard Rock Cafe was praised in the application of technologies in operation management and their strategic decisions.

4. Local selection.

As we know, 70% of Hard Rock Cafe ‘s guest are tourists, have found it expanding to “destination” cities. Although this strategy has achieved success in the past decades, but the recent economic crisis actually had a negative impact to tourism industry. Therefore, new options of Hard Rock Cafe is locate long-term lease in other cities such as Nottingham, Manchester or Birmingham is not the peak tourist city. This is a wise strategic decision of the Hard Rock Cafe because in conditions of global economic crisis, tourism industry is affected. The strategy above will help Hard Rock Cafe reduce dependency on tourism, and maintain revenue while the tourist industry in crisis.

5. Layout design

Hard Rock Cafe has different designs in different countries, cities and regions. For example, Hard Rock Cafe in Chicago is decorated by a very big electric guitar standing in front of the buiding and most of the chairs are located in a large room while Hard Rock Cafe in Prague, The Czech Republic is decorated by a Hard Rock guitar in the font of a ball. Hard Rock Cafe do not show the same module design of Hard Rock Cafe in every place. Layout design of Hard Rock Cafe flexibly changed based on scale and culture of different regions but basic features of Hard Rock were maintained. It is carefully considered that whether they should hire cafe shop in a long time, build a new shop or just set up or repair, and how to make it become perfect and efficient.

6. Human resources and job design

Hard Rock Cafe built a specific and unique business culture.

All the employees of Hard Rock Cafe are required to have not only working skills but also the passion of rock music; in addition, their characteristics must be suitable for their work. Hard Rock Cafe implemented a training process permitting an employee to work in different positions, which means that one person can be a server, retailer or even a kitchen coverer.

Hard Rock has policies to encourage internal as well as loyalty of employees, make every condition for employees to be able to develop and become fond of in a long time in every different position. “60% managers of Hard Rock Cafe are promoted from hourly employee ranks”, the above interesting information is a motivation helping not only long-time employess but also hourly employees, part-time employees strive to work with the spirit of passion, creativeness and dedication for their better futures when they become fond of Hard Rock Cafe.

7. Supply-chain management

Hard Rock Cafe has always set the standard for the supplier to ensure the best food sources.

In 2003, HR has implemented supply chain improvement, which helps Hard Rock reduce 44% of store space in North America, 20% of operational costs , improve 22% of service levels, optimized transport cost, distribution network, contract terms and the protection responsibility, improve operational efficiency.

8. Inventory

Hard Rock Cafe arranges Stores according to advanced methods, such as Just-in-Time inventory control. The goods are arranged conveniently for getting out to use. Souvenir store with about 6000 pieces of rock ‘n’ roll memorabilia is checked periodically and refreshed in the cycle of 5-7 years.

The good management of supply-chain helps Hard Rock to keep a safe and effective inventory. Food sources for food processing in Hard Rock Cafe are ensured to be fresh, clean and on time.

9. Scheduling.

Hard Rock Cafe applies short-term and long-term forecast to schedule their services. All the computers of Hard Rock Cafe use a common database. This helps system managers define daily sales revenue in each given time in each store of Hard Rock to quickly introduce timely and effective plan for each different store of HARD ROCK CAFE.

Besides, Hard Rock Cafe has also implemented long-term forecast, factors affecting revenue such as seasons, holidays, economic forecast. This helps HARD ROCK CAFE introduce long-term plans.

10. Maintenance

HARD ROCK CAFE has always conducted periodical surveys to have suitable adjustments. Controlling and maintaining of quality are the keys for Hard Rock’s success. All equipments in kitchens, bars, restaurants or retail shops are often maintained.

Besides, Hard Rock Cafecreated its own website: www.hardrock.com and maintain a weekly cable television program on VH-1. This contributed to develop and maintain HARD ROCK CAFE brand worldwide.

Assessment 2: In light of the above, discuss the operations management challenges and opportunities for Hard Rock when considering an expansion of its business into Hanoi.

Hard Rock Cafe A‘a A‘a??n Via»‡t Nam nh?°ng cha»‰ a»Y thanh pha»‘ Ha»“ Chi Minh. Khi ma»Y ra»™ng kinh doanh vao Ha Na»™i, Hard Rock ca?n pha??i nghA© va»? nha»?ng A‘ia»?u kia»‡n sau A‘ay:

Opportunities

First, Hanoi in particular and Vietnam in general has proportion of young population, they are very sensitive and quick to receive new ones. At Ha Noi, there are a lot of young people love Rock but there is not any a unique and professional cafe-style rock as HARD ROCK CAFE. So the presence of HARD ROCK CAFE in Hanoi will occupy the attention and love of rock fans, this is a source of potential customers and loyal if HARD ROCK CAFE knows how to exploit.

Second, Ha Noi is the capital, the largest economic center in northern of Vietnam. Resident of North and South Vietnam often crowd to Ha Noi with many different reasons: for their business, work, studying … So, if HARD ROCK CAFE is successful at Ha Noi, it would be a solid foundation to expand their business into neighboring provinces and other big cities in Vietnam.

With cultural characteristics unique, HARD ROCK CAFE is one of the first foreigner cafe-style in Vietnam, it will create attraction for everyone who want to enjoy coffee with the new style, the most the young. Besides, HARD ROCK CAFE will have a customers is the European, American …, who has been familiar with the style cafe of HARD ROCK CAFE, is working long term in Ha Noi.

In addition, young and cheap labor is an important advantage. In Ha Noi, HARD ROCK CAFE can recruit young and enthusiastic labor cheaply than other countries. Besides, Vietnam is considered one of the political regime most stable, this brings peace of mind for the managers of HARD ROCK CAFE when they expand its business into Hanoi. The Government of Vietnam has established a system of open-door policy, encouraging foreign investors to invest and develop Vietnam’s economy, create jobs for local people.

Challenges

However, besides the opportunity, Hard Rock Cafehas to face many challenges when considering an expansion of its business into Hanoi.

First, it is the social risks. People in Hanoi have a habit of enjoying their own coffee. They like to sit in a cafe-street (on sidewalk) with a cup of coffee is cheap, processed according to traditional methods and quick, read newspapers or watch the people passing by, rather than sitting closed room luxury..

Second, not many people spend almost 100,000 VND – a relatively high price compared with the income of people in here – for a cup of Hard Rock coffee, so HARD ROCK CAFE should survey the indicators of living standards of people in Ha Noi to offer reasonable prices . In addition, local people were familiar with the taste of the familiar brand of coffee that they used in a long time as Trung Nguyen, Tay Nguyen, G7 … and will take a long time to accept the new taste from the HARD ROCK CAFE.

Third, models cafe with live music are increasingly popular in Hanoi and its price is different from lower to higher levels with their own style. Rock is a genre not much popularity in Hanoi in particular and Vietnam in general. Most people who love rock are under 30 years old, that is also a challenge for the HARD ROCK CAFE.

Fourth, information systems business in the Viet Nam market will bring limited to the Hard Rock difficulty if they want to research and forecasting for the business. Unlike developed countries, Vietnam unfinished business information systems, so it is a challenge for the researchers of the HARD ROCK CAFE in the process of data collection or market survey and that will affect the strategy and plan of Hard Rock.

Addition, human resources is a challenge for HARD ROCK CAFE. HN have cheap labor market, young, however locals are not familiar with the working style is intense, yet professional and understand the business culture of Hard Rock. So after recruitment, HARD ROCK CAFE probably need to spend more time training before they can do.

In summary, all above factors create not only difficulties but also the opportunity to open prospects for Hard Rock to determine the appropriate plan when considering a business expansion in Hanoi. It’s always a concern for all operations managers to make the right decisions, not only for Hard Rock Cafe.