Strategy Planning: Hyatt Corporation

Strategy Planning: Hyatt Corporation Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Strategy Planning: Hyatt Corporation Hyatt was first established in 1957 by Pritzker when he purchased the Hyatt House motel adjacent to the Los Angeles International Airport. Few years later, the Pritzker family grew into a North American management and hotel ownership company that went public in 1962. Six years later (1968), another separate and public Hyatt International company was formed. The companies were later taken private by the Pritzker family in 1979 and 1982 respectively. Later, on December 31 2004, both companies were consolidated to form a single entity by the name Hyatt Hotels Corporation. Hyatt is an international hospitality organization with well recognized leading brands and a tradition of innovation that has been developed throughout the organization’s history. Hyatt develops, manages, franchises and owns Hyatt branded hospitality properties across the world. As of 31 December 2017, the company’s lodging portfolio included “more than 700 properties in more than 50 countries across the world,” (Hyatt, n.d). The organization manages luxury hotels in Latin America, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Europe providing travelers with 14 distinct brands that include: Hyatt Place, Andaz, Hyatt resorts, Grand Hyatt, Hyatt Zilara, Park Hyatt, Hyat Ziva and others. However, the subsidiaries of the company are responsible for development, ownership, operation, management, franchising, licensing and provision of services to the company’s brand portfolios. The organization strives to maintain is market position despite stiff competition from its rivals Marriott International Inc. and Hilton Worldwide in certain overseas markets like Asia. In the current competitive market environment, Hyatt Hotels Corporation distinguishes itself from its rivals with strong brands that meets the tastes and preferences of their customers leaving them with a memorable experience. All the properties of the company share core values and offers their guests with exceptional services. Being a private company, the organization is driven by the values of providing their guests with exceptional services rather than shareholder and has been in a position to grow its brands based on its mission. Reason for choosing the company After a careful search for the organization for my case study, I found it interesting to study Hyatt Hotels Corporation due to its wide brand portfolio. This can enable me know some of the strategies and management policies that have enabled it develop and grow into a strong brand across the world. Aims and Objectives of this study The primary aim of this study is to understand strategic planning and know how it is implemented through the case study. The objectives include: analyze strategic planning and study its implementation. Strategic Planning Process The aim of a strategic plan is to develop strategic facilities, outline the agreed guidelines, follow the plan to the utmost and ensure there is operative participation. Strategic planning is closely related to foresight or forecast but the latter provides a detailed action plan on how the objectives will be achieved. In the strategic planning process, we are supposed to answer various significant questions like where are we? How can we achieve our overall objectives? And how can we evaluate our progress? (Johnson, Scholes & Whittington, 2008). Therefore, a strategic plan provides us with the opportunity to confront the various deviations in our internal and external environments so that we can respond to emerging challenges and accomplish the organizational goals. The strategic plan aligns our organization with its environment to be in a position of accomplishing certain goals and make available decisions to achieve the organization’s desired future. The strategic planning process should include all employees through proper communication to develop, foster and adopt the vision and also ownership of action plan. It also fosters the setting up of priorities and create a conducive atmosphere for the accomplishment of the goals. The strategic planning process is complex and requires a lot of care throughout the stages. The following are phases that will guide us in our strategic planning. * Determining our Strategic position This phases has a number of steps. They include: * Identifying the strategic issues. These are the unknowns which are driving us to develop a strategic plan. These can be problems, market shifts or unfulfilled gap in the market. These issues will enable us identifying how we can grow, diversify our revenue or innovate our products and services to add value to the customers. * Conduct an environmental scan. This will enable us to understand the environment we are operating in. Various tools are available for this type of scan and they will be addressed later in this paper in full details. * Strategy development This phase includes various steps. They include: * Developing the mission statement. The organization’s mission statement is “to deliver distinctive experiences for our guests.” * Discover the values. Our organization’s values include “respect, creativity, humility, integrity and fun.” * Cast the organization’s vision statement. “A world of understanding and care.” * Identifying our competitive advantages. This can be achieved through the various tools that are explained in the second section of this paper. * Develop organization wide strategies. These are the methods that we intend to use to achieve our objectives. For instance, focus on product and service differentiation. * Strategic Plan Development The team should use the information obtained through the various tools discussed in the second section of this paper. These tools will enable the team identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the organization as well as those of the competitors. All the options generated will be evaluated to determine the ones that provide greatest benefit in achieving the mission and vision of the organization. Secondly, the team should define long term as well as organization-wide objectives and measures. This will be followed by the selection of Key Performance Indicators that will help the organization move forward (Leslie 2009). * Implementing the strategy This process turns the strategies and laid down plans into actions with the aim of achieving the strategic objectives. Techniques and Tools There are several tools and techniques that can play a significant role in the development of strategic plans for organizations. They are as follows: * SWOT Analysis This is the simplest but widely used tool that enables organizations to understand their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It begins by defining the mission and objectives of the organization and identifies the internal and external factors that will facilitate the realization of the stated objectives. The strengths and weaknesses represent the internal environment of the organization while opportunities and threats reflects the external environment. These factors are often presented in 2x2 matrix as follows: Strengths * What the organization does better than rivals. * The unique selling points. * What does the rivals and customers perceive to be the strengths of the organization? * What is the organization’s competitive advantage? Opportunities * Are there changes in PEST (political, economic, social and technological) factors that can favor the organization? * What are the existing gaps or unfulfilled demands? * Are there any innovations that the organization can bring to the market? Weaknesses * What do rivals do better than the company? * What organizational aspects do not have any value? * What do the rivals and target market consider to be the organization’s weaknesses? Threats * What PEST changes that can harm the organization. * Is the competition affecting the organization in a negative manner? However, it should be noted that when using this tool: * Only specific and verifiable statements should be used. * Much attention is paid to internal and external factors. * Identified issues are kept for the strategy formulation process. * The analysis is conducted on the project level rather than organizational level. * It should not be used alone. Other tools should be used as well. * PEST Analysis This is a scan of the external environment of the organization. It is an important tool for the understanding of external factors (Political economic, social-cultural and technological). It helps in evaluating market trends. Political factors: these are government regulations and policies which have an impact on the organization. They include employment laws, tax and environmental regulations. They also include political stability and restrictions. Economic factors: these are the factors that influences the cost of capital as well as purchasing power of the organization. They include; inflation, interest rates, economic growth and currency exchange rates. Social factors: these are factors that influences the consumer behavior as well as the market size for the organization’s goods and services. They include population growth, attitudes of the consumers and age demographics. Technological factors: they influence make or buy decisions, barriers to entry and investments in innovation. They include investment incentives, automation and rate of technological change. The above factors are categorized under opportunities or threats in a...