In this second milestone assignment for the final project, you will continue the process of creating a business development plan for your selected organization or company. To accomplish this, you must

A Business Development Plan for Marriott International, Inc.

Darlene Ames

QSO 690

December 8, 2017

A Business Development Plan for Marriott International, Inc.

Introduction

Marriott International, Inc. is a multinational hospitality company based in the United States. The company manages a broad portfolio of hotels and lodging facilities’ franchises. Marriott International currently has more than 6000 properties in 122 countries in the world. In spite of being one of the biggest hospitality brands globally, Marriott International faces a lot of risks from the heavy competition in the hospitality industry (Barnes, 2012). The company seeks to expand to more countries in the world and continue to build its business network to maintain the top position in the industry it has held for years. This purpose of this business development plan is to analyze the internal and external environments of the business and recommend some business development strategies that the company can use to improve its operations on the global market.

Current Operation Structure of the Company

Marriott International has managed to become one of the best hospitality companies in the world because of its great operations strategy. The company has been first in implementing some of the best operations strategies that are helping many companies to be profitable (Barnes, 2012). The company has managed this through great leadership and management strategies. The company has a great management structure designed to manage the operations of the brand as a whole and each of the global properties owned by the company. The teams of leaders that guide the operations of the company have made some great strategic decisions that have helped to add value to the company’s customers, fulfill the needs of its stakeholders, and increase the profitability of the company. For instance, Marriott International was the first hotel company to introduce online reservations for customers. It was also the first company to introduce food that is free of trans fats in its North American chains. However, based on the great competition and the ever evolving hospitality industry, Marriott International will still need to implement new strategies to maintain its position as a top global hospitality company.

Internal Strengths and Limitations

One of the best capabilities that Marriott International has is its great global brand recognition. In the 90 years that the company has been in operation, it has managed to create a strong brand that is recognized almost everywhere in the world. The brand recognition makes it easier for the company to attract customers, especially when new operations strategies have been implemented. Additionally, this company has demonstrated a great ability in developing new technical innovations to improve the company’s operation capabilities. For instance, it was the first to introduce online booking in the hotel industry; an innovation that has not only helped the company but also other hospitality companies to develop the quality of their services. Lastly, Marriott International has a great employee retention capability. The company takes its human resource management seriously by creating a working environment that promotes employee retention. However, Marriott has been facing some weaknesses that have been pulling back its global growth strategy.

First, Marriott International has been facing some financial risks that could affect its growth potential. The company’s finances have been highly affected by the United States’ slow economic growth. More than 50% of the company’s properties are located in North America, mainly the United States (McNew, 2016). Due to the slow economic growth, the rate of hotel bookings have slowed down significantly; hence, affecting Marriott International’s financial performance. Another weakness that the company is facing is the possible reduction of its brand recognition globally. The hotel industry has grown at a fast rate with many new companies fighting for the same market share. There are various hotel brands that have managed to gain a bigger market share and recognition leading to the reduction of the Marriott brand recognition in the global market.

External Threat Factors

Marriott Hotels face some external threats that could affect the company’s growth opportunities globally. Being a global company, Marriott faces various socio-political issues that affect its operations. Terrorism and political unrest are some of the issues that have affected the company negatively. There have been issues of terror in various parts of the world that the company operates in during the past three years. For instance, the devastating terrorist attacks in France and Turkey in 2016 reduced the company’s financial performance in the areas by 1%. Additionally, various attacks in the Middle East and Africa regions have caused a 7% decline in the company’s performance in the areas (McNew, 2016). If these kinds of attacks continue, the company’s performance might decline further leading to a hindrance in its current growth strategy.

Business Development Opportunities

There are various opportunities that Marriott International can take advantage of to develop its business. First, the company can develop new cost-reduction strategies to deal with the financial risks that it has been facing in some of its chains. Cost reduction will enable the company to increase its profitability; hence enabling easier global expansion. Additionally, the company can improve its management strategies to help promote its brand name which has been declining during the past few years. The following are some of the strategies that the company can apply to improve its performance and enable the success of its expansion plan.

Business Development Strategies

Applying Quality Management

Marriott International, Inc. needs to implement total quality management (TQM) strategies that will help deal with the internal and external issues that are limiting its growth strategy. TQM is a management approach that enables long term success through improved customer satisfaction (Gotzamani&Tsiotras, 2001). Through TQM the company can improve its products, services, and the business processes to enhance the customer experiences. This will help to increase the company’s competitive advantage to reduce the brand name dilution that has been taking place in the recent past. The company should implement a customer-focuses management system; which is the first principle of TQM. The performance of Marriott highly depends on the level of customer satisfaction that the company can provide. If the company is able to maximize customer satisfaction, it will develop a relationship with its customers such that maintaining them in a market with very high competition will not be too hard for them. This can be achieved through employee training and the development of new customer attraction strategies that will promote satisfaction. Employee training is necessary in all the global branches so that the company can provide a standardized quality of service (Kim, Kumar & Kumar, 2012). A customer can be sure that wherever in the world they may be, they will get exceptional service from a hotel or lodging that is managed by Marriott International. A customer loyalty program is recommended to attract and maintain customers to the hotels and lodgings managed by the company.

Research and Development in Decision Making

In order to meet international standards of quality management, Marriott International will need to implement the ISO 9000 principles. Evidence-based decision making is the strategy that will help the company given its current situation (Gotzamani&Tsiotras, 2001). The hospitality industry is changing significantly and the statistics that applied a few years ago cannot be used to make decisions currently. It is recommended that the company applies its own research program that will help the managers to study the global market, and particularly the environments that the company wishes to expand in. Using past research is also recommended but it is important to ensure that the evidence used on decision making is reliable and credible. Making informed decisions will minimize mistakes made by the company; hence, increasing the chances of a successful expansion strategy. It is also important that the company applies continuous improvement strategies to avoid lagging behind when the hospitality industry changes. Marriott is currently one of the best global companies in the industry but this does not imply that they should reduce improvement strategies. This can be achieved by promoting an innovative management culture where employees are encouraged to give new ideas. The leadership of the company should be participative in nature so that people can have the chance to share ideas and develop them into strategies that can help improve the company’s operations.

Global Best Practices

Being an international company, Marriott International, Inc. has to always develop strategies that will improve the company’s performance globally. The company will improve its position as a whole if each of the branches is able to perform well. Global great practices can be achieved through aligned management practices (Perdomo-Ortiz, Gonzalez-Benito&Galende, 2009). All companies need to have a similar culture in order to align the quality standards in Marriott as a whole. Although each of the hotel branches has its own management, the top management of the company should align its strategies will the smaller management teams to standardize the quality of the company globally. However, the company must take into consideration the difference in cultures and other factors in the environments of the individual companies that it operates in. This will help them to determine the best adjustment strategies that will help each individual branch to be successful in the area that it operates in.

References

Barnes, B. (2014). But it doesn’t look like a Marriott: Marriott international aims to draw a younger crowd, https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/05/business/marriott-international-aims-to- draw-a- younger-crowd.html

Gotzamani, K. D., &Tsiotras, G. D. (2001).An empirical study of the ISO 9000 standards’ contribution towards total quality management. International Journal of Operations & ProductionManagement, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042812051701

Kim, D. Y., Kumar, V., & Kumar, U. (2012).Relationship between quality management practices and innovation. Journal of operations management, http://www.scirp.org/Journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=65067

McNew, S. B. (2016, August 9). 3 Risks facing Marriott International in the second half of 2016. Retrieved from: https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/08/09/3-risks-facing-marriott-international-in-the-secon.aspx

Perdomo-Ortiz, J., Gonzalez-Benito, J., &Galende, J. (2009).An analysis of the relationship between total quality management-based human resource management practices and innovation. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ahmad_Jusoh3/publication/282788289_Knowledge_ManagementTotal_Quality_Management_and_Innovation_A_New_Look/links/5709c6ee08ae2eb9421e32fa/Knowledge-Management-Total-Quality-Management-and-Innovation-A-New-Look.pdf