Crowne Plaza Brand

Categories: Brands

Essay, Pages 9 (2238 words)

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Overview of the organisation:

The author is referring to a hotel as an organisation which is situated in Canberra known as Crowne Plaza Canberra. The hotel comprises of 296 rooms. Crowne Plaza Brand has more than 400 hotels in 65 countries. This organisation offers facilities such as 296 rooms, onsite fitness and wellness centre, self"parking, valet"parking, in"room dining, hotel bar which is used for light refreshments, a restaurant, 24 hours business centre and also offers complimentary internet.

The hotel is therefore owned by the SB&G Hotel Group.

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The group owns a portfolio of hotels in Sydney, Melbourne. SB&G Hotel Group Pty Ltd. was founded in the year 2015 and are currently based in Melbourne and also have an additional office which is situated in Sydney. Crowne Plaza is therefore managed as well as operated by the InterContinental Hotel Group (IHG). IHG is a British Multinational Hospitality Company which has more than 5000 different hotels in 100 countries. IHG has different brands and Crowne Plaza is one of it.

Market it operates in: Crowne Plaza's industry is Hotel and it operates in a market of Business/ Travellers, Free Independent Travellers, Government Delegates, Leisure Travellers, International Visitors, Young Adults.

Market Segmentation is defined as identifying distinctive groups on consumers that have similar needs, wants, and preferences for a product or a service. (Reed, Peter, 2015, p. 144) The Crowne Plaza market is segmented when it comes to their lifestyle. They are often classified as yuppies (young upwardly mobile professionals), muppies (middle-aged urban professionals) or dinks (double income no kids) who are after the purpose of leisure only where they can relax themselves, enjoy their time, mostly here for a vacation/ trip from another place.

(Reed, Peter, 2015, p. 145) Role of Operations in the Organisation and how it is related with the organisational strategy:An operations function has a critical role to play in how efficient and effective an organisation is. (Hill, A., Hill, T, 2017, p. 3). The role of operations within this organisation is to provide services and products through a mix of the skills of the people employed within the organisation, the equipment available within the organisation and the service delivery systems or the manufacturing processes used. (Hill, A., Hill, T, 2017, p. 3)

Operations Management is responsible for providing and delivering services and products to customers by managing people, materials, resources and delivery systems involved, together with other activities that support this core task, managing people, managing both short as well as long " term timescales, managing the strategic contribution such as day to day tasks, managing within budget, managing the inventory, communicating with other functions as their strategic task concerns providing those order winners and qualifiers for which it is wholly or jointly responsible, managing technology. (Hill, A., Hill, T, 2017, p. 22)

The role here is managed through multiple departments which are therefore responsible to manage different aspects of the hotel by controlling, co-ordinating as well as planning the resources which are required to produce goods and services such as operations include Front Office Department " the role performed in this department is selling rooms, check-in's and check-out's, selling parking etc, Food and Beverage Department " the role performed in this department is to sell food and beverages which is done with the help of a restaurant, a bar, in room dining, Housekeeping Department " the role within this department is cleaning the rooms, public areas and toilets etc, Sales and Marketing Department - are responsible to promote products and services in the existing market and also in the new market through the help of third party websites such as Bookings.Com or Expedia, Finance Department - is responsible for maintaining the cash flow, capital investments. (Hill, A., Hill, T, 2017, p. 5)The role of the operations management is directly related with the organisational strategies such as remaining at all times unique in guest experience, customer service and always relevant in design and technology, long term strategies such as service quality and continuity, sustainable resource management, business health, community leadership and readiness for change.

The organisational strategy at Crowne Plaza is to provide unique and enjoyable experiences for guest and staff at all times. Therefore the organisational strategies here can be only achieved if the operations management strategies are directly related with each other by providing consistency of excellent service which can be achieved by recruiting the right people with right skills, providing safe working environment, providing work life balance to the employees. Therefore it can be said that the operations management play a very important role in achieving the organisational strategies. Order Winners " The term order winners is classified as attributes of a good or a service which therefore contributes directly to a good or a service selected by the consumer. (Hill, A., Hill, T, 2017, p. 48).

These are guidelines/ standards which differentiates a firm' goods and services from another firm. It is considered as competitive advantage which means it gives an edge to the goods and services of a firm over the goods and services of its competitors. Some of the examples of Order Winners in Crowne Plaza are the type of restaurant, bar and other food and beverage outlets such as in room dining. Another example is the type of rooms such as deluxe, premium or suites, offering products and services which are unique and innovative.

Crowne Plaza does paperless check-ins and check-outs which automatically is an order winner for its consumers as the hotel looks after the environment by not wasting paper as compared to other hotels who still do paper check-ins and paper check-outs. Therefore the influence of order winners on organisation's operations would be to offer goods and services which are creative as well as innovative so the buyers will easily buy the product/ services. This can be achieved through Social Media which will eventually result in large number of sales, increased profit and will also develop loyalty as the buyers will recommend such things to their family and friends. Reduce costs in all areas. Order Qualifiers " Order Qualifiers are the attributes of the good or service which the consumer considers while buying/ purchasing. (Hill, A., Hill, T, 2017, p. 49).

Factors such as pricing of breakfast in the restaurant or lunch/ dinner, pricing of the rooms and any prices of other services offered by the hotel are some of the examples of order qualifiers within Crowne Plaza. Therefore the terms order winners and order qualifiers is a process and crucial buying aspects potential buyers think about when they make purchasing decisions. Now such qualifiers have impacted the organisation's operations in such a way as they need to understand the needs and demands of the potential buyers. Crowne Plaza needs to make sure that in order for them to get considered by the potential buyers they need to work on price, design, types of outlets and rooms which they are offering. When it comes to pricing in order to capture the potential buyers Crowne Plaza offers odd pricing technique which is selling a room for example at $199 instead of $200 as it is an effective tool.Value Chain ModelValue Chain is a traditional manner of departmentalising stages of the business process. (Wright, 2004). A firm's value chain is an interdependent system or network of activities. (Porter, Michael, 2013, p. 41)A value chain model includes five primary and 4 support activities (Porter, Michael, 2013, p. 40). All the activities in the value chain contribute to buyer value. (Porter, Michael, 2013, p. 40)Crowne Plaza's Value Chain Analysis:1) Primary Activities

Inbound Logistics " Crowne Plaza ensures that there is a smooth operation in 429 hotels in 65 countries around the world. The inbound logistics at Crowne Plaza performs in a way where the hotel deals directly with the suppliers which therefore meet the hotel requirements, guest needs and wants, increases the value of products and services delivered to the guests.

Operations " Crowne Plaza brand which is owned and managed by IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group). There are 429 open hotels with 120,168 rooms and 79 hotels in the pipeline. Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts operations is segmented in regions such as Americas, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

Outbound Logistics - Once the products/ services are made then it is distributed to distribution channels and clients. Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts offers services and products of high quality/ standards. Offering rooms, laundry services, turndown service, offering breakfast, offering airport transport services or products to clients and other distribution channels are some of the services and product examples.

Marketing and Sales " This factor assures that the products and services are being targeted to the right target audience. Around the world Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts have employed significant amount of people in this department and the department has been assigned with the role of seeking bookings from corporate and leisure guests, third party travel agencies such as bookings.com and Expedia.

The IHG Rewards Club program helps the department to a great extent as clients come to the brand again as the members of the IHG Rewards Club receive points by staying in any IHG property such as Crowne Plaza or Holiday Inn which ultimately leads to free room nights and free room upgrades and they also earn points by dining in any of the hotel's restaurant.

Service " Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts have a competitive advantage as it provides services of high quality/ standards. The employees of the Crowne Plaza Hotels and Resorts are fluent in languages such as Japanese, Mandarin, Korean, Spanish, French, German and English. The Customer Service is open 24 hours and can be contacted in the main office in Manila, Philippines or through the social media. 2Support Activitiesa)

Infrastructure " Crowne Plaza is an International Hotel Brand with many resorts around the world. The main motive of such a hotel is to at all times deliver high quality of service and high quality of products to its customer base. In order to achieve such motives Crowne Plaza ensures that products/ services such as rooms are properly cleaned, the beds provide comfort and such products and services are delivered through utmost professionalism in respective departments.

Human Resources Management " In order to make sure that the hotel is successful Human Resources Department recruit people with the right attitude and with the right skills, train, develop and encourage people. Appropriate on the job as well as off the job training is given to the employees so that they can do the job in a professional manner and in order to retain such employees IHG (Crowne) offers free night in any of the IHG property, discounted prices if they have worked for the IHG Group for more than a year.

Technology " The IT Department have developed official hotel websites where people can make reservations from anywhere. This website allows them to make any request/ preferences such as room on a higher or a lower floor, preference of having a firm pillow and etc.d) Procurement " Crowne Plaza as an international brand have high requirements from all of its suppliers and agents as they make sure that such suppliers and agents are offering high quality products and services, are also abiding by the rules and regulations which are set by the hotel.

The value chain has impacted the organisation and OM in order to differentiate itself from its competitors in terms of the attributes and benefits of the products and services. An implication of value chain is the potential gross margins. This means the higher the gross margin the higher the profit will be. An example of purchase can be purchasing a room for a night or for few nights, or any other product within the hotel which means the client is willing to pay an extra amount of money. Another implication of this model is its cost advantages. In this aspect by using value chain allows the organisation and OM to decrease their prices to sell their products again. Therefore to prevent itself from waste materials Crowne Plaza can improve its logistics by reducing the prices.

Therefore, the value chain helps an organisation and OM to be competitive in the marketplace.Forbes stated that the numbers of people working in the value chain and in the operations are tremendously increasing and are also getting tremendous amount of salaries. Previously the number of people used to work in value chain and in operations were very low. Therefore it was the responsibility of the people working in operations to perform roles and responsibilities in value chain. Value Chain is about the movement of raw materials as well as the movement of the finished products and it has impacted OM in such a way where operations play a very central role which is to design products and services from the raw materials and the finished products.

Recommendations:

The author would like to conclude by saying that in order to improve the overall productivity of an organisation, operations management needs to play a very important role as in like more involvement in planning the short-term/ long term goals, mission/ vision statement, working on the strategies in order to achieve such goals. In order to produce the products and services operations management need to be more involved in terms of the processes, development and launching of products/ services. Operations Management are required to perform indirect roles such as working closely with the managers of different departments which are directly related within the organisation. Another important aspect of operations management is the decision making process where such decisions are made when designing, controlling or managing, and further enhancing the operations system.