Byars (1991) emphasized Management entails harnessing the various management principles to generate revenues and profits. The research focuses on the importance of implementing the management principles in increasing the company’s revenues and profits. The research centers on the awareness, adaptation, and management changes aspect of achieving the company’s goals and objectives. The implementation of the different management principles catapults the company in generating higher revenues and profits.
I. Cultural awareness, adaptation and management changes been reflected in this case study. The company focuses the philosophy of offering “consistently exceptional service”.
Hallowell, Bowen, and Knoop (1) were right in stating the Four Seasons hotel focuses on delivering high quality, truly personalised service to enable guests to maximise the value of their time”. The firm’s top managers were at home in any diverse international setting. Antoine Corinthios, president of Europe, Middle East, and Africa, explained the cultural awareness, adaptation and management changes with the state “French in France, French in France”.
Baumueller (2007) theorized Corinthios’ leadership success is based on his “chameleon” leadership style. A chameleon is an animal that changes its color to blend with the color of the environment; it turns green in a green environment and turns brown in a brown environment to protect itself against predators and capture its elusive insect meals.
Likewise, Churchill (1995) insisted the company policy of “no bragging, no excuses” works wonders on the increase in hotel client loyalty. The hotel line and staff focus their services on being “very professional and not pretentious; detail oriented’ and interested in people”. Excuses for failing to meet the hotel’s standards in terms of customer service and other job performance standards were never options.
In addition, the line and staff had strong allegiance to the firm. Many of the company’s management team continues to work for the company for more than 25 long years. The line and staff classified the hotel employees and management as their “family”. The hotel family is coated with lots of rules, traditions, and love.
The changes are important in today’s management. Chapman (2007) proposed the cultural awareness, adaptation and management changes are important to the accomplishment of the Four Season’s approach to international growth. The growth is clearly stated in the Four Seasons founder and chief executive officer Isadore Sharp’s statement “Today, we have opened enough properties overseas that we can go in any city or town and pull people together to fulfill our mission”.
To accomplish the Isadore Sharp statement, Corinthios leads the entire hotel organisation to use its strengths to increase hotel occupancy and other hotel business –generating activities with the statement “ Our strength is our diversity and our singularity”. Accordingly, change management should be prioritized (Griffin, 2008).
II. There are worldwide company core values instilled in the Four Seasons team. According to Czinkota (2006), the company’s core values are grounded on diversity and singularity. The company implements globally uniform standards in all its hotel chains spread outside and inside the Canadian hotel industry landscape. The company’s core values include adapting to the local diverse culture of the foreign country where Four Seasons opens its doors to the discriminating hotel clients.
The core values focus on providing an international home way from home hotel atmosphere for the leisure and business travelers looking for comfort and service. Kreitner (2009) opines the core values include pampering the clients with the best quality service any time of the day or night from the time of registration at the front desk to checking out of the hotel’ premises. The company’s singular core value is to offer a singular universal service known as the “Four Seasons” international service standard.
The company’s international service standard includes getting the clients’ messages on time, cleaning the room on scheduled hours, offering a good breakfast, being pampered by an engaging, anticipating, and eagerly responsive hotel staff, and being able to partake of an exciting and innovative meal.
Further, the singular international hotel standard is fused with the local cultures to make the visitors have a “home away from home” cozy feeling. Specifically, the each hotel staff incorporates the clients’ culture such as including a Mexican touch for Mexican clients, a French touch for French clients, an Egyptian touch to an Egyptian client, a German touch for German clients, and a Japanese touch for Japanese clients.
The leading figures have been standing out in this process. How. The leading figures are successfully and profitably implementing a client-based service standard. The standard of the company focuses on harnessing all its scarce resources and personnel to implement a uniquely innovative service.
The hotel clients can easily distinguish the Turkish culture in the company’s Istanbul branch. The hotel clients can easily savor the Canadian atmosphere in the hotel chain’s Canadian branch. Unlike the Walt Disney name which speaks of a United States atmosphere, the Hotel’s Chameleon philosophy caters to “mimicking” the local culture in all its international branches. The hotel has been very fruitful in adapting to each hotel location’s environment.
Specifically, a Bali hotel client can feel the Bali culture while inside the hotel’s premises. This is the very essence of the hotel’s Chameleon core value. Crowl emphasised “Four Seasons learned from each country and property because we are an international hotel company, we take our learning across borders”. Specifically, the hotel’s Egypt branch incorporates the local Egyptian indigenous culture to its spa amenities.
The Egyptian element complements the hotel’s international quality service being implemented in its Bali hotel branch. For example, the universal core values include leaving the coffee pot on the restaurant table; the hotel guests are free to refill their coffee cup without need to call any restaurant employee. On the other hand, leaving the coffee pot on the hotel table is not culturally conducive in a hotel located in France.
III. The current internal and external environment affects managers to become more entrepreneurial in comparison to Four Seasons’ years of management in Paris.
As proof, Hengst recalls one of the satisfied hotel clients’ comments “We have been obsessed by the service standard. Each hotel line and staff personnel prioritise zealous compliance with preset local culture- influenced international hotel service standards. The internal environment focuses on compliance with standards. The external environment focuses on incorporating the local culture into the hospitality service equation.
In addition, Griffin (2009) reiterated the company’s management employs the five management principles in the Four Seasons Case Study to increase client patronage. First, the management employs the planning principle to the fullest. The company strongly emphasises the importance of fulfilling the organisation’s vision and mission.
Four Seasons hires the Pierre-Yves Rochon, an expert interior designer, to retain the Medieval palace atmosphere of King George V’s time to comply with the company’s policy of incorporating the local culture with the company’s international service standard. The metamorphosis of the original palace into a hotel takes into consideration the local French and French cultures.
The company does not infuse Canadian architectural culture on the French hotel to instill in the local residents that the company respects and incorporates the local culture in the construction and management of the hotel. The company enjoins each member of the hotel organisation to give their best shot in achieving the organisation’s goals and objectives. In addition, the company complies with the local laws. The laws include the employment laws, tax laws, environmental laws, and other related statutes.
Second, Mullins (2004) reiterated the management employs the organising functional principle seriously. Management fits each delicate job function with persons qualified for the job. For example management appoints some personnel as waiters. Another set of personnel are assigned a bell boys.
Another set of personnel are assigned to perform housekeeping responsibilities. Another set of personnel are assigned as kitchen crew. Management coordinates the functions of the kitchen, housekeeping, room service, front desk, backdoor (accounting services), and other services.
Third, the management employs the controlling functional principle effectively. The company sets standards based on the company’s objectives of pampering the clients with a localised version of its international hotel service standard. Specifically, management requires each employee to have several sets of uniforms; each employ is trained to comply with basic job responsibilities (proper uniform decorum, avoiding absences, reduce costs and wastages to allowable levels).
Controlling includes taking corrective action to resolve any client complaints. Controlling includes resolving any variance that occurs between actual services done and preset service standards (suspension, seminar, termination, retraining, etc of lackluster performing line and staff employees).
Fourth, the management employs the staffing functional principle efficiently. Management recruits both local employees and Canadian employees to harness the company’s scarce resources to fill each discriminating client’s hotel wants, needs, and caprices. The company selects the cream of the crop or best of the entire organisation’s line and staff to take on delicate responsibilities in different departments and jobs of the hotel.
The company hires the recruitment applicant who hurdles all pre-job and on the job training persons who show promises in terms of achieving personal and organisational goals and objectives.
Crowl emphasised “A service culture is about putting what we all believe in into practice” (Hallowell, R., Bowen, D., Knoop, C. (2002;1). We learn it, we nurture it, and most important, we do it” (4). Management continually trains its line and staff each time they are transferred, promoted, or retained in different jobs within the Four Seasons hotel. The company retrains the employees who fail to muster enough strength, intellectual prowess, and interpersonal skills to surpass benchmarks.
Fifth, the management employs the directing functional principle successfully. Management offers perks and other benefits to effectively motivate its line and staff to go that extra mile in offering superb hotel service to the discriminating hotel clients. Management communicates its policies, benchmarks, and standards to its line and staff personnel in a vivid manner.
Management appraises the subordinates’ performance to determine if they have complied with company’s preset standards with flying colors. Management instills discipline among its subordinates by penalising lackluster performing employees. John Naylor (2004) emphasized lackluster performance includes poor client service.
Management steps in the way resolving conflicts among employees and between employees and the few disgruntled clients. Brigham and Houston (2002) theorized the financial statement analysis indicate the directing function contributes its own huge share to the company generating net earnings of $86,486 for the year 2001 and net earnings of $103,074 for the year 2000 alone.
Further, the different identified management strategies covered in class apply in today’s reality. The company generated an increase in revenues between 1996 to 2000 at 22.6% from 1996 to 2000. The Four Seasons operating profit grew by more than 65 percent (higher than the estimated prior 59 %) during the same accounting period.
House, R. (2007) emphasised culture plays a vital role in increasing new and prospective hotel client loyalty. The French hotel restaurant client would not like to hear the Mexican Waiter employee speaking in Mexican language or broken English. Likewise, a German hotel client would prefer talking a Canadian employee speaking in French.
Another French hotel client would prefer to order the local French breakfast food choices instead of Canadian food choices. Clients would prefer to return to clients where they are pampered and where all their requests, wants, needs, and caprices are being filled to the brim with exquisitely unique Four Seasons hotel hospitality.
Further, management’s hiring of below standard employees will result to lackluster service; lackluster service precipitates to a decline in revenues and profits because the disgruntled clients will surely not return. The absence of the planning, organising, controlling, staffing, and directing management principles covered in class will cause the hotel to decline to the brink of bankruptcy and economic gloom; disgruntled customer will surely abhor poor hotel services (food service and hotel client staff services).
Based on the above discussion, the setting into motion of the different management principles skyrockets the company into generating higher revenues and profits. Management maximises the benefits of the various management principles to enhance current revenues and profits. The management principles are important in improving the company’s current revenues and profits. Indeed, the awareness, adaptation, and management changes are effectively in hastening the achievement of the company’s goals and objectives.
References
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