Is the hotel’s operations management appropriate for its strategy?
The major function of the operations manager is to direct and control the production activities in the organization with the aim of ensuring that the final product is of high quality that meets the needs of the customers. In the case of the service industry, the operations manager ensures that the services given to customers are satisfactory and of high quality. The operations in an organization should be designed in such a way that they agree with the competitive strategy of the firm.
It should be noted that the operations strategy is very essential in giving an organization a competitive advantage. The operations functions have five performance objectives. These include doing things the right way to achieve quality, acting fast to get the speed advantage, ensuring timely action to embrace dependability, being able to change to get flexibility advantage, and keeping expenses as low as possible to gain the cost advantage (Slack, Johnston, and Chambers 35).
In the case of Penang Mutiara, the operations manager is always committed to ensuring that the hotel offers the best services to maximize customer satisfaction. The manager is always committed to seeing that the customers get first class services.
One of the operational activities that operations managers are expected to carry out is ensuring that all the organization’s employees embrace courtesy in carrying out their duties. The workers should be friendly to the guests who visit the hotel at any time. In addition, the employees need relevant knowledge to help them effectively address any question a customer may raise.
The hotel operations are geared towards offering a luxurious environment to the customers. The operations are focused on ensuring that the customers get high-class services. Fast responses to the customers’ requests are considered vital in this bid.
The operations manager, therefore, ensures that the customers’ demands are anticipated in time, so that they can engage more staff in the event that the demand overloads the current staff in the given department. Anticipating the customer needs also helps the organization to offer satisfactory services at the moment and in the future.
The strategy of the organization is to offer high-quality services, get a great number of customers, and keep the costs down to maintain its profitability at a desirable level. Providing high-quality customer service is seen as the major competitive strategy for the company. It supersedes the strategy of pricing the hotel’s services. The operations management supports this strategy in that all the operations activities are focused on maintaining high-quality services that can meet all the needs of the customers.
Can the hotel implement changes in strategy?
Change is inevitable, especially in the current business environment. Any organization that has an ambition of staying alive given the current level of competition in any industry has to stay alert and implement changes as they occur in the business arena (Slack, Johnston, and Chambers 56).
It is always important to be flexible, regardless of whether an organization is performing well, as the business environment is changing rapidly. People’s lifestyles are also changing with time, encouraging firms to keep changing to meet the changing needs of consumers.
The current strategy of Penang Mutiara has proven to be effective as it has given the hotel a competitive advantage over its rivals. Its current strategy is to offer high-quality services with the aim of getting more customers and keeping the costs down. A great number of customers give the organization the economies of scale. It might be tricky to change the current strategy because has helped the company so far.
However, sticking with the strategy for a long time might not be an effective idea in the long run. Therefore, the organization should work on improving the strategy, as well as complementing it with other strategies that might be effective in the industry. The hotel should, however, keep on improving its quality production.
Penang Mutiara should incorporate technology in its operations to enhance the level and quality of services provided. Technology will also facilitate innovation. Innovation is an important tool that has the ability to give any organization a competitive advantage in the long run. Penang Mutiara should stick to its strategy.
However, it should also keep finding ways to improve the strategy. The hotel should also incorporate any other strategy that could be an effective complement to the current strategy. However, the organization should be flexible enough to change the strategy as it is operating in a business environment that is changing rapidly.
How do quality, speed, flexibility, and cost impact on the hotel’s external customers?
High-quality services as a competitive strategy have the ability to give any organization a significant competitive edge over its rivals. Customers need to be treated well and to be shown respect.
Customers also like convenient services. Convenience can be achieved through speedy responses to customer requests, especially in the hotel industry. Penang Mutiara ensures that its customers’ requests are addressed as fast as possible. Slow responses may lead to customers losing their patience and walking away, thereby creating the wrong image of the organization.
The hotel should also be flexible enough to address the needs of its customers as they come. Additionally, it should give the customers what they want and not what it wants to give them.
This can only be achieved by embracing flexibility. Being flexible will also enable the organization to meet the varying needs of customers. Cost is another important factor in an organization. Customers are always willing to maximize the utility from the amount they pay for services or goods. Therefore, an organization should ensure that its costs are reasonably based on the quality of services it offers.
When customers are satisfied with the quality, speed, flexibility, and prices in the hotel, chances are that they will refer friends to the hotel. The customers will praise the hotel, thereby stimulating interest from potential customers. The customers will also be willing to come back to the hotel again. Consequently, the hotel will be able to achieve the objective of attracting more customers and maintaining the current ones.
These performance objectives will have internal benefits to the organization by enabling the company to meet its performance goals and make reasonable profits. A company can be in a good position to pay its employees better salaries when it is able to make high profits. This motivates the employees to better their productivity, consequently increasing the general performance of the organization. The organization can also be able to hire highly talented employees to achieve better performance.
Works Cited
Slack, Nigel, Robert Johnston, Stuart Chambers. Operations Management. London: Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.