Marriot International Inc., Case Study Example

Executive Summary

This paper discusses a strategy’s evaluation by showing how organizations in every sector face tough competition in the current corporate environment. Managers sometimes find it difficult to maintain the company’s growth amid other rivals in the industry due to the tremendous progress of technology in the present market. But creating pertinent tactics might support a lot of market competition. Strategic management is essential to any organization because it is a set of managerial decisions and actions that determines the long-run performance of a corporation. Thus, in this report, I will research the evaluation strategy of Marriot International, Inc. by looking at how the organization can improve its strategy to remain successful in the market. Based on the analysis, it is clear that Marriot is a multinational hospitality industry that deals with franchising and managing lodging facilities. Given the chain of unified branches in the global market that sell under one brand Marriot still enjoys market dominance because of the adoption of the customer-centric business strategy (Madar, 2017). Due to the intense competition that Marriot faces as a result of its membership in the hospitality sector, this research paper will examine the tactics that the company’s strategy team has chosen. Since Marriot International is regarded as a key component and dominant player in the hospitality industry, it has been chosen to carry out this evaluation strategy. From the analysis of the organization, it is clear that its core value is put customers first and give them the utmost priority. It is also significant that the organization’s management embraces changes and focuses on working with integrity. Thus, this paper aims to analyze Marriot International company by examining market brands and evaluating a strategy that shapes the organization’s direction by enhancing its competitive advantage and market share.

Strategy Generation

In the business world, strategy is a crucial factor for growth because, through strategy, the company can evaluate its business operating environment and focus on striving toward company success. It is clear that for any company to beat the market by capturing and retaining an economic surplus, it needs a competitive advantage strategy. In this case, for the organization to maintain its market value, it needs to develop a strategy that develops methodological advances and ideas that follow and predict market growth (Bradley, Hirt & Smit, 2019). At the business level, Marriot international choose a generic strategy to market its products in the highly competitive hotel industry. Additionally, Marriot international has a series of well-planned strategies that have enabled it to remain competitive in the market. For instance, apart from differentiation Marriot has strategies such as technology leadership, advanced new generation travelers, and portfolio strength. It is clear that the strategies are designed in a way that enables the company to compete with rival chains. From the business level, Marriot international Inc. has a well-planned strategy as a new generation traveler, brand excellence, and technology leadership. For example, the organization’s differentiation strategy is factored in developing a service and product that satisfies the consumer’s need (Grynko et al., 2016). Given that the company is in the competitive hospitality industry, it has used a differentiation strategy to create a wide consumer base. It is also evident that the business has additional tactics in addition to differentiation that it may employ to outperform competitors. The franchising strategy is another essential strategy the Marriot should adopt in its marketing and management mix. This is an essential strategy because it will enable the company management to concentrate on its core product development mandate. Also, the importance of this strategy is that Marriot can use it as an opportunity to partner with many investors willing to collaborate with it due to its strong brand. The company will be able to counteract the intense competition that the hotel industry is experiencing due to its franchise approach.

Cultural and Organization Factors to Consider

It is fundamental that development in the economy has led to competitive and strategic thinking in an organization. Given the increase in competition among the organization in the current market, they must have strategic planning aligned with cultural and organizational factors. This is because cultural and organizational factors are vital in choosing alternative strategies. For instance, Marriot International Inc. is in the in-hospitality industry; its cultural values and factors are putting people first, pursuing excellence, acting with integrity, and serving the world. Many research overviews that pressures from corporate culture must be taken into account when deciding on an alternate strategy for the organization. The company’s ability to compete in the market requires consideration of a variety of cultural and environmental factors, including environmental constraints, the results of earlier strategy, and rival reactions (Rumelt, 2018). For example, the Marriot International factors are serving the world and putting people first, so choosing an alternative strategy such as franchising, sustainable, and cost leadership approach was essential. This is because, with a franchise strategy, the firm will be able to strengthen its brand and even offset the threat of stiff competition that it is facing from the rival company. Also, it can be said that adopting a sustainable strategy by an organization matches its strength. For instance, since Marriot has a global presence, the company’s sustainable strategies as alternative strategies significantly impact the global market. Therefore, considering the cultural and organizational factors of the company, it is clear that the chosen alternative strategies are effective for its growth in the market.

Strategy Prioritization Using QSPM

In strategic management QSPM method is an essential factor. This is because it is used to evaluate possible strategies and determine the most attractive strategies at hand. Therefore, it is important because the management can use it to prioritize the strategies that enable the organization to compete in the market. From this view, it is clear that among all alternative strategies of Marriot international Inc., the most competitive strategy the company can adopt is franchising because it can help the company management concentrate on its core product development mandate.   

Explaining Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix

Fundamentally, QSPM is a way for selecting the ideal plan through the application of mathematics and leadership skills. The crucial aspect of this approach is that certain important stages must be taken in order to develop an effective strategy. By following those processes, QSPM assists in evaluating various strategic possibilities and identifying the most appealing methods at hand. It is obvious that the method involves considerable steps in order to develop an efficient alternative strategy. For instance, in the first case, significant strategic components are identified via strategic management analysis. Following identification, stage 1 analysis inputs and stage 2 results are matched (LAPAAS, 2021). This indicates that one can build the kind of strategy they need to implement after evaluating and selecting crucial strategic aspects as input to QSPM. According to this perspective, it is accurate that QSPM permits the assessment of different tactics. One may select the ideal course of action from the available alternatives at stage three of the study. But in order to select a successful strategy for the business, the relative attractiveness of each strategy is evaluated by estimating the combined impact of all key achievement factors, both externally and internally. To put it another way, the QSPM technique leverages inputs from stage 1 analysis and compares them to the outcomes of stage 2 before selecting an effective plan among the available options.

Develop a QSPM

In fact, the fundamental objective of QSPM is to choose the best approach a firm can employ to stay competitive in the market. However, some procedures must be performed in order to create QSPM, including internal factor evaluation and external factor evaluation. After analyzing internal and external factors, it is clear that the next step is to outline the strategies used to complete the matrix. For the case of Marriot International Inc., the QSPM is as follows;

From the company’s analysis it is abundantly evident that the company needs alternative strategy that consists pricing of its complete cost plus a profit margin. As a result, when the business determines the product’s target market, it must also choose an affordable pricing for the customers (Bradley, Hirt & Smit, 2019). Employing a cost leadership strategy can help the business stay on top of consumer trends and their prospective market opportunities. More significantly, the price of the product will change since it is marketed toward a particular social class. The QSPM matrix development makes it evident that choosing a competitive firm is a wise decision.

Strategy Selection and Recommendation

The QSPM study demonstrates that the firm needs a strategy plan to meet market consumer demand. In order for a firm to access the target market, it is necessary to identify the market segment. This is evident after creating a QSPM matrix for Marriot International Inc. For continued market dominance and quick growth, Marriott International must adopt new strategies. The company’s international operations should be advanced by using the recommended plan.

Strategy Selection

It is fundamental that using QSPM analysis complemented in the previous section, it is clear that there are two strategies that the Marriot company being in the hospitality industry, should enhance in order to maintain its market value. Apparently from both centralized and decentralized variables that Marriot is concentrating on specialty marketing, which limits the sources from which money may be created. Therefore, having looked at both parts of the company, it is clear that it needs to enhance strategies that help leverage its internal capabilities to remain competitive advantage. The first strategy is cost leadership, where the company needs to lower the cost of production so that it can offer quality products at low prices (LAPAAS, 2021). This is an essential strategy for Marriot because it is a large company with an effective brand name in the market. Additionally, franchising is a crucial tactic that can guarantee the business maintains its competitiveness in the marketplace. For that reason, the company should embrace cost leadership and franchise strategies as that will help to reposition its product in the market. More importantly, the company should rebrand its brand with careful and skillful innovation to attract more new consumers to the market.

Strategy Recommendation Details

The significant issue that is affecting the Marriot international market based on the two selected strategies is niche marketing. This issue has been reducing the company’s returns in terms of revenue. It is advised that the management team at Marriot adopt a franchise strategy in light of the problem of niche marketing in order to enable it to introduce new services or goods for new customer base. In this case, Marriot can create a strong brand identity with its consumers at all levels in the market. Thus, it will be easier for the company to capture the mass market for its products. By franchise strategy, the organization can diversify services, target market, and products, thus helping it increase revenue. In addition, with the mentioned strategies, the company can design a proper pricing system that will enable it to record a high-profit level (Madar, 2017). Therefore, the corporation will be capable of resisting the danger of fierce competition it faces, as shown by the favorable score, employing the two techniques. Additionally, it is advisable to examine the firm’s strengths and weaknesses so that the business may take advantage of any openings for addressing dangers brought about by the process.

Strategy Implementation

The strategy implementation procedure is important to the company because it is a process the plan of the firm is turned into action to enable it to reach the desired outcome. Therefore, for the recommended strategy to be effective and successful, a significant implementation procedure must be followed. Given the new strategy, all stakeholders within the company must identify clear and attainable goals of the strategies because everyone will be working towards one goal that needs to be achieved within the company (Rumelt, 2018). Another effective procedure for implementing the recommendations is engaging the team within the organization. This means that the firm needs to communicate with the team to ensure everyone knows how each one of them can contribute to the strategy’s success. Also, given that the strategy is meant to enhance change within the organization, progress must be tracked as that will help to know if the strategies positively impact the company’s growth.

It is obvious that the executive team and chief executive officer are in charge of putting the plans in place given that they are supposed to guarantee that the business maintains its competitiveness in the market. The CEO and executive team play a significant role in setting the strategy’s foundation by creating guiding principles and long-term goals that guide the organization to achieve the strategy’s aligned goals. When it comes to what it is fundamental that the main aim of implementing the strategies is to achieve long-term goals within the organization. More importantly, strategies are implemented by turning the process into action to reach the desired outcome. In most cases, any organization’s success rests on its capacity to implement effective, consistent, and efficient strategies.

Strategy Evaluation

From the analysis of two alternative strategies of Marriot International company, it is clear that they are meant to ensure that the company maintains its positive growth in the market. But despite that, strategy evaluation and review are essential for the strategy because it helps assesses how well a chosen strategy has been implemented (Anjalee, 2020). Thus, the most effective procedure to review and evaluate the two recommended strategies is to measure the organization’s performance in terms of returns and employee turnover.

When it comes to the evaluative measure of the recommended strategy, the most important is performance measurement. After the organization’s benchmark, the standard of performance should indicate the company’s positive growth in revenue collection as that will show that the recommended strategies positively impact its growth in the market (Anjalee, 2020). It is clear that if appropriate measuring performance and standards are set correctly, the manager will be able to evaluate the impact of the strategy on the company.

Corrective Action Plan

In most cases, corrective action plan is used I n quality management as a set of steps for addressing gaps and issues in business operations and processes that could negatively impact business. Essentially it helps in describing an approach that can resolve issues that interfere with reaching company goals. Given the importance of CAP in the company, one who is responsible for it is Auditee. This is because he is responsible for completing corrective and preventive actions listed within it. It is clear that the success of Marriot International in hospitality has been attributed to its corrective action plan. The importance of CAP is that it helps to provide documentation for the firm’s corrective actions starting with research and ending with the review. In most instances, the company establishes CAP when issues potentially threaten the organization arises. Thus, the business needs to take action to mitigate the issues for its significant growth. More importantly, CAP is implemented in the business effectively to ensure that it mitigates the issues that might be affecting it. For instance, the problem of niche marketing is one of the significant problems that has been reducing Marriot’s revenue. This means that the firm’s management needs an effective CAP plan to enable the company to remain competitive in the market.

Conclusion

To conclude, it is clear that Marriot International, being in a competitive market, needs a strategic plan for future growth, particularly in digital marketing. This is in consideration that Marriot has a sustainable role in the global market. According to the study of an organization, it is noteworthy that Marriot’s evaluation method is what has allowed it to succeed in the hotel industry for so long. Additionally, because the report’s primary objective was to evaluate Marriot, one of the companies that operate in the hotel sector, strategically, it was possible to show that the company is now concentrating on sustainable ways to slow down ecological damage. However, despite the success of the Marriot in the hospitality industry, it is clear that the business should concentrate on multi-channel social media experience and develop strategies to strengthen values and provide professional services that are comfortability to the consumers (Ahmady, Mehrpour & Nikooravesh, 2016). More importantly, from the analysis of the company, it is clear that it has developed its market brands in line with its customers centric business strategy, which has made it meet the diverse needs of global consumers. Although Marriot has employed a customer-centric strategy to dominate the market, it is true that the organization’s specialized market is one of its main strategic challenges; as a result, the management team of the firm must begin looking into growth areas. Therefore, it is fundamental that for Marriot to continue meeting consumers’ demand in the market, it must adopt a digital-oriented business strategy and improve its strategic advantages to compete with other competitors to retain its leading position in the market.

References

Ahmady, G. A., Mehrpour, M., & Nikooravesh, A. (2016). Organizational structure. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 230, 455-462.

Anjalee M, A. M. (2020, October 23). Strategy evaluation: Meaning, process, criteria, steps, factors, difficulties. Essays, Research Papers, and Articles on Business Management. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.businessmanagementideas.com/strategic-management/strategy-evaluation/strategy-evaluation/21482

Bradley, C., Hirt, M., & Smit, S. (2019, May 1). Have you tested your strategy lately? McKinsey & Company. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.mckinsey.com

Grynko, T. V., Krupskyi, O. P., & Timar, I. V. (2016). Organizational culture and image a factors in the competitiveness of tourism and hotel enterprises. National Economic Reform: experience of Poland and prospects for Ukraine: Collective monograph. –Poland, Kielce: Izdevnieciba «Baltija Publishing, 3, 252-270.

LAPAAS. (2021, November 9). Learn all about the quantitative strategic planning matrix (QSPM). Lapaas. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://lapaas.com/learn-all-about-quantitative-strategic-planning-matrix-qspm

Madar, A. (2017). Quality-a competitive advantage in the hotel services market. Case study: Marriott Hotels & Resort versus Radisson Blu. Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V, 10(2), 141-146.

Rumelt, R. (2018, February 9). The perils of bad strategy. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.mckinsey.com