Analyzing Business Environments of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group - Essay Sample

Introduction

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group, whose logo is shown in appendix 1, is a firm that owns the most luxurious hotels, residences, and resorts in the world. The company has its headquarters in Asia, and it operated 32 hotels and eight apartments in 23 territories and countries. All these properties reflect the corporation's oriental heritage and unique sense of location. The hotel group has various hotels and residences that are under development. The hotel group aims to become widely recognised as the best luxury hotel group in the world, providing the 21st century with oriental charm in the hotels. The corporation has exceptional facilities and its people while also ensuring the maximisation of profits and the overall value of the shareholders. In many occasions, the group has received recognition and awards for the exemplary services it provides to the services. The organisation is keen on quality management and continues to search for expansion opportunities from different parts of the world.

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Figure 1. Scope of Hospitality Management ('Career Overseas provides opportunities for higher studies abroad in Tourism & Hospitality sector! - Career Overseas' 2019).

From the figure above, one can see the scope of the hospitality industry. The sector is divided into the lodging segment, food and beverages, entertainment and recreation, and travel and tourism. Mandarin Oriental Hotel falls under the lodging segment of the hospitality industry. The facility offers hotels, motels, inns, and resorts services to its customers.

LO1: Demonstrate an Understanding of the Theory and Process of Strategy and Its Application

A strategy is an action that managers undertake to attain the goals set by an organisation (Shao 2019). Matt et al. (2015) also defined strategy as the direction followed by a company and its different components to enhance the desirable state in the future. In most cases, approach results in a strategic process of planning. A strategy is defined as a plan that is placed towards the achievement of designated goals (Johnson et al., 2009). Similarly, Chandler (1963) argued that strategy is the determination of the long-run goals of a corporation and the allocation of resources that will aid in the accomplishment of the designated purposes. Chandler (1963) believes in managerial hierarchies to enhance affective productivity gains. Managers have the power of overseeing activities within an organisation.

Mintzberg Five Ps of Strategy

The Mintzberg 5 Ps of strategy can further help in fostering the understanding of strategy. The five Ps are summarized in the figure below.

Figure 2. Mintzberg five Ps strategy ( Mintzberg 1987).

The plan is a strategy for dealing with situations. Before any action is undertaken within an organisation, a method is paramount. Pattern entails strategies that have been implemented before within a corporation. A design could either be strategies that achieved their intended result and those that need continued improvements. Position refers to how an organisation wants to position itself in a way that yields competitive advantage. Perspective entails the identification of how the employees perceive a company and the individual opinions of the customers. In most cases, such ideas are used to make strategic decisions. Lastly, the ploy is another strategic choice where firms surprise their environment by implementing a plan that no individual sees coming in a bid to outsmart the competition.

Strategic Lenses

A strategic lens, as Naser and Atiyah (2019) indicated, is a concept of strategic management. Those viewpoints help in enhancing strategic development measures. Importantly, it helps in examining the way tasks and information flow and the different forms of getting things done. Each lens helps in revealing the various traits and qualities. The strategic lenses help in enhancing the optimisation of the workflow to meet the goals and objectives of a corporation. From the diagram on strategic lenses shown below, one can see that strategy can be viewed as an experience, idea, design, and discourse that will be explained further in the next sections.

Figure 3. Strategic Lens (Naser and Atiyah 2019)

Strategic as a Design

The view signifies that strategic development is a social process where the forces and other constraints are weighed through regular assessment band analysis to establish a clear strategic direction. Mainly, this creates conditions for the implementation of a planned strategy.

Strategy as an Experience

Mostly, this means that future policies of organisations are influenced heavily by the experiences of the managers and others within a corporation based on the previous techniques. The strategies are driven by a clear-cut analysis and by doing things embedded within the culture of corporations.

Strategy as an Idea

Policy in this instance means that it requires intensive innovation. The ideas emerge from levels or anywhere within an organisation. Employees need to be motivated by sharing their perspectives and views. Such opinions should be accommodated into the strategy of a company.

Strategy as a Discourse

The lens view strategy as a language. Managers and organisations communicate their policies by presenting annual reports, and they debate their plan when discussing the future of the firm.

Elements of a Strategic Management

According to Jurevicius (2013), strategic management elements constitute strategic analysis, choice, and implementation. The strategic analysis helps in enhancing understanding of the company's position. It comprises of a review of the environmental changes and ways in which they influence the company and the staff. Secondly, the strategic choice involves the selection of the most appropriate course of action based on the available options. Lastly, strategic implementation entails the translation of strategies to work.

Strategic Management Process

Strategic management process refers to the method in which managers conceive and implement a strategy that can cause sustainable competitive advantage (Jurevicius 2013). The process of strategic management, as seen in the diagram below, include the development of a vision and mission, which are equivalent of the goals and objectives to be achieved by a company after implementing a particular strategy. The other steps include analysis of the external and internal environment through a SWOT and PESTEL analysis tools. Other procedures include the establishment of long-term objectives, evaluation and selection of strategies, implementation of the techniques, and evaluation of performance. Therefore, this section discusses the process of policy and its application in a bid to understand the overall process of strategic management.

Figure 3. Strategic Management Process (Jurevicius 2013)

Other significant elements of strategic management include environmental scanning, formulation of a strategy, implementation and evaluation techniques.

Environmental Scanning

Mainly, this is the process of analysing information for strategic purposes. The process aids in the analysis of factors affecting a corporation.

Strategy Formulation

Primarily, this entails a procedure for identification of the best action that could enhance the attainment of the objectives and aims of an organisation.

Strategy Implementation

The phase constitutes of measures aimed at putting to affect the business and corporate strategies of an institution. It requires resource allocation or restructuring of the structure of an organisation.

Strategy Evaluation

The step involves the assessment of factors that could influence the successful attainment of the objectives. The process consists of measures to ensure that implemented strategies are aligned to the goals of a company.

LO2: Critically Analyse the Internal and External Business Environments in Which an Organisation Operates

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group has a variety of strengths that include the fact that it is a reliable dealer community. The firm has a culture among its distributors and dealers where dealers promote the products offered and invest in training the team working in the sales departments.

Weaknesses

The structure of the organisation is not compatible with the business model; hence it limits the firm's expansion in adjacent product segments. Further, the days' inventory at the firm is higher when compared to that of the competitors. In consequence, the firm makes the capital utilised high hence influencing the long-term growth of Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group.

Opportunities

The development of the market could dilute the competitive advantage, which in turn would make Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group increase its competitiveness compared to other competitors. Another opportunity is that new customers can purchase the services at the organisation through the online channel. The channel can be optimised to enable the firm to understand the customer better and serve the need of using big data analytics.

Threats

The firm operates in various countries, and it is exposed to currency fluctuations given the volatile political climate in the different markets in the world. Consequently, the shortage of skilled workers remains to be a challenge for the firm to witness the growth of profits for the company. The new technologies developed by competitors or market disruptors could threaten the industry in the future.

PESTEL Analysis

Political

The following political factors could affect the travel and leisure sector in the economy of a country. They include the risk of invasion from the military, corruption, bureaucracy and increased interference from the government, and taxation.

The integrity of the politicians and their likelihood in engaging in corruption-related activities could lead to an unstable political environment characterised by increased levels of impeachments and resignation of government employees.

Similarly, the laws enforced in a country regarding business could influence the business activities within an area. For some nations, the sale of alcohol is prohibited. As such, this could affect the way of conducting business in such regions.

Economic

Economic factors, according to Yuksel (2012), are those issues related to the economy.

The economic factors likely to influence Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group include whether the financial system is a monopoly or oligopoly. The rate of GDP growth in the nation could affect how fast the company grows in the future. A monopolistic economic system could influence and affect fair competition.

Further, a high GDP could influence how customers make purchases. When the GDP is high, the profits accrued in a firm are likely to be substantial and vice versa....