The client

A company which both leases hotels and offers hotel management contracts, based in Switzerland but operating throughout Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia.

Location: Zurich, Switzerland

What did Hotel Solutions Partnership achieve for the client?

A report was delivered, along with substantial supporting analysis, identifying the client’s current areas of strength and those areas in need of development to achieve right-sizing. Major recommendations covered the fields of:

• Strengthening the brand.
• Re-organising executive roles and titles.
• Increasing centralisation of resources, where appropriate.
• Migrating to more appropriate IT solutions, especially to improve business intelligence and performance management.
• Improvement of the budgeting process.
• Rationalising the process of reporting.
• A more integrated system of personnel training and development at all levels of the business.
• Development of an executive succession plan.
• Making change (especially anticipating targets for 2020) central to the business.
• To help the company prepare for its projected growth, a straw-man organisation was set up for how the business may look in 2020. This can be used by the client as a tool for debate and planning.

Consultants

Ian Graham, David Atkinson

Background

Our client has a successful and, in some respects, unique business model, which it wishes to expand in order to compete with the major hotel brands. With a view to this, it has produced a five-year plan which envisages a 50% organic growth by 2020. At the same time, it has undertaken several programmes to improve its PMS, Revenue Management and IT systems, and has planned a movement of HQ.

Project objective

Our Client needed a thorough analysis of its organisation, various systems and resources, in particular of the balance between corporate, area and country. It also needed recommendations for what re-organisation, new resources and changes in practice are required in order to right-size, both for optimising current business and to prepare for its projected growth.

Project scope

• Interviews with relevant executives and senior managers to ascertain functions, methods and concerns.
• Examination of the current practices of departments, excluding (by the client’s request) Distribution, IT, F&B and Procurement.
• Examination of the company’s projected needs by 2020 and comparison with current resources.
• Recommendations for changes needed in the short term in organisation, resources and practices.
• Recommendations for changes that will be needed by 2020 to prepare for the projected growth.