Marketing Plan Power Point Presentation Essay

The purchase of the new hotel brings many opportunities as well as challenges. As the Human resources department, we have to done thorough research to find ways to accomplish all concerns presented by the executive team. We have found ways to address financial concerns, marketing, and operation concerns. We have also included concerns found by the human resources department and created was to address the concerns. Also included is our recommendation on the merger. Start-up costs and finance concerns The Chief Finance Officer is concerned about startup costs of the acquisition to include increased labor costs, renovations, and the higher salary being paid to the current Italian workers. In the start-up phase, training will be crucial and will come with a cost. The money has to be spread out in a few areas such as management and staff training-this will cover chain of command, hotel administration, finances, customer complaints, customer service, maid service, room service, restaurant services, fitness center cleaning, pool cleaning, and daily operations of the hotel chain. Language and culture courses should be the initial training focus so as to avoid language barrier and cultural conflicts between staff and guests, as it is imperative that we all know a little about each Nation’s language and culture. Equipment training-The hotel will be modernized with computers. The system will have a website for online booking, payments, complaints, maps, local features for tourists, and any other information a guest may want or need. The system will be used within the hotel for check in and checkout, bill handling, maid servicing, laundry acquisitions, room service, dining facility, training courses in culinary arts, food handling, and restaurant management. In the training process we have to get all of the employees (both American and Italian) in synch with each other. This will help with language and cultural barriers, should those issues arise. In the matter of employment money is always the issue. In this hotel chain all staff will bpaid based on their position and duties within the hotel. All employees will be evaluated every six months to establish whether a pay raise is warranted or not. Benefits will include health insurance, dental insurance, and paid vacations. Marketing Concepts I agree with the Chief Marketing Officer in that there will be added expense in marketing globally and in a foreign language. Our marketing strategy would have to take a different direction when promoting the hotels in Italy. Since we won’t be an â€Å"Albergo Italiano† we will still be an American hotel situated in another country. The Italian economy is dominated by small, family run hotels and organizations – 92 percent of Italian businesses are small or medium sized ((â€Å"Doing Business in Italy; 2012 Country Commercial Guide for U. S. Companies†, 2012). Our marketing strategy could focus on appealing to tourists who want the experience of being in Italy, but the comforts of a hotel chain that they are familiar and comfortable with. Our U. S. based company will face strong competition from local and other European based hotels, which can be achieved by maintaining our American hotel reputation and charm. Our goal is to keep the culture, quality and customer service of the hotel chain up to the same standards as in the U. S. By going global, it will give our current customers more options and opportunities to travel and still be able to stay in the comfort of a Pinnacle hotel. I don’t feel that decertifying the union at the startup is a good process. Unions are a good idea, but when you think about, having unions involved can cause things to get a bit more complicated. My advice it to try and get close to the union leaders and build a strong working relationship with them. Assuring them that the employees’ needs matter. I would recommend negotiating a lower benefits package to reduce labor costs. Daily Operations To address the goals of the Chief Operations Officer I have research position at other international hotels to find the best ways to produce high quality service. Since, the hotel will be servicing many customers with language as well as employee different nationalities. Manager positions will be created to accomplish administrative duties required from executive team and will oversee multiple departments. All managers will be required to have extensive training and experience in hotel management. Also, there should be a preference for managers with international hotel experience and that are multi-lingual. With the new merger, managers with that type of experience will be the best with communicating with employees and customers of different nationalities. With Europe having a high international market of hotels and 40 percent of its population speaking two or more languages, it will be the best place to recruit for manager positions. We should pay them over the current market pay to be aggressively recruit and maintain managers. Also, we should create department supervisor for all of the different areas. The department supervisor would be a liaison between lower level employees and managers and ensure that all tasks are being completed daily. They will also be able to investigate and communication with problems in each department to relieve the managers of some of the hands on duties. Supervisors will be crossed trained to fill in other sections to create flexibility when another supervisor is sick or on leave keeping the continuity of quality service on a daily basis. To recruit supervisor, the company should meet the current market for pay, this will decrease turn over, but if one to leave we would then hire a team leader from within the department. Supervisors recruited from the local region will have first-hand experience working with the Italy’s union enabling them to best supervise employees within regulations of the unions. A preference will for supervisors speaking more the one language will be preferred, but we would create programs and incentives to help facilitate learning different languages. After researching positions of other hotels, a team lead for each section has proven to be beneficial. The team lead has the most experience of the lower level employees but has no supervisory experience and only fills in when the supervisor is not in the department. Lastly, lower level positions that can be taught buy on the job training and will only complete daily tasks with in their departments. They will not be crossed trained due to the fact that we would pay lower than the current market pay and increase the number of employees as compared to other hotels. Although this could create a higher turnover rate, replacements would be easy to finds and the continuity will have little if no interruption. A separated department will need to be created to maintain of the building. One of this highest skills found in Greece was construction and general contracting. With Greece having a high unemployment rate and the readily available skills, it would be the prime place to recruit from to fill the department. Human Resource and Personnel Management My role as the Chief Human Resource Officer is to ensure that the employees of the organization have the right knowledge, skills, and abilities now and in the future. It is vital that the CHRO obtains a knowledge of the area that they will be working in, as there are many factors to consider in determining what is best for the organization as a whole. By purchasing the hotel chain in Italy, the company will be able to grow and expand cultural diversity into the company. U. S. based employees will have the ability to travel and learn a new culture and new type of work environment, this could support retention and would potentially be a strong recruiting tool for quality employees. It would give current employees new benefits, such as travel pay if they were assigned to Italy. Also, all employees would have the opportunity to learn basic Italian culture and language, helping to make the employee feel empowered and important. Our company is a non-union company, but in Italy the hotels are run by unions. This could cause a problem as the Italian workforce does not work outside of their defined job descriptions and duties. The current staff is not properly trained to take on more responsibilities at their current wages. This would require the company to retrain those employees into the positions creating a higher startup cost and more time to provide the training. Another issue is the culture of the Italians, they are accustomed to having more time off from work, more say in how the company’s operations are conducted, and they also have boundaries when it comes to their work schedule and limitations on what they perform. That could cause problems with U. S. employees, since they are not accustomed to limited position descriptions and are used to being able to perform a variety of tasks. Another potential problem is the lack of EEO laws in Italy. As the CHRO it is our responsibility to ensure that our employees are protected under the current laws and regulation. Our employees are very aware of the importance of EEO laws so the lack of the same respect for this law in Italy could disenfranchise individuals, especially when it comes to sexual harassment. On the other hand, training the Italians to follow the U. S. EEO laws could cause problems in recruitment, since they may feel that they do not have to follow U. S. laws in Italy. Lastly, the Italians are used to benefits that are required by the Unions. Our company does not have a department to deal with Unions, so we would have to assemble a team that could negotiate benefits for the Italians. We would have to find out if U. S. employees would be receiving those same Union benefits and if they would be required to pay Union dues. This could cause problems with our U. S. employees if they do not want to join a Union. Furthermore, if we are succeed in negotiating lower benefits, then Italian recruitment could be low, since they would rather work in another hotel that would provide higher benefits. Recommendation In summary, there are pros and cons to acquiring hotels in Italy. It would give a new set of skills to our current employees. It would allow our US employees the ability to travel and learn new skill sets. It would also broaden the culture of this company and be able to give the current employees the benefits of learning a new culture and a new language. It would open up the company to global recognition and more vacation choices for our current customers. On the other hand, it will not be an easy transition. Current Italian employees are limited in how long they can work, what positions they can fill, and are unfamiliar with our EEO laws. The Italians lack of knowledge, skill and abilities would cost this company a lot manpower, which needs to be calculated to see if it is worth the cost. The Italians are also used to obtaining many benefits that this company is not accustom to giving. A new separate department would need to be created to be able to negotiate and speak to the Unions. All of these issues would need to be addressed prior to obtaining the hotels and the Finance Department would need to be able to calculate the cost and benefits. As the CHRO, we recommend acquiring the Italian chain as the long term benefits outweigh the initial start-up costs and concerns.