INTRODUCTION
Tourism and hospitality have formed one of the world's fast growing industry and expanding at a rapid pace. It is an appealing industry that positively contributed to economic growth of developing and developed countries. The hospitality industry remains the intensive key resource of tourism, hotel such as Waldorf Astoria Beijing takes up the corporate responsibility to balance the social, economic and sustainability needs of their business as well as the communities. This hotel has been awarded Traveler's Choice Awards: - Trip Advisor in 2013 (Waldorf Astoria 2016). If these hospitality industries do not support tourism then a negative impact could be created on social and natural environments. Hence, the organization Waldorf Astoria Beijing was chosen for proposing and implementing strategic analysis and changes that have an impact on hospitality business environments. The top issues that influence the Waldorf Astoria Beijing include labor cost, green hospitality, multicultural issues and higher education. Considering business to be smart, prominent and cost-effective and to have an environmentally friendly approach - “Green hospitality” was recognized as the top issue of the hotel.
This report explains on how the hotel could implement the “Green Hospitality” through the chosen strategy. The report also addresses the consequential implications of change and suggests how the hotel could manage these changes through the implementation of chosen strategy. The strategic thinking process applied in Waldorf Astoria Beijing hotel includes analyzing internal and external business environment, application of commonly accepted tools and theories to create practicable, assess alternatives, and proceed with specific action Cetin & Dincer (2014). Waldorf Astoria Beijing hotels concentrate on interior decorating, building materials but never give a thought to the area of information technology. Moreover, traveling public also started to show interest in condescending hotels which is investing in environmentally friendly buildings, equipment, techniques, and processes.
Hence, this report mainly focuses on implementing sustainable development in “Waldorf Astoria Beijing hotel”. The following are the vision, mission, and core values of “Waldorf Astoria Beijing hotel”;
Vision – Create an eco-friendly environment in hotels through adopting proper strategic management techniques and theories.
Mission - The mission statement of the Waldorf Astoria Beijing hotel is to practice the philosophy ‘Customer defines Quality’ for best quality control and to be top among the hospitality industry by supporting a sustainable world through using non-invasive, high-quality, eco-friendly products and services at the hotel that includes offering organic foods, beverages, reuse towels, in-room designer recycling bins, and energy conserving lightings. Strictly adhere to the environmental friendly corporate policies for sustainable development.
Core Values - The core value of Waldorf Astoria Beijing hotel is to create collaborative and healthy client relationship with the eco-friendly environment.
Presentation of Main IDEAS:
Going for ‘Green Hospitality’ is a scorching issue in the Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel. Hospitality industries have globally started to look at the sustainable development of the conventional solution. The perception on sustainable development calls for green hospitality has been transformed into a mainstream movement. Furthermore, some of the hotels have already been wide-open to green certification programs based on their commitment towards ecological responsibility. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification has been awarded for these hotels for adopting the sustainable green building. This certification is created by U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) for the hotels that use high-quality and eco-friendly products and services and have met the standard of energy efficiency.
The LEED certification has become a primary source to attract the traveling public. The public has also started to show interest in the condescending hotels that are environmental friendly. On whole sustainable green hospitality is thriftily worthwhile and advantageous to both environment and community. Hence, this paper mainly focuses on how the selected strategies are consistent with the mission and major goals of the Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel– ‘Sustainable development call for Green Hospitality’.
IMPORTANCE OF CHANGE
Inferring the significant of change represents its consequences. Prior to the interpretation and implementation of change, it is required to have an enormous amount of information including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel. The proposed solutions and the chosen strategy strategies should be aligned with the political, social, environmental, technological and economic structures. To proceed with an analysis of internal and external business environment of Waldorf Astoria Beijing hotel and to have a positive implementation of strategic approach the purpose, goals and objectives have to be defined accurately. To represent the Waldorf Astoria Beijing hotel’s goal and to identify the goal means Goals system theory was identified as the appropriate theory for a successful implementation of the strategy (Tang 2014). And, to spot out both internal and external factors of an organization SWOT, PEST was identified as the appropriate tools for this project.
TECHNIQUES AND THEORIES
GOAL SYSTEM THEORY
Goals System theory is an important concept during decision-making (Chiou et al. 2004) of Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel. Implementation of Goal system theory states the purpose of implementing the solution in an organization and offers the achievement of the changing aspects (Kruglanski et al. 2002). Goal system theory implemented in Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel constructed two important concepts goal (desired end-states) and goal-means (behaviors that can help to accomplish a goal). While constructing Goals System theory for Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel it was identified that the strength of connection in goal system theory depends upon the possibility of goal-means selected for the desired end-state goal. Figure 1 represents the quite broad, general, narrow and specific goal of Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel. The goal mainly focuses on the business goals, the interest of stakeholders, manage costs and generate revenue such as conserving energy; controlling cost, minimizing the inventory waste through sensible recycling.
Figure 1 - Goal System theory
SWOT ANALYSIS
The SWOT analysis was performed on Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel to assess the situation of the business. SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) was a good strategy to recognize the strength, weaknesses of the Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel and it assisted the hotel to turn the weaknesses into a natural advantage. Table 1 represents the SWOT analysis of Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel. The table that shows the strength and weaknesses of the hotel indicate the internal factors and Opportunities and threats indicate the external factors. The integrated internal and external information about the Waldorf Astoria Beijing hotel assists in identifying the positive and negative aspects.
The above analysis reveals that the company has awarded China Travel & Meetings Industry Award. It has gained good brand recognition with an epitome of luxury for the travelers, with popular shopping malls, historic attractions like Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. The interplay of internal and external factors reveal that the hotel has the trust of their customer base, have a reputation for not compromising quality through their rich Chinese heritage and legendary Waldorf service. The company, however, was willing to work on its weaknesses, most especially on the need of the traveling public who started to show interest in condescending hotels which is investing in environmentally friendly buildings, equipment, techniques, and processes.
PEST ANALYSIS
PEST stands for Political, Economic, Social and Technology was performed on Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel as an appropriate environmental perusing division of strategic management. PEST analysis carried out on Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel understands the industry situation as a whole. It gave an overview of different macro-environmental factors including the market growth, business standpoint, and direction for the operations. The factors that influence the sustainable development of Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel were recognized from the political, economic, social and technology perspective.
RESULTS
It is vital to understand the internal and external factors of the Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel. Strength, Weakness, Opportunities and threats of SWOT analysis on Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel enabled a proactive thinking on the business instead of inherent reactions and directed to take the decision. SWOT is always conjunction with PEST analysis, PEST analysis was carried out to identify the external factors of the Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel’s initiative with respect to Political, Economic, Social, and Technology. Meanwhile, the goal system theory should be applied in the change of the Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel to concentrate its time and money in the process of achieving its mission. The goal of Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel is clear, which is to become more environmental-friendly and strategic. The change in the strategic approach minimizes the effect of losses in the firm. Below are the solutions that were identified to address the impact of internal and external factors of Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel;
Political
Adhering policy guideline of U.S government agencies to adopt environmental friendly hotels.
Practice the implementation of universally accepted tools for effective performance and adopt sustainable green building to receive ‘The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design’ (LEED) certification.
Economic
Even the green hospitality pays more towards eco-centric benefits the hospitality can save up to 10 percent energy cost with no capital investment and provide a reasonable payback liability.
Daily room rates can be increased by $.62 for limited-service hotels and $1.35 for full-service hotels. 30% can be saved through other additional measures.
Buying one million room-ready towels reduces wash cycle and reduces 6 million tons of water per year.
Social
Hotels use properties that efficiently manage the energy, conserves and reduces the water usage, recycles the product by participating in recycling programs.
Encourage users to adopt eco-friendly practices through proper recycling habits.
The hotel needs to help clients build paper-free habits and use electronic devices to book rooms and ask for services.
Technology
Energy Star Label is awarded to save energy across modes and control green building gas emissions. Hospitality industries encourage pursuing Energy Star level at the time of purchasing electronic equipment.
The hotel needs to use environmental-friendly equipment and supplies such as refrigerators and air conditioners to save energy and to reduce waste.
Use the latest garbage disposal technology to strengthen the classification of garbage, improve recycling and reduce the amount of garbage.
Install solar panels and make full use of natural lighting to reduce the waste of electricity.
As for the strength of Waldorf, it should continue to build its luxury image and enhance its marketing activities with eco-friendly elements. In order to overcome its weakness, Waldorf should have finance control and budget plans effectively. Eco-friendly theme is a good opportunity for Waldorf to establish a new characteristic in customers’ mind and also it is a excellent way to cut costs of the hotel. However, the hotel also face threats to conduct its plans because they may cannot find the appropriate people to deal with the changes. Overall, Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel has the ability to achieve its goal.
CONCLUSION
Most industries have accepted that staying green and adopting economic development, social responsibility in the hospitality industry is the bigger challenge hence to address the need of travelers public the Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel had the vision to implement greenery hotel environment through strategic implementation. SWOT analysis performed on Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel identified that the absence of an integral approach in planning or drafting development strategies was the key weaknesses of the hotel during the implementation of the changes. For an effective strategic management in the business, the organization should understand the strategic thinking process in analyzing the external and internal business environment, should apply strategic theories and models for gaining the advantages of the solution.
Knowledge on imperative factors such as political, economic, social, technology and awareness of wider environmental opportunities and threats, appreciation of possible new sources of competition helped the Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel to get a massive amount of information about the desired objective. Identifying the solutions based upon the factors helped the successful implementation of sustainable development in Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel. Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel has made a strong commitment to environmental responsibility and communicates the public hotel has an environmentally friendly property. Waldorf Astoria Beijing Hotel also strives to continuously introduce new initiatives, products, and practices through the strategic management theories.
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