Future sustainability of The Premier Inn

Future sustainability of The Premier Inn

Executive summary

Maintaining a constant effective and profitable operation of an organization is very difficult for many companies. This is because of the environmental factors that negatively affect the operation of the business. Many business organizations have resorted to the analysis of their operational activities do that they can implement the necessary strategies to improve on the areas of their weaknesses. An example of these industries includes the Premier Inn company.  The analysis has also resulted in identifying some of the opportunities that the organization needs to pursue in order to maintain its services at the expectation of the customers. The study’s main focus dwells on the environmental factors that have affected the improvement of the customers’ services as one of the opportunistic areas of the Premier Inn company to satisfy the needs of its customers. Some of the factors that have been identified have been categorized into two, for instance, internal and external environment. Some of the internal environmental factors include finance, technology, human resources as well as an organizational culture, while the external environment factors include government laws as well as the presence of raw materials. Other aspects that the study looks into are the scenarios that have the likelihood of occurring from the environmental factors identified caused by the changes in the environment of the business.  The scenarios the study has pinpointed includes stiff competition, technological challenges as well as imposition of strict government laws. Similarly, among the scenarios mentioned, the paper concentrated on one of the preferred scenarios that would enable the company maintain a long-term sustainability of its business progress and benefits. In order to manage the preferred scenario, stiff competition of the in the business arena, there are benchmarks that are necessary. For example, some of the benchmarks that the study focuses on include; functional benchmarking and competitive benchmarking. The paper concludes by making recommendations on the importance of conducting the analysis of operation of Premier Inn company and these include facilitation of planning, financial allocation as well as identification of the weakness of the business. Similarly, the study also recommends next steps that the business can take to ensure that it executes and maintains its business activities towards satisfying the needs of its customers.

Introduction

Maintaining quality services at an affordable price has become laborious to many companies with inclusion of The Premier Inn. As a result of the straining nature through which the organizations meet the needs of their customers, the organizations need to come up with the appropriate strategies to navigate their progress. For the Premier Inn company, coming up with appropriate strategies will enable it overcome global problems that affect its business like the financial crisis. The company has suffered from other severe inadequacies like lack of satisfaction of the customers to the accommodation services that the company offers. Similarly, other factors that have greatly contributes to the failure of the organization is the lack of Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software to manage the relationship of the customers to the industry. From these inadequacies, there are opportunities that the company can utilize to ensure its financial and operation success in the coming five years.  For example, from the analysis of the weakness of the company, it has been realized that the company is providing inadequate services to the customers. The weakness has been realized from the fact that the company is running short of skilled employees to provide the required services to the customers. The company has the opportunity of improving the services it offers to the customers. The quality of services that the customers have been receiving after the financial crisis have been of low standard. This has been measured against the price of the services that the Premier Inn company has increased to cope up with the organizational developmental operations even in the moments of the financial crisis.  This paper therefore, focuses in the environmental factors which may affect the improvement of the services to the customers as well as scenarios could result from the environmental factors over five years led by changes in the environment of the business. Similarly, preferred scenario to assist in the long-term sustainability of the business will be identified. This will be in conjunction of the benchmarks and milestones that can be used by the company in monitoring the selected scenario.

Environmental factors that may affect the opportunity

The environmental factors have greater impact on the execution of services that a company my be responsible for availing to its customers, (Wang, Chen & Chen, 2012). In a business operation, the environmental factors can be grouped into two, namely; internal and external environmental factors.

Internal environmental factors

These are elements that arise from within the boundary of an organization. They are constituted of the operation that an organization undertakes  as well as resources such as human, technology, culture of the organization information as well as finance, (Wu & Liang, 2009). In relation to the opportunity of improving the quality of services to customers in Premier Inn company, the following are some of the factors that may affect the effort.

Availability of skilled human resources

The human resources in this case refers to the management body of the organization beginning from the subordinate employees. Lack of skilled employees in an organization will result to poor services to the customers This is because the unskilled will lack the knowledge to handle and satisfy the needs of the customers, (Wu & Liang, 2009). On the other hand, the skilled workers will be the ideal resources for a company to satisfy the needs of its customers. In this case of Premier Inn, some of the top skills that the employees should have for the customers include, skills for customer service, skills on communication, awareness of customer’s culture, professionalism as well as team work. For the employees to be up to the task, the organization must ensure that the employees are trained on the necessary skills.

Finance resources

Finance is the master drive in the successful operation of an organization. The Premier Inn organization has experienced a great decrease in the financial income in the past few years resulting from the worldwide financial crisis. Insufficient funds have handicapped the organization from providing the necessary and quality services to its customers as well as improving the existing services, (Wu & Liang, 2009). However, when the financial resources are available, the company an improved the customer services through training its employees to gain new skills, improving the structures of the hotel as well as purchasing the necessary resources for the quality services.

Technological resource availability

Most of business organizations employ the use of technology to enhance their operations. Technology assist in  the enhancement of the delivery of services. For example, the availability of Enterprise Resource Planning system (ERP) assists in the management of data of all the activities that the organization undertakers, (Wang, Chen & Chen, 2012). The include the rating of services by the customers. Through the feedback of the customers provided and stored in the system, the company can improve the services that have been lowly rated, (Wu & Liang, 2009). This wouldn’t be possible when the technology is lacking.

Organization culture

Organizational culture refers to the way an organization operates. It includes values, vision as well as mission of the organization. Presence of organization culture will facilitate the improvement of customer services since the motto, vision and the mission of the organizations keeps the it focusses in achieving its objectives through improvement of its services so that the customers can be satisfied, (Wu & Liang, 2009). Without the culture, the organization may lack the focus and therefore may not bother to improve the services.

Internal environment

It refers to the elements that are outside the organization. The organization have no power in influencing the operation of these elements in whatsoever. Some of those elements are discussed below;

Availability of raw materials.

Improvement of the services to the customers require availability of resources. For example, services like good meals require the presence of the materials for preparing the meals. However, when the raw materials are not available, the Premier Inn company may not make an effort of improving its services to customer.

Government laws

Government rules affect the operation of business activities. These services may limit the operation of the organization especially upon the imposition of high taxation. High taxation may drain the organization financially to the extent that it may save too less finance to facilitate improvement of the services, (Wu & Liang, 2009). This may actually be the opposite when the taxation rates are low. The high taxation has been another barrier towards improvement of the services in Premier Inn company.

Scenarios occurring from the environmental factors

There are various scenarios that can occur from the environmental factors of the affecting the improvement of the customers services, (Amer, Daim  & Jetter, 2013). The following are some of the proposed scenarios that are likely to occur in the next five years’ time in the company’s operation.

Stiff competition

With the constant sprouting of hospitality industries, competition is building its bars. The accumulating competition pressure from the rising companies is determined to destabilize most of the industries from the market arena, (Amer, Daim  & Jetter, 2013). Scanty of customer will be the dominating stories among the industries exhibiting inadequate services to customers.

Technological challenges

Technology is not in its sleeping beds. Inventions are made in almost a daily basis. It will not be a surprise in the next five years. The business arena belongs to the technically endowed companies with the updated technical equipment for executing business activities, (Keough & Shanahan, 2008)). The challenges may remain consistent for the companies without proper technological plans.

Stiffer government regulations

Constant raise in population of the states remains a threat to business operation in some other ways. The raise in population will demand the attention of the government support, (Keough & Shanahan, 2008)). Consequently, the government shows the likelihood of imposing other taxes on the companies to raise enough tax to support the citizens.

Preferred scenario for the long-term sustainability of the business

In order to maintain existence in the operation of the business, the most preferred scenario in this case would be the stiff competition awaiting the companies. With this scenario in mind, the organization will work all means to ensure that it stays afloat among all other rivals. This will involve maintenance of quality services to the customers through  constant training of the customers, acquisition and implementation of the necessary technological equipment to facilitate the operation of Premier Inn especially in enhancing the experience of the customers (Wu & Liang, 2009). For instance, the use of updated ERP system to store data of the customers visit, their comments as well as the solution on how to go about them. This will also future reference. For the competitiveness, Premier Inn company will also ensure that the it stays put to the legal demands like partying taxes.

Benchmarks and milestones for measuring and monitoring the scenario

Benchmarking is one of the strategies that most of the institutions employ in ensuring that they either operate on the same level or a higher level with other organizations. It facilitates borrowing of ideas and new skills that other business organizations are employing to facilitate their success, (Cooper & Ezzamel, 2013).  In order to monitor and manage the stiff competition in the business arena, some of the benchmarks are necessary. Some of the benchmarks and milestones appropriate for the scenario include the following;

Competitive benchmark

These benchmarks involve comparing the operational activities of a business with a other, especially a rival. From this activity, the benchmarking organization will be able to borrow unique features of operation to the rival company employs in comparison with its own. Similarly, the comparison enables the company to point out some of its weakness that drags it from playing bet in the market, (Chiesa et al., 2007).  This will also include some strengths. For example, the company can exercise the competitive benchmarks in the companies like Kennington Bed & Breakfast for the new ideas. This milestone is very useful in measuring and monitoring  the stiff competition scenario so that the  Premier Inn company also remains equally competitive and tower among the rivals.

Functional benchmark

The benchmark concentrates on the logistics as well as the inventory of an organization. It helps in assessing the functional capabilities of an organization as well as the factors that hinder the normal operation of the business. This include the trend that the company follows in providing services to its customers, (Chiesa et al., 2007). In relation to stiff competition scenario, the benchmark helps in monitoring the stiff competition in that it will assist in the organization to make necessary changes on its internal functions to adapt to the needs of the necessary competitive arena.

Recommendation/Conclusion

Analysis of business operation is very significant especially for the companies that are finding it hard to maintain a constant sale of its services to its customers as well as maintaining increasing each in performance. A good example of such companies is the Premier Inn company. The analysis is helpful in the following ways.

Identification of business weaknesses

The analysis assists in identifying some of the weaknesses of the business, for instance, like low quality of service to the customers. This step will prompt the organization to look for appropriate solution to their challenges to help improve customer satisfaction.

Facilitates planning

The analysis may at times extend to the future operation of the business.  In this case, the organization can use the analysis to facilitate planning for the future domination of the market. The planning may include implementation of benchmarking. The planning may be focused on some of the aspects that require maximum attention of action. With the view of making future operation better.

Financial allocation

Through the analysis, the organization will be able to identify its major areas of inadequacies of performance. The identification of these areas will facilitate the allocation of resources appropriately with consideration of the marginalized areas.

The Premier Inn company may need to focus on the next steps to enhance the its success in its future progress. For instance, the need to commence training of the employees to acquire the necessary skills to provide services to the customers. This will enable the employees gain the necessary professional skills.

Similarly, the  organization should conduct benchmarking activities. This should begin with the competitive benchmarking to allow it gain the experiences that it has not been putting in practice but has enhanced success in other industries. This may include how the companies maintains satisfaction of their customers.

Lastly, the company should harmonize the price of its services. Since the company he been providing unsatisfactory services to the customers, it is necessary for the company to keep the existing customers by harmonizing the prices to the standard of the services. In the meantime, it should focus in improving the services.

References

Wu, C. H. J., & Liang, R. D. (2009). Effect of experiential value on customer satisfaction with service encounters in luxury-hotel restaurants. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 28(4), 586-593.

Wang, C. H., Chen, K. Y., & Chen, S. C. (2012). Total quality management, market orientation and hotel performance: The moderating effects of external environmental factors. International journal of hospitality management, 31(1), 119-129.

Amer, M., Daim, T. U., & Jetter, A. (2013). A review of scenario planning. Futures, 46, 23-40.

Keough, S. M., & Shanahan, K. J. (2008). Scenario planning: toward a more complete model for practice. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 10(2), 166-178.

Cooper, D. J., & Ezzamel, M. (2013). Globalization discourses and performance measurement systems in a multinational firm. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 38(4), 288-313.

Chiesa, V., Frattini, F., Lazzarotti, V., & Manzini, R. (2007). Measuring performance in new product development projects: A case study in the aerospace industry. Project management journal, 38(4), 45-59.