Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Strategy & Execution
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation
The owners of the Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel planned a grand 4+ star hotel in a prime location, just a five-minute walk from the airport terminal. It would feature 612 guest rooms, multiple food and beverage outlets, meeting facilities and the largest ballroom in eastern Bangkok. The property was co-owned by three Thai government corporations and was set to open on 1 October 2006. Bangkok hotel operator Universal Hospitality Group and French hotel and leisure company The Accor Group submitted a joint bid for the management contract when it was opened for tender in September 2004. In February 2005, the hotel's owners awarded the management contract to the Accor-Universal management group. This was after the hotel's design had been finalized and construction had begun. The management consequently felt they had no meaningful input in the development process. Furthermore, the hotel had been built on a turnkey basis. Hence, when the management group assumed responsibility for the hotel in April 2006, they discovered many operational challenges stemming from what they felt was a misalignment of the hotel's development, construction and operation. The management group spent the first few months grappling with those challenges and seeking solutions.
Swot Analysis of "Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation" written by Nigel Goodwin, Russell Arthur Smith includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Hotel Hotel's facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, and Strategy & Execution.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation casestudy better are - – increasing commodity prices, talent flight as more people leaving formal jobs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , there is backlash against globalization, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, increasing energy prices, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy,
there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Hotel Hotel's, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Hotel Hotel's operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Hotel Hotel's
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Strategy & Execution field.
4. Making a Strategy & Execution topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Hotel Hotel's
Strengths Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Hotel Hotel's in Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation Harvard Business Review case study are -
Strong track record of project management
– Hotel Hotel's is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Hotel Hotel's is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Hotel Hotel's is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Innovation driven organization
– Hotel Hotel's is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Hotel Hotel's are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Organizational Resilience of Hotel Hotel's
– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Hotel Hotel's does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.
Digital Transformation in Strategy & Execution segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Hotel Hotel's digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Hotel Hotel's has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Training and development
– Hotel Hotel's has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Diverse revenue streams
– Hotel Hotel's is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Hotel Hotel's in the sector have low bargaining power. Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Hotel Hotel's to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Hotel Hotel's has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of Hotel Hotel's in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Weaknesses Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation are -
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, Nigel Goodwin, Russell Arthur Smith suggests that, Hotel Hotel's is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Capital Spending Reduction
– Even during the low interest decade, Hotel Hotel's has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.
Products dominated business model
– Even though Hotel Hotel's has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of Hotel Hotel's is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Strategy & Execution segment. Hotel Hotel's needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Hotel Hotel's to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, Hotel Hotel's has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation, is just above the industry average. Hotel Hotel's needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Lack of clear differentiation of Hotel Hotel's products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Hotel Hotel's needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Hotel Hotel's is planning to shift buying processes online.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Hotel Hotel's 's lucrative customers.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Hotel Hotel's has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
Low market penetration in new markets
– Outside its home market of Hotel Hotel's, firm in the HBR case study Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation needs to spend more promotional, marketing, and advertising efforts to penetrate international markets.
Opportunities Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation are -
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Hotel Hotel's can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Hotel Hotel's can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Buying journey improvements
– Hotel Hotel's can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Hotel Hotel's in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Strategy & Execution segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Hotel Hotel's has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Hotel Hotel's to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Hotel Hotel's to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Hotel Hotel's to increase its market reach. Hotel Hotel's will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Identify volunteer opportunities
– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Hotel Hotel's can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of Hotel Hotel's has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Hotel Hotel's to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation case study. Hotel Hotel's can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Hotel Hotel's can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Strategy & Execution segment.
Loyalty marketing
– Hotel Hotel's has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19
– Consumer behavior has changed in the Strategy & Execution industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Hotel Hotel's can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Hotel Hotel's can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.
Developing new processes and practices
– Hotel Hotel's can develop new processes and procedures in Strategy & Execution industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Threats Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation are -
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Hotel Hotel's with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Hotel Hotel's can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Hotel Hotel's can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation .
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Hotel Hotel's is facing in Strategy & Execution sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Hotel Hotel's in the Strategy & Execution industry. The Strategy & Execution industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Capital market disruption
– During the Covid-19, Dow Jones has touched record high. The valuations of a number of companies are way beyond their existing business model potential. This can lead to capital market correction which can put a number of suppliers, collaborators, value chain partners in great financial difficulty. It will directly impact the business of Hotel Hotel's.
Environmental challenges
– Hotel Hotel's needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Hotel Hotel's can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Strategy & Execution industry.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Hotel Hotel's needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Strategy & Execution industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Strategy & Execution field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Hotel Hotel's can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Hotel Hotel's has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Strategy & Execution industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Hotel Hotel's needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Strategy & Execution sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Regulatory challenges
– Hotel Hotel's needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Strategy & Execution industry regulations.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Hotel Hotel's high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Hotel Hotel's business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel: Aligning Development with Operation is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Hotel Hotel's needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
