Wyndham Grand Hotels And Resorts

Running head: Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 1

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts

Name:

Institution:

Date:

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 2

Executive Summary

Wyndham is one of the most profound 5-star hotels in the entire world. The organization

is prominently known for providing a range of products and services related to the travelling and

hospitality. This is a research paper that will analyze Wyndham strategies and competencies.

This will be achieved through increased speculation on several aspects that are within the

external and internal environment of the firm. Also, this thesis will speculate the company

initiative that safeguards its reputation around the globe. This analysis will include the

speculation of the human research department, technological implementation, philosophies,

culture, marketing strategies, and organization structure. This will be helpful in strategizing the

company administration and priorities. This thesis will identify loopholes and provide the

necessary remedies for most of the identified problems. Analyzing these aspects will enable the

thesis to present new strategies that can help improve the masterpiece.

More importantly, this thesis will determine the level of ethical obligation in the company

either to the community, employees or suppliers. This will help in creating better

interrelationship between the company, employees, business partners, and suppliers. It is clear

that this thesis will speculate all the significant information concerning the running and

development of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts.

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 3

Table of Contents

Preface

Personally, this project is very interesting since it provides a diverse basis for study and it

also provides a real life experience. However, handling this project might not be as easy as it

seems due to numerous challenges especially in collecting quality and accurate information.

Such an enormous company tends to be rigid in presenting information due to competitors.

Therefore, the unavailability of information makes it cumbersome to collect the actual data and

evidence. However, I was able to obtain information easily without major difficulties. This thesis

is about analyzing firm competencies, structures, cultures, and strategies hence it is very

important to me in providing real life skills for future ventures. Analyzing these aspects will

enable me to have enough ideas of running and developing an enormous company in terms of

assets, human capital and customers. I did this project due to my future ambition of venturing

into the tourism industry. Since Wyndham has been able to capture a wide chunk of the global

market, then analyzing this firm will help me gain skills for a probable career. The greatest

challenge I encountered was organizing information according to the outline given without

excluding some minor details. I had to review the given outline several times and adhere to the

ethical principles of conducting research simultaneously. At last, I was able to organize the

information proficiently to include the main ideas and exclude redundancy. Also, I kept the

sensitive information confidential to avoid unethical behavior occurring in the entire process.

There are so many people who inspired me to take this project and acknowledged my

work. Among these people include my academic adviser and my parent. I have to acknowledge

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 4

the effort of my classmates for challenging me to take the project. I am sincerely grateful to these

persons for believing that I can positively complete this project.

Introduction

Background Information

In the contemporary tourism and hospitality industry, Wyndham has become a global

leader in the issuance of high quality services and products. The company has evolved from an

American confined company to a global giant with numerous subsidiaries in five continents and

50 countries. Wyndham has its headquarter in Parsippany located in Jersey. The firm brand can

be categorized into Wyndham Hotel Group, Wyndham Rentals and Exchange and Wyndham

Vacation Ownership. Each category deals with various issues regarding several companies and

brands that are within their civil liberties. However, the company main brand is managed by the

Hotel Group since the company has over 7,200 franchised firms. These franchises are found in

the Northern & Southern America, Europe, Asia, and some parts of Africa. It is important to note

that Wyndham is the global leader in providing quality and exceptional hotel services due to its

ability to develop and customize its brand. The company was founded in 1981 by Trammel crow,

but its prominence came about in 2009. Since 2009, the company has experienced enormous

growth in terms of expansion, reputation and profits. Moreover, the company is well known for

its social obligation to the community. This is the main sustainability strategy that has been

applied by the firm in securing its position in the market.

After its founding, the firm realized the importance of acquisition in developing its

reputation, products and services. The company acquired so many companies in 1988 and ended

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 5

up incurring huge debts from investors. These debts paralyzed the development process and the

management had to restructure the company wholly. In 2005, the company brand was bought by

the Cendant Corporation, but this did not improve the conditions on the ground. The company

persevered tough conditions until 2009 when the CEO, Stephen Holmes, instigated the

formulation of a Business Code of Conduct and Compliance Programs. This code consisted of

numerous obligations of each employee, expectations, ethical requirements, required

commitment, and the interrelationship between the firm, employees, the management, and

administration. This was the main change that had taken place in so many years.

Research Structure and Contexts

Given the background information above, this firm forms a very interesting topic of

study. This thesis will take up the structure of a research paper so that all ideas and concepts to

be comprehensively discussed and analyzed. This paper mainly discusses the main frameworks

of Wyndham Hotels and Resorts. In the process, the paper will analyze the external environment

and the internal environment of the business so as to determine the firm potential and current

position in the industry. Each of the crucial subjects or issues will be discussed under the

stipulated topics and subtopics independently. The conclusion will summarize all the ideas and

concepts in the case and arrive at conclusive remarks. Also, the conclusion will relate all the

concepts so as to provide recommendations that are specific to the problems identified. This

thesis will then determine whether critical purposes of this dissertation have been achieved.

Company Analysis

This is the most important segment of the entire study since it contains industrial

analysis, company culture, marketing strategies, and significant details.

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 6

The Company Type

The company operates in the hospitality and tourism industry especially in providing

travelling services, lodging, vacation centers, event and conferencing facilities, and indoor

sporting activities. The company hotel chain is the most profitable due to availability of

franchises in over 50 countries.

Company Culture

As stated earlier in the introduction, the company had embraced acquisition as business

development strategy, but it experienced numerous poor results. The company revived itself by

embracing a new culture that concentrates on the development of employees and capturing the

imagination and expectation of customers. The corporate culture is centered on the wellness of

the employees. The employees are provided with numerous development and motivational

opportunities as it will be discussed later. Nonetheless, the company culture has been built

around diversification, increasing performance per employee, increasing loyalty, and developing

competencies.

The business code of conduct requires every employee to be socially responsible to

customers and the society. However, so as to make corporate social obligation profitable the firm

has embraced the triple bottom line business tactic. This approach is crucial in capturing people,

financial benefits and the environment. These aspects make is easy for the business to take a

holistic business approach and finally create value through interacting with society.

The company has a philosophy that ensures employees and the management do not forget

their obligation to the society. The philosophy urges employees to maintain social obligations as

a way of working, improving competencies and facilitating the central values, principles and

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 7

visions of the company. This encourages employees to get involved in the company development

hence implant respect, integrity, support, and unity. The implementation of this philosophy

allows each employee to play his or her role in the development of the company.

Sustainability in the company is fostered by selling eco-friendly products that reduce the

consumption of energy and allow conservation of the environment. This sustainability initiative

is meant to influence the external and internal stakeholders and save money through preserving

energy and water. The company also devotes a fraction of its resources in enhancing compliance

and commitment. Employees who are devoted and ready to listen facilitate a high level of

flexibility. The company is also able to form a worldwide team of workers which is responsible

for cross-functioning of the company’s subsidiaries. This is what enables the company to run all

its subsidiaries around the world effectively and efficiently.

Marketing Mix

The company marketing strategies are centered on satisfying customers’ needs and

necessities. In each franchise, the company target different kind of customers. This is evident in

the global portfolio of Wyndham. This portfolio has the Northern American and the International

segments. These segments have different facilities offering dissimilar services and products. The

Northern American segments include the Upper Upscale, Upscale, Mid-scale, and Economy. The

most superior products and services with regard to the magnitude and customization follow the

order stated above. On the other hand, the international brand follows the order of luxury, first

class, mid-market, and budget. These classifications are critical in ensuring that the marketing

mix is considerate of income and social class of people in the market.

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Wyndham has set some customer value proposition so as to create an effective marketing

mix. This proposition consists factors such as brand strength, brand development, financial

viability, and efficiencies. These aspects help the firm to realize the most significant component

of the marketing mix to apply in a certain market. Therefore, the company has all the tools and

capabilities to join new markets.

The marketing mix of companies in the tourism and hospitality industry involves the

product-service mix, the communication mix and the presentation mix. The product-service mix

includes the price and service or product. The given segments above provide different products

and services to customers under different prices depending on the income and welfare of

customers. The communication mix consists interactions between the company and existing or

potential customers. This mix takes into account all aspects needed in the external environment

which involve legal obligation, social responsibilities, economic conditions, and competitiveness

in the market. These mixes integrate customers, employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders and

enable them to contribute in developing products and services. Lastly, the presentation mix is the

most significance mix since it presents potential markets for profitable ventures. This mix

decides the place for establishing new subsidiaries, availability of labor, availability of materials,

and existence of potential customers. The implementation of this marketing mixes leads to the

realization of business opportunities, market niches, and probable long term investment. Most

importantly, the firm has embraced the customization of the marketing mix, which allows it, to

provide specific products, services and facilities to specific markets.

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 9

Technological Audit

Technology is the nerve of the company continuity, effectiveness and efficiency. The

company selected a technology officer, Venkey Rangachari, to take care of all digital initiative

that can facilitate the company development. The company is closely linked to a technology

solution firm that offers digital solutions on demand, Jacent technologies. This company can

program softwares to monitor the market in a very short time hence creating flexibility. The

company can order new technology for new purposes efficiently and effectively. The company

has a by request technology that allows them to recognize the preferences of customers as they

enter the hotel. However, this IT infrastructure is effective if the customer is a regular at the hotel

or when the customer is assigned a membership number.

Though the company IT structures are not adequately organized, Wyndham has the most

critical technologies such as guest recognition systems, Property Management Systems (PMS),

Loyalty programs. Customers’ rooms have phones that are codeless so that they can call anyone

at any place around the globe. These rooms also have high speed internet connections hence

enabling busy clients to deals with their businesses or personal issues while at the hotel.

It is very clear that the company lacks technologies that can instigate innovations and

new products and services. The company needs to adopt new technologies that can help it to

design its facilities suitably, guarantee customer security and arrive at innovative strategies.

The Human Resource

The company success solely depends on the effort, integrity and commitment of

employees. Therefore, the company must address their needs and welfare when fabricating the

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 10

organization structure, policies, principles and values. Failure to recognize and reward

employees results in huge losses due to lack of motivation and negative implications. However,

Wyndham is known for retaining its employees due to its welfare programs and employee value

proposition. This will all be discussed in this sector.

The Organization Structure

The organization structure simply refers to sharing of responsibilities and the level of

hierarchy in the company. The following structure shows the hierarchy of authority in

Wyndham. The diagram will be used to explain sharing of authorities, profits, and

responsibilities.

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 11

Public Shareholders

Partners

Investors

The CEO

The Board of Directors

The Executive Manager

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 12

The above structure shows how the chain moves from the public to the employees. Each

of these categories in the structure has a responsibility in ensuring that the company continues

performing excellently in the market. The public shares are mostly used to fund the company

operations. For instance, in 2009 the company was forced to sell more shares so that it can revive

its dying operations. The company had incurred a $.36 billion loss hence it could have died if it

did not sell some of its properties. People who buy shares of the company do not have any

obligation towards the development of the firm. On the other hand, investors are rather

independent of any task unless they want to engage in the company operations, mostly decision

making and establishment of new ventures. However, they are the main guarantors hence ensure

continuity and development. Wyndham has numerous partners owning different brands of the

same company. Most partners are involved in decision making and analyzing the firm progress

in a single or multiple financial years. These partners have to choose leaders in the most

significant ranks of the company. They are also responsible for finding potential investors that

can help the firm develop. These responsibilities are also similar to those of the board of

directors.

The CEO is in charge of all meetings and approves the decisions made by the board. He

or she is responsible for sending this information to investors or employees and managers in the

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 13

lower rank. The executive manager is the overall manager of all departments in the organization.

He or she passes the information to the departmental manager for dissemination. The executive

manager appoints departmental managers and continuously assesses their performance in relation

to the company objectives and values. The departmental managers are in charge of all operations

that occur within their branch of the organization. Also, these managers closely speculate

employees work and determine their effectiveness.

Lastly, despite being on the lower level, employees are the most significant persons in an

organization. This is because they are the ones who implement change and ensure the company

values and objectives are reflected in their work. However, so as to allow employees to

contribute in the decision making process, the company practices a selective decentralized

method of leadership. This method allows managers to select individuals who are competent,

eloquent, active, and focused in making decisions. This method makes it easier for the company

to reduce irrelevancy and time wastage.

The HRM MODEL

In the contemporary world, organizations have realized that the human resource

department is central to any development in the organization. Inappropriate positioning of

employees forms a lot of confusion, disorganized work, inefficiencies, and time wastage.

Therefore, the model selected should be accurate in recruiting employees, planning distribution

of work, structuring employee welfare, career development, and performance appraisal.

Reviewing the rewarding systems, the level of integration and compliance in the HRM

department, it can easily be noted that Wyndham implements the Harvard Model of HRM. The

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 14

models govern all the operations, systems, practices, policies, and objectives of the HRM

department.

The Harvard model enables departmental managers to accept more obligations especially

in ensuring that the competitive edges are aligned with personal goals and corporate goals. On

the other hand, employees are allowed to formulate policies that direct their daily routines in

their respective place of work. The model identifies employees as significant members of the

stakeholders. The main policies that govern the implementation of this model include;

a. Increasing the employee influence in the organization mostly achieved through

delegating obligation, authority and power sharing.

b. Increasing the efficacy of the HRM practices including the recruitment process, selection,

performance appraisal, selection, and termination.

c. Developing performance based rewarding systems that identify team or individual

efforts. Rewards should be diversified so as to foster motivation, commitment and hard

work.

d. Work systems are designed to increase comfort, minimal stress, efficiency, and

integration.

Other than these policies, the model is governed by the four c’s; cost effectiveness,

competence, congruence, and commitment. The following is a depiction consisting the main

concepts of the model and its interrelationship;

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 15

Employees Situational

Aspects

Employee capabilities

Corporate Philosophies

Labor unions

Technology

Working conditions

Significance Stakeholders

Shareholders

The administration

The management

Customers

The government

Employees

Unions

Long term

Achievement and

Consequences

Individual

development

Organization

development

Effectiveness

Human Resource

Outcome

Effectiveness

Competence

Commitment

Congruence

Cost benefit

Workers influence

Human Resource

Policies

Rewarding systems

HRM practices

Working systems

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 16

Strengths and Improvements

The company has three main strengths related to managing the human resource

department;

a. The company has very coherent human resource strategies and systems. These

systems ensure that the firm goals and objectives are understood and achieved by the

employees.

b. The firm has well strategized systems due to the availability of welfare programs

hence enable employees to work at optimum conditions. This enables employees to

work comfortably and facilitate high productivity.

c. The firm policies and philosophies are profound hence they provide a working theme

and enable employees acquire core competencies.

However, the system requires a lot of development and improvement due to increasingly

changing business environment. The following are recommendations for building competent

human resource body;

a. The firm should embrace new technologies that monitor and facilitate change in the

organization. This will enable the company to embrace new trends in the market

continuously.

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 17

b. The firm should facilitate the fabrication of long term and short term goals so as to

remain relevant and focused. Therefore, employees should set objectives to be achieved

in a week, month and yearly.

c. Lastly, the firm needs to place consistent performance appraisal systems for facilitating

the short term goals achievement, as well as, long term goals. This is critical in evaluating

the firm progress over a given period. This is also significant in realizing weaknesses and

deficiencies in the system.

Comparing Three Articles from two Books

The books selected contain several models and theoretical concepts relating to the

Harvard model. The books selected are the Human Resource Management in Practice: With

300 Models, Techniques and Tools By Srinivas R. Kandula page 2 to 6 and HUMAN

Resource Management by Biswajeet Pattanayak page 5 to 8.

The two books agree on the major concept of the Harvard HRM model since they

articulate that the model is based on firm interests being goals, objectives, mission, and

strategies. However, the two writers place different information regarding the same models.

For instance, Kandula offers three insights regarding the model. Kandula articulates that the

model should consider the influences of the business environmental factors in formulating

policies (KANDULA, 2003, pp. 2-6). Most importantly, the model should be based on the

concerns of the stakeholders. He terms Harvard model as soft due to increased concerns from

stakeholders.

On the other hand, Pattanayak articulate that the model should be entirely based on a

central philosophy hence employees need to have mutual goals. This is contrary to the given

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 18

information regarding the formulation of personal goals and objectives. The writer identifies

strategic integration as the main booster of the Harvard model. Lastly, Pattanayak has

included several concepts that are not discussed by Kandula. Among these concepts include

the managerial behavior, the use of general managers and functional flexibility

(PATTANAYAK, 2005, p. 6).

Cultural Diversity

Cultural Diversity and Its Disadvantages and Advantages in Wyndham

Wyndham is prominently known for creating a comprehensive working environment

consisting of different races, origins, tribes, traditions, and cultural differences. This inclusive

strategy is the core to the operation and success in the five continents. The firm has subsidiaries

in over 50 countries around the globe hence cultural diversity is necessary in enriching the firm

with new ideas and sharing experience. Wyndham administration value fairness and complete

exclusion discrimination. All persons of different sexual orientations and disabled people are

offered similar chances and growth opportunities.

The company perceives diversity as a developmental process that will continue to take

place in the long run. Therefore, Wyndham has placed numerous programs to foster diversity as

a way of living. These programs are educative in nature since they create awareness for cultural

events such as rituals, customs and celebrations. The company Associate Business Groups is

responsible for researching common rituals, events, celebration, and customs. This segment of

the company investigates factors relating to a way of life and enhances sharing of ideas and

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 19

experiences. The organization objective is to create the best working place for all workers with

personal, background, sexual orientation, gender, and race differences.

Cultural diversity is very significant to the development of the organization, and it is also

lethal to some developments. One of the most advantages of embracing cultural diversity is the

enrichment of the working environment and the reputation achieved in the process. A company's

reputation can grow rapidly due to the recognition of special traditions and values of a certain

community. Culture cultivates new experiences, concepts, backgrounds, and perspectives. This

indicates that traditions and culture provide room for innovation and realization of new

opportunities. Diversity is essential in increasing the firm performance since employees are

selected on the basis of competency. The company is able to embrace new ways of increasing

shareholders’ values through recognition of the basic needs and preferences. Diversity forms the

basis for the formation of corporate values, cultures and principles. It is also important in

enabling the firm to prioritize on certain products or service that is of importance to the

community.

However, diversity has some negative impacts on the company and employees. The

company incurs increased expenses in developing and ensuring the continuity of diversity

programs. For instance, the firm spent $153 million in 2011 on the supplier diversity program.

This value increased immensely to $182 million in 2012. This is some unnecessary costs that can

be avoided if the company did not value diversity as much. Cultural diversity can inhibit change

due to the existence of rigid traditions. Convincing some communities to try new products can be

difficult due to rigidity. Therefore, the company will waste a lot of time in researching and

gaining marketing ground. This firm also faces stiff competition from traditional firms offering

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 20

similar services. Therefore, getting to the level of diversity and differentiation required might be

more difficult than anticipated.

Generally, it can be said that the advantages of cultural diversity surpass its

disadvantages. Cultural diversity should be embraced and continuously improved since it is the

easiest strategy of entering new markets.

Kindly note that this is the first part of this research paper and the paper will be

concluded after this part has been approved.

Wyndham Grand Hotels and Resorts 21

References

KANDULA, S. R. (2003). HUMAR RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN PRACTICE: WITH 300

MODELS, TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS. New York: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.

PATTANAYAK, B. (2005). HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT. New York: PHI Learning

Pvt. Ltd.

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