The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Statement of the Problem

This case focuses on the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company and the launch of one of the new hotels for the company. The main emphasis of this new hotel was to create quality in service for the customers on the basis of dignity, values of self-respect, quality processes and a unique blend of the leadership of the owners of the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company. All the newly hired employees of the hotel were transformed in Gentlemen and Ladies within just seven days to serve the Gentlemen and the Ladies. However, the main problem faced by the company was to determine the relevant measures through which the quality of the hotel could be continuously improved and how to effectively measure the launch success of the hotel both quantitatively and qualitatively.

Causes of the Problem

As identified above in the problem statement, the main issue that was being faced by the owners of the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company was that how to effectively measure the quality level of the service of Ritz Carlton Hotel Company. The level of quality and its measurement could be a challenge in any industry because the customers are not purchasing any tangible good but they are basically purchasing an intangible experience and they expect that the experience which they would receive exceeds all the expectations.

As the management of Ritz Carlton Hotel Company lacks all the tools or method to quantify the quality of the launch of the hotel, therefore, the management of the hotel is unable to generate the required evidence through which they could alter or improve the experiences of the customers so that all the dynamic demands of the customers could be met(Bremner, 2006). The Ritz Carlton Hotel Company had also won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award however, it was unaware the core factors on the basis of which it was awarded this award.

Another issue here was that the name of the company was strongly associated with one of the luxurious hotel in the industry, however, the demands of each of the customer varies. However, there was to mechanism through which the exact demand of the customer could be measured at the new hotel(Reichheld, 1990). Furthermore, the seven day countdown for the launch of the new hotel company had never been evaluated at Ritz Carlton Hotel Company and there seems to be no specific reason. Along with this the training period at the Ritz Carlton Hotel Company for the new hires was just limited to seven days however, the management did not consider that whether this time frame was enough or not.

The next issue was with the investment made for the seven day countdown and now it might result in profit and even loss. Collins had already questioned the validity of the seven day countdown as an investment of around $ 700 million had been made. There seem to be no specific metrics in place through which the management of the company could measure the success or failure of the hotel opening. Furthermore, the company had opened the hotel with a lower occupancy at a level of 50% and expects to reach to a level of 80%. However, based on the data as provided in exhibit 8 it could be seen that in January the revenue at an occupancy level of 57% is around $ 1.6 million where as in May the revenue would be $ 2.2 million at an occupancy level of 76%. This shows that the hotel is losing money. All these issues need to be addressed to make the launch of the hotel successful.

Decision Criteria & Alternative Solutions

The management of Ritz Carlton Hotel Company needs to implement immediate strategies to counter all the issues as highlighted above. Since the hotel has been launched therefore, the time for the implementation of the alternatives below is limited. The management might also have to make some investments to make the alternatives work. Some of the alternative solutions for the management of Ritz Carlton Hotel Company along with their pros and cons are described below.

Alternative 1: Evaluation of Seven Day Countdown

The first alternative available to the management of the company is to fully evaluate the seven day countdown. Collins has been recommending some changes to be made to the seven day countdown, however, despite that the management of the company needs to first evaluate it. The profit should not be considered as the key measure to evaluate the success of the seven day countdown however, the management needs to focus on the job performance of the employees and the satisfaction of the new hires...............

This is just a sample partial case solution. Please place the order on the website to order your own originally done case solution.