Strategic Plan Part III: Balanced Scorecard and Communication Plan

SWOTT Analysis of Club Sportif MAA’s New Division.

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Internal and external environmental analysis of the new hospitality division at Club Sportif MAA.

Background information.

Apart from offering fitness and training services to its customers, the new hospitality division is created to offer an additional service: food and drinks. Many customers enjoy the services offered by the fitness and training center nut lack the energy refilling component. Located in a busy town, the new hospitality division will not only attract more customers but also improve the revenues generated by the company. More importantly, it will provide a one-stop shop for trainers and those coming for fitness at MAA.

One major aspect of fitness is diet and nutrition. Experts maintain that while most people take exercise and fitness lessons, their diets betray their quests to achieve the perfect body shapes and sizes. The new hospitality department therefore comes in handy because it will provide appropriate foods and drinks that match with the dietary requirements for people talking physical fitness and training exercises. The business model of the new division will match any hotel or restaurant in the hospitality industry.

External environment forces

The external forces that will affect the operations of the new hospitality department are characteristic of hotel and hospitality industry, since the new division will largely borrow from the business model of a hotel or restaurant (Fraj, Matute, & Melero, 2015). While the fitness services and equipment will be maintained, MAA will diversify its services in the hospitality division to match a hotel. It therefore means that apart from offering eatery joints and a place where people can drink and relax, the new division will also offer accommodation services to Canadian locals and internationals services. In fact, tourists will be heavily and largely targeted since they will form a large chunk of the target customers.

Economic forces.

Major economic forces or factors will shape the direction and operations of the new division are: stable economic growth of Canada and United States, ongoing economic turmoil in Europe, and decreasing unemployment in Canada and United States. These three economic factors present opportunities and threats to the new hospitality division. Firstly, the stable economic growth of Canada and United States is an opportunity for the new division. Canada and United States almost have a similar system of business, and the currency exchange rate is not as high as compared with other countries ( 1 Canadian dollar =0.80 US dollar) (Fraj, Matute, & Melero, 2015). Because of the two countries’ stable economies, it means that the purchasing power of locals and Americans is high, implying better returns for the new division.

A stable economy is an opportunity for the new division is an opportunity since it encourages business growth. Secondly, the ongoing economic turmoil in Europe coupled with slow economic growth of China is a threat to the new division. The economic stability of Europe is important to any business model. For the new hospitality model, economic crisis in the European Union means less tourists will be visiting Canada and therefore reduced business for the hotel and restaurant (Jones, Hillier, & Comfort, 2016). Lastly, decreasing unemployment in Canada and United States increases the buying power of potential customers and hence the new division is likely to entertain more guests.

Legal and regulatory forces.

Operating under the hotels and hospitality industry, the new division will be subjected to requirements of the law and regulations, especially within the context of Quebec provincial administration and the federal administration of Canada. Some of the legal and regulatory requirements are: food safety regulations, tax law reforms, and employment regulations. Food safety regulations may seem like a threat, but is actually an opportunity for the new hospitality division (Jones, Hillier, & Comfort, 2016).

Why? Because taking serious food safety regulations can be used in improving the quality standards of the foods and drinks offered in the new division and hence increase its competitiveness. Employment regulations are aimed at ensuring that only qualified staff are hired by the company to prepare the meals and work in the hospitality department. Employment regulations should also be used as an opportunity by enhancing the human resource management practices to improve diversity, professionalism, and improved standards. However tax law reform is a potential threat to the new division especially if it leads to higher taxes.

Technology and innovation.

Being a new division created and administrated on the foundation of technology and innovation, there are many technological and innovative forces that will shape the new division. Technological forces that are likely to shape the business model are: increasing usage of mobile devices in the hotel industry, self-check-in, online marketing and promotions; internet enabled communication including live chat, and door opening technology. All these technological forces present massive opportunities to the business model. Increasing use of mobile devices such as tablets and smart phones is an opportunity to enhance communication, embrace mobile booking, ordering foods and drinks, and enhancing the guest experience.

Since the hospitality division has a vision of offering accommodation to some of its guests, both local and international, mobile bookings present a real opportunity for business growth. Millennial travellers are overly dependent on their smartphones and hence hotel’s booking engine optimized for mobile viewing offers the perfect booking option (Legrand, Sloan, & Chen, 2016). Tablets can be used to enhance guest experience in front desk operations and WI-FI enabled rooms. Through the self-check in technology, guests will have improved convenience instead of burdening front desk staff.

Internal forces.

The internal forces characterizes the strengths and weaknesses of the newly created division. Major internal forces are worth exploring here; structures and leadership, processes and systems, technologies and innovations, and resources.

Leadership and structures.

The leadership and structures at MAA are encouraging and should be used in strengthening the newly created hospitality division. Being a fitness club, the leadership of the company or business have heavily invested in processes and systems that work. More significantly, the organizational structure at MAA is a hybrid functional and departmental structures. The leadership and structures at the business are aimed at serving customers with dignity, promoting transparency and openness, inclusivity in decision making and better communication.

Effective leadership at MAA is characterized by the following: honesty and integrity, shared organizational vision, proper team building, effective communication, and inclusive decision making processes. Structures put in place by the fitness club are aimed at improving customer service, offering the best products, and treating customers with dignity.

Technologies and innovations.

The company has invested in modern technological innovations as a way of staying ahead of the competition. The fitness club has state of the art equipment for training and physical exercises, and the same is set to be extended to the newly created hospitality department. The aim of leveraging the best technological innovations is to improve the efficiency of service delivery, improve communication promptness between the division and customers, and enhance marketing platforms across the digital space. There are five technological innovations already being used at the eatery to improve service delivery: advanced payment forms, point-of-sale technology, automated services, more consumer data, and restaurant tech-integrated dining experience (Mo Kwon, Bae, & Blum, 2013).

Processes and systems.

Most of the processes and systems of the new division are aimed at improving service delivery. Three types of processes are important: primary processes, support processes, and management processes. Primary processes include physical creation of services and products, marketing the products, and distribution of the resources to the customers through direct selling and after-sales services. Since the division is newly created, it is expected to face challenges in effective implementation of the primary process such as production (cooking and making drinks), marketing of its services and distribution of the food products.

Support processes include; management of infrastructure or capacity, information technology management, and management of human resources (Kandampully, Zhang, & Bilgihan, 2015). The new organization is likely to face challenges in optimizing services and process because of inferior infrastructure capacity management, poor management of human resources, and inadequate implementation information technology management.

Strengths · Effective leadership. · Leveraged modern technological innovations in customer experience. · Prompt communication and feedback processes. · Loyal customers. · Effective and prompt service delivery.	Weaknesses · Over leveraged financial position. · Non-diversified products. · Over-reliance on the fitness club customers. · Poor marketing strategies. · Poor management of human resources.
Threats · Economic crisis in the European Union and slow economic growth in China. · Law tax reform aimed at raising taxes in the hospitality industry · Changes in the hospitality and hotel industry. · Competition.	Opportunities · Decreasing unemployment in Canada and United States. · Stable economic growth in Canada and United States. · Food safety regulations can be used to improve quality hence attract more customers. · Self-check in technology for guests’ convenience. · Untapped market in Quebec, Canada.
Trends · The need for seamless technological innovations and solutions for customer service. · Increase of international visitors. · Catering services to suit the millennials. · Increased emphasis on healthy foods.

References.

Fraj, E., Matute, J., & Melero, I. (2015). Environmental strategies and organizational competitiveness in the hotel industry: The role of learning and innovation as determinants of environmental success. Tourism Management, 46, 30-42.

Jones, P., Jones, P., Hillier, D., Hillier, D., Comfort, D., & Comfort, D. (2016). Sustainability in the hospitality industry: some personal reflections on corporate challenges and research agendas. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(1), 36-67.

Kandampully, J., Zhang, T., & Bilgihan, A. (2015). Customer loyalty: a review and future directions with a special focus on the hospitality industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), 379-414.

Legrand, W., Sloan, P., & Chen, J. S. (2016). Sustainability in the hospitality industry: Principles of sustainable operations. Routledge.

Mo Kwon, J., Bae, J. I., & Blum, S. C. (2013). Mobile applications in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, 4(1), 81-92.