the ritz carlton hotel company case study solution

• The Ritz-Carlton Company Human Resource Management Words: 1155
• Ritz-Carlton: The Image Perception Words: 671
• Ritz-Carlton: Change Management Analysis and Evaluation Words: 2274
• Airbnb and Its Impact on Ritz-carlton Words: 1091
• Training Crucial for Hotels Words: 510
• Tesla and Ritz Carlton Firms’ Strategic Analysis Words: 2599
• Ritz Carlton Hotel and The Room Mate Restaurant: Companies Analysis Words: 579
• Literature Review on Human Resource Development Words: 1444
• Parus Hotel’s Marketing Analysis and Management Words: 2543
• Hotel Recruitment Practices Case Study Words: 1696
• Cadogan Hotel Among Luxury Hotels in London Words: 1293

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel: Company’s Dilemma

Welcome to our sample essay on the Ritz-Carlton hotel company case study! Learn more about the hotel’s operations management with us.

Ritz-Carlton Case Study Analysis Introduction

Ritz-carlton hotel company case study summary, existing practices in ritz-carlton, strong points of ritz-carlton, issues with ritz-carlton, evaluation and discussion, potential solutions, conclusions.

Ritz-Carlton is one of the oldest hotel companies in the world. Having been established in 1893 by Cesar Ritz, it became one of the most renowned and appreciated hotel chains in the world. As it stands, the company is owned by Marriott, which is the largest hotel chain. Ritz-Carlton operates in more than 30 countries, offering a new level of luxury service. Its properties include 130 hotels with more than 40,000 people in employment.

The company’s revenues exceed 3 billion dollars a year. It is known not only for the highest quality of service and tremendous amounts of respect and adoration towards the customers but also for the perfect amalgamation of business-driven and employee-driven practices. The company’s motto is “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” The employees are treated with a healthy amount of respect.

At the same time, the competition for the workplaces in Ritz-Carlton is very steep, and the expectations for the employees are high. The company employs the Seven-Day-Countdown framework to train new employees and prepare new hotels for service. It includes two days of company orientation and 5 days of employee training. However, questions have been raised on whether this framework is efficient in terms of speed and the quality of training.

With the opening of a huge multi-level facility as part of the Millennium Partners Project in Washington DC, the demands for quality and efficiency are even higher. The case study analyzed in the scope of this paper focuses on potential improvements to the Seven-Day-Countdown framework. The purpose of this paper is to offer potential solutions to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel dilemma.

In this case study, the student is required to decide for James McBride, who was appointed as a general manager of the newest Ritz-Carlton project in Washington, DC. This project is a part of a much larger effort made by the Millennium Partners Project, which has invested over 700 million dollars in Ritz-Carlton’s six hotels over the past years.

The new project presents a 225-million dollar effort in creating a large hospitality complex, which includes 162 luxury condominiums, a sports and golf court, street-level restaurants and retail centers, and a 300-room hotel. James had experience in establishing Ritz-Carlton hotel chains in Asia and Asia-Pacific, having received numerous awards, including the “Best Business Hotel in Malaysia” by the Business Asia Magazine. Mr. Collins, who is a representative of the Millennium Partners, and has a considerable influence on the project, is calling the tried and true instruments used by Mr. McBride into question.

It is up to McBride to investigate whether Mr. Collins’ concerns are reasonable and evaluate the system to find an optimal balance between training efficiency, costs, time limits, and hotel occupancy. The bottom line is that Ritz-Carlton should find a way to operate their hotels at 80% capacity from the opening day, to achieve maximum efficiency when compared to their competitors. One of these competitors includes the Four Seasons hotel chain, which has greater overall average daily rates as well as higher revenues per available room, despite scoring a little less in the overall occupancy rates.

Ritz-Carlton’s practices towards the preparation and training of employees are encompassed in the Seven-Day-Countdown strategy, which enabled it to train and prepare its employees at an incredibly high speed. The training provided has an emphasis on respect towards the employees and customers, the high value placed on the excellent quality of work, and constant self-improvement.

The program takes advantage of high employee motivation, competent HR selection process, and the use of Six Sigma practices to improve the quality of work. The demands towards managers are extremely high, and while the employees are tasked with making the customers feel good about themselves, the purpose of managers is to make money by increasing efficiency and money spending wherever it is possible. Ritz-Carlton focuses its HR strategy on improving retention rates, reaching an impressive 25% turnover, while the rest of the hotel industry suffers from 70-100% yearly turnover rates. Improved retention ensures employee satisfaction, desire to grow and improve, and the overall excellence of service.

Also, the company practices various psychological motivators to build up team spirit and ensure that all employees are reminded of the company’s mission and purpose. According to the provided case study, Ritz-Carlton dedicates the first two days of orientation to get the potential employee-inspired about the culture and values of the hotel and making them feel welcome as part of the new team. Only once the recruit had internalized and accepted the idea of being a Lady or a Gentleman serving other Ladies and Gentlemen, may the practical training begin. The created sense of purpose and belonging helps the company retain and promote their talents to higher positions.

As it stands, Ritz-Carlton’s Seven-Day-Countdown HR strategy has several strong sides to itself, which are as follows:

• Employee selection, recruitment, and retention. This part of strategic HR management is extremely important, as enables saving money on recruiting and training personnel while retaining talent and having them contribute to the company. As it was stated in the case study, the recruitment rates for Ritz-Carlton are comparable to those of Harvard. This helps create additional value for the position held by the individual employee. Employment at Ritz-Carlton is not just an “another summer job.”
• Six Sigma and economic feasibility. Ritz-Carlton implements standardization to achieve a uniformity of high standards across their hotels and eliminate the possibilities for failure. Instead of focusing just on the systems or the personnel, Ritz-Carlton focuses on both, achieving a high quality of care as a result. Besides, as it was stated in the case study, the costs of implementing the Seven-Day-Countdown strategy are extremely low, which helps achieve the necessary results without wasting money or resources.
• High Speeds. The majority of competing hotels spend around 3 weeks preparing their employees for work. Ritz-Carlton does so in one week while staying competitive in terms of quality. It allows the company to open its hotels quicker and achieve greater exposure.
• Employee Motivation. As evidenced by the examples of various exercises and team-building practices, Ritz-Carlton’s strategy helps motivate employees to a great degree. Various ways of employee motivation include financial compensation, promotion, and the dignity and respect of working in a high-class establishment.

As it is possible to see, the Seven-Day-Countdown strategy managed to serve Ritz-Carlton well, which is why Mr. McBride managed to use it with success in opening a multitude of hotels across Asia. These hotels typically opened at 50% occupancy rates to protect their employees from being overwhelmed during the first month. In the next half a year, the expectations were gradually increased to 80%. The Seven-Day-Countdown proved effective for that model.

To quote a phrase from the case study, “If you do not improve, you become worse.” Mr. Collins, the representative of the Millennial Partners group, voiced the issues with Ritz-Carlton’s approach. The main complaint is about the starting occupancy rate during the first month of the new hotel opening. He points out that Ritz-Carlton places a lot of effort into attracting individuals to their hotels. They work with event organizations, conduct rallies, and invite people to grand hotel openings that are bound to attract the attention of the public. Therefore, the attendance rates at the hotel during the first month are expected to be high. At the same time, their occupancy policy limits it to 50% during the first month, missing out on revenue.

This major contradiction is a direct result of short timeframes, during which Ritz-Carlton trains its employees. As it was already mentioned, other hotel chains spend 2-3 weeks on average in training new employees, and about 2 weeks on training their managers. The company in question spends 5 days on training employees and four on training managers, as per the Seven-Day-Countdown policy.

No matter how good or intensive the training program is, no matter how motivated the employees are, the majority of skills implemented at the hotel business are learned and perfected through repetition. Without enough training, new employees at the company are simply incapable of handling large numbers of customers during their first month of work, especially if the training conditions are poor and timings are barely passing under the wire.

The last issue is directly related to the concept of rapid response HRM. The case study does not mention any utilities or plans made for transferring employees and managers from one region to another. Ritz-Carlton exists in a globalized economy and has hotels opened up in many countries around the world. Nevertheless, it pursues a strictly ethnocentric strategy without actually providing any accommodations for it.

The company uses staff members hired locally with expatriate managers. However, there is no mentioning of utilizing strategies to train and prepare said managers for the conditions and cultures of different regions. It is likely that such training is not accounted for, as the amount of time and resources spent on training staff, in general, is extremely small. Rapid response HRM is not used by Ritz-Carlton as much as it could have been, which would have helped solve the dilemmas surrounding staffing and opening new hotels.

Based on the information provided in the case study, it could be concluded that the Seven-Day-Countdown policy was not as efficient as it presented itself. The idea behind it was to create the most loyal and the most well-trained employee base using the least amount of time and money. This is an impossible notion, as one week is just too short to accomplish all of these goals. As a result, although officially Ritz-Carlton had negligible expenses in the training budget, it had to pay with underwhelming results in the first few months after the opening of the hotel.

They had to artificially cap their occupancy rates for the first 5 months, gradually growing them from 50% to 80%, rather than opening up with 80% occupancy. This loss of profit constitutes a hidden cost of the poor amount of training received by the newly appointed managers and employees.

It is unclear why the Seven-Day-Countdown system is even used when the questions of staffing new hotels arise. Constructing properties is a long-term venture. It is not a sudden development that urgently needs to train employees and staff members under a short deadline.

The company should be aware of future issues the moment they sign the construction contract. Therefore, there is plenty of time to prepare. The Seven-Day-Countdown system may be useful in training employees in the already established hotels. These hotels typically have skeleton crews of well-trained veteran members, who can shoulder the burden while the individuals fresh out of the training grounds are adjusted to the realities of their work. Such an approach should not be used in new hotels, where the number of trained and experienced staff is limited.

The inability to be able to open up hotels at their maximum capacity negatively affects the company’s relationships with shareholders. Although the CEO of Ritz-Carlton said that the company puts “employees first, customers second, shareholders third,” the interests of shareholders must not suffer from inefficiencies of the HR management systems. This already became an issue in 1995, when a court charge came from one of the owners of Ritz-Carlton properties, who accused the company of mismanaging his properties and not delivering the revenues expected from his hotels. Thus, a change strategy should be aimed at ensuring the satisfaction of shareholders, better use of newly constructed properties, and training or preparation of employees to fill out these vacant spaces.

To solve the dilemma presented before Mr. McBride, an analytical approach must be taken. In a globalized economy, it is impossible to create a standardized solution to solve all problems, no matter the scope or location. The Seven-Day-Countdown system is such an approach, which, as it has been already discovered, has many hidden flaws and costs imposed on the company. Therefore, the goals of the proposed intervention are as follows:

• Fill the vacancies for the new multi-use facility with experienced and highly-capable workers.
• Ensure that the facility opens at an 80% occupancy rate.

These goals can be achieved in a variety of ways. One of the novelty solutions to the dilemma is allowing Ritz-Carlton to train and form a strategic reserve of managers and employees, that would be capable and willing to deploy in the newly constructed facility for a limited period.

Each of the currently owned properties could contribute to forming such a reserve. These individuals would be familiar with Ritz-Carlton standards of service and have actual working experience behind their belts. Training to navigate through the new facility would not take much time. As a result, the new complex built by the Millennium Partners would be fully staffed before opening and will be capable of operating at an 80% occupancy rate from the first day.

After having formed a skeleton crew from experienced expatriate workers, it would be possible to slowly replace them with locally hired labor, by utilizing the Seven-Day-Countdown approach. This process would likely take about a year and could be increased during the winter, as the hotel occupancy rate has been shown to naturally fall down to 50% during the cold seasons. Ritz-Carlton should invest in preparing the strategic reserve and provide cultural training to employees and managers, to help them adjust to the cultural norms prevalent both inside and outside of the country.

Lastly, Ritz-Carlton should revise its Seven-Day-Countdown approach and potentially increase the number of training days dedicated to training new recruits. The majority of other hotel chains are forced to have short training schedules because of the increased turnover rates, which is something that Ritz-Carlton does not have an issue with due to an intelligent HR policy towards the employees. With high retention, it could afford to spend more time training its employees. The quality of labor will rise, resulting in greater customer satisfaction rates.

Ritz-Carlton has a history of successfully opening new properties both inside and outside of the USA. Its strategy and its dedication to employee relations have made the company one of the best places to work. However, the Seven-Day-Countdown system, which is hailed to be extremely efficient in saving money and time on employee training has had many hidden costs, which resulted in reduced occupancy during the first 5 months of property operation.

It is likely to be the reason why Ritz-Carlton has been falling behind the Four Seasons hotel chain for the past few years. The new demands placed by the Millennium Partners group require Ritz-Carlton to be able to operate at 80% capacity from day one. The proposed solutions require forming a strategic reserve of mobile employees and creating alterations in the HR strategy so that there would not be a need to train employees one week before the opening.

Cite this paper

• Chicago (N-B)
• Chicago (A-D)

StudyCorgi. (2020, December 15). The Ritz-Carlton Hotel: Company’s Dilemma. https://studycorgi.com/the-ritz-carlton-hotel-companys-dilemma/

"The Ritz-Carlton Hotel: Company’s Dilemma." StudyCorgi , 15 Dec. 2020, studycorgi.com/the-ritz-carlton-hotel-companys-dilemma/.

StudyCorgi . (2020) 'The Ritz-Carlton Hotel: Company’s Dilemma'. 15 December.

1. StudyCorgi . "The Ritz-Carlton Hotel: Company’s Dilemma." December 15, 2020. https://studycorgi.com/the-ritz-carlton-hotel-companys-dilemma/.

Bibliography

StudyCorgi . "The Ritz-Carlton Hotel: Company’s Dilemma." December 15, 2020. https://studycorgi.com/the-ritz-carlton-hotel-companys-dilemma/.

StudyCorgi . 2020. "The Ritz-Carlton Hotel: Company’s Dilemma." December 15, 2020. https://studycorgi.com/the-ritz-carlton-hotel-companys-dilemma/.

This paper, “The Ritz-Carlton Hotel: Company’s Dilemma”, was written and voluntary submitted to our free essay database by a straight-A student. Please ensure you properly reference the paper if you're using it to write your assignment.

Before publication, the StudyCorgi editorial team proofread and checked the paper to make sure it meets the highest standards in terms of grammar, punctuation, style, fact accuracy, copyright issues, and inclusive language. Last updated: June 12, 2022 .

If you are the author of this paper and no longer wish to have it published on StudyCorgi, request the removal . Please use the “ Donate your paper ” form to submit an essay.

• Privacy Policy

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Case Study Solution

Introduction.

Statement of the Challenges faced by The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company

Challenges are one sure way to determine the performance of a business, the Ritz company is faced by some challenges that threaten its performance unless acted upon and correctly. Some of the challenges that the company faces includes the following; the method of recruiting candidates is expensive. Secondly, to entice their guest they use expansive method in order to ensure a perfect hotel and resorts experience and the last challenge faced by the company is related to the management and is strictness

            In accordance to (Chung, 2000) a lot of resources and plenty time is allocated in order to ensure perfect training and orientation of the new and current workers. Ritz-Carlton makes use of Talent+ Recruitment Firm strategy for employment purpose in order to ensure that it only hires candidates who are highly qualified in their position. Training is highly conducted for the employees to ensure that they are competent in their field. A team of highly qualifies managers is selected weekly to evaluate the performance of the employees. Goals are set yearly and every employee is motivated and geared towards achieving the goals. In case one of the employee is not performing in accordance to the company’s expectation, an immediate training is conducted and he is encouraged on better service delivery. Motivation of the employees through rewarding is a key point in the performance evaluation of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Employees

Cause of the Problem and what should be done

            The legacy which is highly drives the Ritz Carlton hotel has of late been shaking due to some of the problems that it is facing unlike in 1992 where it won the top excellent industry prize for its services and qualities. The demand of values by customers is high. This is calling for a rapid improvement in order to meet the high customers demand. Externally, competition is rapidly growing which is threatening to see the Ritz Carlton Company downgraded. However, there are some measures that the company has taken in order to be outstanding. In that it is employing qualified workers however this is through an expensive method that should be rectified. In the employment process let the hotel company conduct cheap employment process and education services. This will save a lot of cash that could be used for the expansion of the company

Decision criteria and alternative solutions

In order for the Ritz Company to solve the managerial challenges that it is facing, it can do the following.

• Reduce the recruitment capital
• Increase the employees’ salaries
• Increase the level of employees training
• Provide better working conditions

Implementation and Recommendation

In order for the Ritz Company to continue being the best, new plans should be strategically set and every member of the board and the works shown the importance of adhering to them. For instance, the recruitment process involves wastage of money and resources therefore new amends to see less use of money and resources should be put across. Despite rewarding the employees as a motivation and encouragement to work hard, the company should also see that that employees need the company and the customers need the company and the employees too therefore make the employees feel as if it is their business they are managing. The salaries of the employees should be increased from time to time. This will create good and conducive working environment since they will be able to coincide with the organizations revenues . The targeted market by the employees under hospitality is tourism. To enhance better education and service delivery of the employees, the teaching and training programs should be adjusted in that they be flexible. This will enable the workers to use extra knowledge which they will have acquired (Kandampully, 2007).

Sufficient amount is set aside by the company to see the hiring process of candidates. Better training is carried out in order to enable the candidates offer the best services and to empower them in realization of the company’s goals, missions and aim. This has highly ensured the success of the company. Chances of promotions are always available on this has encouraged the workers better their level of education. The working conditions is favorable and this has enabled the employees to understand their roles in the company. This has also created a certain perception in the mind of the workers that they are not only working for the company for money or for certain duties but to better their lives and enhance their skills (Chung, 2000).

Business are highly involved in making decisions which are based on facts and evidences. This evidences enables the company to move ahead in making further decisions. Below is a case study of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. The foundation of the hotel is traced back in 1983 by Cesar-Ritz in Atlanta after United States trademark and Ritz Boston where sold. The company has expanded dramatically to over 26 countries. Their mission has been one appealing in that they provide the best services to their customers and for the works is to enhance oneness and also to appreciate the company’s development. According to Nikheel Advani, initially the business grew rapidly and under the management of James. Nikheel further refers James as a talented in how he manages the business ( The Ritz-Carlton Washington, 2001).

            However, the culture of the Ritz Company has been a challenge especially to the workers. The management is strict and this has made most candidates fear working with the organization. The expensive process of recruitment and a costly method which are used to entice the guests in the effort of making sure that they have the most memorable experience in the hotels is a tactic that despite being expensive has seen the company perform best. The recruitment process which involves high wastage of money and resources should therefore be amended in order to see less resources and money usage. In accordance to (Sucher, 2001), Ritz-Carlton’s process of recruitment is professionally done by a board of highly skilled personnel and the applicants with the highest qualifications in the sector of hospitality are highly absorbed since they got they possess quality and have acquired the best skills that can only be as good as the staff and for the company to attain the Gold Standards. Therefore the company is determined to see that it employs the best and right kind of employees. The company later equips its employees them with the necessary input such as training through seminars and workshops. Recruitment of the new candidates is specially done through some methods such as a prolonged observation of the candidates on their ability to learn and service delivery. Besides, the working environment is best with luxury and comfort facilities. This has enabled the employees to understand their responsibility and instills a perception that they are not in the company to play certain roles only and this has made the Ritz Company to outstand as a world’s best hotel company ( Kandampully, 2007).

References:

• Chung, K. Y. (2000). Hotel management curriculum reform based on required competencies of hotel employees and career success in the hotel industry. Tourism management , 21 (5), 473-487.
• Dev, C. S., Thomas, J. H., Buschman, J., & Anderson, E. (2010). Brand rights and hotel management agreements: Lessons from Ritz-Carlton Bali’s lawsuit against the Ritz- Carlton Hotel Company. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly , 51 (2), 215-230.
• Devi Juwaheer, T., & Lee Ross, D. (2003). A study of hotel guest perceptions in Mauritius. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management , 15 (2), 105-115.
• James J. Eyster, “Hotel Management Contracts in the U.S.: The Revolution Continues,” Cornell Hotel and Restaurant
• Kandampully, J., & Hu, H. H. (2007). Do hoteliers need to manage image to retain loyal customers?. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management , 19 (6), 435-443.
• Rutherford, D. G., & O’Fallon, M. J. (2007). Hotel management and operations . John Wiley & Sons.
• Sucher, S. J., & McManus, S. E. (2001). The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company . Harvard Business School.
•   The Mystique: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company , L.L.C. Employee Newsletter, Winter 2000.
• The Ritz-Carlton Washington, D.C., 2001 First-Year Monthly Budget Summary

Related Posts

A case study on sustainable building, suspicious behaviors of malware in android, how epa links with the superfund in new..., nokia case study analysis, importance of public spaces in a neighbourhood of..., community based tourism in uganda and tanzania, mount st. helens hazardous simulations, the contradiction of homosexuality, walmart cross-cultural issues case study analysis, case study on leadership and management, leave a comment cancel reply.

Please enter an answer in digits: eleven + 20 =

The marketplace for case solutions.

Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. – Case Solution

The "Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co." case study describes the launch of a brand new hotel, concentrating on the initial mixture of leadership, quality processes, and values of self-respect and dignity, which are required to produce award-winning service.

​Sandra J. Sucher; Stacy McManus Harvard Business Review ( 601163-PDF-ENG ) March 20, 2001

Case questions answered:

Case study questions answered in the first solution:

• Evaluate the effectiveness of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.’s training and development system. To what extent does the system create the leadership, values, and culture of the Ritz? What specific aspects of the training program help new recruits understand what it is to be a Ritz employee?
• How do you balance quality standards against the need to empower employees to customize their responses to specific situations? Give specific examples as they relate to the Ritz.
• Do you think this training approach would work in other service industries? Why or why not?

Case study questions answered in the second solution:

• Why is it important for Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. to insist that employees not think of themselves as servants but rather as ladies and gentlemen?
• In what ways does Ritz-Carlton engage in relationship marketing?
• Is quality at Ritz-Carlton cost-effective? Even if it costs $2,000 an incident?
• Should Ritz-Carlton attempt to move toward the president’s goal of 100 percent customer satisfaction? Why or why not?
• How could the Ritz-Carltons’ credo and principles of customer service be applied to (a) haircare salons and (b) banks?

Not the questions you were looking for? Submit your own questions & get answers .

Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. Case Answers

You will receive access to two case study solutions! The second is not yet visible in the preview.

1. Evaluate the effectiveness of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.’s training and development system. To what extent does the system create the leadership, values, and culture of the Ritz? What specific aspects of the training program help new recruits understand what it is to be a Ritz employee?

The effectiveness of Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.’s training development system can be analyzed using Kirkpatrick’s and Philip’s frameworks.

Starting with evaluating reactions , Ritz’s training system uses an event, “Day 21”, where employees have the chance to discuss their training experience, whether it has lived up to expectations, and give general feedback.

Some may argue that 21 days might not be enough for an employee to benefit from the training system and provide good feedback properly.

For instance, based on the work experience I have undertaken so far, I believe that at least a month is needed to understand the general working environment, especially in big organizations.

Despite this, the 7-Day Countdown training is appealing, as it builds motivation by extraordinarily welcoming employees. The learning process is articulated by high-ranking executives, such as McBride and Schulze, inciting higher confidence in the process.

Gold Standards and Service Philosophy are conveyed with conviction by illustrating them with real-life examples and brochures such as the “Paper Palm.” Schulze himself observed training progress and helped struggling employees, a notable way to show new recruits the way work is done at Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co.

The company’s motto, “We are Ladies and Gentlemen, Serving Ladies and Gentlemen,” influences orientation, which is delivered in a respectful manner, building on the culture of the Hotel.

Testimonials from employees provide even stronger evidence of the general consensus that talent is respected. Also, having hands-on mock trials enables employees to use the knowledge acquired during the training through trial and error.

On the contrary, measurement of pre-training performance is absent, which doesn’t allow the post-training evaluation to identify if employees had overcome difficulties such as previous work experience interference.

Even though the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. has earned well-known awards for its performance and quality, it…

Unlock Case Solution Now!

Get instant access to this case solution with a simple, one-time payment ($24.90).

After purchase:

• You'll be redirected to the full case solution.
• You will receive an access link to the solution via email.

Best decision to get my homework done faster! Michael MBA student, Boston

How do I get access?

Upon purchase, you are forwarded to the full solution and also receive access via email.

Is it safe to pay?

Yes! We use Paypal and Stripe as our secure payment providers of choice.

What is Casehero?

We are the marketplace for case solutions - created by students, for students.

Ritz Carlton Evaluation Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Company Analysis

Ritz carlton experience, capabilities of ritz carlton and major strategies, how ritz carlton creates ladies and gentlemen.

Ritz-Carlton is one of the leading companies in the hospitality industry, with branches across the world. The corporation is an auxiliary of the Ritz-Carlton hotels, which runs over eighty-four sumptuousness hotels and resorts in main cities internationally. The company was formed in 1983 following the merger with another company with similar name that operated in Atlanta Georgia.

Presently, the organization is an ancillary of an international company referred to as Marriott International, which is known for its value and established monetary ability. A brief history of the corporation illustrates that it was created by a Swiss proprietor known as Cesar Ritz, who was an expert in matters related to hospitality, having been named the emperor of the hoteliers following his achievements in the industry.

Through his hospitality managerial skills, Ritz redefined luxury accommodation in various parts of the world that the hotel operated. The company entered into partnerships with several merchants with an aim of increasing the market share and strengthening the financial power. The first branch of the hotel was launched in the US in 1911.

Before the First World War, the company had developed roots in the United States and other parts of the world, particularly Europe, but its operations were greatly hampered by the war. The founder, Ritz, died in 1918 just before the conclusion of the First World War, but his wife took over the management of the organization.

Even though the company went through a number of challenges, such as the interruptions associated with First World War and the Great Depression, it is currently one of the best in the hospitality industry. This paper discusses several aspects of the company, including its interaction with customers, the strategy it employs, and its power to create distinguished ladies and gentlemen only seven days.

Recently, Ritz Carlton published a book that outlines some of the strategies that it employs in satisfying its esteemed customers. The book states that the use of Gold Standard is one of the strategies that play a critical role as far as delivery of quality service is concerned. Gold Standard is known to boost staff and customer loyalty, improve customer engagement processes, and development of the brand.

Additionally, the strategy offers customer and non-customer handling employees an opportunity to offer services based on their viewpoints and perspectives. The book shares the wisdom of the leadership of Ritz Carlton Company implying that the experience with the organization is positive.

The management is always concerned with hiring competent employees through a rigorous recruiting procedure that culminates to an extensive training process that brings out leaders with transformational leadership experience. Since the organization is concerned with excellence, it offers a responsible stewarding icon in the ever-competitive market.

This implies that the organization is quick to adjust its operations based on the changing needs of the customer and the hospitality industry in general. Ritz Carlton has been a market leader for several years owing to its capability to plan, find the best location for business, and enhance quality.

The views of many customers suggest that the experience of the company is characterized by service value implying that the type of products that the company offers to its customers is incomparable.

The organization has established partnerships with other market leaders in related industries, such as the airlines industry whereby it has a strong relationship with the world’s known airline companies, such as the Virgin Atlantic, the Guardian Angel, and Emirates Airlines. The services of the company are based on value addition meaning that the customer must notice the difference once he or she tries the service.

In the modern society, many people do not care about spending their money, as long as they are satisfied with the service offered. Based on this, the company is able to expand to an extent of overthrowing market leaders even in new regions.

One of the Ritz Carlton’s partners, chief marketing officer of community agency Colleen Brinkmann, compares the company with the Lexus since it sets its own standards in the market, which cannot be attained by competitors. In other words, other players in the industry are left imitating what the company does. Based on this, the essence of the experience with the company is personal, genuine, lively, courteous, and congenial.

The organization takes care of its clients and employees knowing that it cannot achieve its desired goals and objectives without them. Ritz Carlton has been engaging in various charitable activities, including promoting the welfare of the community. It played a critical role in shaping the life of a young girl named Natalie who was in need of urgent help to cure her condition.

It is concluded in this section that the experience of Ritz Carlton is based on strong leadership skills and commitment that believes in quality and respect for others. The organization is believed to be a legend in the hospitality industry due to its contribution to boost quality service. The experience of the company generates a luxuries lifestyle that gives opportunities to the hopeless customers.

The company is a multinational organization with various branches worldwide implying that it enjoys the economies of scale. It is able to produce goods and services at low prices given the fact that its financial potential is unmatched in the current hospitality market globally. Recently, it acquired properties worth billions of dollars, which have given it the much-needed financial power to outmuscle its competitors.

An organization operating at a global level has an opportunity of employing technology to boost sales and marketing strategies. The management underscores the fact that technology determines the success of any organization in the digital world. In this regard, technology is used in advertising the organization’s products and services.

For instance, the social media is employed effectively promoting the company’s products and services. Apart from technological and financial capabilities, the company is well endowed with competent staff that is highly trained and equipped with modern managerial skills.

Based on this, the type of leadership applied in the organization is transformation implying that the views and opinions of each employee are incorporated into the major decision-making mechanisms. Each employee is guided by the organization’s principles, which are believed to be strong and constructive when it comes to human resources management.

For instance, the first principle urges the employee to build strong relationships with other organizational members, which is known to attract customers.

Additionally, each employee is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the expressed and unexpressed wishes and desires of the client are met. This means that all workers ought to be responsive to the needs of customers. These principles put the organization in an advantaged position as far as competition is concerned.

Through a well-established social corporate responsibility principle, the community acknowledges the organization for its service. In fact, many organizations have failed to achieve this when engaging with the community. When dealing with clients and the societal members in general, the organization insists on the three steps of service delivery.

The first step is welcoming the client with a sincere and warm greeting. In fact, the management maintains that the use of the client’s name in addressing him or her is critical since it develops a rapport. One of the customers who visited hotel’s branches was surprised with the service he received because the crew called his name several times.

Studies show that designing a business strategy is very simple, but the problem lies with its implementation. Therefore, Ritz Carlton is believed to be an able organization as far as policy implementation is concerned. As early noted, the organization executes a policy easily because it does not have a long chain of command, which is usually accused of delaying the implementation process.

An additional strategy is related to fulfilling the needs of the client in the best way possible. Based on this, the employee is urged to anticipate for any eventuality when dealing with the client and come up with the best approach to address the problem. In this case, the employee is expected to ask many questions whereby the response is recorded for future utilization.

Before concluding this action, it is imperative to review some of the Ritz Carlton’s regulations that guide the conduct of employees. The organization is respected for retaining employees since this is a challenge to many organizations. The management appreciates that cleanliness is fundamental in the hospitality industry hence it is the task of each employee to maintain a safe and accident free environment.

Additionally, each employee is expected to protect the privacy and security of clients, colleagues, and the organization in general. However, the organization appreciates cultural diversity, which is indeed an additional strength of the organization that has helped it maintain high standards in the hospitality industry.

Finally, the organization urges each member of staff to be involved in continuous learning process because this plays a role in personal growth.

The idea that Ritz Carlton has an ability of creating real women and men in just seven days is true given the fact that it offers matchless service in the current hospitality market. First, the statement can perhaps be viewed from the human resource perspective since the organization offers the type of training that cannot be compared to any other.

The process of recruitment, training, and orienting its staff is of high quality, which aims at producing the complete employee who has the ability to convene the needs of the client. On the other hand, the statement can be analyzed from the client perspective since the satisfied customer will always want to come back. Additionally, people are known to pay for quality services without complaining.

In the modern society, a real man or woman is supposed to behave in a manner suggesting that he or she is well informed, knowledgeable, and educated. With the services offered at Ritz Carlton, the client is likely to behave in a manner suggesting that he or she is well informed and knowledgeable.

• Housing Construction Industry and Economic Shocks
• DONG Energy A/S Teaching Essentials
• The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company
• The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Information
• Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company Culture
• The global oil prices
• Dolce and Gabbana’s Fingerprint
• Amazon Web Services
• International Business in Emerging Economies
• New Station at Tecoma Victoria by McDonald's
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

IvyPanda. (2019, June 13). Ritz Carlton. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ritz-carlton-case-study/

"Ritz Carlton." IvyPanda , 13 June 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/ritz-carlton-case-study/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'Ritz Carlton'. 13 June.

IvyPanda . 2019. "Ritz Carlton." June 13, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ritz-carlton-case-study/.

1. IvyPanda . "Ritz Carlton." June 13, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ritz-carlton-case-study/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "Ritz Carlton." June 13, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/ritz-carlton-case-study/.

More From Forbes

Your customer service is your branding: the ritz-carlton case study.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

When a company wants to update its branding, it usually looks to traditional branding considerations such as its logo, its use of typography, its color palette, and possibly even whether it needs a new brand mascot (a la KFC replacing Darrell Hammond with Norm MacDonald to play the latest incarnation of Colonel Sanders or Subway replacing Jared with anybody they can find who'll take the job).

But if you want to understand what actually makes up your brand, and therefore what a rebranding would entail, you have to go a lot deeper than looking at your logo and color choice. While I enjoy a good logo rework or spokesactor switcheroo as much as the next fella, the branding that matters to customers isn’t something that starts with a logo or a choice of typefaces.  Branding goes much deeper, and often evolves from places we don’t think of as branding at all.

As the case study for today’s article, let’s look at the The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. There's been buzz this month in the luxury press about The Ritz-Carlton’s new rebranding initiative, which, like most such initiatives, focuses on color choice (a new light blue) and logo (an improved redraw of its iconic lion and crown illustration that is more friendly to digital reproduction and resizing).  But to get at what makes up a brand like The Ritz-Carlton, which is perhaps the most frequently-cited exemplar of customer service in today's business world, we need to look elsewhere, including at how its style of customer service has evolved over the years, and, speaking more generally, how any company, by updating its customer service style, can keep its brand in touch with what customers–customers of all ages, including the important and very informal Millennial generation of customers–are looking for today.

Today's customers demand an authentic, unscripted customer service style

Even if the level of customer service your company provides is excellent, if the  style of your customer service delivery comes off as inauthentic–as scripted, stilted, or of the cookie-cutter variety–you’re not going to connect with today’s customers. Customers today, of all ages, including the important Millennial generation of customers. are looking for a genuine, authentic customer experience. And they’re quick to reject and rail against anything in the service experience that they perceive as insincere, stilted, or inauthentic.To illustrate this point, let me tell you a story that reaches back more than 30 years: The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, as a global brand, was created in the early 1980s. Very quickly, Ritz-Carlton became a major force in revolutionizing the hospitality industry by standardizing employment-selection criteria, facilities, and more. Now, as a luxury traveler, you could roam the world and be able to experience a consistent standard of service akin to what you had experienced at the last Ritz-Carlton where you stayed, thousands of miles previous.

At the same time, the leadership of The Ritz-Carlton standardized one more aspect of its operation: the language to be used by its employees. In retrospect, this may have been an overreach, though at the time and for two decades running, it seemed to be working. Here’s what I wrote some years back about the origin of the famous Ritz-Carlton brand language:

To help launch their Ritz-Carlton luxury hotel brand [the founding leadership] decided on a set of ideal phrases for use in conversation with customers, then trained employees to use those phrases. The frequent use of certain phrases helped unify their employees around a shared identity and contributed to a distinctive ‘Ritz style’ that the public could easily recognize: phrases like ‘my pleasure,’ ‘right away,’ ‘certainly,’ and–a personal favorite–‘we’re fully committed tonight.’ (Translation: ‘We’re booked solid, bub!’) The list of words and phrases to be avoided included ‘folks,’ ‘hey,’ ‘you guys’ and ‘OK.’

Over time, and as customer tastes changed, these prescribed language choices started to sound insincere–especially when they were parroted by employees in situations where they didn’t fit. The Ritz-Carlton’s signature phrase, “my pleasure,” in particular became a prime candidate for overuse and misuse. While “It was really my pleasure to visit with you during your stay, Mr. Jamison” sounds genuine, “It will be my pleasure to unclog your sink” takes the conversation off the rails. To make it worse, other hospitality businesses began to mimic Ritz-Carlton, thinking that by saying “my pleasure” they were somehow providing Ritz-level service. Soon, even Chik-fil-A was saying "my pleasure" at the drive-through window.

The Ritz-Carlton responds to customer feedback, updates its customer service style

So in the mid-2000s, after 20-plus years of success, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company started to notice some disturbing feedback on its surveys. Recalls Diana Oreck, VP, Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center: “We were beginning to get some alarming feedback from guests who felt we were coming off as too robotic” due to the rigidity of The Ritz-Carlton’s language choices, scripting and other carefully prescribed aspects of their service encounters.

New Ritz-Carlton collateral • Image Courtesy The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC

Ritz-Carlton’s VP for global brand marketing, Lisa Holladay, continues the thought: “The good thing about the scripting that we were doing was that it ensured consistency across the board. Unfortunately, what we were finding is that the very consistency itself was coming across as formal and excessively traditional. It was no longer tracking well with a majority of consumers, and especially with our younger guests, who perceived it as inauthentic.”

When Ritz-Carlton received this feedback, it acted on it, getting rid of the prescribed language choices and scripted phrases.  (More recently, Ritz-Carlton has relaxed its employee dress code and grooming standards as well –even allowing visible tattoos in some cases. These moves are part of the de-cookie-cuttering of the brand, as is Ritz-Carlton's newly-developed commitment to making every property notably different from every other, and consonant with its local community's architectural, furnishings and culinary style. )

As Herve Humler, who serves as Ritz-Carlton’s current president and COO and was a member of the founding Ritz-Carlton leadership team in 1983, told me in a recent interview, "We’ve become intentionally less formal over time. We focus now on authentic, unscripted conversation and interactions with the customer. In the early days when putting together this hotel company and growing it globally, we scripted almost everything. You’d hear ’my pleasure’ repeated everywhere you went in the hotel because that was part of the script. We have evolved from that today and now encourage our employees to be themselves. To conduct interactions with utmost respect and courtesy, but in a way that it natural to their personality and the warmth of their caring natures," says Humler.

As The Ritz-Carlton discovered, developing an authentic guest service style is a requirement for success with customers in the new economy. Customers today, and younger customers in particular, are turned off by anything stilted or overly formal when it comes to communication. Their gut reaction to such a service style, even when it’s made use of by the most caring providers in hospitality, is usually going to be negative.

This is why, in most settings (an important exception being interactions with privacy or security implications), I suggest doing away with prescribed language and word-for-word scripts but, as needed, retaining a “punch list” of points that need to be covered in the course of a particular conversational situation–for example, if the guest is booking a spa appointment. This approach to customer interactions avoids running into customers’ innate dislike of being read to from a script.

Instead of training to a script, the best thing an organization can do is teach its employees to deal with situations, both easy and difficult. Give them the tools to recognize guest behaviors and situations and to respond appropriately and effectively.

Language engineering: The difference between informal service style and slacker service style

However, even if you’re going to stop providing and enforcing a service script, your organization will still benefit if you lay down language and subject-matter guidelines to ensure that customers are properly cared for–to engage in what I call “language engineering.” The difference you can make by helping your employees learn to tell a guest “Our records indicate a balance of $50” rather than “You owe us fifty bucks”; to say “You’re welcome,” rather than “Yup” or “Uh huh” ; “How may I help you?” rather than “What do you want?” and so forth, is huge. “There’s a difference between requiring employees to recite a script on the one hand,” says Ritz-Carlton’s Oreck, and “asking them to use natural but refined language on the other. Phrases like ‘High five,’ ‘Hey, dude,’ ‘Wassup,’ ‘Huh,’ ‘Folks, calm down’ –we teach everyone here that these are still not acceptable, even though we’ve done away with scripting.”

Oreck offers a specific example: "Consider the case, which comes up every day, of a guest wanting to know about one of our on-property restaurants. A lot of training goes into being ready for these guest inquiries: We teach that you need to internalize your knowledge of the restaurant and be ready to give your own spin in how you share information with the guest who’s asking anything from hours of operation to what is good on the menu. You need to be prepared and to have briefed yourself on this and be ready to speak. But we’re not going to give you a script to memorize and recite. You can speak informally, as long as it’s not inelegant. Your take might even sound as informal as this: ‘Oh, my gosh, the best plate at the Café Bistro is the calamari. Our chef is from Italy and is really at the top of her game."

Now, this phrasing, even though not scripted, contains a Ritz-Carlton secret that I think is OK to share with you. Every employee is expected to have enough knowledge of every restaurant to be able to recommend a particular dish, side dish, dessert or drink as something that’s worth trying. At The Ritz-Carlton Dove Mountain, I once had a doorman tell me, as I was setting off for Cayton's, the resort's onsite burger bar, “Mr. Solomon, when you get to Cayton’s, you really should try the mint milkshake."

You know what? He was right about that shake.

Micah Solomon is a customer service consultant, customer experience speaker and bestselling business author, most recently of High-Tech, High-Touch Customer Service

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

• Harvard Business School →
• Faculty & Research →
• March 2001 (Revised September 2005)
• HBS Case Collection

Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, The

• Format: Print
• | Pages: 30

About The Author

Sandra J. Sucher

Related work.

• Faculty Research
• Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, The  By: Sandra J. Sucher and Stacy McManus

Shirli-Myrli

View prices for your travel dates

Own or manage this property? Claim your listing for free to respond to reviews, update your profile and much more.

SHIRLI-MYRLI

• Order Status
• Testimonials
• What Makes Us Different

The Ritz Carlton Harvard Case Solution & Analysis

Home >> Management Case Studies >> The Ritz Carlton

“Successful management: The Ritz Carlton"

The Ritz Carlton is a hotel company with LLC. It is their parent company so it is known as the Ritz Carlton Hotels. The management is engaged in offering its services nearly in 84 resorts and hotels. The company has hotels and resorts in nearly all the major countries of the world. The company is a formal subsidiary of Marriot International and it was founded in 1983. The hotel was bought by the owners and was started as The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company headquartered in Georgia.

The hotel is famous as being one of the luxurious brands that are holding their standards. It is known to be the only company in United States of America that has succeeded in achieving the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award in a sequence. The Ritz-Carlton Company is also known as one of the best companies in employee development and training. The aphorism of the company is based on making their employees ladies and gentleman and want them to treat the guests in the same way. One of the policies adhered by company is to make every employee spend $2000 on guests in order to make them satisfied.

Model followed by Ritz-Carlton:

The model followed on Ritz Carlton is based on three basic concepts that are location, product and people. The company wants its location to be best where every individual will wish and love to stay. Further, the company has invested heavily on making their product physically perfect. Next fundamental of the model is treating their customers in the best-possible way and to make no compromise on it. Out of these three fundamentals, the first two are paramount.

Focusing on service:

To offer the best possible service to their clients, ladies and gentleman in the company is allowed to spend $2000 on every customer without taking permission from the senior managers. They can spend this amount on a per incident basis, and that in turn results in high level of trust of visitors on the management of the company. Often, the ladies and gentleman can even exceed that amount without manager’s permission just to make their visitors satisfied and convinced. The prime thought behind this is to keep customers happy and loyal so that Ritz Carlton will become their priority (Vijayakumar, 2009).

Managing day and staff at Ritz Carlton:

The chief executive officer of the company often spends more time outside than at his office so as to visit the hotels and resorts worldwide. Despite his official tours all around the world, he remains in touch with all the hotels and resort through his BlackBerry and spends few hours on checking his emails. In order to make the staff satisfied with their jobs, the CEO always value opinions by each and every employee in the organization and listen to their queries as well.

Clinching trends:

In order to keep up with the trends, the management of the company is heavily engaged in the market research and explores opportunities related to luxury products along with high-end goods and services market. The management of the company believes that Ritz Carlton has made its image as a trend setter and not as a trend follower. Despite that, the company does not position itself as trendy (DeWolf, 2009).

Measuring success at Ritz Carlton:

The achievement of the company is measured through customer representatives, who ask emotional and functional questions from the customers. Questions are about the quality of the meal, the service, and suggestions about the food menu, room service, and cleanliness. After that, indicators were developed and responses by the customers are analyzed. The Ritz-Carlton Company makes sure that functional requirements are met first. From the employee’s viewpoint, company measure success through internal metric known as voluntary turnover. If the voluntary resignation in the company is increasing then the management knows that something lacks like training or development. The management believes that training employees is vital for the company’s success because if employees are not satisfied then they won’t be able to make their customers satisfied...................... This is just a sample partial case solution. Please place the order on the website to order your own originally done case solution.

Related Case Solutions & Analyses:

Hire us for Originally Written Case Solution/ Analysis

Like us and get updates:.

Harvard Case Solutions

Search Case Solutions

• Accounting Case Solutions
• Auditing Case Studies
• Business Case Studies
• Economics Case Solutions
• Finance Case Studies Analysis
• Harvard Case Study Analysis Solutions
• Human Resource Cases
• Ivey Case Solutions
• Management Case Studies
• Marketing HBS Case Solutions
• Operations Management Case Studies
• Supply Chain Management Cases
• Taxation Case Studies

More From Management Case Studies

• Post Takeover Management Issues
• Buying Time: The Science of Happier Spending
• ING Bank of Canada (A): Launch of a Direct Bank
• Continuous Quality Improvement Initiatives at Queen Mary Hospital
• Boeing and Airbus: Competitive Strategy in the Very-Large-Aircraft Market
• Manufacturing Outsourcing, Onshoring, and Global Equilibrium

Contact us:

Check Order Status

How Does it Work?

Why TheCaseSolutions.com?