MNC Report. Presented By: Kechi Emelike

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1 E M E L I K E 1 MNC Report Presented By: Kechi Emelike

2 E M E L I K E 2 Kechi Emelike IMS 3310 December 5, 2013 MNC Report: Marriott International, INC. With over 325,000 employees working in 70 different countries worldwide, Marriott is easily one of the top multinational companies this world has to offer. Marriot currently host 3,800 lodging properties ranging from top of the line resorts to conservative lodging for the budget conscious traveler. Marriott has used the diversity of its various lodging properties to its advantage in making each hotel a unique reflection of its geographic and cultural surroundings. However, not only is the company able to change its hotel rooms according to cultures, but the overall managing style as a whole reflects the importance of understanding diversity. Over the years, Marriott has used various modes of entry including franchising, joint ventures, and strategic alliances. Most known are the company s franchising efforts. Although franchising allows any qualified candidate to open a property of their own under the Marriott name, the company knows it can be difficult to get minorities and females into franchising. Marriott understands the value in having female and minority franchisees and demonstrates this through their Diversity Ownership Program which focuses on Marriott attracting and developing relationships with qualified franchisees and owners who might be minority and/or female. Through this program, the company hosts frequent educational seminars that are meant to not only persuade potential franchisees, but help them throughout the developmental process. During the seminars, candidates learn everything that needs to be done to open and run a successful hotel or resort including choosing the right land, financing a project, and how to build the property. In addition to franchising, Marriott International is also seeking to expand their portfolio in bigger ways. On May 31 st of last year, Marriott reached into an agreement with the Gaylord Hotels to buy the brand for a $210 million. With this acquisition Marriott was faced with the decision to either keep the Gaylord existing associates or to hire and train new ones all together. The company has since decided to do a hybrid of the two, with much funding and efforts going to retraining existing employees to the Marriott s culture of accepting cultures. Much emphasis is placed on multi-linguicism and overall knowledge of dissimilarities with both co-workers and

3 E M E L I K E 3 hotel guests. Associates must be able to recognize what region a hotel guest might be travelling from and cater their service techniques accordingly. Marriott has also contributed tens of millions of dollars to efforts such as the RLJ Urban Lodging fund which helps promote building properties in urban locations and the International Franchise Associate which promotes franchising in emerging markets and developing countries. The Minority Entrepreneurs Scholarship is funding by Marriott and annually fives five $3,000 scholarships to students (including adult students) who are pursuing a degree in business, finance, marketing, hospitality, or any other related field. Shockingly enough, more than halve of Marriott s managers are women. These women have resources available to them such as mentoring and networking initiatives as well as tuition assistance. President and Chief Executive Officer, Arne Sorenson was once quoted saying, At Marriott, putting people first and embracing differences has always been the cornerstone to our success. It ensures that our associates, customers, suppliers and other stakeholders feel truly appreciated and valued. We are passionate in our efforts to remove barriers and create an inclusive environment that leads to opportunities for others to contribute and grow (Marriot). Marriott s corporate form is organized through a hybrid of both geographic and functional aspects. Headquarters are in the United States, but due to the rapid growth they have opened development offices in India, Africa, and Brazil. Instead of relocating American employees to head these offices, Marriott has taken the approach to staff these offices by all local professionals. The company has an overall polycentric and regiocentric view on upper-level hiring. Marriott wanted to be sure they employed those who fully understood the cultural norms and practices of their respective markets. And the company does not follow this concept in only these three countries. Even in Asia and Europe, most on the company s general managers are locals. And these managers can feel free in knowing that most control is internal with overall goals set by the top ranks. Within these geographic subsets, one will find typical the typical corporate departments of a group of regional hotels. These functions include, but are not limited to administration, marketing, food and beverage, and finance departments. Marriott has gone above and beyond to ensure that each associate is not only understanding of different cultural and societal norms, but is also engaged in adopting diverse practices. The company provides a wide range of tools and educational resources that educate

4 E M E L I K E 4 their associates on these cultural differences and help to cultural competence throughout the company worldwide. However, not only does the company require associates to understand opposing cultures, but also gain deeper insight on their own cultures so that associates can both be proud of where they come from and get an idea of how their own habits can influence their interaction with others. Another amazing learning tool that Marriott offers their associates is language lessons for little to no cost through the company s partnership with Rosetta Stone, Sed de Saber, and the Cultural Wizard. Marriott claims that 10,000 of their associates are currently enrolled in language programs. Marriott is instrumentally organized with each prospective associate being chosen on the bases of education and skill. However, the culture of the company is not as rigid as most instrumentally organized corporations. Because Marriott prides itself on encouraging involvement with their associates, managers, owners, and franchisees, the company would be considered to promote low power distance meaning decisions are made through open dialogue between all ranks of the company from housekeepers to investors. Although the company promotes open forum worldwide, the speed in which decisions are made vary. In eastern countries patience is truly a virtue and managers truly take their time in making decisions, especially those of importance. Hotel guest can also appreciate the patience they are rewarded from hotel staff. Marriott uses a unique system in the way they tailor their marketing strategies. Because there are so many brands and resorts for all types of travelers, there was never one uniform method of advertising. Being that much of the properties are individually owned through franchising, each location is responsible for marketing their own property. Although this might not seem desirable, the company has truly found an effective way to gain and maintain customers. Marriott s first advantage is the overall brand recognition. People all over the world are familiar with the Marriott brand and associate this brand with quality, regardless of whether the hotel is one of the luxury resorts or not. Most of the Marriott s customers are returning guests. The Marriott Rewards hotel loyalty program is the basis of their customer relationship strategy. The loyalty program allows for direct marketing efforts and messages by tracking the behaviors of each of their 40 million members. Members receive loads of incentives to continue visiting any of the properties under the Marriott brand. Keeping in accordance with the company s global mentality, Marriott uses

5 E M E L I K E 5 viral marketing strategies to reach new customers. They are relevant on many social networks popular all around the world and have many of their visuals uploaded to YouTube which is the most used viral network all over the world. With the understanding that most franchisees do not have the capital to create big budget television and magazine ads, Marriott International introduced BrandWorks to their entire network. BrandWork is an automated online marketing portal that was developed as a tool for each property to quickly create cost-effective and customized marketing materials. Properties, advertising agencies, and marketing managers use the portal to share and/or download stock photography, view brand standards and guidelines, download marketing templates and create customized marketing collateral using document wizards. Because there is such a wide range of target audiences under the Marriott umbrella from work travelers to leisure travelers from English speaking to Hindi speaking from Canadian nationals to Nigerian nationals, BrandWorks has to provide different programs and strategies. Within the application is a comprehensive catalog of updated brand guidelines, templates, strategies, materials and collateral so that promotions and marketing activities could be properly and cost-effectively used across all markets and various languages. Franchisees and owners around the globe can also create their own Marriott rewards and nonrewards offers and deals, and then promote them on sites such as Marriott.com, Hotels.com, Travelocity, and other sites. There are almost twenty brands under the Marriott umbrella including The Courtyard, The Ritz- Carlton, Renaissance Hotels, and Bulgari Resorts. Within these brands are thousands of hotels which are truly unique with some being of the most extravagant nature. Many of these properties are a reflection of their geographic surroundings and cultures. For example, in China, the concept of feng shui is taken so seriously that many companies have completely changed building layouts after contracting feng shui experts to analyze the overall looks of their business. It is believed that using the ideals of feng shui in décor will promote prosperity and longevity in

6 E M E L I K E 6 business. Marriott s newest resort, the Bulgari in Shanghai will be sure to incorporate many of these elements when it opens in The Renaissance Hotel St. Pancras in London is a fine example of the Marriot embracing authentic culture worldwide. The hotel was originally a rail road station built in It took ten years and over 100 million to restore the building and transform it into one of Marriott s newer resorts. The company maintained much of the original architectural elements of the building which included Victorian styled arches and high steeples. The Bulgari in Bali is another of the Marriotts examples of adapting to different culture. The resort is built atop a cliff like a medieval fortress town, walled and secret. Each villa has its own garden, pool and an outdoor living room that looks out over the alang alang rooftops (coconut thatch) and the Indian Ocean. The resort also offers spa treatments based on traditional Bali culture and beauty theories. Marriott International, INC. is without a doubt one of the most adaptive and aware MNC s in the world. It has repeatedly been recognized a one of the worlds most global companies, best companies to work for, and is a Fortune 500 company. Marriott takes diversity to another level with its efforts to gain employees, franchisees, managers, and owners of all backgrounds. They are consistent in understanding diversity through the tailoring of each property according to geographic location and maintaining a marketing strategy that is simple enough that it can be tailored by each property all around the globe.

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