Accor Group - Leading Multinational Hospitality Company, Essay.

For this assignment choose a Company and describe history, mission, vision, culture/values/leadership, also list any relevant policies.

You will include a review of what the organisation is doing for induction, training, professional development, and succession planning, for its employees

Include a summary of what the organisation is doing for you, how you see this applying to your professional development needs and how this is enabling your employability (either internal/external)

Overview of Accor group and Pullman Sydney Airport

Accor hotel group was founded in the year 1967 and is one of the largest multinational hospitality company which functions in the area of management and franchising of resorts and hotels.  Accor group is an ideal place for the business travellers, leisure and family travellers, and the group ensures that it meets the expectation of the customers at every step. Accor group has different hotels which are spread out in 4300 location, the annual revenue of the company in the year 2017 was 1.93 Billion Euros and the operating income was 413 million Euros.  Accor group has reached the pinnacles of success, thanks to its highly qualified, dedicated and efficient team of 250,000 Personnel (Pullmansydneyhydepark.com.au, 2018).

Pullman Sydney Airport is the newest 5 star property opened at the Sydney Airport, which includes all the features of a standard Pullman branded hotel. The hotel offers around 229 luxurious room and suites with high end meeting facilities. The hotel is a masterpiece by all angles and boasts of some great architecture, design and modern technology used all across the hotel.

The purpose of the report here is to conduct a brief micro environmental analysis of the industry in which it is operating, along with the organizational chart and the reporting line. The report will also highlight what it is doing for the employees to fulfil their professional developmental needs. A personal SWOT, Gallup report and mind map will be an addition to the report to provide for the comprehensiveness to the study.

Mission statement

Mission statement for the Accor group

• Increasing the overall appeal and reputation of the brand portfolio is all the business segments.
• Bring in a practise of sustained innovation along with increasing the presence in new geographic areas.
• Create the hospitality services for tomorrow.
• Focus on strengthening the potential in destination with high potential.
• Succession planning from among the huge 250,000 family (Farr & Hall, 2015).

The vision of Accor group is to inspire in every possible market segment in which it operates, each brand of Accor has its own vision, each directed towards excellent customer service, excellent hospitality along with great quality being served on the platter. To summarize the vision statement of Accor group is, consistently bring improvement in the services, developing flagship hotels in key destination, strongly establish the leadership, and aim for excellence (Yilmaz & Yilmaz, 2016).

Values

Guest Passion-Accor group believes that Hospitality is their passion and pleasuring customers is their driving force (Chathoth, 2016).

Sustainable Performance-Accor group aims to build a momentum of creation and positive value for as many people as possible (Sen & Kaushik, 2016).

Spirit of Conquest- Accor group is committed to its customers and they aim to make the impossible, possible.

Innovation-Accor group of hotel consistently innovate and conduct many experiment to to reinvent themselves and create for the customers.

Vision and Core Values of Accor group

Trust-Accor group aims to keep its promise and value and trust its customers and by its own accord make them trust the group.

Respect- Accor group values every individual; believe in blend of culture and care of the planet.

Sebastien Bazin is the Chairman and CEO of the Accor group and his leadership style can be seen as transformational in nature. Sebastien Bazin as a leader is transformation, he ensures that change also prevails in the organization for the good, and he makes sure that he leads the change at all front(Li, Fang & Huan, 2017). The CEO values its employees and give emphasis to employee empowerment, Sebestien is of the opinion that employee empowerment is a motivation for the employees, which in turn reduces the employee turnover. Sebastien is the firm believer that learning and development of the employee is another factor for their motivation and also for the enhanced productivity of the organization (Sen & Kaushik, 2016).

Micro environmental analysis refers to those factors or elements which are internal to the organization and have the ability of causing ramification for it. SWOT analysis is one of the models of Micro-environmental analysis which is a very important strategic planning tool.

Strength · Huge presence and experience in the industry, present in over 92 countries, over 4400 hotels, 250,000 employees and over 530000 employees. · One of the largest hotel operator worldwide · Over 50 years of experience in the industry. · Increasing acceptability of digitization in the Hotel properties. · Moved to asset lighting operating systems (Tinnish & Lynch, 2017).	Weakness · Less differentiation in the service offering. · As Accor hotel caters to all the brands, it becomes difficult for customer to differentiate between the brands offerings. · Perception of the Leisure travellers of Accor group as expensive (Lehr, 2015).
Opportunity · Improvement in the Global economic condition. · Growth of domestic and international traveller. · Growth of digital travellers or nomads. · Focus on sustained and inclusive growth. · Expansion of hotel education (Andreu, Claver & Quer, 2017).	Threats · High competition in the market forcing for more innovation. · Chances of global sales to impact in the luxury and upscale segment. · Threat from the largest group of Hotel, Sherwood group of hotels (Truong, 2016).

PESTLE Analysis of Pullman Sydney Hotel-Accor Group

Political Factors

Accor is the one of the largest hospitality groups in the world which has presence across the globe. In Australia, the political climate is a mix of both British and North American influences and under the leadership of Malcolm Turnbull, the country is stable at the political front. The legal regulations are in accordance to the Hotel association which presents least threat to the hotel at the Airport (Moutinho & Phillips, 2018).

Economic Factors

GDP of Australia stands at 49,927 USD in 2016 and its GDP grows at a rate of 2.8% YOY, this shows that Australia has sustained its economic growth, especially after the global recession of 2008. Purchasing power parity of Australia stands at 36597 USD, which is fairly high in comparison to rest of the world. This shows that economic factors of Australia are favourable for the domestic and international travellers (Johan, Baga & Asmara, 2018).

Social/Cultural Factors

Australia is a modern country and majority of the population is dominated by Arab, Indians, Europeans and other nationals. Australia as a country embraces and gives freedom to all the religion. The lifestyle and the culture are adopted by west, and majority of the people coming to Australia are for Leisure activities. The hotel has all the modern day amenities to cater to the rising demand of the travellers (Nguyen, 2016).

Leadership Style of Sebastian Banz

Technological Factors

As mentioned earlier, Accor group of hotels uses high technological and advanced solutions to ensure the quality of living of its esteemed guests. The group have used Technology in its reservation and online booking, room service, hotel peripherals, washing, cleaning, drying equipment and more so. It can be easily said that Accor group of hotels are in the same sync with the growth in the technology (Rogers & Davidson, 2015).

Legal Factors

Australia has a fairly good regulation system for the Hotels, and Australian Hotel Association ensures that no hotel is following unfair practices within the premises of the hotel and also does the quality control check on the hotel. As far as now, Pullman Sydney hotel did not face any legal action in Australia (Serbin & Serbin, 2018).

Environmental Factors

One of the core values of Accor group is to ensure sustainability in its environment. Accor through its CSR activities keep on planting trees, involved in Beach cleaning and numerous other practices which shows the seriousness of the group regarding the environment(Dalton, 2016).

(Source: Hamilton & Webster, 2015)

The organization chart of the hotel is functional in nature and the managers are dependent on the staff and the subordinates to ensure fulfilment of the operational activity at the hotel. I work in the capacity of Banquet sales at the hotel and I show the guest the Banquets of hotel and close the Banquet sales for corporate meetings. I directly report to the Director of Sales- Banquets along with 5 other team members who ensure the banquet sales at the Hotel.

Induction Process

Accor group ensures that it focuses on the induction process of its employees as it’s the first time the employees are getting accustomed to the values, culture, mission and vision of the group. The induction process at Accor group for management trainee is of 3 months duration and the employee has to spend 2 weeks in every department of the operation, such as Catering, Sales, Banquets, Client representative, front office, back office and Room inspection (Xu, Ye & Chan, 2018).

I was inducted at the time when the hotel was just started; I was satisfied look at the way the managers were taking interest in explaining to me each and every thing in detail.

The CEO and the Chairman Sebastian Banz believes that training is important not only for the personal and professional development of the employees, but also of the organization. He believes that training is essential for:

• Consistent Learning
• Sustained Growth
• Overall development.

Micro-environmental Analysis and SWOT Analysis

The employees are trained after assessing the skill gap between the present skill sets and the required skill set, on the basis of which a training calendar is created which has information on the detailed training schedule of each employees. Training at Accor group is the group responsibility, thus the best trainers from across the globe come to the property to impart training. Trainings such as culture, policy training, sales training, management training, communication training and service skill training form the backbone of the training calendar (Sen & Kaushik, 2016).

Professional development can be understood as the learning undertaken to develop, maintain and improve the professional credentials required to remain accredited in a profession. Accor has a great focus on its employees, and believes that if they take care of the employees, the employees will take care of its customers.  As a part of Professional development, the company has a 360 degree balanced feedback process in the system. In accordance with the process, the managers and peers ranks the performance of the employee, which is then evaluated by the managers and the HR. Based on the report on the Performance, a personal development plan is created for the employees, citing the skills which have to be improved and the new skills which have to be acquired for future professional growth and development (Wong, French & Wickham, 2017).

The company here also uses Gap analysis to identify the lacunae in the performance of the employees, and on the basis of the analysis creates a plan of development for the employee.

Accor group believes that leadership has to be from the organization and they don’t want an outsider to take the position of leadership. In order to do so, the company keeps a close eye on the employees in various departments and hand picks the employee, after their assessment, recommendation from their team leads and managers to further train them(King & So, 2015).

The employees are then put into a 24 weeks leadership training program where they are trained on the leadership skills which are applicable in the Hospitality industry. After all the trainings and mentor session, the employees who performed exceptionally well are put across more strategic roles, and then after their career progression begins at a faster rate.

Strength · Strong communication skills. · Confident personality. · Experience in Hotel sales. · Good credibility in the market. · People’s person. · Relationship building skills · Team Player · Strong decision making skills · Hobbyist and enthusiast in Current affairs	Weakness · Lack of self- motivation. · Poor judgement of people · Stage fear · Difficulty in listening to the management authorities at times.
Opportunity · Opening in the Team lead position in the sales department. · Opportunity to get shortlisted for the leadership programme. · Pullman is hunting for employees and sends them to UK for training and development.	Threats · High number of experienced staff. · Limited position opening. · New position requires strong leadership skills, which I lack in.

Gallup report is predominantly a strength finder report for an individual which is formed on the basis of assessment of an individual. My assessment result of the Gallop test is as follows:

Political and Economic Climate of Australia

 Right fully assessed by Gallup, I rank high in empathy. Empathy is the understanding of the consumer by imagining an individual in the shoes of the customers. I am very empathetic when it comes to evaluating the needs of my team mates or other individual. This makes me a highly empathetic person and concerned about the needs of the people.

I am in agreement with the result of Gallup test, I am a kind of person who easily builds relationship with the people and make them comfortable around myself. Relator has a tendency to make or create close relationship, more so, because other people to reciprocate the same kind of feeling or emotion with the relator.

Ideation is the ability to create novel ideas by the virtue of innovation, brainstorming and creativity. I believe that I have this strength of Ideation because I have been at the forefront of various ideas in my school and college days. I am of the opinion that in my future business endeavour I would ensure the same.

There is no doubt that I am a achiever, I appreciate the feet people have achieved in their career and admire the strengths of such leader. I am very aspirational and have high need for achievement in my personal and professional space.

Business situation and the world have become highly dynamic in nature, this change in the business and work environment requires the individual to become highly dynamic in nature and adapt to the changing circumstances. I am extremely flexible in all my approach whether in learning, job or my professional life.  I aim to adapt myself to the changing situation in order to make the most of the situation.

The LPA score is primarily an assessment which shows the proficiency on various competencies required for success in a wider range of professional roles. The analysis of my LP score can be summarized as:

This stands third in my overall ranking of competency and I strongly believe that I have to work on my data analysis and problem solving abilities to expedite the business process and quickly solve a problem.

This is the area where I struggle a lot, as mentioned in the earlier section in need to develop my skills while working in the team. My perception in this competency got clarified by the LPA score.

This is one competency where I aced; I scored 10/10 in the assessment. This clearly reflects that I weigh Learning and self development as an important contributing factor towards personal and professional development.

Accor group's Focus on Sustainability and CSR Activities

Although I scored 7/10 in this competency, I still believe that Change is important for the growth of each and every business organization. Change helps in bridging the gaps in the business processes and procedures of the organization.

Mind map can be understood as a visual thinking tool which helps in structuring information, helps to better analyse, comprehend, synthesize, recall and generate new ideas.

The Myers- Briggs type Indicator is an introspective self report questionnaire with the underlying purpose of indicating differing psychological preferences in how people perceive the world around them and make their decisions accordingly.

ENTJ type of People has personality traits of natural born leaders and is characterized by Charisma and confidence, whilst projecting the authority which pulls the crowd towards a defined goal. ENTJ type of people is also categorized by ability to innovate and create for the betterment of the society. I believe that I have the capability to be a natural leader, which has been reflected in my past endeavours.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Work as a Team

It is recommended that a person while working in a business organization is focussed on the team’s objectives and goals rather than the individual goals. As per my LPA score assessment I have difficulty in working in a team, thus I have to ensure that I become more vocal and try working alongside my peers and colleagues.

Problem Solving Ability

Business value an employee based on one’s ability, out of which one of the most important area is problem solving ability of an individual. This skill or the ability makes the employee extremely important and significant to the business organization.

Motivation

I have to work on keeping my enthusiasm and energy levels high so that I always push myself to achieve the goals set for me. This intrinsic motivation will help me to work towards my goals more effectively and with enhanced productivity and efficiency.

References

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