Business Operations at Telek Benoe Hotel

Question: Discuss about the Business Operations at Telek Benoe Hotel. Answer: Introduction Operations management is a crucial aspect in the business as the achievement of the overall objectives of the business depends largely on it. The operations management refers to controlling, supervising, administering, and continuously improving the operating procedures of the organization. There are various theories being developed in the field of operations management such as business process re-engineering, reconfigurable manufacturing system, six sigma, and leans manufacturing (Brown et al., 2013). These theories of operations management help the management to bring effeiceincy and effectiveness in their operations by remodeling or modifying the standard operating procedures. Considering the nature of business, the importance of operations management in the hospitality industry is perceived to be greater than any other business (O'Fallon Rutherford, 2011). In the context developed above, this report addresses the critical aspects of the operations management in the Telek Benoe Hotel. The report provides an overview of the crucial theories of operations management and application of those theories in resolving the critical issues currently being faced by the management in operating the business affairs at Telek Benoe Hotel. Further, the report also covers a discussion on the issues governing corporate social responsibility aspects of the business. At the end the report provides a concise conclusion and recommendations to help the management improving the business operations. Operations Management Theories, Current Issues and Problems at Telek Benoe Hotel The operations management theories such as business process reengineering and six sigma are frequently applied in the improving the operating procedures (Elwood, 2013). There have been observed many problems with the operating procedures of Telek Benoe Hotel, for example, lack of adequate lighting at the hotel premises, uneducated and untrained staff, and poor cleaning of the rooms. Considering the fact that the customers feedback about the hotels services is largely dependent upon the like issues, the management of the hotel needs to understand the criticalness of these issues. In this regard, the principles as set out in the customer service theory could be applied to help out the management understanding the importance of the customer satisfaction (Elwood, 2013). The principles of customer service theory focus on identifying the customer requirements and prescribe the ways to satisfy those requirements to the fullest satisfaction of the customer. The primary goal of this theory is to encourage an organization to deliver high level of services so as to gain and retain the customer loyalty. In this competitive world, it is imperative for a business to gain and retain the customer loyalty and enhance the customer base to have the sustainable growth achieved (Elwood, 2013). For this purpose, the theory requires that everyone from the top management to the lower level of management should be involved in improving the customer services. Further, the theory also states that it is essential for the management of an organization that they build a customer service culture by setting the customer expectations, formalizing the communication, and knowing the customer in all respects (Elwood, 2013). Apart from the above discussed issues, there are few other issues pertaining to the operations management that have been found at Telek Benoe Hotel. These issues primarily involve internet connection, menu card at restaurant in Indonesian language, and the Indonesian cooking style. The internet was connected through broadband rather than Wi-Fi, which was problematic for the customers. Further, the menu card at the restaurant was not in English language, which created problems for the customers coming from English speaking countries such as USA and Australia. Moreover, the food like burger and the other items were cooked using the Indonesian cooking style, which the customers coming from USA and Australia did not like much. These issues are crucial from the customers satisfaction perspective and thus, the management of the hotel needs to have a quick fix on these issues. In order to fix these issues, the management can apply Six Sigma theory, which provides a concise approach for elim inating the defects in the business processes (Barone Franco, 2012). Further, there were other procedural issues encountered at Telek Benoe Hotel such as clumsy process of check in and check out at the hotel. The check in procedure at the hotel was found to be quite lengthy and there was also found a repetition of the information being asked from the customers. The lengthy process while checking in could create chaos among the customers, further, the management should also take care that the customers are not asked to fill in the same information again and again. For this purpose, it is essential for the management of the hotel to understand the concepts of the business process re-engineering, which will help them to re-define the check-in and check-out procedures at the hotel (Smith, 2010). The principles of the business process re-engineering assist the management in eliminating the non value added activities from the operations. Key Corporate Social Responsibility Issues Faced by Telek Benoe Hotel Corporate social responsibility is one of the emerging concepts in the corporate world that encourages the organizations to work for the economic, social, and environmental benefits addressing the requirements of all the key stakeholders (Mullerat Brennan, 2011). The concept of corporate social responsibility emphasizes more on the organizational duties of the companies towards the society and the environment rather than focusing only on the needs of the owners. Thus, the needs of other stakeholders such as society and the environment are also required to be taken care of mandatorily by the corporations after implementation of the concept of corporate social responsibility. In this regard, it can be noted that the corporate regulatory regime across the globe has been modified to make the adoption of the corporate social responsibility practices obligatory by the companies (Mullerat Brennan, 2011). As the corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives help the companies in boosting the customer loyalty and increasing the sales volume, therefore, it becomes essential for the companies to adopt CSR practices. In order to adopt the CSR practices and implement the CSR plans, the companies need to identify the crucial issues in regard to the corporate social responsibility (Turker, Toker, Altuntas, 2013). In respect of Telek Benoe Hotel, various corporate social responsibility issues have been identified, which include the impact on the environment, society, and the economy within which the hotel operates. The prevailing circumstances reveal that Telek Benoe Hotel is suffering from serious irregularities in the operations. The study of the circumstances depicts that the management of the hotel has not been able to properly supervise the administrative affairs. These irregularities in the management of Telek Benoe Hotel are big threat to the very survival of the business (Turker, Toker, Altuntas, 2013). It can be perceived that poor management of the operations at Telek Benoe Hotel will definitely affect its financial performance adversely and eventually it may also lead to shut down of the business operations. The shutting down of the set business would have undesirable effects on the economy and society; moreover, it is also expected to affect the environment adversely. In respect of economy, it has been analyzed that sudden collapse of the set business would reduce the gross domestic product (Hall Lieberman, 2009). Due to downfall in the gross domestic product, the overall growth of the economy would be affected negatively. Further, closing down the business operations by the hotel would also contribute to the unemployment rate. The people working in the hotel will get unemployed on shutting down the operations, which will increase the unemployment rate of Indonesia where the hotel operates. In respect of the society, it has been analyzed that by closing down the business operations, the social growth will go on decline (Matsuoka Kelly, 2015). The primary reason for the decline in the social growth has been identified as the unemployment of the people caused due to closing down the business operations. The earning capacity of the people associated with the hotel will go down resulting into a sharp decline in the social growth in the area in which hotel operates. Further, the adverse impact on the environment has been analyzed in terms of wastage of the resources (Matsuoka Kelly, 2015). The scarce environmental resources are used in preparing a hotel ready for operations. Those environmental resources may include water, land, and trees for furniture. Therefore, closing down the hotel would mean a complete wastage of the scare environmental resources. The management of Telek Benoe Hotel needs to consider these issues and aspects pertaining to the corporate social respons ibility of the hotel towards the economy, society, and environment. Resolution to the Current Issues and Problems Continuously striving for the achievement of the operational efficiency and effectiveness has become the ground rule for all the firms to remain competitive in the market (Rouse Sage, 2007). In the current case study, Telek Benoe Hotel is suffering from inefficiencies in the operations, which require adequate resolution promptly. In this regard, it has been analyzed that the hotel is using outdated technology, which appears to be the most crucial reason for the inefficiencies in the operations. The technology has occupied a central role in the originations in the current business environment (Zhou, 2004). Thus, it is important that the business organizations, particularly those engaged in the hospitality sector, adopt the upgraded technology in their operations. The issues that the hotel is currently facing pertaining to internet, billing, check-in and check-out could be resolved by automating the operations and using the upgraded and enhanced technology (Zhou, 2004). Further, other processes such as communication within the network could also be made quite smooth with the use of upgraded technology. The communication is very important to bring efficiency and effectiveness in the business operations (Guffey, Rogin, Rhodes, 2009). As Telek Benoe Hotel is facing problems with the communication within the staff, which need to be resolved as soon as possible. There are various communication strategies that can be applied by the hotel management making the communication between the team more effective. In this regard, it is important to create a strong network and connect that network on real time basis using the upgraded and enhanced technology (Guffey, Rogin, Rhodes, 2009). Another important reason for all the problems related to the operations which are being faced by Telek Benoe Hotel is inadequate training of the employees. The training plays a crucial role in improving the efficiencies and effectiveness of the operations in every business (Werner DeSimone, 2008). Moreover, for an organization that is engaged in the hospitality business, where the overall performance of the business is largely dependent upon the employees performance, the training of employees becomes a core part of the operations management. In this essence, it is essential for the management of the hotel to recognize the aspects on which the employees are to be trained (Werner DeSimone, 2008). For example, the lack of proper communication among the hotel staff clearly shows that the communication is the one aspect that is to be taken care of while training the employees. Further, the entire process of the business that Telek Benoe Hotel is operating has been observed to be disordered. It is essential for the management to remove the irregularities in the business processes by carrying out re-engineering of the business processes (Doumeingts Browne, 2016). Business process re-engineering appears to be the most crucial management tool that can be applied in redesigning the processes. Although, business process re-engineering is a time taking process but in case of Telek Benoe Hotel it is essential to apply this process because the operational structure there is quite weird. All the processes are unstructured requiring a complete change of the overall work environment, which can be achieved through business process re-engineering (Doumeingts Browne, 2016). As the business process re-engineering is time consuming and also requires consumption of resources at a large scale, it should be resorted to only in the cases wherein other means fail. In order to carry out the restructuring of the business processes, it is essential for the management of Telek Benoe Hotel to formulate strategies and plans in this connection. Thus, the top management should formulate the plans prescribing the manner and detailed description to the activities to be carried out in restructuring the business processes (Cummings Worley, 2014). In this regard, it is essential to keep in mind for the top management that the employees from the lower level are also involved in planning process. The employee involvement is must to achieve the successful implementation of the business process re-engineering in an organization. The top management needs to arrange a meeting with all level of employees in the hotel and take inputs from them as regards the re-engineering process proposed to be carried out. Involving the employees in the planning process relives the management from concerning about the employees resistance at the time of implementation and execu tion (Cummings Worley, 2014). Conclusion and Recommendations From the discussion carried out in this report, it can be concluded that operations management is crucial for the achievement of the overall goals of the business. It has been analyzed that efficient and effective operations management helps the organization to satisfy the customer requirements, which leads to increased customer satisfaction. The financial success of an organization is largely dependent on the effectivenss and efficiency of the operations management. In the case study taken for the purpose of this report, Telek Benoe Hotel has been observed to be facing inefficiencies in the operations management. In order to overcome the problems being faced by the hotel, few recommendations have been draw as discussed below: Business process re-engineering is the first recommendation to the management of the hotel. The hotel has been observed to be operating in an awkward way, thus, it important to redesign the business processes and reframe the daily operating procedures (Wilson, Hill, Glazer, 2013). Further, it is advised to the management of the hotel that they should streamline the communication process with the customer. For this purpose, the adoption upgraded information technology is essential. The management of the hotel is advised to have a multi channel reservation center that will help the customers in reaching to the hotel easily (Evans, 2013). Further, it is advised that the management maintains proper mobility for the team by managing the workflow and communication between the team members. It should be kept in mind that the real time communication system helps the employees to connect with each other instantly. Therefore, to save the time and making the communication process smooth, it is advised that the management of the hotel installs a real time communication system (Virtanen Seppo, 2014). Additionally, the management is advised to advance the technological developments in the hotel. The internet should be Wi-Fi connected and other processes are also needed to be automated so as to achieve advancement in the technology (Park, Yang, Lee, 2011). Further, the check-in and check-out procedures should also be automated with the adoption of upgraded technology. 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