First
Please review the comments below as well as any comments that may have been made to your individual submission, and revise your SWOT from last week accordingly.
- Be careful with the difference between internal and external. Internal is in the control of the company, and is specific to the company. Most of you understood this. External is out of the control of the company, and impacts them and their competition in the same way. Some of you did not get this part.
- In the external section, you are simply listing the relevant facts – most of them should come from the PESTEL journals you have been keeping. Many of you did just that – you used your political journal to put in political opportunities and threats, your technological journal for technology etc. Some of you got bogged down with the specific company. Think more broadly – perhaps about the industry or larger events.
- Do not confuse opportunities with solutions. You should not be saying what the hotel or restaurant should be doing – this is just laying out the facts. Opportunities are the same for the competion. Threats are the same for the subject and the competition.
- When possible, use real numbers to back up your assertions. In your journals, most of you have been pulling numbers – use them!
- Your bullets should be as short as possible, but complete. Simply saying, “economy” or “instagram” means nothing. You need to say, “the economy is projected to grow by 3% next year, which will provide consumers more disposable income”. Or “instagram was recently rated by XXX to be the most influential app in the F&B space, and it it projected to grow by Y% next year.
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Second
Discussion : What to do about the minimum wage
requirement: no need lots of words. at least half page
As you complete this weeks Economic and Legal Journal entry, you’ll see many of the articles deal with the minimum wage. You should be sure to read a few articles on this debate.
Ever since its introduction over 75 years ago, there have been debates about what the minimum wage should be, and indeed whether or not we should have one.
Some argue that in a free market, the very idea of a minimum wage is unnecessary government intervention, and that simple supply and demand should dictate wage levels. Many on this side of the debate feel that an increase in the minimum wage leads to a decrease in available positions. Additionally, some feel that the idea of a federal minimum fails to recognize the differences in cost of living between places like NYC and rural sections of the country.
Others argue that by not paying a living wage (and there are debates on what that is) businesses are exploiting workers, and putting the burden on taxpayers who subsidize these wages though programs to help people pay for food and heat etc. Some say the decline in the minimum wage, which peaked around 1970, has helped lead to the concentration in wealth in the top 1% and decline in the buying power of the lower and middle classes. Additionally, they say that an increase in the minimum wage “trickles up” as supervisors get increases to distinguish their pay from line level employees etc.
Both sides of the debate have studies that back up their positions.
Now that you’ve read a few articles on the subject, you’re in a position to have some insightful comments and opinions on this subject. Please use this discussion group to share them.
As usual, I expect you to not only post your opinion, but to interact with your classmates and react to their posts. And of course, I remind you to be respectful when you disagree.
Third
The Art of War Assignment
Art of War The Art of War was featured in the Video lecture and in Chapter 1 of this weeks readings. This seminal work by Sun Tzu is timeless, and is required reading for many MBA programs, Annapolis, and West Point. In fact, many companies in Asia require all new supervisors to read The Art of War. The good news for those interested in reading The Art of War is that it was written long before copyright laws came into effect, so you can easily find a free copy by searching on Google. Your assignment for this week is to find one of those free copies, and search for three quotes that you believe apply to the hospitality industry. Your response should be specific to the hospitality industry, and when possible should include examples from your work experience. In addition, your assignment should be original, professionally written, specific to hospitality, and between 400 and 600 words.
Fourth
This week we wrap up the last of our PESTEL Journals by looking at the E and L or Economic and Legal.
As with previous weeks, you need to select opportunities and threats from those categories. This week is slightly different however, as you need to do three opportunities and three threats, not just two. Two of the three can be from either Legal or Economic, but you must have at least one from each category.
In other words, your journal should be:
- Opportunities: 2 economic and 1 legal OR 1 economic and 2 legal
- Threats: 2 economic and 1 legal OR 1 economic and 2 legal.
The final journal will have 3 opportunities and 3 threats.
At this point, I believe you know what is required to complete the journal entry, but if you have any questions you can refer to the more detailed instructions on a previous week.
Five
Over the course of the next few weeks, we’re going to review some of the articles you and your classmates have posted in SLACK, and make an assessment on which developments are likely to be the most impactful to your industry’s performance over the next one to three years.
At this point I’m going to ask you to view the relevance of these topics from the perspective of one of two (conveniently gender neutral) people:
Pat – the owner / operator of a 200 seat upscale restaurant in Aspen, Colorado
or
Ray – the owner / operator of a 250 room upscale independent hotel in Houston, TX.
I’m going to ask you to do a number of projects from the perspective of Pat or Ray, so when you select one of those view points, you’ll need to stick with it through all assignments.
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Your first task will be to review the articles in the Ecological / Environmental section of SLACK from the perspective of Pat or Ray.
Select two articles that present an opportunity for you to increase the bottom line of your business. To use a fictitious example, if there was an article about people eating worms in an attempt to be “green” you may wish say there’s an opportunity for restaurants to offer worms menu.
Next, select two articles that present the biggest threat to your business – so two opportunities and two threats.
The format of your journal entry should follow this template:
Repeat for Opportunity 2, Threat 1, and Threat 2
Your bullet points should include actual data points from the article if available. For example:
- Worms provide 63% more protein than beetles
- 93% of Americans think worms taste like chicken
- Worm protein is 375% cheaper than beef, and produces 1/10th the greenhouse gases.
- 4 out of 5 dentists recommend eating six worms a day to combat receding gums
Please type or paste your journal entry directly into ulearn – no attachments.
