Wyndham international fostering high-touch with high-tech free essay sample

The Harvard Business Review case study on Wyndham International discusses the inception of the hotel company, its initial exponential growth followed by a rapid decline in 1999 due to various external and internal factors. The organization restructuring and changes in management introduced several guest loyalty programs, ByRequest in particular, to allow Wyndham International to reestablish its brand. This paper discusses the strategies followed by Wyndham International and identifies role of Information Resources (IR) in implementing the ByRequest program. In the final analysis, the paper identifies issues with customer signup and integration the various IR systems for the ByRequest program, limiting Wyndham in achieving its business goal in a more robust nature. Wyndham’s Business Wyndham International, a company in lodging industry, enjoyed significant tax benefits in the initial years under the REIT status and expanded continuously. Wyndham managed and owned most of its hotel properties, while in lodging industry hotel management and ownership were normally separated. We will write a custom essay sample on Wyndham international: fostering high-touch with high-tech or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page But policy changes in 1999 resulted in a drop of 80% of Wyndham’s stock price, forcing the company to sell most of its low-end properties and focus on business and leisure travellers in the upscale segment of the market. Opportunities and Threats With changes in government policies, Wyndham faced serious threats of financial debt. Low customer recognition was also hurting its market share. Fierce competition and commoditized service made it difficult to bring in profit. Nevertheless, there was an opportunity as well, that if the company could successfully differentiate itself from competitors, it would harness more profit. Business Strategies and Objectives In order to navigate through the competition, Wyndham changed its management team and came up with new customer loyalty program, ByRequest, and started to focus on upscale market. The objective was to establish Wyndham brand. ByRequest program has also differentiated Wyndham from its competitors as opposed to point based loyalty program. Since, it provided a unique service to every customer as per the request, this in turn increased the customer satisfaction and loyalty towards Wyndham’s service. Organizational Capabilities: Strengths and Weaknesses As mentioned previously, Wyndham both owns and runs its hotel properties. These business operations give Wyndham the ability to deploy new assets faster than competitors, where its business strategy can be easily integrated with its investment model. Wyndham had also started moving towards centralized IT infrastructure and integrated IT systems. If this succeeded, the move would have given Wyndham more power to adopt its business strategies. Wyndham also had some weaknesses. During 1999, Wyndham’s management team was going through major organizational changes.. So, around that time there was an unstable internal environment for Wyndham to execute its operations. From 2000 to 2002, still outsourced IT infrastructure and segmented IT system also pose difficulties for Wyndham to adopt an integrated business solution. Organizational Strategies and Objectives Wyndham changed its management team after the 1999 shake up. New management was appointed to develop and implement new strategies for the company, which in deed came out with a set of plans including the ByRequest program. Down the management chain, Wyndham had direct control over its hotel management teams. So, Human Resource operations could be easily executed at the property level. At the operation level, positions of hotel general manager and ByRequest manager were separated. ByRequest manager had some power over spending money on customers. General manager was responsible for the profit regarding the property. Employees’ incentive plan was also based on the profitability from the property. Wyndham’s organizational strategy was to try and align with its business strategy. By giving ByRequest manager the power of budget so that the Manager has the opportunity to serve the customer better, improved the overall customer satisfaction. This way, the organization was able to reach their objectives [Rajasekaran, 2011] Role of IR and Existing IR Set-up The role of Wyndham’s internal resources (IR) is in the strategic quadrant. Because Wyndham relies on its IR not only for running its business on a daily basis, but also for differentiating itself from its competitors. If IR had failed, ByRequest managers would not be able to match reservations with the customers’ profile, thus Wyndham would have failed to deliver their services. Without ByRequest program, Wyndham would have been providing just the same service as its competitors. The time when the ByRequest program was introduced formally (2000), Wyndham just started to centralize its IR infrastructure. The . ASP model was adopted to provide faster deployment of IT infrastructure. Until 2002, Wyndham was still in the process of centralizing its PMS and callaccounting system. Centralization of revenue management and POS had to be put into the agenda, but had not ben actually started. Prior to 2000, a subsidiary of Wyndham was serving its IT infrastructure. Wyndham’s IR Strategy (ByRequest Program) ByRequest program was an IT backed system to provide customizable services for its customers. Customers had to sign up, either by themselves or with the help of the hotel staff. A profile of customer was saved in the ByRequest System. Once entered, all profiles awere available throughout all properties of Wyndham, to be used by hotel managers. Thus, the managers could provide customized services to their guests based on the guests’ profiles. Wyndham planned to use this IR strategy to save customer preferences in a central location and sync the data with every hotel branch. This innovative idea brought two advantages to Wyndham. First customers were able to request special services when booking rooms with Wyndham. Second, the customers’ preferences were available for the future stays at Wyndham. Thus, customizations could be made by hotel managers to ensure complete customer satisfaction. Other IR strategies were adopted by Wyndham to ensure the implementation of ByRequest program. First, Wyndham was bringing its IT operation in-house, so Wyndham could exercise more control. Second, Wyndham was starting to centralizing its IT system, e. g. PMS and CRS. Centralization plays an important role in standardizing business process and ensuring availability of customer data. Third, Wyndham adopted the . ASP model while implementing new systems, which ensured fast deployment time and standardized implementation process. These IT strategies played critical roles in delivering ByRequest program. Analysis Wyndham’s current IR set-up helped the IR strategy as mentioned in the previous section. Because an integrated, standardized and centralized IT infrastructure was very important for the execution of ByRequest program. But effort had to be made continuously, as Wyndham was still in the middle of improving its IT infrastructure. However, ByRequest program was not enough to help Wyndham to achieve its business strategy for three main reasons: First, customer signup process was essentially long and complicated. In lodging industry, service is very important because of the fierce competition and low customer switching cost. An extended signup process doesn’t fit the business environment and the primary goal to serve customers better. But, without the signup process, Wyndham’s ByRequest service could not be delivered at all. Second, Wyndham’s organization strategy did not completely fit into its ByRequest program. The General Manager was majorly responsible for the overall profitability of hotel, but the ByRequest Manager could spend more money on customer in order to keep them satisfied. We know, customer satisfaction is a vague measure, and conflicts with general manager’s responsibility. Also employees’ incentive is based on profitability, which further conflicts with the long term vision of customer satisfaction. Third, ByRequest system wasn’t integrated with the PMS system. Customer had to give her/his member id upon arrival for ByRequest manager to know what she or he needed. Thus the manager could not prepare in advance. And in the case of customer forgetting her or his id (which would happen almost all the time), service could not be delivered, which resulted in bad customer experiences. In order for ByRequest to succeed, a streamlined customer signup process was very essential to be established. Wyndham also had to improve its organization strategy so that employee incentive was aligned with its business goal, and nothing got between ByRequest manager and customer. Last, deep integration of various information systems of Wyndham was supposed to be deeply integrated, for ByRequest Manager to respond to customer’s needs before they arrive.

Economic Geography Essay Sample - Understands the Essay Sample

Economic Geography Essay Sample - Understands the Essay SampleWhen you choose an economic geography essay sample, you should be aware of a few things before you make your selection. This essay sample is not the same for everyone and if you are not careful you could end up with a piece that does not meet your standards. Here are some important things to think about before you choose a geography essay writing sample.The first thing you need to consider is whether or not you should hire an instructor for your essay. There are several factors to consider when it comes to this. First, you will likely have less of an opportunity to see the essay in the classroom. Second, most colleges do not offer such a service. If you choose a class on economic geography as your essay topic, you will need to select one of the online economic geography essay samples available.The next factor to consider is whether or not geographic essays can be used in college. You will probably need to consult with an a dmissions officer at your college before you finalize your essay. Most colleges would not allow geography to be used as an essay topic, but there are many colleges that allow the use of geography as a theme in an essay.You will also need to consult with your instructor to find out if he or she is comfortable with your essay due to certain topic. You should always consult with your instructor before submitting your essay. You want to know that the professor is comfortable with the topic of your essay before you submit it.Your instructor may allow you to submit your essay to a common resource such as the College Board. This will help you become familiar with a variety of essay topics for various courses. This is a good idea if you are not comfortable with certain geographic essays.Your professor may also allow you to write research papers. These are usually done as small projects. You will probably have to make several revisions to your research paper so you will have to become famili ar with the topic before submitting it. This is an excellent way to become familiar with geography and any other topic you may want to write about.A third consideration is to consult with a counselor or advisor to see if you would like to take an exam in order to qualify for credit on the essay sample. This option is not offered at all colleges, so if you are considering it, be sure to check with your college's requirements first. The topic of geography is considered to be an elective and you may be asked to take the course to meet this requirement. Many schools require their students to take this test to fulfill this requirement.Once you decide which essay sample you want to use, you will need to ensure that the essay meets your expectations. Consider all of these factors before you commit to anything. Knowing what to expect will help you be prepared for the assignment and ensure you have a quality essay when it is due.

The affect of brain stress on ponzo illusion Essay Example

The affect of brain stress on ponzo illusion Essay Example The affect of brain stress on ponzo illusion Paper The affect of brain stress on ponzo illusion Paper The purpose of the present study was to determine the affect of brain stress on ponzo illusion. In addition the study examined the affect of presence or absence of converging lines background on judgments of lines length. The study sought to test Ponzos (1882-1960) hypothesis, referring to it as a misjudgment in a length of two lines. This experiment was tested among three students under two conditions, participants under stress and under no stress, each condition had three attempts and each attempt had ten trials. In stress condition, participants accomplished the following experiment after they came back from college. Participants adjusted the length of a line to match the length of another line in same page. Five trials were with the presence of converging lines background and the other five were with absence of converging lines. In the no stress condition, participants accomplished the experiment between 0700 0800 Oclock in the morning after breakfast. The study aim was to explore the correlation between stress conditions and the Ponzo illusion. The error range of length judgment in stress condition found to be higher than the no stress condition. Also the error was higher when converging lines were present. It was concluded that stress and present of converging lines have inverse affect of judgment of lines length. Introduction The Ponzo Illusion is a visual illusion that produces misjudgment in the length of two lines; most people dont get the length right when asked to set two lines to the same length because of Ponzo illusion. The illusion is named after Mario Ponzo (1882-1960) who first demonstrated it in 1913 (Vurdlak, 2008). The reason of such illusion happens when looking at lines in different length with converging lines background and how the brain analyze them; for example, if there were two boxes and they were the same size, one of them was 5 cm in front of you, the other is 5 meters in front of you, you will see that the nearby box is bigger than the far one. The same thing happens with lines in a paper where the brain thinks that one line is fare but the other is near you, so the line that is far should look smaller, but if they are the same size your brain will think the far line is bigger (Brislin, 1974). This illusion can also be observed in the moon, when the moon is on top of you it seems smaller than when it is close to the horizon, the truth is that the moon didnt change in size but the brain thinks that it should look smaller when it is far so if it does not it must have grown in size. There has been a lot of research in this field. Researchers suggested that there are two forms of Ponzo Illusions; circular ponzo Illusions and the Line Ponzo illusions (Robinson, 1972). Most studies to date have explored the line Ponzo illusion, although, studying the relationship between the line and circular forms of the illusion may offer additional signs to identify the possible determinants of the illusion (Yamagami, 2007). Different theories have been suggested to explain the Ponzo Illusion. Many studies have produced data supporting either theory. For example integration field theory (IFT), suggested by Pressey and Smith Martin (1990), is based on assumption that some parts of the stimulus are more likely to be processed than others. In accordance with this, the most relevant features to be processed are the ones confined within the four end points of the two segments to be compared (Roncato et al., 1997). Although most of the previous researches in this field are very well constructed, they are lacking the brain stability and hormones in the form of stress. This research is very important because it will explore the affect of life stress on the Ponzo Illusion. Stress in this research refers to lack of concentration and focus because of exhaustion and brain loads of life activities. The dependant variable is the difference in length between the adjustable line and the standard line. The independent variable is the status of the participants vision. There are number of confounding variables that have be considered in this research like, age difference between participants, eating habits, personal life, and area where participants are living in. All these variables will affect the stress and concentration in some forms. The aim of this study is to find if there is correlation between mental stress and Ponzo Illusion. The hypothesis of this study is that the mental stress will have a negative impact on concentration and therefore judgments of sizes will be affected. Also the presence of converging lines background complicates the issue and makes it even harder to judge the lines length. It was expected that when brain is stressed that the adjusted lines will be longer. It was also expected that when brain is stressed and converging lines are present, the adjusted lines will be even longer. Method Participants Three first year introductory psychology male students at PMU participated in the experiment as a course requirement. All participants had normal or corrected to normal vision. Materials Internet web site (http://psychexps.olemiss.edu/index.html) contains illusion experiment as follow. There are two parts of the experiment. First, two lines with different sizes are laid on converging track like (figure 1). Second, two lines are laid without the converging lines (figure 2). The participants are able to adjust the length of the lower lines by using the blue control arrow below the two lines that allows participants to adjust the size of the lower line to match the size of the upper line. There were 10 trials in this experiment, five trials with present of the converging lines and the other five without. Procedures All participants followed standardized instructions for each of the following conditions. Before the participants start the experiment they had to do one practice test, in that test each one of the participants had to move a blue arrow to adjust the length of a black line, if the arrow was moved to the right the line gets longer, if moved to the left the line gets shorter. Then they were asked to do the experiment three times in two different conditions. All participants had practice go before the real experiment start. The first condition is that the experiment must be done without stress (early morning). All participants must log on into the web before going to college and follow the experiment steps. All ten trials have to be completed without taking any break in between. After the first attempt wait for ten minutes and relax. Accomplish a second attempt using the same procedures in the first attempt. Participants must wait for ten minutes and relax before the third attempt by using the same procedures. The second condition must be done under stress (after a stressed day in college). In this condition participants must accomplish the experiment under a form of stress. Three attempts must be accomplished by each participant right after coming back from long stressed day in college. Accomplish the first attempt continuously without any breaks between trials. After the first attempt take a ten minutes break and then accomplish the second attempt. Take a ten minutes break and then accomplish the last attempt. The results of this experiment support the hypothesiss that with the brain stressed, the error magnitude is much higher as shown in (Table 1). Participant error in the first trial was very high p1=60 and as participant relaxed the error dropped to a lower level P1=29.20. In reference to (Table 2) the first trial for the first participant error was very low from the start P1=14 and the error continued to drop. Generally all participants showed very high error at start; however, the error rate deceased as the brain was relaxing. The result of the first and third participants showed a considerable amount of drop followed by a slight increase. This minor offset could be a momentarily loss of concentration or distraction. The results of the experiment when participants are not under stress are a lot better. It showed much lower error values for all participants. In reference to (Table 2), the error values continued to decrease for first and third participants. The second participant was slightly different because of possible noise in the house. There was a big increase in the error value in the second trial, however, a vast drop in the third trial. This is caused by the different in age between participants. Participant number one is approximately twenty years older than the other participants. The overall result summary showed higher error margin when lines are placed on converging lines. It also showed that the mean is also very high when the converging lines are present (mean = 23.086) and the standard deviation was (StDev = 16.308). When converging lines were absent, the data were much lower (mean = 7.267) and the standard deviation was (StDev = 5.955) as shown in (figure 3) Figure 3 Discussion The results support the hypothesis that stress affects judgment of line lengths and caused the adjusted lines to be longer. Also the present of converging lines affects judgment of lines length and caused the lines to be longer. This finding is consistent with Piagets theory (1969; cited in Wagner, 1977) that proposes the law of relative centrations. Centration is the trend to focus on one side of a situation and overlook others. The second hypothesis that length of horizontal lines judgment was affected when the converging lines background was present. This finding was consistent with Yamagamis theory (1976, 1978; cited in Yamagami, 2007) that the former distortion is attributed to the framing distortion specified as a contour interaction between a horizontal line and two vertical lines as shown in (table 3). The absence of converging lines caused the error to be lesser as shown in (table 4) One problem with the present experiment was the sample size was very small. In future studies, a larger sample size from different age group and different sex could be used to ensure that age is directly related to the misjudgment of lines length and also to explore the Ponzo illusion affect on female. In interpreting the present results it could be argued stress affects lines length judgment especially when converging background is present. Age is also a factor to the increasing of judgment error, with age increase the rate increases, however, the rate of change is not yet defined. Participant one has higher error rate, this is possibly because of age of the participant. Participants two and three are same age, however, participant two lives in a noisier area and this possibly one of the reasons of concentration loss and caused a higher error rate than participant three. The present study examined the effect of stress on Ponzo illusion on male students. Future study needs to examine other forms of stress and its effects on Ponzo illusion on female students.future research also needs to use larger sample and larger age scale in order to find the error rate compare to age. It would be of value in applied situations to control the confounding variables like food, exercise, and living environment to obtain accurate results.

Tomorrowland Brazil Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Tomorrowland Brazil - Essay Example That’s why we care for people & our planet†. The event is to take place in the City of Sao Paulo on 1st, 2nd and 3rd of May 2015. Pre-event party: A party is usually held on the night before day of the festival so as to give those to attend the event a clue of what to expect from the festival. It is known as The Gathering. The event attracts huge number of people who may not be taking part in the tomorrowland event itself. Tomorrowland Brazil offers rentable mansions: The mansions can be rented for a period of five days and is valid for a maximum of twelve people. The rentable mansions available in tomorrowland Brazil are made up of spacious living room, a kitchen with filled fridge, a bedroom, a terrace and a private bathroom, is supported by its own garden, private parking and a 24/7 service staff. It has an exclusive Jacuzzi which can accommodate many people. Mobile Apps: Those who will be attending the event will be provided with Mobile Apps that is available in both Android and Apple phones. The Apps have a number of features such as news feeds, updates on the various artists and appmiral connect. The minimum age requirement for the event is 18 years and this forms a very strictly policy of the event. This policy is ensured through the presentation of an official government-issued photo identification cards which includes original driving license, passport and ID. The tickets are grouped into four packages namely full madness regular pass, full madness comfort pass, day regular pass, day comfort pass. The rates for the packages are as follows for all the three

New Equality Act 2010 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

New Equality Act 2010 - Essay Example However, they are not well embraced in the modern times. It is believed that all people are equal regardless of their gender and race. As such, governments have been pushing for equality policies across the world. The United Kingdom parliament introduced the equality act 2010. This act was based on a number of laws and acts that had been introduced in the United Kingdom in the past. Despite its introduction, equality is yet to be achieved in the workplace (Varkaik, 2005). There are many challenges facing the implementation of this act. The equality act 2010 promises to equate all people regardless of their gender and race in the workplace but faces many challenges in the implementation, which need to be addressed accordingly. History of Equality Act 2010 The vision and objectives of the equality act 2010 were proposed back in the 1960s. It had been realized that some groups, gender, and races were discriminated against in the United Kingdom in many sectors. Some people were paid less in the workplace; others had challenges getting jobs because they belonged to a certain race and others because of their gender. The equal pay act of the 1970 was the first law to be passed regarding this. According to this law, people doing the same workload in the same department are required to be paid the same amount regardless of their gender and race. ... No employer or institution would discriminate any person basing on these grounds (United Kingdom Legislation, 2013). Disability act of 1995 also forms a part of the equality act 2010. Disabled people should have equal opportunities to employment basing on this law. The Equality Law 2010 (Work Place) The passing of the Equality Act 2010 was embraced by many people across the United Kingdom. However, there are serious concerns about whether anything will change. Experts have been documenting everything that has been happening after passing of the vital acts which form a part of the Equality Act 2010. They have confirmed that indeed, not a lot of changes have been documented after the passing of those acts. No wonder some people have been questioning what has been happening in the last four decades from the time the Equal Pay act was passed in 1970. The very things the parliament meant to protect people from have been happening right under their eyes. Discrimination This is one of the l argest problems in the United Kingdom in the current times. Despite the passing of laws to reduce discrimination, research indicates otherwise (Favre, Grainger and Brewer, 2011). Women and minority races in the United Kingdom are the most affected. Women do not have equal opportunities with men in the work place (Verkaik, 2008). While many men are employed in well paying permanent jobs, only a few women are employed. The other women are employed in low paying part time (Lee, 2002). In fact, only about 30% on average women are employed in the permanent well paying jobs. The percentage of women in the low paying part time jobs is 79%. This clearly indicates that most

No Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

No - Research Paper Example These dogmatic traditional roles place women at a lower pedestal than the elevated platforms that their male counterparts proclaim so proudly. Despite all this discrimination, women have risen to overcome this uphill task through their in born strengths and power. I believe that women are strong, powerful, competitive and equal to men in all avenues of life and if provided with equal opportunities, they are bound to excel even where men have failed. The traditional traits that women are given include sensitivity, apprehension and warmth while in contrasting fashion, the men pose as emotionally stable, dominating, vigilant. These stereotyped traits are in essence transferred to their roles as women end up being viewed as having passive, caring and nurturing and subordination tendencies unlike men. Men on the other hand enjoy a stronger role that proclaims that they are strong, aggressive and dominating over women. However, these stereotyped views are not always reliable as it has been found that either gender has the ability to exhibit roles previously not associated with. As history has shown us, men can also be caring and sensitive while women have shown courage and dominance as is seen in leadership-oriented careers. However, the sexism differs in severity from one society to another as each society has its own values, systems and assigned gender roles. Since time immemorial, art has been used to represent and paint the society as it is. As forms of art, films have been used to advocate for, against or even to represent various aspects in society. Films have been used to depict the rot and evil in society, celebrate the good and righteous and also to issue warning against trends that might affect society in the future. The same principle applies to the acclimated trio of timeless classics: Metropolis, Alien and 2001: A Space Odyssey that in their own unique ways

Cannibalism Essay example -- Religion Violence Cannibal Essays

Cannibalism Cannibalism has been around since the beginning of time. Mainly as an act of defense or as an alternate, last resort, for food. Cannibalism is also used as an act of violence among animals to preserve their genetics. Human cannibalism however, was not used as an act of violence to cause pain and anguish amongst other human beings. Cannibalism within the human race is widely known throughout the world, though you may not know it. From New Guinea to the high deserts of Arizona the practice of cannibalism has been used. Why cannibalism was practiced is still a mystery to many. Some think it actually was an act of violence, to torture the souls of others as revenge for invading the other person’s territory. Cannibalism, however, has much more meaning than most people actually think. As a religious practice cannibalism is very important to many tribes around the world. Great consequences await those who do not cannibalize their dead. As a source of food, the people who resorted to this were in situations of life or death. They did not kill people around them to survive, but ate the already deceased. However, there are some cases of cannibalism that are not necessary, and have yet to be determined what would provoke someone to eat another person just because they wanted too. For the most part though, cannibalism throughout the world has been questioned but none have really ventured out to find the true answers to it. A very curious subject indeed, cannibalism is not as grim a subject as most people have thought it to be. Although cannibalism is thought to be heatless and cruel, under dire circumstances and for religious purposes, it is not an act of malice. Like many things cannibalism has differe... ... very universal. Cannibalism is not an act of malice to cause pain and anguish to those being cannibalized, for many it is for the better of their people. For survival means, had those people lost not cannibalized the deceased members of their party, no one would have survived. While there are still some cases of cannibalism that are not justified the ones that are recorded are few and far between. Cannibalism is a way of life for some people, why should which be looked down upon and grimaced at? Cannibals are human just like anyone else, with different beliefs and ways of life. It is not cruel to release a loved ones soul into the afterlife, or to make use of a friend that would probably want you to live through something that they happened not to live through. They are not cruel, they cannibalize because it is part of them, in order to live their life.