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Hospitality Leadership Through Learning
Faculty & Research

Introduction to Functional Best Practices

A function-based orientation to best practices allows for the isolation of practices that are unique to specific disciplinary orientations. This approach to examining best practices is widely accepted and provides the advantage of helping professionals to focus on practices within their own departmental or discipline area of interest (Hiebeler, Kelly, & Ketteman, 1998).

We investigated practices by function to offer departmental managers, such as a director of sales and marketing, with the opportunity to concentrate their use of the study findings on their own area of influence regardless of the product segment in the industry in which the practice originated. The case listing by function provided later in this chapter is designed to help the reader locate cases in a specific functional area. Many of the cases in this report have activities, ideas, or practices that have applicability to several different functional areas; hence, the listings by function many include the same case study in more than one functional category.

In our study the functional categories were identified for both corporate and property levels with the council of our industry experts. Since some functions differ between corporate and property levels a distinction needed to be drawn between these two levels. Business development and design/architecture for example are often centralized areas of innovation that do not have property level counterparts. In other situations, like property level general management versus corporate level management, the activities and issues of concern are different and may elicit different types of practices. In summary, a total of six property level functions, and ten corporate level functions were identified as unique areas for best practices to emerge in this study. The functional areas are listed below in Table 1 for both corporate and property levels of operation. However, it should be noted that within the classification index of cases by functional area, we combined the sales, marketing, and sales & marketing functional areas into one section. In the original methodology and survey these functional areas were separate, but after reviewing the final case summaries of the best practice champions from these three functional areas, it was determined that the activities represented by the cases were so diffused and blurred that one classification section representing all sales and marketing practices should be created.

Table 1: Functional Departments / Areas

Corporate Level Functions Property Level Functions

Corporate Level Functions                  Property Level Functions
Corporate Manager                            General Manager
Controller                                            Controller
Food & Beverage                                Food & Beverage
Information Technology                      Information Technology
Human Resources                               Human Resources
Operations / Rooms Mgt.                    Operations / Rooms Mgt.
Sales                                                   Sales & Marketing
Marketing
Business Development
Design / Architecture

Critical activities within each functional area were devised and included in the phase I nomination surveys as a guide to help the functional experts select champions within their own areas of expertise. Respondents could nominate potential champions within the functional areas that did not relate to these critical activities. The key activities within each function are provided in Table 3 below. While these key activities were derived from previous research (Cline and Rach 1996; Enz and Corsun 1996; Renaghan and Green 1993; Roth, Chase and Voss 1997), they were substantially adapted for use in this study. After the data was collected, they were again useful as a guide for the construction of the classification of cases by functional area presented in the next section of this chapter.

Table 2: Functional Categories with Key Activities

Business Development
(Corporate Level Only)

  • Mergers / Acquisitions
  • Market Development Performance
  • Product Development Speed
  • Deal Making Skills / Shrewdness
  • Negotiating Skills / Closing Ability

Controller
(Corporate & Property Level)

  • Cash Flow Management
  • Integrating Accounting with Operations
  • Integrating Accounting with Marketing
  • Internal Control Systems
  • Capital Expenditure Planning Process

Corporate Level Management
(Corporate Level Only)

  • Vision / Mission Creation
  • Maintaining Quality / Developing Standards
  • Managing for Profitability
  • Managing for Customer Retention
  • Managing People / Fostering Teamwork / Growing the Potential of Your People

Design / Architecture
(Corporate Level Only)

  • Design Aesthetics / Functionality
  • Flexibility of Facilities and Diversity of Services
  • Relationships With Owners / Designers
  • Capital Expenditure Planning Process
  • New Product / Service Development

Food & Beverage Management
(Corporate & Property Level)

  • Distinctiveness / Diversity of F&B Services and Experiences
  • Profit Margin Management in Services
  • Maximizing Consistency and Clarity of F&B Service Standards
  • Cost Measurement and Inventory Monitoring
  • Purchasing / Inventory Management

General Management
(Property Level Only)

  • Managing People / Fostering Teamwork
  • Maintaining Quality / Developing Standards
  • Managing For Profitability
  • Managing the Owner Relationship
  • Adapting to Local Competitive Conditions with Speed / Flexibility

Human Resources Management
(Corporate & Property Level)

  • Measuring & Building Employee Satisfaction / Loyalty
  • Designing Selection and Retention Systems
  • Developing Employee Training and Development
  • Designing Employee Compensation and Rewards
  • Developing Employee Performance Standards & Appraisal Strategies
  • Diversity Management

Information Technology/Systems
(Corporate & Property Level)

  • Leveraging or Renovating Current Information Infrastructure
  • Integrating Technology with Operations
  • Integrating Property and Corporate Information Systems
  • Preparing and Training of People in the Use of Technology
  • Yield Management Systems
  • Reservation Systems

Marketing
(Corporate Level Only)

  • Brand / Image Management
  • Measuring / Managing / Building Customer Loyalty
  • Competitive Positioning
  • Long Term Market Development
  • Use of Multiple Distribution Channels

Rooms Division/Operation Management
(Corporate & Property Level)

  • Cleaning & Maintaining Physical Property
  • Managing Safety and Security=
  • Guest Services & Relationship Management
  • Integration of Front-Office with Back-of-House
  • Managing Check-in / Check-out
  • Yield Management


Sales
(Corporate Level Only)

  • Managing Business Mix
  • Yield / Revenue Management
  • Sales Promotions
  • Building and Managing Long Term Relationships
  • Rewarding and Motivating the Sales Force

Sales & Marketing
(Property Level Only)

  • Managing Business Mix
  • Yield / Revenue Management
  • Sales Promotions
  • Building and Managing Long Term Relationships
  • Rewarding and Motivating the Sales Force