Aligning Organizational Goals and Operations Strategy

Oct. 30-31, 2002

Agenda

• Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts

• The Strategy Development Process

Four Seasons Hotels and ResortsService Concept

• What is the service concept?

• What distinguishes Four Seasons in the marketplace?

The Internet

• How should Four Seasons view opportunities presented by the Internet?

Technology and Four Seasons

• Conceptualize Four Seasons technology strategy.

• Is this a viable strategy?

The future – A Growth Company?

• What should Four Season do to become “one of the decade’s great growth companies?”

The Strategy Design Process(Kaplan and Norton)

• A template that helps executive teams describe their strategies

Strategy Development Process

Step 1 – Financial Perspective

• Revenue Growth Strategy– Develop new revenue sources (“Franchise

Building”)– Increase profitability per customer (“Better

Value”)• Productivity Strategy

– Reduce cost/unit– Improve asset utilization

Step 2 – Understand what the customer wants (Customer Perspective)

• What is our basis for competing?• Prioritize important competitive dimensions

that will allow us to compete on this basis– Those that relate to

• Operational Excellence• Customer Intimacy• Product Leadership

• Goal Understand how to satisfy the customer

Step 3 – Learning and Growth Perspective• Identify key:

– Strategic Competencies

– Strategic Technologies

– Culture – Climate for action

Step 4 – Internal Perspective (i.e. capabilities)• Optimize Key

– Innovation Processes (new products, core technologies)

– Customer Management processes (strategic control, integration between customer and supplier)

– Delivery Processes and Systems (optimize)

– Regulatory and Environmental processes

Need a comprehensive plan

• Short term (quick) – Implementation of productivity related changes

• New techniques for doing things.• Relocate/outsource processes

• Longer term– New products– New customer markets

• Measures to track success and failure– Balanced Scorecard approach (Kaplan)

Summary

• Contrast between developing operations strategic capabilities – high volume, low cost vs. low volume, high service.

• A comprehensive process for strategy development.

Operations Strategy• Alignment of capabilities with strategy

requirements.• Capabilities – product/service delivery

processes, management and control systems, other organizational capabilities.

• Competitive priorities – qualifiers, winners.• Strategy design process – financial,

customer, internal perspectives – key competencies. Alignment of plan with goals.