Do some research on six sigma . Explain what it is. Do you think its reputation as a “ creativity killer” is justified ? Why or why not?

Six Sigma is a management philosophy developed by Motorola that emphasizes setting extremely high objectives, collecting data, and analyzing results to a fine degree as a way to reduce defects in products and services. The Greek letter sigma is sometimes used to denote variation from a standard.

The philosophy behind Six Sigma is that if you measure how many defects are in a process, you can figure out how to systematically eliminate them and get as close to perfection as possible. In order for a company to achieve Six Sigma, it cannot produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities, where an opportunity is defined as a chance for nonconformance.

What does this say about what Starwood accomplished with its six sigma program ? What could other companies learn from

Starwood's experience

Six Sigma is an internationally recognized approach that enables associates to develop innovative customer focused solutions and transfer those innovations rapidly across an organization. Starwood’s Six Sigma program is unique to the hospitality industry. Six Sigma at Starwood has helped increase financial performance by improving the quality and consistency of guests' experiences as well as those of our internal customers

………………….

How important do you think it is to have a culture creativity? Explain if a company doesn’t have such a culture what could managers do?

When running your own small business, one characteristic all business owners must have is creativity. Without it, it is nearly impossible to stay afloat. This innovative spirit is especially important to the small business owner who does not have the kind of budgets that big corporations can play with. You need to be able to craft new and innovative ways to get the most “bang for your buck;” whether by refurbishing old unsuccessful projects into successful ones, cutting your costs without cutting corners, and of course, by thinking of new ways of boosting your sales. While most small business owners embody this innovative spirit; oftentimes they forget to foster this spirit throughout their company. To run efficiently and productively as possible, your entire team needs to be on the same creative page as you

The Calm Waters Metaphor Until recently the calm waters metaphor dominated the thinking of practicing managers and academics. The prevailing model for handling change in calm waters is best illustrated in Kurt Lewin’s three step description of the change process. According to Lewin, successful change requires unfreezing the status quo, changing to a new sate, and freezing the new change to make it permanent. The status quo can be considered an equilibrium state. Unfreezing is necessary to move from this equilibrium.

Do you think the hotel/ resort industry environment is more calm water or white water rapids? Explain your choice

Refreezing Changing Unfreezing

Exhibit The change Process

White-Water Rapids Metaphor takes into consideration the fact that environments are both uncertain and dynamic. The stability and predictability of the calm waters do not exist. Many of today’s managers never get out of the rapids. They are facing constant change, bordering on chaos. Many of today’s managers are being forced to play a game that they have never played before that is governed by rules created as the game progresses