Project - high performance organization

Conway Inn & Restaurant: A Project Proposal Conway Inn & Restaurant: A Project Proposal Overview of the Organization The organization that will be covered in my final project paper is Conway Inn & Restaurant. The restaurant is a privately owned company, in which I work as a manager under the leadership of my father. The hotel has been open since 1999, and its goal has always been to make guests and patrons feel at home. The hotel was brought in 1978, and it was franchised into Friendship Inns. We removed the franchise tag in the late 1980s because the customer flow was great, and there was no need to pay the franchise fee; therefore, we made it into an independent hotel. In the past few years, the customer flow has slowed, and we can see that by looking at the registration logs, which we keep for our records to show us the rate of drop. By offering amenities such as refrigerators in the rooms, free Wi-Fi connection, and cab services for tipsy guests, the organization has always been popular with locals and a preferred hotel for those traveling through the town. However, Conway Inn & Restaurant began to suffer a downturn in the customer flow in 2010, and this has been a major area of concern ever since. The organization used to have diverse visitors of various races, but of late, a trend towards senior citizens has been seen, which has reduced the customer flow drastically. This has caused the organization to cut back on some of its services such as the discounted cab services. The reduced customer flow has also led to staff layoffs, although this has not been on a large scale. With the decrease in the customer flow, Conway Inn & Restaurant has been forced to cut back on its discounted cab service as discussed. While Conway Inn & Restaurant has always tried to offer the best services possible to its customers, this has become more difficult with the decrease in the customer flow. At the present time, the management is even considering scaling back on its room service, as well as subletting some of its rooms. This is because Conway Inn & Restaurant has been trying to cut back on costs given the reduced revenue stream. The loss of the discounted cab service altogether would be a big loss given that it has been a major selling point for the organization, especially for the inn customers. I work as a manager with Conway Inn & Restaurant, where I started in 2009. It is under my watch as a manager that the customer flow has decreased and, for this reason, I feel it is up to me to find the underlying cause of the issue and come up with workable solutions. The long time employees at Conway Inn & Restaurant often remember with nostalgia the days when customers would be turned back at the inn, as well as the fully booked hotel rooms in summer. Last summer, we only had half occupancy, which shows the problem is stark. The recent state of the customer flow has given the employees reasons to worry as there are constant rumors of layoffs. Problem Statement Conway Inn & Restaurant has been undergoing customer flow reductions in the last two and a half years. This has led to the organization cutting back on some of its services, making some services leaner, and laying off redundant staff. The latter has been occasioned by the fact that some services cannot be offered with reduction in the customer flow. This has led to decreased revenue and wavering employee confidence in the organization’s capability to keep them employed. These issues can only be solved, in my opinion, by increasing the customer flow and transitioning to a high performance organization, or an HPO. We would also like to look into franchising the organization into Best Western. Customer flow can be defined as the number of customers who pass through Conway Inn & Restaurant. It is also the number of customers, and their pattern as they come into the inn and restaurant and access the services that are offered by the establishment. It can be monitored through observation, normal or time-lapsed CCTV, or even through an analysis of data bought. By using these methods, Conway Inn & Restaurant is able to get useful information concerning flow patterns, customer numbers, areas not visited by the customers, bottlenecks, and other essential aspects of client behavior. A high performance organization is one that outperforms its competitors on a consistent basis. This will be done at Conway Inn & Restaurant in order to realize increased revenues through our HR functions. The research will aim to compare us to other organizations based on customer satisfaction, profitability, market share, and revenue growth as well as the effects that these factors have on the customer flow. In the paper, there will be five interrelated human capital areas which will be studied: market, culture, talent, leadership, and strategy. At Conway Inn & Restaurant, we will seek to integrate successful practices that will move beyond the customer flow and numbers, and to identify tactics that we can implement and execute. For instance, by using data we collect on customers more carefully, it will be possible to identify critical positions within the organization, design appropriate strategies for the best performers, focus on the metrics of talent management, and finally, foster innovation through emphasizing a transparent culture.