Four Seasons Change Management

Four Seasons Change Management Introduction This report is about Four Seasons Hotels, their outstanding management principles and core values, which played a crucial role in the legendary breakthrough in the hospitality industry. It describes also a big challenge of entering a new country, new market and facing completely different mentality and environment. It represents how core principles and values of Four Seasons were implemented during this establishment. It also describes gradually the process of adaptation, along with profound managerial decisions which were made and management strategies, which were applied during this process. Executive management of Four Seasons had set an ambitious goal to enter French market with an opening the first hotel in Paris under their brand. They were aware and have predicted the difficulties they might face with French culture and especially in Paris. On the early stage of Four Seasons development they have applied a core principle of flexibility, which leads to success and they were learning across borders, from each country and property1 as well. The senior managers of Four Seasons claimed: Our strengths is our diversity and our singularity, while the essence of culture may vary2, by stating that they were building new management principles. In general the report covers crucial managerial tactics and decisions, aimed to adapt to a new culture and environment as well as to manage difficulties in a highly effective and entrepreneurial manner. Cultural awareness and adaptation Before entering French market, Four Seasons Hotel Corporation had managed challenges related to entering new markets in different countries. From theoretical perspective they were prepared and experienced to admit that every culture is different and there are many distinctions in preferences of customers and the way service is expected to be provided. Based on their acknowledgement, they have stated a pattern, which says Italian in Italy, French in France3 that will lead to the target result Each hotel is a tailor made and adapted to its national environment; each property represent its location4. Based on the previous statements, Four Seasons had drawn a creative, internationally-based and worthwhile approach, variable from country to country,- creating cultural destinations4 and allowing those cultures be distinctive with clearly highlighted features of each of them. Their success lies in the knowledge and awareness of a simple principle of flexibility that one should adapt a management style and service delivery to each country. The standards were designed according to each destination, allowing the local flexibility and encouragement of doing something beyond5 the core standards and values. In terms of cultural awareness globally, Four Seasons regional management structure was considered to be a key component of its ability to deliver and maintain the highest and most consistent service standards at each property6 as well as to adapt to every culture effectively and efficiently. One of the key challenges and difficulties to launch Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris was adaptation to the cultural differences and national mentality of the people. Although executive management was aware of cultural diversity issue, what is proved by their statement: If you are going global you cannot be one way7, it still seems not enough to manage all internal and external environment affects at the beginning. Cultural differences were the major barrier for Four Seasons management, on the grounds that they were part of several problematic issues among employees, such as postponement of responsibilities, exaggeration of self inability to solve challenging situations and needless of reference to existing standards. Previously mentioned facts are the sign of low level of responsibility and accountability of decisions among middle and front-line managers. Problematic issues had also involved unreasonable scepticism of Four Seasons in the society and employees without actually knowi ng it. Management Change One of the greatest and crucial management change was new General Manager Le Clavez, who was an ideal candidate for this position. Firstly, he was French and that was beneficial for employees perception and understanding of their needs. Secondly, Le Clavez had a lot of experience in Four Seasons in the US, so that he knew the core values and standards by heart. Thirdly, he had willingness to return in France, which plays a critical role and affects the future performance. Le Clavez has established a lead by example tactic through Apples and Oranges approach which is a part of Total Quality Management and says if one rotten apple can ruin the barrel, then you have to seed the organization with oranges8. According to this fair approach, people with the right attitude were promoted, what shows loyalty and tolerance of management. In the same time it was a smart and wise adaptation measure, avoiding violence, restrictions and negative-effects. Nowadays the importance of cultural awareness is critical for a success, especially in the times of globalization9. Overall it is seen that hospitality managers are searching for patterns in order to fix cultural problems. The topic of cultural diversity and management is relevant and described in details in many books, where authors and professionals state that cultural identity is multidimensional, involving far more than nationality alone10. It also a big issue and the greatest challenge in intercultural interactions to decide who adapts whom and how11. Based on the last argument Four Seasons management in Paris has done an attempt for mutually beneficial solutions and suggested compromises for both sides, by accepting an existing situation and features of French culture. 2. Four Seasons success is owed to an excellent core values and management system which ensures compliance of family structure in the hotels. The Golden Rule of Four Seasons is the greatest approach among the all, because it is fairly simple, functional and says: One should treat others as one would like to be treated12. The Golden Rule puts all 270 core worldwide operating standards into practice, unlike many other organisations, which have it on paper only. In addition the perception of standards among executive managers is equally spread worldwide. Another distinctive value of Four Seasons is personalized service and flexibility with a help of which management allows employees to go beyond the standards in order to satisfy and over fulfil guests needs, whenever it is possible. From my point of view, the main focus has to be held on people, and Four Seasons Hotel policy had proved my assurance, by drawing to the attention the fact that people make the strength of the company. I am convinced that as easier for understanding the value or rule is, than more effectively it will be sustained in reality, and people are those priceless resources, who build and compose any company and its future. One more overwhelming factor, which highlights Four Seasons among others, is maintenance of all standards and core policies all staff all over the world at all times. For this particular reason a key word SERVICE states for Smile, Eye, Recognition, Voice, Informed, Clean and Everyone13. An impressing simplicity of this policy has created a ground for installation core values and principles of Four Seasons worldwide. A performance of Four Seasons on a global arena wouldnt have been outstanding, without the leading figures who were driving the process of development to inevitable success. Outgoing persons such as the founder, chairman and CEO Isadore Sharp and executive vice president John Young are the biggest shareholders of Four Seasons. Owing to them and many more local talented executive managers, like Le Clavez in Paris, core values and standards were successfully instilled in the hotel operation worldwide. One of the profound values, appraised in Four Seasons are human values of employees and The Golden Rule is the best proof of it. John Young commented about The Golden Rule: We recognize that the only way to assure that guests are treated well is to treat employees well14. According to the last statement, Four Seasons provides everything necessary for its employees, including spare uniform, trainings top-notch equipment, feedbacks and all the necessary information.14 270 core worldwide operating standards have several exceptional characteristics, which make them operating globally. First is their allowance of local flexibility, so that service will be provided according to local preferences. Second is a profound awareness of core standards and principles, so that some executive managers perceive standards as a religion! Cultural awareness made another beneficial input to the company, which designed the Apples and Oranges approach, which was instilled in hotel in Paris following by a s alutary and desirable effect. Another significant step of cultural renovation of Four Seasons property in Paris which Le Clavez has applied was The Task Force approach, which was instilled in every new property previously. This approach has a worthwhile deep impact on employees, because it uncovers underlying philosophy of the company and helps getting the property running. It is also considered as a strong symbol and highly effective approach from a human resource perspective.15 General Manager of F.S. George V has also instilled trustworthiness and reliability among employees, by simply keeping the promises and decisions made, when implementing The Golden Rule. With time staff members has realized that management of the hotel is supporting them in all different ways. It also tries to follow the tide with an intention to improve employees personal lives, by changing working shifts in favour of their interests. In my opinion, Le Clavez played a primary role in the establishing of hotel in Paris and especially in bringing into it a Four Seasons flavour. His entrepreneurial and effective decisions contain the half of successful installation of core values and standards. Le Clavez did not limit himself on applying common strategies and approaches; he took a risk to go beyond ordinary practices and brought worthy changes into French business. 3. Entrepreneurship is a necessary measure to apply in unstable conditions of internal and external environment. The decisions and new approaches that Le Clavez had instilled into the management structure were reasonable and innovative. The strategy of general manager was in compliance with The General Principles for Successful Cultural Change16, where the first step is acceptance of existing behaviours, based on values and underlying assumptions within the organisation and encouragement of those, who meet organisational objectives. Le Clavez first has announced the Commitment of good environment17, he was communicating ideas and organisational objectives and in an open manner to employees. Secondly, the means of Apple and Oranges approach is perfectly matches The General Principles for Successful Cultural Change. And finally, as a result all entrepreneurial measure which he had taken worked out in the best case scenario. External environment in France was unusual for American, from the legal perspective, affecting design, work pattern and laws in favour of employees, regarding to the working hours, hygiene and right-to-light. Internal environment factors are closely linked to external in the way that mentality and French pride of personnel was interfering the working process and law were creating termination difficulties. The major differences refer to cultural, where monochronic American culture with its scheduling, code of behaviour and stability states versus polichronic French culture, to which instability in employees attitude is typical. Regarding to these cultural inequality, several difficulties related to the job and professional performance can be emphasized, they include: limited selling activities, inability to apologize, accept ones fault or responsibility, and many others. An absolute difference between American and French cultures had created a detrimental barrier, which had an adverse impact on the business until the critical entrepreneurial practices were applied. Le Clavez was on the right path of improvement by instilling several unusual for France communication approaches. One of it was a Direct line approach, which was a turning point of qualitative and effective communication among different managerial levels. Another innovation in communicative process was an open door event, which involved families of employees to spend time in the hotel and to break down existing barriers18. In order to reward employees, Le Clavez has introduced uncommon in France employee-of-the-month and employee-of-the-year program along with annual evaluations. These programs were settled on the fair basis of meritocracy and aimed to avoid favoritism. On the external level, Le Clavez was straight-forward and open minded when dealing with press and publicity, which had helped to create a transparent and beneficial image of the hotel. As a result of managing cultural diversity, Le Clavez had created A Cultural Cocktail or in other words a truly international environment with a French flavor and several entrepreneurial innovations. The process of development wasnt easy in the beginning and It is understandable that people tend to be resistant to change19 because of their comfort zone, which is familiar to them. One of the new HR trends says that the measurable result and target is to create a win-win situation for both the employer and employee20 that is exactly what Le Clavez had achieved in Paris. At present cultural awareness plays a particular role in Hospitality management during an increasing globalization process. People understand importance of cultural diversity and create new approaches to manage it efficiently and effectively in their businesses. Management of change gains its popularity and appraisal in todays industry. Executive management understands values and significance of flexibility in managing external and internal environment, cultural differences. Building workplace equality through the cultural borders is crucial success factor nowadays. We can observe a variety of approaches in management regarding to previous subjects, they include: Cultural-Cocktail simulation21, focus groups observations and countless number of cultural diversity trainings, books, materials, researches and practical case studies. It all monitors an actual tendency to make organizations more accommodating to diverse groups of people22 and to react on unexpected situations in external environment. Conclusion The senior management was anticipating a great challenge and triumph, although they could not know in advance what exactly they are going to face with. The report provides analyses of the process of installation of core Four Seasons values into the French environment. It also compares Four seasons experience, management tactics and approaches of that time with todays reality. Every remarkable success is inseparable from stability and maintenance of quality, in other words it is not enough to reach a high level of service, standards and quality, one should sustain it on that high level constantly. Common understanding of core principles and values of Four Seasons management worldwide, as well as common culture of providing a luxury service, supported with simplicity of standards and its actual implementation, has been recognised and appraised globally. I would like to admit an outstanding professional performance and management of Le Clavez and the whole Four Seasons organization on the global arena. The core managerial principles which were innovated that time are still relevant and serve a base for future technologies. The story of hotel George V in Paris analysed in this report can be considered as a tutorial guide full of entrepreneurial and innovative ideas, as well as logical steps, which were intended to modify the current environment and to handle cultural diversity issues effectively. It is also an illustrative description, which reveals key managerial principles for the success, quality and sustainability of Four Seasons.

Diary of a Mad Black Woman

The film Diary of a Mad Black Woman depicts a situation that many people find themselves in every day. Helen McCarter is a successful wife who has everything it seems she could possibly ever want- a fantastically beautiful home and a well-off husband.Her husband literally throws her out of the house when he admits to having an affair so that his mistress and her children can move in. She relies on her family, close friends, and God to help her through the ordeal. When Helen’s husband is ironically maimed in a car accident, she cruelly torments him, the way that he abusively tormented her throughout their marriage.In one scene, Helen torments her husband because he can not bathe himself, and then literally throws him into a bathtub, rescuing him only seconds before he would have drowned. The film Diary of a Mad Black Woman depicts a fair amount of spousal abuse. In one of the opening scenes of the film, the husband (Charles) throws his wife out of the car and tells her that he hates her. Not only is this an extreme example of physical abuse, it is also an excellent example of the lesser known, and therefore lesser addressed, verbal and emotional abuse.However, Helen is for some reason completely blindsided by this turn of events, although it seems as if she has been enduring this abuse for the past eighteen years of their marriage. It certainly seems as though her sense of self worth has reached such a low that she could not even see how her husband leaving her was a possibility. I felt that there were many mixed messages showcased throughout this film. That is not to say it was not a good movie-I believe that it was. Diary of a Mad Black Woman took on a ridiculously Christian, preachy tone.When Helen begins dating a new man, she claims that he’s a â€Å"good Christian man,† as if this were a deal breaker. Helen apparently finds Jesus, become a devout Christian, and attends church religiously. Once her husband is injured in a gun fight, not only does she refuse to turn the other cheek, the audience is left to feel as if they should be cheering on her decidedly unchristian values. Helen takes advantage of her husband, which seems to be the farthest thing a true Christian would do. I think that there certainly was a lesson and a moral to this film, although I’m not sure that it came across in the correct way.The director was obviously trying to show that regardless of one’s past, it is possible to overcome horrific tragedy. Was this done about in the correct way? I believe not. I feel as if the writer and director of this film used â€Å"Christian values† as a crutch in order to get away with both a mediocre storyline and directing. Obviously, this was not an accurate portrayal of this specific type of phenomenon. It would take much more than â€Å"the power of Jesus† to restore one’s psyche after eighteen years worth of abuse.In addition, the fact that any behavior is alright, as long as it’s done in the name of Jesus, is completely disgusting, but this is how the film seems to justify Helen’s quick recovery. But, there certainly is something to be said for such strong message. Although the heroine’s plight was filmed as if she were extremely naà ¯ve in the first place, ultimately, the audience is left to assume that Helen has overcome the abuse she was dealing with. This film was, in my opinion, a good example of something that could happen in anyone’s life. It reminds me of a woman that used to attend our church with her family.The relationship she had with her husband was obviously strange, but no one could quite decide what was wrong with it. The husband was the associate pastor, and the wife volunteered in the church nursery almost every Sunday. Therefore, it seemed as if this couple could do no harm.Suddenly, one day she left her husband, and took her kids with her. People within the church immediately began blaming her for the abuse, claiming that she obviously did something wrong, and that she hadn’t â€Å"submitted to her husband† as the Bible demands. Later, people said that the only way she could be healed was through Jesus.Of course, this is ridiculous. Not to take anything away from religion, but most would agree that overcoming abuse requires therapy in different forms, and this is assuming that no other psychological disorders have stemmed from the abuse, such as depression, anxiety disorders, of post-traumatic stress disorder.Ultimately, I feel that this was a very strong movie, and that it depicted what abuse and its effects have on a person. While it was grossly understated, the audience certainly had a very good idea of what an abused person, especially an abused wife goes through during a recovery process.

Arthur Andersen’s Legal Ethical Issues

Describe the legal and ethical issues surrounding Andersen’s auditing of companies accused of accounting improprieties The largest bankruptcy of a non-profit organization,the investors of Baptist Foundation of Arizona sued Andersen which served as the auditor for $217 million for issuing false and misleading approvals of BFA financial statements and also lost $570 million donor funds. BFA management allegedly took money from other investors to pay off the current investors which the court held that there is a Ponzi scheme going on.Here, the auditors of Arthur Andersen has clearly compromising their integrity and honesty by issuing a false information to the public. The next company up in the sacks is Sunbeam whereby Arthur Andersen audits failed to address serious accounting errors while they issued an unqualified opinion. Losses to the shareholders amounting to well over $4. 4 billion and 1,700 people was jobless. Andersen paid $110 million out of an approved $141 million for the settlement of the case which they resolve the claims without admitting fault or liability.Andersen was also named in the case of Waste Management where they could earn additional fees in some â€Å"special work† which in this case overstating nearly $1. 4 billion earnings. At first, Andersen identified those improper accounting practices and presented them but both Waste Management and Andersen went into a closed-door engagement with Andersen to write off those accumulated errors. Here there is a Self-Interest threat.In the case of Enron, Andersen admitted that they had destroyed a number documents concerning its audit on Enron which had filed bankruptcy in late 2001. The destroyed documents had led to an indictment for obstruction of justice on March 14, 2004. Further scandals surfaced and this time is WorldCom where they blame Andersen for failing to find the accounting irregularities however Andersen blame for the scandal insisting that the expense irregularities had not been disclosed to them and it had complied SEC standards in its auditing for WorldCom

A Paradise State Of Mind - 981 Words

A Paradise State of Mind Paradise is defined as an ideal state, and most everyone’s idea of paradise is different. Some may think of white, sandy beaches with crystal blue shorelines; while, to others paradise may just be a sense of feeling whole and safe. Everyone is always looking for ways to gain their paradise, or if they believe they already have it, then they are concerned with maintaining their paradise so that it will not be lost. In â€Å"The Story of an Hour† by Kate Chopin, the reader sees Mrs. Mallard gaining paradise and becoming free, but in the end losing it; while, in â€Å"An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge† by Ambrose Bierce, the reader sees Peyton Farquhar’s struggle to maintain his paradise but he in turn also loses it. This is true for everyday life too. Each day we struggle to maintain our paradise while facing many trials. In the first story, â€Å"The Story of an Hour†, Mrs. Mallard, gains paradise and loses all in a very shor t time. 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