Case Study

The Imperial

Summary of the Case

The Case study is about a seaside hotel in Mombasa Kenya. It tells in about the various ups
and down of the hotel. It also discusses how the hotel has passed from Introduction stage to
decline & what its manager can do to avoid decline and death. It gives us a view of certain
ways, which can be adopted to revitalize the hotel.

PROBLEMS IN THE CASE

1. The turbulence in Kenya post Second World War.

2. The political unrest in the nation.

3. Less number of tourists due to political unrest.

4. Change of five owners of the hotel in just a span of 3 decades.

5. The absence of GP from daily management of the hotel operations.

6. The different leadership styles of Martin Kimathi and Susan Chapman the head of
housekeeping.

7. The competition of Imperial with other highly luxurious hotels in the vicinity.

8. The highly autocratic style of Susan Chapman.

9. To maintain year end profitability.

 ANALYSIS OF THE CASE

1. The Imperial is a seaside hotel with almost 200 Room occupancy, a private beach and
easy access to Mombasa airport. These were a few of THE IMPERIALS strength as a
hotel, which helped it to survive even in difficult, turbulent times. These strengths
helped imperial to stay on even after five owners were changed within a time span of
30 Yrs.

2. The takeover of imperial by GP proved to be another feather in the cap for Imperial.
Since it had shareholders from USA, Japan & South Korea now it has fewer worries.
And above it they left the hotel solely in the hands of local people.

3. Martin Kimathi the hotel manager of the imperial is a very efficient, hardworking &
sincere person. Has grown up in England but is a Kenyan by origin. He therefore
understands very well that discrimination or any other prejudice should not be held
against any other human being on basis of color, caste, religion, health etc.

4. It is a matter of pride for Martin to be a manager of hotel where his father used to be a
groundskeeper and it is his educational qualification, his sincerity and his down to
earth nature that helped him to reach to this position at a very young age.

5. Martin, a local person with western upbringing was a boon for imperial as it could
now work on an ethnocentric approach and gain advantage of local support.

6. The ego problem between Susan Chapman, the head of House keeping & Martin
Kimathi the manager is a big problem for The Imperial She is a good worker and
the hotel has gained a name in housekeeping internationally so Martin has to put up
with her rather strict & autocratic behavior. Though she is quite angry because of him
as he was promoted & she felt that she deserved it more than him. Although Martin is
a very simple patient man but at the same time he is the manager also.

7. One of the highlights of the case is the different leadership styles of Martin & Susan.

Leadership Style of Martin.

As is clear from lines 90-95, Martin was a Laissez faire style leader who believes in
empowerment, delegation, participation, letting supervisors resolve problems. He was also
warm, friendly & outgoing. He was a people centric leader who cared more for people than
work. He was a (1, 9) leader of MANAGERIAL GRID of BLAKE and MOUTON i.e. more
concern for people & less concern for production. This kind of leader is very successful &
popular among employees.

Leadership style of Susan

As is mentioned in lines 85-90, Susan was an autocratic leader infact an EXPLOITATIVE

AUTOCRAT who had no concern for people and 100% concern for production. She was hard
working, efficient committed, task oriented & production centric leader. This kind of leader
might be able to meet targets, strategize but is not popular among employees so they are not
long lasting. Because in todays management scenario people cannot be forced to work. As
we know now the definition of management is Management is the Art of getting things
done by the people and with the people.
8. Susan might have been successful as a worker & in getting work done on time but the
needed to soften her leadership style. She was arrogant and very emotionless. She
needed to be empathetic towards her subordinates and understand their problems. She
became more demanding & highly autocratic. The employees didnt approve of her
behavior as we can see in lines 95-100.

9. This style of leadership finally did lead to a problem because Susan dismissed an
employee who was absent from work with out caring to know that she was suffering
from a terminal illness. She was only concerned about the work & production. But she
definitely as the head needed to know the problems faced by her subordinates or her
group. Infact, she was a good housekeeping head only because her staff was
efficiently working. And she needed to understand that it was these people who were
making IMPERIAL what is was today. Even according to Appendix 2 Excerpt from
the constitution of Kenya 2010, where it is clearly stated that every person is equal &
the state should not discriminate any person on grounds of race, sex, religion, health
status, colour etc. And Susan had discriminated against her employee on basis of
health status, which was against the constitution of Kenya.

10. The angry employees decided to go on strike and now it was a challenge for Martin to
stop this strike so he decided to go for Negotiations with the employees. He know that
employees are the essence - the central point of any organization. He believed in what
was once stated by the CEO of General Motors where he said, General Motors do
not build automobiles. We build men & these men in turn build the automobiles
for us. This actually is a golden rule for any organization to grow & develop.

11. The strategic options available to Martin for saving the hotel from decline were many
and so he was confused with what to do, also he had to deal with his angry employees
who were planning to go on a strike.

12. STRATEGIC OPTIONS AVAILABLE WITH MARTIN

* Option 1

This could be done by closing the hotel for one full year & going for major
renovations. This would modify the hotel & its services & provide new services &
new facilities to existing customers. This was a part of Re-launch or Re-positioning of
the hotel among the customers. At this turning point in Imperial, Martin also has to
get some change in the hotel. Since it is clear that the hotel has entered into decline
stage and so some kind of rejuvenation or modification was required to take the hotel
into some kind of reintroduction into the market. This could include new markets,
new products / services or ever new customers.

* Option 2

The hotel can be self-contained apartment with small kitchens. Change the target
market from visitors to business travelers.

This would incur lost of cost and increase in fixed cost but variable cost will be less.
Also they need to create a new market & new target customers. This would require lot
of advertising & awareness programmes, again leading to increase in the cost.
* Option 3

They can from strategic alliances with famous safari tour company KENSAFAR for a
combined package tour where both would gain from the deal, seeing the Appendix 1
the figures of safari from 2008-2011; it would be a welcome idea.

13. SWOT ANALYSIS for THE IMPERIAL

STRENGTHS

1. 200 room occupancy.

2. Private beach.

3. Vicinity to Kenyan safari.

4. Effective manager in the form of Martin.

5. Internationally acclaimed housekeeping department.

6. Strategic alliance with GP group.

WEAKNESSES

1. Frequently changing ownership.

2. Autocratic leadership style of Susan

3. Unrest among labor

4. Financial instability.

5. Decline phase of the hotel.

6. Lack of decision making skills of Martin

 OPPORTUNITIES

1. Growing market for tourists and travelers.

2. Increasing number of business travelers who could stay at the hotel for longer
durations.

3. Increasing interest of people in Kenyan safaris.

4. Political stability of Kenya.

5. Strategic tie-up with world acclaimed safari tour agency.

6. Any other alliances for increasing support of the hotel.

THREATS

1. Increasing number of highly luxurious hotels in the vicinity of THE IMPERIAL.

2. The good and better infrastructure and facilities provided by the competitors.

3. Increasing number of safari travelers and declining hotel occupancy.

4. Threat from new entrants in the market. (Porters 5 force model)

5. Increase in the bargaining power of the strategic partners like KENSAFAR.

6. Attractive offers for clients from the other hotels in the vicinity i.e. threat from
competitors.

14. CONCLUSION:

Even though all the three options have their own advantages & disadvantages, according to
me, Martin should go for Option 3.

Option 1 will be incur investment & loss of business for whole one year. Option 2 will need a
lot of marketing effort and creation of new market. Option 3 is best because Imperial can cash
upon the goodwill of the famous safari tour company KENSAFAR and also can cash upon
the interest of customers and tourists towards safari tours. Since it would be package tour the
clientage for imperial would be fixed as they were supposed to stay at the hotel before the
safari & then even after the safari. This will ensure that the hotel gets full occupancy since it
is clear from Appendix 1 that the visitors to safari parks has increased consistently from
2008-2011 from 1633 to 2644 i.e. 62% increase whereas hotel room occupancy has increased
only from 2619 to 4788 i.e. only 50% so if imperial goes for package deal with Ken Safar, the
occupancy will definitely increase by more than 20% and will yield a good profitability to the
Imperial. Also the staff will be busy & their energies will be diverted towards more
constructive ends & get diverted from strikes etc. Also they need to make minor
improvements in the appearance of the hotel, which will not incur much cost. Also since
another company KENSAFAR will be involved in the working of the hotel, people like Susan
might change their leadership style. Option 3 according to me appears to be the best option
for Martin.