Strategic Leadership

The only two-time recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the service category, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company manages 36 luxury hotels in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East, Africa, and the Caribbean. All have received four- or five-star ratings from the Mobil Travel Guide and diamond ratings from the American Automobile Association.

The Ritz-Carlton competes against nearly 10 hotel groups in the “luxury” and “upscale, deluxe” categories in the industry. Sales totaled almost $1.5 billion in 1998, with services provided to meeting and event planners accounting for 40 percent of the total. Independent business and leisure travelers constitute the next largest customer
segment.

More than 85 percent of the company’s 17,000 employees—known as “The Ladies and Gentlemen of The Ritz-Carlton”—are front-line workers in hotels. Through extensive training programs and by offering opportunities for professional development, the company encourages personnel to advance in the organization. Ritz-Carlton President and Chief Operating Officer Horst Schulze began his career in the hospitality industry as a waiter’s apprentice at a hotel in Europe.
An independently operated division of Marriott International, Inc., since 1997, the 16-year-old company is headquartered in Atlanta.

Corporate Governance

http://corporate.ritzcarlton.com/en/LeadershipCenter/TeamBios/Bio_SimonCooper.htm

Simon Cooper is the President and CEO since 2001

Cooperative Strategy

http://www.ritzcarltonclub.com/ritz-carlton-real-estate-alliances/

Ritz Carlton has an alliance with American express and Marquis Jet. AE offers its customers for preferred options for Membership in the Ritz Carlton Desitnation Club. The Marquis Jet card offers world class aviation accessible to its customers; up to 25 hours of use.

International Strategy

Ritz-Carlton has many locations in and out of the United States. Their location strategy is in big cities and high-end cities. If you are looking for luxury while traveling, you are bound to find a RC in one of the cities that you travel to. There are many locations in Europe, Asia, Mexico, Caribbean, South America, and also in the Middle East. Most of these locations are in high-end cities that bring in the high-end clients.

Merger and Acquistion Strategies

I could not find a source that is about Chapter 7. This is the closest I could find.

http://bb.visitaruba.com/f2/officials-announce-ritz-carlton-project-february-17th-2010-a-13865/

Corporate-Level Strategy

The Ritz-Carlton starts with a flood, turns into a powerful strategy, the targets specific actions to obtain key success factors. But creating the right strategy to achieve the factors takes as much evaluation as analyzing the data in the first place.

A strategic plan will achieve its goals only if it's understood. And no plan will achieve its ends if it isn't measured and monitored. So, before long-range plans are put in place the RC goes to great-some might even say extreme-lengths to teach and learn from employees.

Competitive Rivalry and Competitive Dynamics

The Ritz-Carlton's 22,000 professionals are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen and over 85% of them are front-line associates who apply a simple but nonetheless fundamental approach to quality service; a warm and sincere greeting; using the customer's name if possible; a constant anticipation of the customer's needs; and a warm goodbye.

Against all odds, the company has broken the old vicious cycle of low salary and high turnover by wrapping all its processes-including recruiting and training-around its customers, by offering opportunities for professional development, and by encouraging personnel to advance within the organization.

Business Level Strategy

The Ritz-Carlton calls that something special "The Ritz-Carlton Mystique". It's a way of conceptualizing the brand's image and the ambience of each of the company's more then 70 worldwide locations. "Mystique" sounds enigmatic, but its achieved through the most straightforward of methods: extremely close attention to performance data collection and a broad educational platform to deliver the findings.

Ritz-Carlton SWOT Analysis

The company uses SWOT analysis to adjust to new information.

"We look at where we want to be versus where we are today--and where we see the trends on the horizon. Then we frame the key success factors. Then we ask for input with the SWOT process. It's a very defined process because it's our opinion that if you can't define it, you can't control it, you can't measure it, and you can't improve it."

The input of frontline staff--the people who check guests in, serve food, and occasionally present scented candles--into the SWOT process is crucial. Their insights are loaded into a global database so leaders can identify macro-level themes, market specifics, individual functions, and even corporate blind spots. As a result, the ladies and gentlemen, as all the employees of the Ritz-Carlton are called, feel integrally involved in the business.

Strategic Competitiveness

Being competitive in the hospitality industry requires strategy beyond expectation. Knowing your customers and their needs above other hotels takes a lot of time and effort.

During a Q & A with Simon Cooper, Chief Operating Officer and President of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C.


GMJ: You've got a lot of competition in the luxury market, and they're all gunning for the Ritz-Carlton. What's your strategy?

Cooper: No matter how outstanding your ladies and gentlemen are, you've got to start with the right product and the right location. In a global portfolio of hotels, the entry stakes are having hotels in the right locations, then having the right product when guests get there. And it takes the right people. You start with where in Moscow your hotel is located, for example, then you animate it to create and absolutely outstanding memory.

Overview

The Ritz-Carlton was built in Boston, Massachussetts, and opened in 1927. Cesar Ritz, who is known as the "king of hoteliers and hotelier to kings." Cesar's view of service and innovations have redefined the luxury hotel experience. The Ritz-Carlton has set the bar for what luxury hotel stays really mean.