When you're traveling, on business or on pleasure, what should you expect from you hotel? Some people want a newspaper, others want a complementary breakfast but I think we all would like to know we're safe and protected from the elements. No leaking room windows and no hazardous parking lots.
I recently completed a stay at the Ogden (Utah) Marriott where I did have a badly leaking window in my room and I did have to trudge through knee deep snow to get to my car because the parking lot wasn't adequately maintained. After I managed to get in my car and back out of a space blocked by a wall of snow I stopped on what looked like, and should have been, a clear surface in order to scrape my windows. As I moved to my rear window my feet and body parted and went in two different directions. I fell, first on the car's bumper and then to the black ice covered pavement. Quite a blow to the ribs. To make a long story shorter, I ended up in a local Emergency Room and was in so much pain that I missed a billable days work.
When I brought this to the attention of the hotel manager I felt reasonably assured that I would be reimbursed for my out of pocket expenses which I assumed would include medical expenses and the lost days wages. After all, had it not been for the Ogden Marriott failing to provide for my safety I wouldn't have visited the Emergency Room and I wouldn't have missed work. Apparently the Ogden Marriott's insurer feels differently; so much for reimbursement of out of pocked expenses. Somewhere in a nice warm, ice-free office someone has decided that I am the blame. It's my fault that the parking lot wasn't cleared and safe. The town of Ogden and the State of Utah could clear the roads making them safe to drive on but the Ogden Marriott couldn't be bothered to ensure their parking lot was safe for their guests.
Needless to say, if I management to get reimbursed for the medical expenses I won't be doing any further business with Marriott, Trinity Hotel Investors or CNA Claim Plus.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
What Should You Expect From Your Hotel
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Is Your Business On Shaky Ground?
Let me be nosy, how did your business end up on shaky ground in the first place? Did you fail to plan? Did you fail to keep your plan up to date, drown the company in it and not live by it? Maybe you failed to spend the money you had wisely. Face it, somewhere along the line you made some bad decisions and now you have to live with the consequences. More money or different ways of paying it back is not the total answer. So why is it the first thing people think of is financial restructuring?
Even if the guys with the green eyeshades think there’s something to be gained by keeping the company around they’re not going to keep you. Even if you get “kicked upstairs” for a while no one will be able to jack up the logo and slide in a new a company and therein lays the reason that just financial restructuring won’t work.
A company grows in the path established by its leaders. If the leaders have brought the company to the brink of ruin what do you think the people, policies and procedures look like? In order to survive the entire corporate culture must undergo restructuring. New leadership will help but the habits of every employees thought will need to be broken and reformed otherwise they have no choice but to rely on loosing ways and the company ends up never getting out of Chapter 13. Einstein said it best, "No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created it."
Where does that leave us? In addition to financial restructuring, the company will need to rethink and revamp the business plan, a new operating plan and goals needs to be put n place, new procedures and processes may need to be set in place, and programs to instill the “new way” from the top down must be implemented. It’s not an easy task but it can be done provided you don’t commit all you resources to financial restructuring.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Why Do We Need A Corporate Renewal Industry?
According to a white paper available on the Turnaround Management Association (TMA) website, signs of a troubled business are (listed in their order):
- Ineffective management style
- Over diversification
- Weak financial function
- Poor lender relationships
- Lack of operating controls
- Market lag
- Explosive growth
- Precarious customer base
- Family vs. business matters
- Operating without a business plan
With the possible exception of an ineffective management style, signs 2 – 9 can be viewed as symptoms or effects of operating without a business plan. No matter how many times it’s said or how tired we are of hearing it its true, “If you fail to plan, plan to fail.” Has anyone ever told an aspiring business owner that they don’t need a business plan? There hasn’t been a business plan outline published that, if followed and properly applied, wouldn’t project, mitigate or eliminate any of the problems sited. Why, for example, do you have a precarious customer base? Are you trying to supply a product or service that’s unwanted or over priced? Maybe you have non-existent or poor customer service. A little market research or competitive analysis while generating the business plan may have led to a different product presented at a more acceptable price. How about over diversification? Growth paths and methods would be delineated in a proper business plan.
Granted, conditions change as the company grows. All of a sudden you have employees and you’re presented with different opportunities. The business plan becomes out dated and the folks at the front line may not even know it exists. All the time and money spent preparing a business plan was wasted, right? WRONG! Let me say it again, WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. If any time and money were wasted it’s because you didn’t make the plan a living, guiding document and you probably didn’t engrain it in all of your employees. You treated your plan as just another hoop to be jumped through or box to be checked off.
Business plans cost time and resources from the time you put pen to paper to the eventual liquidation. There is no escaping the expense. It’s just a matter of how you want to distribute the cost. You can spend it up front with your blood, sweat and tears, or perhaps hire a consultant to guide you, with lesser effort throughout the company’s life, or you can spend it in the end on a lost reputation, a horde of attorneys, lost company and a turnaround consultant courtesy of the corporate renewal industry. Think about it, it’s now in your hands, later it will be in theirs.
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