2 Ramon Silva is a Spanish property developer, who has made a considerable fortune from th

正确答案：
(a) To: Ramon Silva
From:
Value innovation in La Familia Amable hotel chain
In strategic terms you are looking to create a competitive advantage over existing hotels based on a cost focus strategy. The
success of this niche marketing strategy will depend on your ability to attract customers from the existing providers but there
does seem a gap to exploit. In many ways you have an advantage in that you are not constrained by previous experience in
the hotel industry and this has enabled you to look to deliver a significantly different value proposition to your customers and
not simply look to marginally improve on what currently is on offer. One particular study on innovation drew attention to five
dimensions of strategy where innovators can significantly outperform. existing companies. This is important, as the industry
does not look particularly attractive with low growth and overcapacity – a recipe for low profitability.
Industry assumptions – here existing companies take the competitive conditions as given whereas innovators are looking to
influence and change those conditions.
Strategic focus – simply benchmarking against the current hotel providers may not create any real advantage, innovators are
seeking to provide a step change in the experience given to the customer.
Customers – the route to success may not be through ever increasing segmentation and customisation but by actually looking
to focus on the shared attributes of the service that customers value – a good night’s sleep for a low price being a prime
example.
Assets and capabilities – rather than looking to leverage existing assets and capabilities the innovator looks to ask what would
we do if we were starting a new business.
Product and service offering – existing competitors may again be constrained in their thinking by the existing boundaries of
the industry and the innovator by identifying new customers and services that take them outside this boundary may offer a
‘total solution’ that transforms the industry. The ‘no frills’, low cost budget airlines are a good example of such thinking.
In the hotel business ‘location, location, location’ is argued to be at the heart of a successful strategy. Clearly this will be your
choice and is affected by the customer groups you are looking to attract. Establishing a brand name and reputation is an
important marketing strategy and this will be facilitated by growing the chain rapidly and giving customers easy access to
your hotels. In value chain terms the company infrastructure looks to be lean with a reliance on trained husband and wife
teams to deliver the service. Franchising would also seem to be a route to grow the business that will place reduced strain
on company headquarters. The creation of a chain should lend itself to significant buying and procurement advantages, right
from the design of the hotels which will focus on the core value you are providing – namely quiet and cost. One French hotel
chain was able to cut in half the average cost of building a room, its ‘no frills’ service cut staff costs from between 25% and
35% of sales – the industry average – to between 20% and 23%.
Good design will therefore affect the quality of service that the operations side of the value chain delivers to the customer.
This may be a simpler service to that provided by its competitors – simpler, more basic rooms, no expensive restaurants or
lounge areas all impact on the cost of operations and consequently the price charged. Marketing, as previously referred to
above, is much more effectively done through satisfied customers’ recommendations than by expensive advertising. Many
hotel chains have used technology to create customer loyalty schemes of questionable benefit to the customer. You will
certainly have to seriously consider the value of such an after sales service. The established competitors often make
assumptions as to what a customer wants and typically this is offering more and more services that are expensive to provide.
Your entry into a ‘mature’ industry such as this, allows you to really challenge these assumptions and deliver a price/value
combination that is hard to beat.
Yours,