Executive Summary
Rosehill Enterprises’ project is feasible as it shows international opportunities and market growth strategies. The project reflects realistic goals and objectives, so it will help Rosehill Enterprises to build a new spa resort in Croatia. Success in eastern Europe means carefully analyzing the organization’s culture in order to help all employees cope with the changes inherent in incorporating diversity into the workplace. Therefore conflict resolution is necessarily a systems approach. Along with such interventions also comes the requirement for administrators to be knowledgeable about human relations concepts such as coping, adapting, and changing. Previous lessons and risks analysis will help Rosehill Enterprises to overcome difficulties and threats in the new resort building. Special attention will be paid to the selection of a building contractor, financial budget and time constraints. Also, cross-cultural management will be a framework of the project and resort management.
Introduction
International expansion proposes companies great opportunities to expand their business and attract international clients. For Rosehill Enterprises, international expansion is an opportunity to create a unique brand image and open a new destination for international tourists. The previous experience with the Bannock Hotel in Scotland shows that it is crucial to take into account minor details such as cultural differences and risks associated with the building and construction industry and possible environmental changes. On the other hand, the experience with the Bannock Hotel became a good lesson for Rosehill Enterprises on how to manage the business and new destinations.
Feasibility of the Project
The project is feasible as it is well thought and planned. The selection of Croatia will help Rosehill Enterprises to enter a new market, spending less energy and financial resources on the competition. Many goals to be achieved through operational planning are not created at the strategic planning level, just as many operational plans are not an outgrowth of a strategic plan. The innumerable kinds of planning efforts undertaken all require goal-setting (Kotler and Keller 2005). A needs assessment may be done in the first step of goal setting when basic considerations are reviewed. In some instances, a goal may be totally clear; in other situations, goals have to be stated, revised and brought into focus. Goals should be stated or specified in terms that make them achievable. Goals should not be confused with the process (Hodgetts and Luthans 1992).
International Opportunities
Opportunities in Croatia
Eastern Europe is being viewed as a bargain by many West European firms. Although the area is currently experiencing high unemployment rates and inflation, it is widely believed that Eastern Europe represents tremendous potential. Eastern European consumers are younger than Western Europeans and come from households of larger sizes than the other EC countries. Urbanization is an indicator of the industrialization of a country. The per cent of the population living in an urban area is 66% for East Europeans as compared to 79% for EC. Much investment is speculative, and often the underlying real estate assets alone are worth more than investments. This situation particularly favours investment by companies where the major investment is in real estate (Kotler and Keller 2005). Add to this the belief that the worse things get, the better prices will be. A final factor favouring expansion in Eastern Europe is that in the tourism industry, there is a first-mover advantage: not moving quickly enough may mean the loss of prime locations. “Most Favored Nation” status gives these countries preferential treatment in regards to lower tariffs and higher quotas. Therefore status is an important consideration. Market saturation at home should continue to drive large tour operators to look out as they may not find long-term growth opportunities in the domestic market. According to one study, European tourist agencies with unique concepts and positioning strategies are motivated in different ways. They saw an opportunity to maximize returns, spread risks, and retaliate against foreign competitors invading their home markets. Single Europe offered them an opportunity of “concentrated internationalization” within Europe, saving them from the bother of widely dispersed geographical expansion that many took as their growth strategy in earlier years with mixed results (Hofstede, 1984).
Planning
Project Development
The first step in project development is planning and analysis of financial resources and time constraints. Rosehill Enterprises will take into account the problems and weaknesses of its previous project and select a well-known building and constructions company to work on the new project. The brief will contain an analysis of budget and schedule, step of project implementation and risks analysis. What is in the best interest of the foreign division need not correspond with the domestic division since there are always differences in perspective between the parent and international companies. The goals of multinational companies may sometimes even conflict with the objectives of various countries in which they operate. Just as the second step in strategic planning is the clarification of mission, the second step in operational planning is the clarification of goals. In some operational planning efforts that are related directly to strategic planning, the goal or goals may be predetermined. In such cases, the planner has given the mandate to develop an operational plan that will implement one or more of the goals generated in the strategic planning process (Perreault et al., 2003). But even in situations where a goal of a strategic plan is being operationalized, all persons involved must understand the goal as well as the basic considerations of the platform on which the operational planning is to take place. If people do not see the goal clearly and with understanding, it is unlikely they will make great strides toward achieving the goal.
Management Team
Rosehill Enterprises will create a management team consisted of three groups of professionals: building and constructions managers, managers who have cross-cultural and excellent communication skills and spa resort processionals. Goals need to be congruent with the mission of the institution. When goals have been set in an operational planning effort, a review of those goals as they are juxtaposed to the mission statement is needed. There is also the need to consider goals against the “we agree” statement so that internal consistency is maintained. Goals, whether derived from a strategic planning process or generated as a direct response to a felt need, are broad statements reflecting the purpose that is to be accomplished. A goal constitutes a general target to be reached (Hoecklin, 1995). By specifying a goal, all persons involved are told where to go. When one moves from one planning team to another, the content of what is to be accomplished may differ significantly, while a strong similarity may be demonstrated in the approach. If one moves from the facilities planning team to observe those who were planning for ways to involve the parents in the educational process, which was the third outcome in the above illustration, some interesting differences would be observed; at the same time, some similarities in the process would be perceived. Outsourcing can be used by Rosehill Enterprises to attract Croatian managers and human resources professionals (Perreault et al., 2003).
Planning Issues
For various types of assessment, there is a need for data and post data to be gathered and analyzed. By formulating the criteria for evaluation early in the process, educational leaders are given time to start the data collection phase of evaluation. Only a real magician can come up with pretest or pre-project assessments if no consideration is given to the question of evaluation until after the project has been implemented. While it may be possible to go back into past records and develop a post hoc research design, the potential of an adequate assessment is greatly reduced or potentially lost if no attention is given to the criteria for evaluation at the appropriate time. For projects that will benefit from pretest types of assessment, someone should think about evaluation early in the process (Hollensen 2007).
Projects that are planned for constructing facilities certainly do not yield an assessment by the use of an achievement test. Every planning effort will have unique assessment requirements that need to be tailored so as to provide information to those responsible for planning and implementation. Consequently, every major project needs to have planners who think evaluation, who determine criteria for evaluation, and who develop the evaluation strategies that will provide information about the process and the product. Once a planning team is brought into the domain of the evaluator and efforts are made to arrive at criteria for evaluation, two points should be considered. First, it is helpful to have a person(s) who knows assessment techniques. Volumes have been written regarding the evaluation of instructional programs. There are computer programs to manage integrated databases and to assist in analyzing data, formulas, and sophisticated data collection procedures. To utilize the considerable array of techniques and assessment tools available, one needs the guidance of a knowledgeable person. The second consideration may sound something like a gross contradiction of everything that has been said regarding evaluation up to this point; however, it is often a reality. The point is that judgments will be called upon to limit the possible approaches to evaluation. Once a team starts to develop criteria for evaluation, the members can easily become so enthusiastic that they want to evaluate everything. Well, everything cannot be evaluated even if there were time and resources (Hollensen 2007).
Construction Management
During the development stage, the proposed project will be analyzed by the company executives and accessed by an independent committee. During the next stage (construction itself), the management team will report the progress of the project and possible risks they predict. Implementation will involve doing and moving on from the planning activities to the realm of reality. As suggested earlier, if a building program is involved, the facility is planned, constructed, officially accepted from the contractor, and occupied. Planning a building is in obvious contrast to planning and testing efforts to begin a new payroll deduction system, which could be field-tested, modified, and tested again before full implementation is considered. In a building program, if the school district officials accept a new facility and occupy it, they are, as the saying goes, “stuck with it”–they have to live with it, like it or not. Full implementation does not afford the luxury of test-driving every project like a new car. Consequently, planning projects for which there is no opportunity to pilot, field-test, or simulate outcomes may involve a higher degree of risk. As a general observation, there may be a tendency to move to full implementation too readily when it would have been preferable to pilot, field-test, or simulate a project (Hollensen 20070.
Opening
Advertising and promotion can serve different needs since it is involved with diffusing ideas and products that have great economic and social values. It can help to create and expand markets, increase profits, accumulate capital, international balance payments, extend production facilities, exchange primary products for machinery and equipment, and develop economic competence. The broader economic posture is that of a commitment “as never before, to a policy of increasing freedom of trade among nations. International marketing is one of the business’s significant frontiers” (Hollensen 2007, p. 32). Even though marketing has realized its greatest development in the American environment, the impact of its concepts and techniques has diffused to all parts of the world (Hoecklin, 1995). However, the full effect of international marketing operations is a long way from achievement. Its influence will continue to grow as increasing numbers of companies establish operations abroad.
Cross-Cultural Problems
Rosehill Enterprises will take into account cross-cultural differences and problems in communication. Conflict resolution of employee diversity-related problems–racial, gender, age, physical ability, national origin discrimination–almost always affects job performance. And whenever an employee’s problems affect his or her job performance, it should become a concern of the organization in general and his or her supervisor in particular (Hodgetts and Luthans 1991). Excluding the stressed subordinate, the supervisor has the most to gain when such problems are resolved expeditiously and in an equitable manner. When subordinates are free of inordinate conflict, job efficiency is maintained or improved. This is an important aspect of managing diversity. In order to be optimally effective, managers and supervisors must be culturally proactive rather than reactive. From this vantage point, most managers and supervisors are in strategic positions to observe a diminution in an employee’s job performance (Hollensen 2007).
A strong case could be made for the premise that diversity training notwithstanding, counselling skills and proven strategies for organizational change are seldom taught to managers and supervisors in a systematic manner. If an individual was learning to swim, the instructor would first give him helpful tips on how to stay afloat–to tread water while learning more sophisticated methods of swimming. Unfortunately, most trainees in diversity workshops, in-service programs, and university management courses are seldom given much more than disparate data about counselling that tend to drown them in guilt or anger and therein cause them to disdain further lessons. That is, they are seldom taught to be competent counsellors in the diverse workplace. This is a major reason most managers and supervisors shun the role of a counsellor (Hollensen 2007).
Conclusion
To be effective, international marketing and new opening require more than a consideration of corporate effort alone. It needs an integrated plan that takes into account both government policy and the competitive position of participating American businesses. Although international markets are beginning to resemble national markets, they do not merely mirror them. They blend national culture with other cultures, resulting in an adaptation of things and values. Rosehill Enterprises will take into account previous risks and problems and introduce a culturally competent team in order to ensure project success and diminish cultural risks. To propose the establishment of a spa resort as a strategy to achieve a goal might be defensible or appropriate. Employers must adopt operations, procedures, and policies that accommodate a heterogeneous labour force. This is not a linear project with a termination point or date. On the contrary, managing diversity is a continuous process. Consequently, the counselling skills needed to resolve conflict require continuous updating. It is precisely this understanding that forms the conflict resolution–that is, for a psychologically mature human being to counsel, care for, or facilitate solutions for workers in conflict or who feel uncomfortable with themselves, other employees, the job environment, or any combination of these.
Bibliography
- Hodgetts, R. M. and F. Luthans. 1991, International Management, Singapore: McGraw-Hill.
- Hollensen, S. Global Marketing: A Decision-Oriented Approach. Financial Times/ Prentice Hall; 4 edition, 2007.
- Hoecklin, L. 1995, Managing Cultural Differences: Strategies for Competitive Advantage. Wokingham, England: Addison-Wesley.
- Hofstede, Geert. 1984, Culture’s Consequences, Beverly Hills, CA: Sage
- Publications. Kotler, Ph., Armstrong, G. Principles of Marketing. Prentice Hall; 11th edition, 2005.
- Kotler, Ph, Keller, K. Marketing Management. Prentice Hall, 2005.
- Perreault, W.D., Cannon, J.P., McCarthy, E.J. Marketing: Principles and Perspectives. McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 4 edition, 2003.