Strategic Leadership for the Hospitality Professional

Description

The rapidly changing hospitality industry and the sophistication of travelers require more nimble, well-executed business strategies. Hospitality leaders who can perform strategy formulation, implementation and evaluation are most likely to enjoy long-term career success by winning over customers and delighting investors.

The six-course certificate series in Strategic Leadership teaches how to properly evaluate the competitive environment, formulate and assess strategic alternatives, and successfully execute a strategy. Participants will review industry-specific case studies and adopt proven methods to bring about positive change through leadership.

Who Should Enroll in This Certificate?

Enrollment

Courses in this Certificate

• Strategic Thinking

  • Strategic thinking is defined as both a way of looking at the world—particularly at challenging situations—and as a way of applying a set of techniques for framing and solving problems. It takes different forms in different situations, and certain levels of strategic thinking are more efficient for various industries and corporate cultures.

    In this course, participants learn the four basic levels of strategic thinking under which an organization can operate, and the circumstances under which an organization must shift to a higher strategic level. At the completion of the course, participants will be able to prepare a competitive analysis of an organization, with recommendations for strategic development based on an industry analysis and an understanding of the organization's history, culture, and current operations.

    Course Format

    All eCornell courses are delivered online and are self-paced. An eCornell instructor leads the online discussions, grades any course projects, and is available to answer specific questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • The Context for Strategic Thinking
      • The levels of strategic thinking at which an organization can operate, the factors that lead to an optimum level, and the circumstances under which organizations shift to a new strategic level
      • Determining the optimum level of strategic thinking for an organization's industry and culture
      • The concept of strategic intent and its appropriateness for your company or industry
    • Thinking Strategically About Your Organization
      • Using Porter's Five Forces model to analyze the operating environment in an industry
      • Managing products and product lines based on the BCG volume/margin model
      • The relationship between core competencies (at the company level) and key success factors (at the industry level)
      • Identifying core competencies and success factors required for any particular industry
      • Preparing a competitive analysis of a company, based on the industry in general, and an understanding of its current operations and culture

    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    Participants who complete this course will be able to:

    • Identify different levels of strategic thinking and determine which is optimal for their organization.
    • Determine the factors that influence organizations to change their level of strategic thinking.
    • Determine the core competencies and key success factors in an industry.
    • Apply the concept of strategic intent and evaluate its appropriateness in a specific organization or industry.
    • Prepare a competitive analysis of an organization.

    
    
• Strategic Hospitality Management I: Formulating Strategy

  • The most successful hospitality managers and leaders are able to see their properties or companies from a strategic perspective. They use this skill to differentiate themselves from their competition and create value for their customers and for the organization. This course develops these skills by introducing key aspects of strategy formulation with an emphasis on the strategic management process, business direction, and an assessment of the broad external environment. The strategic management process is used as a framework to establish a clear organizational direction and set objectives. Participants use the process to monitor, forecast, and adapt to environmental forces that are difficult or costly to influence.

    This course defines and distinguishes strategic decisions from operational decisions and focuses on a deliberate strategy-creating process. Participants develop the skills and techniques necessary to prepare mission and vision statements for their firm, communicate that direction internally, and strategically evaluate trends in the external environment.

    Course Format

    All eCornell courses are delivered online and are self-paced. An eCornell instructor leads the online discussions, grades any course projects, and is available to answer specific questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Strategy and Strategic Management
    • What is strategy?
    • Strategy vs. operations
    • The strategic management process
    • Direction Setting
    • Elements of direction setting
    • Communicating a direction
    • The External Environment
    • Analyzing trends
    • Strategies and the macro environment
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Formulate a strategic vision and mission for directing their organization.
    • Communicate their organization’s direction.
    • Perform an assessment of the general external environment.
    
    
• Strategic Hospitality Management II: Creating Value

  • Long-term success in the hospitality industry requires a competitive advantage that can be leveraged to deliver superior results. This course focuses on the overall process of creating value within a firm and how managers can create sustainable competitive advantage by utilizing key internal resources and capabilities.

    Successful hospitality managers and leaders have a thorough understanding of the process of creating value and the role of the value proposition in developing the best strategy to create a unique, sustainable competitive advantage. This course develops the skills necessary to evaluate strategic alternatives such as cost advantage and differentiation strategies, as well as the strategies of competitors, where they generate value, and their positioning. Participants learn to assess business-level strategies designed to create value at the property level; and corporate strategies, which deal with the strategic direction of the firm, the markets in which it will compete, and managing a portfolio of properties. Participants develop the skills to assess the ability of a variety of strategic alternatives to create value and competitive advantage as well as how to perform value-chain and competitor analyses to inform strategic decision-making.

    Course Format

    All eCornell courses are delivered online and are self-paced. An eCornell instructor leads the online discussions, grades any course projects, and is available to answer specific questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Business-Level Strategies
    • Value and the value proposition
    • Cost advantage and differentiation strategies
    • Best-value strategy
    • Sustainable Competitive Advantage
    • The components of competitive advantage
    • Value chain analysis
    • Competitor analysis
    • Corporate-Level Strategies
    • Corporate growth strategies
    • Strategy selection criteria
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Create value and establish a sustainable advantage over competition.
    • Recommend strategies for competitive positioning of their hotel.
    
    
• Strategic Hospitality Management III: Implementing Strategy

  • The most-common reasons why good strategies fail are poor execution and implementation. This course is designed to develop the skills in hospitality managers and leaders to implement a strategy and ensure ongoing superior results.

    This course focuses on the stage of the strategy process model devoted to putting the best strategy into action. It explores why strategies fail in their implementation and how strategic control systems can ensure that strategic objectives are being met. Participants learn how to write an implementation action plan and build capabilities to manage stakeholder relationships and organizational resources to implement and manage a strategy to create competitive advantage.

    Course Format

    All eCornell courses are delivered online and are self-paced. An eCornell instructor leads the online discussions, grades any course projects, and is available to answer specific questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • A Process View of Strategy Implementation
    • From formulation to implementation
    • Action and alignment
    • Inter-organizational Relationships
    • Identifying external stakeholders
    • Building successful partnerships
    • Organizational Relationships and Control Systems
    • Managing people
    • Developing a strategic control system
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Use process tools to implement strategy at your hotel.
    • Manage internal and external relationships to support strategy implementation.
    • Use strategic control systems to monitor and revise your strategy.
    
    

• Mastering the Time Value of Money

  • In today’s delicate global marketplace, it’s imperative that managers make smart decisions about projects and initiatives—carefully weighing costs versus future revenues and considering all outcomes. Managers should learn the “time value of money” concept and apply its principles to their daily work.

    In this course, you will use timelines and cash-flow calculations to track cash flow and payments; establish the value of securities and investments; and determine overall cost-effectiveness. The time value of money is a key concept in financial management and project development, and learning it will better prepare you to make smart business decisions.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Intuition and Conceptual Framework.
      • Explaining the importance of the timing of future cash flows.
      • Using a cash-flow timeline to conceptualize TVM problems.
    • Basic TVM Tools.
      • Using a financial calculator to solve TVM problems.
      • Calculating the future and present value of a lump-sum payment.
    • Advanced TVM Tools.
      • Calculating the value of perpetuities and growing perpetuities.
      • Calculating the future and present value of annuities.

    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Make planning decisions in the present, based on the accurate calculation of cash flow projections.
    • Use a cash-flow timeline to conceptualize time-value-of-money problems.
    • Use a financial calculator to solve time-value-of-money problems.
    • Calculate present and future values of payments, perpetuities, and annuities.
    • Use these concepts as a foundation for making capital investment decisions.

    
    
• Making Capital Investment Decisions

  • One of the most important aspects of a manager's job is to evaluate the feasibility of new initiatives and to make sound investment decisions. This includes thorough research and analysis using financial decision-making tools.

    In this course, you will learn six capital budgeting rules that provide a framework for making sound project investment decisions. Examine how the rules differ from one another, and which rules are most applicable in various project settings.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Conceptual Framework.
      • How value is created in a business.
      • How capital budgeting rules provide a framework for making project investment decisions.
      • Appropriate use of other accounting-based techniques such as return on assets and return on equity.
    • Basic Capital Budgeting Decision Rules.
      • Calculation and appropriate use of net present value (NPV) as a tool in making project investment decisions.
      • Internal rate of return (IRR), its strengths, weaknesses, and appropriate use as a decision rule.
      • Payback periods (PP), its strengths, weaknesses, and appropriate use as a decision rule.
      • Discounted payback periods (DPP), its strengths, weaknesses, and appropriate use as a decision rule.
    • Special Cases.
      • Calculation and appropriate use of profitability index (PI) as a decision rule.
      • Calculation and appropriate use of equivalent annual cost (EAC) as a decision rule.

    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Apply capital budgeting decision rules to make sound financial choices.
    • Accurately analyze decisions and projects for financial soundness.

    
    
• Risk and Return: How to Identify, Measure, and Incorporate Into Capital Budgeting Decisions

  • For the non-financial manager, this course introduces risk in capital budgeting, detailing precisely how it can be factored into budgeting decisions.

    Managers in today’s firms tend to work closely with finance, so having fundamental understanding of finance is imperative. Risk and return are critical components of capital budgeting and ultimately impact the value of an investment. This two-week course prepares non-financial managers to identify project risks and weigh them against expected returns.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Considering Investment Risk.
    • Investors and Risk.
    • Quantifying Risk and Return.
    • Two Kinds of Risk - Systematic and Unsystematic Risk.
    • How Firms Factor Risk into Capital Budgeting Decisions.
    • Systematic Risk.
    • Capital Asset Pricing Model.
    • Risk and Capital Budgeting Decisions.

    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Explain how risk enters into the capital budgeting decision and the impact it will have on the ultimate value of the investment under consideration.
    • Interpret what you read in the Wall Street Journal.

    
    
• Raising Capital: The Process, the Players, and Strategic Considerations

  • Firms routinely look to external capital markets for funding and operating investments. Making complete, well-informed financing decisions at the corporate level requires a thorough understanding of capital markets. This course provides the theory behind capital market investments and demonstrates how external factors may influence debt-equity decisions, such as changes within the industry or prevailing economic trends.

    Learn to observe external economic data and develop strategies to balance debt and equity at your firm. You’ll also see how decisions regarding corporate restructuring, mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcy are made.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Capital Structure Foundations.
    • Evaluating the Firm’s Financing Options.
    • The Debt Irrelevance Theorem.
    • Trade-Off Theory of Capital Structure.
    • The Effect of Taxes on the Firm’s Value.
    • The Effect of Financial Distress on the Firm’s Value.
    • Pecking Order Theory of Capital Structure.
    • Direct Costs of Issuing Securities.
    • Indirect Costs of Raising Capital.
    • Pulling It All Together – Reconciling and Applying Pecking Order and Trade-Off Theories.

    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • View the process of raising capital in a broad context of capital-related decisions regarding the mix of capital and the process of entering into capital markets.
    • Explain how decisions in your department or division are influenced by capital structuring decisions.
    • Explain why changes in the industry and in the economy are important to capital budgeting decisions in your organization.
    • Contribute to decisions in your own firm more meaningfully with a good understanding of corporate restructuring, mergers, acquisitions, and bankruptcy.

    
    
• Managing Strategic Change

  • With emerging technologies and expanding global marketplaces, it is imperative that organizations become highly proficient in driving their change agenda. Whether diversifying, downsizing, merging, reorienting business, or developing new management structures, organizations must be able to effectively carry out change initiatives to remain productive and competitive.

    In this course, participants learn to assess organizational readiness and their own ability to facilitate change. Working with a comprehensive organizational change scenario, this experiential exercise provides an opportunity for participants to learn by doing and to assess their own effectiveness in facilitating change.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and builds each course around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following module:

    • Managing Change.
      • Organizational change tactics and their correspondence to different stages of readiness or willingness to accept change.
      • Stages of adoption of innovation: awareness, appraisal/trial, and adoption.
      • Different reactions to organizational change and innovation on the part of innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and resistors<./li>
      • Recognizing that creating change is part skill, part art, and part luck.
      • Cultural aspects of organizations and their impact on change efforts
      • Frustrations managers experience in implementing change initiatives.

    
    
    Benefits to the Learner

    After completing this course, participants will be able to:

    • Evaluate an organization's level of readiness and willingness to change and use techniques to bring it to an acceptable level.
    • Identify and minimize a manager's frustrations in implementing change initiatives.
    • Develop and implement an effective methodology for carrying out a successful change initiative.

    
    
• Leading Through Creativity

  • Leaders that actively encourage creative thinking in their employees are often the ones that drive organizational innovation. The creative power of individuals in the workforce can and should push the development of new products and services to make the business more competitive.

    Mastering the creative process and spurring on innovation isn’t a matter of having the gift of creativity; it is a matter of applying technique and intelligence. Creative innovation is essential to growing market share and increasing profits.

    In this course, participants will learn to cultivate organizational creativity through a series of individual and group exercises to develop new ideas. Participants will also learn to enhance their own capacity for creative thought.

    Course Format

    eCornell takes a problem-based approach to learning, and our courses are built around realistic case studies and scenarios. All courses are self-paced, and are facilitated by an eCornell instructor, who leads the online discussions and is available to answer any questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Developing Your Creativity
      • Characteristics of creative people in business environments
      • Using visualization techniques for enhancing your creativity
      • Techniques for developing creative approaches to business challenges
    • Developing Your Organization's Ability to Innovate
      • Creative techniques and processes for groups, including some that can be implemented online
      • Features that limit an organization's creative potential
      • Fostering creativity throughout the organization

    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    Participants who complete this course will be able to:

    • Greatly expand their own capacity for creative thought.
    • Foster creativity throughout a department or organization.
    • Utilize techniques for developing creative approaches to business challenges.
    • Identify and overcome features in an organization that limit creative potential.
    • Recommend steps to foster creativity.
    
    
• Financial Analysis of Hotel Investments

  • A hotel's real estate is one if its most valuable assets and it is essential to be able to accurately value this critical investment. This course uses practical and theoretically grounded tools of investment analysis and valuation to introduce participants to contemporary practices in lodging investments. Participants will learn to evaluate hotel investments and hotel financing decisions and structure deals that meet the needs of the owner, the operator, and the lender.

    This course explores the multiple elements and factors involved in the hotel investment decision including the hotel owner-operator-lender partnership and the different ways each party will evaluate a real estate investment deal. This multi-party view will enable you to negotiate the most favorable agreement based on your priorities and requirements and evaluate alternatives. This course provides thorough coverage of how a deal is structured using debt and equity financing, and the impact of debt financing on equity returns.

    Course Format

    All eCornell courses are delivered online and are self-paced. An eCornell instructor leads the online discussions, grades any course projects, and is available to answer specific questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • The Hotel Owner-Operator-Lender Partnership
    • Partnering Owners, Operators, and Lenders
    • Different Owners Have Different Reasons to Invest
    • How Equity Plays the Game
    • Evaluating the Deal: How Owners, Operators, and Lenders Evaluate Proposed Projects
    • How the Owner Evaluates the Project
    • How the Operator and Lender Evaluate the Project
    • Overview of Hotel Market Valuation Methodologies
    • Structuring the Deal: Current Equity and Debt Financing Structures
    • Hotel Financing Cycle: Equity Financing
    • Hotel Financing Cycle: Debt Financing
    • Course Project: Investment Construction and Analysis
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    Participants who complete this course will be able to:

    • Explain the varied motivations of owners, operators, and lenders in pursuing real-estate investments.
    • Analyze and evaluate investment projects from the perspective of owners, operators, and lenders.
    • Structure hotel investments that meet the needs of all parties.
    • Make informed decisions about the attractiveness of hotel investments, especially the decision to invest equity in a hotel.
    
    
• Control of Hotel Real Estate

  • In most hotels, the physical ownership of the property is separated from the control and management of the hotel. This course explores the ways in which hotel investors separate ownership from control of the hotel and examines the two major decisions faced by owners: first, what are the benefits and costs of franchise affiliation? Second, under what conditions should an owner hire a professional operator?

    Participants will learn how management contracts are negotiated and about the motivations of each negotiating party. They will learn to prepare term sheets from the perspectives of both owners and operators to provide insight into how to structure the most advantageous deal. This course also examines contemporary hotel leases prevalent around the world.

    Course Format

    All eCornell courses are delivered online and are self-paced. An eCornell instructor leads the online discussions, grades any course projects, and is available to answer specific questions about the course content.

    This course contains the following modules:

    • Operating Agreement Choices and Trends
    • Who Controls the Operations?
    • Choosing the Operator and Type of Branding
    • Leasing
    • Negotiating Contemporary Hotel Franchise Agreements
    • Evaluating Franchise Affiliation
    • Franchises in the Future
    • Negotiating Contemporary Management Contracts
    • Owner-Manager Relationships
    • Negotiating the Contract: The Provisions of the Term Sheet
    • Case Study: Crafting an Advantageous Management Agreement
    
    
    Benefits to the Learner
    Participants who complete this course will be able to:

    • Explain the factors contributing to deciding who controls the daily operations of hotels and why.
    • Describe the key attributes of contemporary hotel leases and their applicability in different international settings.
    • Evaluate a proposed franchise agreement.
    • Assemble term sheets for new management contracts.
    • Analyze management contracts from the perspective of owners and operators.