Marketing plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 12

Marketing plan - Essay Example The main design of the portable toilets is cube and wave products in Europe and US respectively. As a worker in the company, I would propose to the management to invest in portable bathrooms since they have the resources and the required technology and personnel. The bathrooms should be designed as the wave product but should be installed with showers and mirrors with a base that is not slippery. It should also have a good drainage in the essence just as the portable toilets have a tank that is then emptied. The water from the bathroom is then recycled and used in the toilets and by doing so the company will create a good image since it is eco-friendly. The roof of the portable bathroom should have a solar panel that will be used to heat the water. The bathroom lending or purchasing price should be equivalent or lower when introduced in the market as the portable toilets. The current global economic crisis is a negative factor for the company but if it export in countries that pay more in the foreign exchange market there will be more profits thus an opportunity to trade

Advanced Business Process Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Advanced Business Process Management - Essay Example A number of benefits of IT & IS will be found such as collaboration, work site flexibility, management development, employee improvement etc. Although some disadvantages are accomplished with those, significance & usefulness of Information technology & system cannot be avoided in reengineering process.Our discussion begins with a popular concern today relating the necessity or adversity of information technology & information system in today's business reengineering process. We already know that, in today's complex business context Information technology & system are used to improve the quality of products, services or overall organizational performance. Thus, once an organization makes a decision to enhance the quality of products & services, it must then decide how to implement them. This approach of managing quality is TQM or Total Quality Management. Thus, our further discussion will show the impact of IT & IS in business reengineering process while the firm's main concentration goes to improving its product's performance.Before going forth to the argument of positive & negative impact of Information technology & Information system on reengineering process, we should have a clear concept of the key issues those are essential to make a value judgment over the topics. Our given concern has several important issues like Information Technology (IT), Information System (IS), and Business Process Reengineering Project & consequently all those issues turn to the destination of achieving high quality of company's product. Information is data presented in the way or form that has meaning that means, it has a meaning to the manager & provides a basic for action. So Information technology or IT refers to the resources used by the organization to manage information that it needs in order to carry out its mission. IT may consist of computers, computer network, and telephones; fax machines & other pieces of hardware. IT involves software that facilitates the systems ability to manage information in a way that is useful for the organization. Using this system, company can identify how a given product or product line are selling in number of stores over any meaningful period of time. Information system may be a misnomer. It suggests that there is one system, but in fact a firm's employees will have different interests, job responsibilities & decision-making requirements. One information system can not accommodate such variety of information requirements. Thus IS is a complex set of several information that share information while serving different levels of the organization, different departments or different organizations. Business process reengineering is a management approach that aims to the improvements of elevating efficiency and effectiveness of the processes exist within and across the organizations. The key motive of BPR (Business Process Reengineering) from a "clean slate" focuses and determines how they can best construct these processes to improve conducting their business. Business Process Redesign, Business Transformation, or Business Process Change Management is other titles of BPR. According to Michael Hammer, as a number of works has been done not adding any value for customers, those works should be eliminated rather than companies should consider their processes because of maximizing customer

Stopping by on a Snowy Evening Essay Example for Free

Stopping by on a Snowy Evening Essay Choose a poem in which the creation of mood or atmosphere is an important feature. Show how the poet creates the mood or atmosphere, and discuss its importance in your appreciation of the poem as a whole. A reflective mood is created in the poem stopping by woods on a snowy evening by Robert Frost. The poem is about man who stops by some woods on a snowy evening. He takes in the lovely scene in near silence and is tempted to stay for longer but acknowledges the obligations he must keep. He also mentions the distance he faces before he can to sleep which by the language used in the poem ‘sleep’ actually suggests death. At first the poem gives the impression that it is simply describing a man who is on a journey and quietly stops to observe the winter weather but through the writer’s techniques of word choice and structure. It becomes apparent that the poem is about his inner feelings towards the place rather than just a description. The mystery surrounding this quiet place causes the poet to stop and reflect on his life. The quiet or reflective mood of the poem is set firstly, by its simple verse structure and close rhyming scheme. The poem has a gentle rhythm almost like a nursery rhyme even stresses on each line and the a,a,b,a rhyming scheme creates a very relaxed atmosphere. This is reinforced by the poet’s use of literally simple words throughout the poem and short, simple sentences. On the surface the poem seems to be simple but the connotations of the words are actually quite complex. The weather and timing of this stop are both significant. It is snowing heavily, with ‘the woods filling up with snow’. This creates an image of the poet losing his tracks and becoming covered in a blanket implying that he wishes to rest here subtly suggestion death. The fact that the poet stops here on the ‘darkest day of the year’ (the day with least hours of sunlight) seems to reflect the poet’s mood of darkness. The poem develops elements of oddness about the poet stopping in this location. As the poet describes how his horse ‘must think it queer to stop without a farmhouse near’ implies that the isolated location is not a usual place for the horse and the poet to stop. This again is reiterated in stanza three by the horse giving ‘his harness bells a shake’ in almost a cry out for the poet to hurry up and get moving. However this behaviour of urgency by the horse is answered by the poet taking in the scenery and describing the peaceful scenery of â€Å"sweep of easy wind and downy flake†. The contrast between the bright sound of the ‘bells’ and the implied quietness of the â€Å"easy† and â€Å"downy† reflects the tension between motion and rest which lies at the heart of this poem. Stopping at this location gives the poet the chance to forget about everyday life and causes the poet to reflect on his own life. This therefore highlights the major conflict in the poem as the poet wants to stay in the woods because it is peaceful place and there are no responsibilities in the woods. Describing the woods a â€Å"lovely, dark and deep† again illustrates his fascination towards darkness and the desire of wanting a deep sleep- which both represent death. However the pull outside the woods such as â€Å"promises to keep† and the repetition of the last line â€Å"And miles to go before I sleep† suggests the poet is on stopping at the woods for a momentarily break from a busy and highly responsible life. The main conflict of the poem is the pulls between life and death. The poet describes this complex topic very well by using a simple writing style, rhyme and words which all help contain the poet’s mood and emotional state. The poet does not state points explicitly he rather leaves subtle traces of this remarkable occasion through word choice and metaphors. The repetition of the last sentence is a fitting conclusion for the poem as it allows the reader and the poet to consider the past and the present as well a life and death.

Customer preference for Thomas Cook

Customer preference for Thomas Cook FINDINGS DISCUSSSIONS Customer awareness, taken as a dependent variable and customer preference towards Thomas Cook taken as the independent variable, showed that the former has no significant impact on the latter (as described in the analysis of the first hypothesis where the null hypothesis was accepted and the alternate hypothesis was rejected). Therefore, it can be concluded from the first hypothesis that customer awareness does have a significant impact on customers’ preference towards Thomas Cook. This can be attributed to a variety of reasons, none of them conclusive however, with the lack of further research on the subject. Keeping in mind that the sample respondents reside mainly in Bangalore, it is possible that despite customers being aware that Thomas Cook is a travel management company, they do not prefer it because in Bangalore it does not provide good or satisfactory service. Customers may be unhappy or dissatisfied with the services that are provided by the Thomas Cook branches in Bangalore. Here again it cannot be said that Thomas Cook does not provide good service overall because it is still one of the top travel management companies in the world. Another possibility as to why customers do not prefer Thomas Cook despite being aware of the services can be the price factor. Thomas Cook provides its services at a premium price and customers might see this as too expensive and/or not worth the price that they have been asked for the service. In a country like India where disposable income is not an abundant resource that companies can exploit, it becomes difficult to market a premium service that the customers can easily look upon as an unnecessary luxury. Services such as premium tourism services may not appeal to the common man. Another possible reason for this is that the sample customers, a majority of whom do travel via a travel agency at least some of the time, are already satisfied with the travel agency they currently employ and find no reason thereof to shift to another agency despite knowing that another agency exists which perhaps provides slightly better services. These consumers are â€Å"set in their ways† so to speak and are happy with the current agency of their preference. They find no good enough reason to shift to Thomas Cook for their travel needs. Thomas Cook offers a variety of value added services. The specific value added services that were taken in this study are: Inbound and outbound travel reservations Foreign Exchange Travel insurance Travel packages Visa and passport services Reservations for car and hotel Foreign Exchange These services combine the core functions and services that Thomas Cook offers with added value to give them a uniqueness. This research found that there is a significant difference in these services and that consumers, when asked to rate these services, have a variety of views of these services, that is to say, the services that are provided for foreign exchange are of different quality than those that are offered for travel packages or travel insurance. It was found in this research that most of the sample do use Thomas Cook for their foreign exchange services and these were rated the best. Indeed, the foreign exchange services of Thomas Cook have been rated to be amongst the best in the world, and in fact, most people identify Thomas Cook only for their foreign exchange services and not their travel packages, which is in fact the company’s core business. It is shown in the hypothesis that the various services of Thomas Cook vary in quality, as per the respondents view. In the third hypothesis, it was found that there is a significant difference in customers’ preferences with respect to customers’ awareness about travel agencies. In other words, it is apparent that despite their knowledge about many travel agencies and their services, there is still a lot of variations in what the customers prefer to choose as the travel agency for their travel needs. This shows that customers have their own reasons to choose a specific travel agency and awareness of the services is not the only factor that they take into consideration. Customer preference for an agency is not a factor that can be easily studied or examined. For each customer, the deciding factor is different, and for each factor of customer preference that is taken, there is another that is left out. Studying customer psychology is an in depth with infinite variables that need to be considered, and it still may not be accurate due to the fact that human nature itself is unpredictable. The fourth hypothesis showed that there is no significant relation between the nature of the travel and the agency preference that a customer has. Here, the null hypothesis was accepted and the alternative hypothesis was rejected. This shows that whether a customer needs to travel for business or wants to travel for leisure does not determine the choice of travel management company that the customer makes. There can be a variety of other reasons that can be deduced to find out what other things may determine the customers’ choice of travel management company. Again, none of these are conclusive and need to be looked into with further research on the topic. Social status is one factor that is likely to have a significant relationship to agency preference. The higher up a customer is on the social ladder, the more premium will be the nature of his agency preference. When customers can afford something they have a tendency to show that they can afford it by very publicly using that product or service. This is human nature, and very likely to have an impact on agency preference. Affordability is a very important factor that needs to be considered in terms of preference for an agency. A premium agency may be unattainable by those who cannot afford its services no matter how much they may be aware of it, or no matter what the nature of their travel may be. Affordability and purchasing power of the customer are likely to have a strong relationship with the travel agency that they prefer. Expense is always an important factor that needs to be considered when measuring or trying to ascertain customer preference. Expense was not a factor that was given enough significance in this study. Social sentiments also need to be considered when looking into the customer preference towards any product or service. Certain customers from India may not choose Thomas Cook because despite its being registered in India as Thomas Cook (India) Limited and is now owned by Fairfax (Canada), its name is Thomas Cook, and was originally a company from England. On the other hand, certain customers may choose it for exactly that reason. There are a variety of social sentiments that have a strong relationship with and impact on customer preference towards an agency. They should not be disregarded if the company intends to survive in the environment. It is apparent from the research (hypothesis 5) that customers’ preference towards an agency and the value added service that they prefer have a strong relationship. This relationship can be easily envisioned. Customers will do their research on which travel agency provides which services and which value added services. With the advent of the internet, there is an enormous amount of information available to the customers at their fingertips and in this day and age customers are not easily fooled or misleaded. Customers will accordingly filter travel agencies according to the service that appeal to them and ultimately choose the one that best suits their needs. This will become the agency that they prefer and use for all their various travel needs. Hence, preference of travel agency and the value added services that they prefer have a strong, unmistakable relationship, which marketers can soon look to exploit. The sixth hypothesis works to find out whether or not there is any difference between the value added services and those services which offer mainly the core functions. Here the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternative hypothesis was accepted. Therefore a conclusion can be made that there is a significant difference between the satisfaction levels of the services that are offered by Thomas Cook that is, value added and non-value added. On further inspection of the analysis and the questionnaire it is abundantly clear that the value added services are much more profitable, than other services, in the sense that the customers of Thomas Cook are much more satisfied with these services and perhaps don’t mind paying a bit more for these services than the others. The seventh hypothesis finds that there is a significant difference in the customer preference with regards to the services that are offered by an agency. This means that customers prefer certain services provided by certain agencies and there is not necessarily any one agency which provides all the services that the customers prefer. Even in the agency that they prefer, the satisfaction levels of various services provided and the customers’ preference towards those services are not uniform throughout but vary. One service provided by one agency may good and another service may be better in another agency. Therefore, most of the sample respondents use more than one travel agency for their travel needs instead of sticking to one 1

Free Essays - Autobiography of Malcolm X :: Malcolm X Essays

Review of the Autobiography of Malcolm X The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told by Alex Haley is about a man who changed the history of America. Malcolm (Little) X preached what he believed about racism, discrimination, and segregation. He went through many changes in his fight for equality. The three transformations that really changed the way Malcolm thought and preached where his transformation in prison, his transformation into the Islamic religion (following Elijah Muhammad), and the biggest transformation of all, his pilgrimage to Mecca. In all of Malcolm actions, teachings and transformations we learn different points of view and we get a good look at different aspects of events. The life of Malcolm (Little) X as told in his autobiography should be read by all. Malcolm X while in prison completed his first transformation. Like many great figures and history makers had a low point in is life. At this time Malcolm was into drugs, hustling, women and money. He became so dependant on making a lot of money he and some of his friends decided to rob the house of an old white man. They were caught for this crime and were not only charged with this crime but were also charged with having sex with white women. Malcolm and his friend "Shorty" were sentenced to six years in prison. The two white women that were Malcolm and Shorty’s accomplices were sentenced to a year in jail. During the first couple days of prison Malcolm was coming off a drug high and was having withdrawals. These withdrawals led Malcolm into solitary confinement for two months. When he was let out of his chamber he met the man that would later be responsible for Malcolm’s transformation. This man was a follower of the nation of Islam and the great Alijah Muha mmad. Malcolm learned a great deal form him. This shows us that even in the worst of circumstances we can learn and become better. This transformation was a great test for Malcolm and starts to let us see what a great influence he would end up being in the lives of many Americans. Malcolm’s second transformation was his immersion and dedication to the Nation of Islam. He followed the "great" Alijah Muhammad and his teachings. Malcolm started preaching to small amounts of followers. It did not take long for the word of Malcolm’s preaching to get into the community.

Mother Jones :: essays research papers

Mary Harris Jones Mary Harris was born on May 1, 1830. She was born near Cork, Ireland. Her father got into some political trouble and had to move the family to Canada when she was eight years old. After high school Mary decided she wanted to be a schoolteacher and later moved to Tennessee in 1861. That is when she met George Jones and they got married. He was an Iron Molder like her father. In 1868, Marry Harris Jones’ lost her entire family to yellow fever. She was 37 years old and it killed her four children and her husband. It had swept Memphis where they lived. After this happened to her, Mary moved to Chicago to become a seamstress. Before she could get her little shop going a fire burnt down her business and her house with all of her belongings in 1871. Mary was having an awful time but managed to keep on trying. She finally got a job working with people who wanted to get decent wages and have their working environment improved. She also tried to stop child labor. Her work involved making speeches, recruiting members and organizing soup kitchens and women's auxiliary groups during strikes. Mary Jones later became an official for the United Mine Worker’s Union. She was in her sixties at this time and everyone knew her as Mother Jones. She was also known as a hell raiser and called the Most Dangerous Women in the World. The establishment types she battled had less flattering things to say about her. On the floor of the House of Representatives she was branded a ''notorious and troublesome woman.† Mary became a member of the Industrial Workers World. This is also known as the Wobblies. Mary Jones traveled the country helping workers to form themselves into unions. In 1908 Jones played a leading role in the mine strike in Paint Creek, West Virginia. During the strike, men employed by the mine-owners machine-gunned the strikers and their families. Mary was accused of being involved in this act and when one of the guards was murdered she was thrown in jail with a twenty-year sentence.

Business Process in a Hotel

Creating Customer Value in Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pp. 752-763 M. Drljaca: METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL MIROSLAV DRLJACA, MSc, Researcher Zagreb Airport, Ltd. , Zagreb, Croatia METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL UDC 65. 012. 4:640. 4 Preliminary communication Requests of interested parties, amongst which the customer has the central position, are starting points of quality management system that complies with requirements of ISO 9000ff international norms.Regardless of the fact whether we want to arrange hotel management system to meet the requirements of these norms, one should be able to recognize exact requests of interested parties, especially of the customer of services. Correct recognition of these requests presents the beginning of quality system management in a hotel. In order to fulfill the expectations and requests of guest, the management system in a hotel must be developed, documented, implemented and managed in such way to ensure realisation of the actual and foreseen guests' requests.Function structure of hotel organisation will not be sufficient for a long-run achievement of this goal. Classic structural model of hotel organisation must be upgraded through developed, documented and implemented business processes. In order to run hotel successfully, numerous interrelated activities must be defined and managed. The application of business process systems in the hotel, their definition and interaction, together with the management, can be defined as process approach.Business processes are one of structural elements of hotel management system. If they are not developed, documented and implemented, we can justly ask whether hotel management system is capable of meeting requests of interested parties. For running businesses, as well as hotels, there are three characteristic types of business processes: core business processes, management business processes and support processes.Scientists and expe rts do not agree about generally accepted methodology of business process modelling. This paper accepts a hypothesis saying that a good methodology is the one which enables managing of business process in a way to ensure the fulfillment of interested parties' requests, specifically the requests of guest. Key words: process, methodology of business process modelling, process approach. INTRODUCTIONDespite the fact that only a small number of hotel industry representatives in Croatia possess ISO 9001 certificate as international confirmation of requested quality level of management system, the idea of quality, as marketing orientation, as business 752 Creating Customer Value in Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pp. 752-763 M. Drljaca: METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL philosophy and everyday practice, is more and more existing in hotel industry. Independently of the degree of awareness of hotel management, business processes can be developed in any of the following ways: 1) in a long-established manner – which is based on „know-howâ€Å" of the most important parametres of business processes, with interventions only in situations when reliability of business process is seriously affected, 2) without any control, when in extreme cases the business process develops in completely uncontrollable conditions, 3) in partly controllable conditions – characterized by business process model according to chosen methodology, in conditions which are controlled in the same amount as the basic parametres that define them, and 4) in completely controlled conditions – those business processes whose basic parametres of definition are under complete control. 2 In order to create completely controlled environment for developing of usiness process in a hotel, it is necessary that hotel business processes be: 1) named, 2) described, 3) structurised/organised, 4) controlled, 5) managed, and 6) always improving. In order to fulfil it, hot el business processes need to be conceived, i. e. developed according to chosen methodology. The problem lies in the fact that ISO 9001:2000 norm (Quality Management Systems – Requirements) requires the proof that business processes are managed, but methodology of business processes developing is not being suggested. 3 The choice of methodology, and often its definition, is left to be made by hotel management. 1. DEFINITION OF TERM „PROCESSâ€Å" The word „processâ€Å" evolves from Latin word „procedereâ€Å", which originally means „moveâ€Å" or „go aheadâ€Å".This word form was followed by noun „processusâ€Å", which is translated as „processâ€Å" and means „ †¦ a series of actions, phases or events, development (in any direction or form) and transformation (inputs > outputs) of anything that was took under consideration (element, structure, sub-system, system, etc. ). â€Å" 1 2 3 ISO 9001 certificate, inter national confirmation of requested quality level of management system, acquired the following hotel industry representatives in Croatia: (in 1999: Hotel Excelsior in Dubrovnik, Hotels Maestral – Hotel Komodor in Dubrovnik; in 2000: Vodicanka Tours – Hotel Punta in Vodice, during change of owners did not retain the certificate, and Hotels Argentina in Dubrovnik).Basic parametres of definition of business processes are: a) object of activity (material, information, product, service and similar), b) frequency of operation (continually, sometimes only once, and similar), c) area of activity (state, city, company/organisation, part of company, and similar. ), d) manner of operation (usual, uncontrollable, in partly controllable conditions, in completely controllable conditions). At writing about methodology of business process development the authors avoid presenting final solutions, because methodology of business process development represent intellectual ownership (know how) of the author or consultant. Rare examples in Croatian literature are: Ivan Mamuzic, â€Å"Procesni pristup u sustavu upravljanja kvalitetom†, Kvaliteta, Broj 3, Infomart, Zagreb, 2002, p. -4, in which author presents possible methodology of business process development and shows part of diagram of process flow; Miroslav Drljaca, â€Å"Proces kao ishodiste modela ISO 9001:2000†, Kvaliteta, Broj 3, Infomart, Zagreb, 2002, p. 5-6, in which the author presents methodology of business process development and shows break-up of one business process; Zivko Kondic, Kvaliteta i ISO 9000, Tiva, Varazdin, 2002; and partly: Nenad Vulic, Sustavi upravljanja kvalitetom, Veleuciliste u Splitu, Split, 2001. Total presentation of methodology of business process development is written in: Nenad Injac i Marko Besker, Metodologija izgradnje poslovnih procesa u sustavu kvalitete, Oskar, Zagreb, 2003. 753 Creating Customer Value in Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pp. 752-763 M. Drlja ca: METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL Figure 1. Process presentationRULES AND CONTROLS INPUT TRANSFORMATION AREA OUTPUT MECHANISMS Process can be also defined as â€Å"a course, evolution or manner through which something was born or transformed, it is a development, a procedure †¦Ã¢â‚¬ 4 HRN EN ISO 8402:1996 norm defines the process as a â€Å"group of mutually independent resources and actions which transform input elements into output elements. †5 Transformation of input elements into output is in fact a transformation of one into the other. Each process thus becomes unique and special. Transformation of input into output is a system of complex interactions of operations and resources. It is a technology. It is â€Å"know how. International norm ISO 9000:2000 defines the process as „group of connected or mutually dependent activities which transform input into results. â€Å"6 The application of process system in a company, its definitio n and mutual interaction, as well as the management of process system – can be called „process approach. â€Å"7 The process approach has the advantage of permanent managing of links between – particular processes (within the process structure), which is the structural element of hotel management system, – and – combination and mutual interaction of these elements. 8 When applied in the hotel quality management system, this process approach underlines the importance of the following: ? understanding and meeting of guest's requests, need of supervision of business processes in value added conditions; ? achieving results of business processes and their efficiency, and 4 5 6 7 8 Zelimir Domovic, Sime Anic i Nikola Klaic, Rjecnik stranih rijeci, SANI-PLUS, Zagreb, 1998, p. 1163. HRN EN ISO 8402 Quality management and quality assurance – Vocabulary, (ISO 8402:1994; EN ISO 8402:1995), Quadrilingual version. International norm HRN EN ISO 9000:2002 Quality management systems – Fundamentals and vocabulary (ISO 9000:2000, EN ISO 9000:2000), Version quadrilingue, p. 40. International norm HRN EN ISO 9001:2002 Quality management systems – Requirements (ISO 9001:2000, EN ISO 9001:2000), p. 14.Except process structure, structural elements of management system of every company, a hotel as well, are: 1) strategic documents of company (mission, vision, strategy, politics, general and special managerial aims), 2) organisation, 3) resources, 4) partnerships, and 5) communication and notification. 754 Creating Customer Value in Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pp. 752-763 M. Drljaca: METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL ? permanent improvement of business processes, based on impartial estimation. Regardless of many possible types of business processes, and many diversities of process structures, all business processes in hotel can be divided into three types: ? management processes, ? core processes, ? sup port processes. Figure 2.Three types of business processes Management processes Guest' s request Core business processes Guest' s satisfaction Support processes Source: Martyn A. Ould, Business Processes, John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester, England, UK, 1995, p. 2. Many industries have more than one core or „macroâ€Å" group of business processes, including: management of business system, management of resources, realisation of products and services, measurement and control. 9 Management business processes are important for progress of core business processes, as well as of support process. These are business processes of development, planning, quality management and management of hotel organisation.Because of entirety and directions of their influence onto core business processes – Management business processes are called – vertical processes. Core business processes are focused on the achievement of satisfaction of customers, (buyers/users), i. e. hotel guests . They directly add new value to the product, meaning service. They meet requests of hotel guests and are generator of their 9 Herbert C. Monnich, Jr. , ISO 9001:2000 for Small and Medium Sized Businesses, American Society for Quality, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, 2001, p. 3. 755 Creating Customer Value in Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pp. 752-763 M. Drljaca: METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL contentment.Core business processes, processes of fulfillment or realization, are business processes whose result – in form of product or service has direct value confirmation on the market. The plan and the product in their creation are in core business processes strongly integrated. Core business processes are called – horizontal processes. Figure 3. Interactivities of different types of business process Management processes (vertical) Core processes (horizontal) Support processes (vertical) Support processes which are also called logistical or resourceful business processes, are directed towards producing satisfaction of internal users within hotel organisational structure. They are able to create added value for the guest.However, this influence on making added value is indirect and is fulfilled through support of core business processes. Support processes are auxiliary business processes and represent a support to core business processes. With regard to direction of activities onto core business processes, they are also called – vertical processes. Numerous management, core and support processes develop within this process structure simultaneously. They have a series of interactions. Each interaction in certain measure affects the business process result in terms of meeting the guests' requests. 2. BUSINESS PROCESSES IN A HOTEL „Complete work process of a hotel consists of processes of production activities and service activities.Purpose of production activities is rendering of services which have product characterist ics, like: various food, beverages that are specifically prepared, bread, desserts, and similar. Purpose of service activities is providing guests with: accommodation, serving of meals and beverages, entertainment, sale of goods, various handicraft-and-services, laundry washing, ironing, and similar. â€Å"10 „Process contains all activities linked into a chain. It starts with defining of all possible needs a 10 Ivanka Avelini Holjevac, Kontroling – Upravljanje poslovnim rezultatom, Sveuciliste u Rijeci, Hotelijerski fakultet Opatija, Opatija, 1998, p. 379. 756Creating Customer Value in Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pp. 752-763 M. Drljaca: METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL guest (tourist, buyer, etc. ) may have during the trip, until return, only with aim that all guests' needs are met. â€Å" 11 Table 1. Types of business processes in a hotel 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Process of hotel management. Process of planning. Process of development. Pro cess of marketing. Process of quality management. Process of environment management. Process of social responsibility management. Process of security/safety at work management. 1. Process of producing food and beverages which are specifically prepared. 2. Process of serving meals and beverages. 3.Process of reception and accommodation of guests. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Process of human resources management. Process of financial management. Process of infrastructure maintenance. Process of information management. Process of purchase. Process of sale. Management business processes in a hotel. Core business processes in a hotel. Support processes in a hotel. At identifying of business processes in a hotel and dividing them into types, it is necessary to avoid identification of business function and business process in a hotel. Essential differences are at least these that follows: ? business function is static category, while business process is dynamic category, business function is mostly operated within one structural hotel unit, and is usually named after it, while process implies more participants from more structural hotel units, ? business function is operated within hotel, while process can have participants from outside of hotel structural organisation, but who are important for progress of concrete business process, 11 Zdenko Cerovic, Hotelski menadzment, Sveuciliste u Rijeci, Fakultet za turisticki i hotelski menadzment Opatija, Opatija, 2003, p. 415. 757 Creating Customer Value in Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pp. 752-763 M. Drljaca: METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL ? ? ? . business function is run by functional manager, and process is run by business process manager, and identification of these roles must not be a rule but an exception, business process is one of the possible inner aspects of supervision of costs, quality costs as well, while function is not, due to all these differences, function is a narrower concept than busine ss process. METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT Basic task of hotel management during of business processes development is in fact establishing, directing and describing of events during transformation process of input into output. In order this task could be accomplished, we ust have suitable methodology of business process development within the quality system. Different companies use dissimilar methodologies. Modelling of methodology in great measure depends on knowledge about quality management. Regardless of which methodology is used by teams who developing business processes, they should remain consistent when they apply it in developing all business processes in a hotel. Hotel management must create its own methodology or choose already existing methodology of business process development. Teams for business process development in practice often encounter the problem of verification of correctness of their own solutions. This paper presents one of the possible approac hes. 3. 1.Identification of the process is initial task in business process developing and demands (from the team): naming of the process, appointing of the leader (manager) of business process, defining of its objective(s), defining of input and output requests, description of mechanisms, rules and controls. Afterwards, they must determine outer and inner users of business process results, as well as designate process steps as consisting parts of the business process. 3. 2. Diagram of the context is simple display of business process at the highest level from which an interaction can be seen: rules, controls and mechanisms during transformation of input into output. 3. 3. Display of static model of business process presents logical sequence of process steps development as consisting parts of the business process.This phase of business process development identifies structural units where individual process step develops, and locates control points at which measurements will be perf ormed – and thus manage the business process. 3. 4. Description of the process describes requests that result from requests and needs of guests, then from specifications, norms, regulations, elaborations, methods and resources. Here are also identified requests, objectives and descriptions of their fulfillment, as well as allowed deviations. By defining of allowed deviations we in fact determine the minimum quality level of business process. 758 Creating Customer Value in Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pp. 752-763 M. Drljaca: METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL Figure 4. Diagram of the contextRULES AND CONTROLS GUEST' S REQUEST PROCESS OF RECEPTION AND ACCOMMODATION OF GUESTS A- 0 GUEST' S SATISFACTION MECHANISMS 3. 5. Diagram of decomposition of business process is methodologically confirmed graphical representation of the process with all its consisting parts – process steps. It represents logical sequence of process steps development. It specif ies input, rules and controls, mechanisms and output of each process step. Diagram of decomposition represents a technology. It shows process of reception and accommodation of guests per process steps that logically develop in sequence. At least one exit from a process step is also an entry into the next.Process steps in the process of reception and accommodation of guests are identified as follows: 759 Creating Customer Value in Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pp. 752-763 M. Drljaca: METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL Figure 5. Decomposition of process of reception and accommodation of guests Refusal of request Guest' s request ANALYSIS OF GUEST' S REQUEST A-01 ACCOMODATION OF GUEST A-03 RECEPTION OF GUEST A-02 Accommodated guest Orders to departments Invoice issued to guest Invoice forwarded to Financ. Dept. HANDLING OF GUEST A-04 Fulfillment of guest's request CHARGEING AND GREETING OF GUEST A-05 Fulfillment of requests FINAL ACTIVITIES A-06 ReportsNew proce ss cycle A-0. 1 Analysis of guest' s request A-0. 2 Reception of guest A-0. 3 Accommodation of guest A-0. 4 Handling of guest A-0. 5 Charging of services and greeting of guest A-0. 6 Final activities 3. 6. Description of process steps must specify input, output, mechanisms, rules and controls of each process step, as well as locate structural hotel unit in which certain process step develops. Also, written procedure is named, if any of process steps should be additionally documented. 3. 7. Presentation of dynamic model of the process is plan of implementation of developed business process into functional structure of organization of the hotel.The plan shows in which structural hotel unit develop activities of each process step, and which unit of organization is responsible for their execution. Making of presentation of dynamic model business process is a precondition of the process organisation itself. 760 Creating Customer Value in Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pp. 752-763 M. D rljaca: METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL Figure 6. Dynamic model of process of reception and accommodation of guests Partners Financial Division Human Resources Div. Accommodation D. Reception Accommodation Divis. Food & bever. Division Commercial Division Controlling Quality Manager Process steps General Manager Structural units Analysis of guest's request A-01 Reception of guest A-02 Accommodation of guest A-03Handling of guest A-04 Charging of services and greeting of guest A-05 Final activities A -06 3. 8. Establishing of responsibility for the process is logical continuation of work on business process development. It implies exact establishment of responsibility of concrete executor of individual process step. After establishment of responsibility, the conditions for establishment of management team for concrete process are prepared. Management team is headed by manager of business process. In this way we model process organisation, based on team work. 12 3. 9. Plan of measuring within the process is based on description of business process, i. . defined limits of allowed deviations, up to which business process still shows reliability as one of its crucial characteristics. The plan of measuring defines names of control points where certain measurements will be performed. It also defines target value, allowed deviations and measuring method. By all these measurements, comparisons with target values, and possible application of corrective measures and activities – we manage the business process. 12 Pere Sikavica, â€Å"Procesna i timska organizacija†, Slobodno poduzetnistvo, br. 18/98, Zagreb, 1998, p. 108116. 761 Creating Customer Value in Tourism and Hospitality Industry, pp. 752-763 M.Drljaca: METHODOLOGY OF BUSINESS PROCESS DEVELOPMENT IN A HOTEL 3. 10. Plan of providing information within process is necessary in order to clearly define: which participant of business process provides the information, who receives it , what is its contens, and when is the information sent and received. 3. 11. Making of further process documentation implies writing of procedures for particular process step which definitely needs it, and writing of lower level documents, like work instructions, check lists, plans of corrective measures and activities, etc. CONCLUSION In the audit of quality of hotel management system it is necessary to document and prove the request for business process management.Since this is the requirement of ISO 9001:2000 international norm, and only four representatives of hotel industry in Croatia have certificates related to this international norm, it is justified to ask: which methods were used in hotels to name, describe and organise structural units of business processes, and how were these business processes controlled, managed and constantly improved. In the economy branches, which are the core of tourist industry, the most successful companies, except for food-and-beverages industry , do not have certificates. There is a limited number of companies which possess international certificates, amongst which are: retail trading, hotel industry, road transport and manufacture of furniture. Therefore, repeatedly, the question is put: can we create development strategy for Croatian tourism without developed strategy of these economy branches that realise part of revenue resulting from tourists' expenses. There are no ready universal solutions.Imitating of another company's solutions or adoptions of lesser adjustments of these solutions as their own optimum solutions are – delusions, and in practice will be causing entropy. Every business process is different. It can even have the same name, same number and same names of process steps, same inputs and outputs, but still there are no identical business processes. Differences and originalities are happening in the interaction of inputs and outputs, rules, and controls, as well as mechanisms in each process step â⠂¬â€œ in the area of transformation of inputs into outputs. In the context of quality management systems we may conclude that ISO 9001:2000 international norm does not suggest methodology of business process development, but demands the proof that business processes are being managed.It can be concluded that every methodology of business process developing is satisfactory, if it can prove the management of processes. REFERENCES 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Avelini Holjevac, Ivanka, Kontroling – Upravljanje poslovnim rezultatom, Sveuciliste u Rijeci, Hotelijerski fakultet Opatija, Opatija, 1998. Cerovic, Z. , Hotelski menadzment, Sveuciliste u Rijeci, Fakultet za turisticki i hotelski menadzment Opatija, Opatija, 2003. Domovic, Z. , Anic S. i N. Klaic, Rjecnik stranih rijeci, SANI-PLUS, Zagreb, 1998. 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