Team Marriott

Cole Woodward, Kristin Chandler, Niema Beglari, Savannah Sherard, Trevor Chasse, Tyler

Valen

Professor Marchesseault

BCOM 314

October 17, 2017

University of Arizona
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 3

SITUATION 4

INTRODUCTION 4
NARRATIVE 4

BACKGROUND & ANALYSIS 4

KEY ISSUE 4
OPPORTUNITY 4
KEY STAKEHOLDERS 5

RECOMMENDATION 6

EMPLOYEES 6
COMMUNICATION 6
HOTEL MANAGEMENT 7
ENTRY- INTERMEDIATE LEVEL EMPLOYEES 7

RESPONSE 8

NEXT STEPS 8
PROJECTED BUDGET 9
SALARIES 9
ROI 9

TIMELINE 9

CONCLUSION 10

REFERENCES 11
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Executive Summary
Situation
The goal is to maintain a high level of customer service to our customers, by improving the employee
engagement of the new employees joining Marriott from Starwood. Marriott has an opportunity to align
their internal and external narrative throughout their brands in this acquisition.
Background & Analysis
The employees are prioritized first due to the major impact they hold on the other stakeholders. The
Marriotts mission reflects if the employees are happy, the customers will be happy which leads to great
returns for our shareholders. It is because of the relationships that our employees create with the
customers, which makes the Marriott experience and brand great. In order to correct the alignment of
narratives, we will focus on the top management down, really honing in on the base level employees
because of their high level of impact. By focusing on the core values and cultural integration, it will help
all employees, including Starwood, to understand the Marriott brand. Many employees are worried about
this acquisition and holding together the alignment; therefore, the Marriott will secure their needs and
worries through a web seminar.
Recommendation
We are planning on hosting a cultural integration web seminar for the management of our Starwood
legacy hotels to attend. In this, they will be educated on Marriotts mission statement core values and
leaders to best integrate them into our work culture. They will relay this message to their subordinates and
thus communicate our brand to help align our internal narrative. We will also have some of our Starwood
employees shadow our Marriott employees to learn first hand the quality of service we expect from our
employees. With the acquisition of the Starwood hotels, it is imperative all employees, including
Starwood employees, see and understand the Marriott family. In order to achieve this, emails will be sent
out including important information such as the companys values, mission statement and Marriott brand.
This will help respond to the lack of communication and help the Starwood employees mix with the
Marriott's culture. Human resources will help the Marriott team in developing a web seminar that
demonstrate the Marriott brand and the details of being a Marriott employee. This one to two hour
seminar will consist of videos to immerse employees into the Marriott culture.
Response
The projected budget of this recommendation is $95,675, which covers the costs of creating and putting
together a web seminar, as well as sending 5 Starwood employees from each hotel to a Marriott brand
comparable for 8 hours to be mentored. With the implementation of our communication plan, we expect
cultural integration of Marriott values across both companies which in return will increase employee
engagement.
Final Thoughts
Through the Marriotts expansion with Starwood hotels, we have found this as an opportunity to
strengthen the Marriotts brand and relationship with their stakeholders. Our recommendation is to hold a
web seminar and establish a training program in order to incorporate Starwood employees into the
Marriott culture thus fostering our companys growth and success.
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Situation

As requested, the Marriott team has created a report that addresses the acquisition of the
Starwood Hotels and how we intend to communicate our strategy and recommendations to our
most important key stakeholder, which are the Marriott employees. Through our previous
research, the Marriott team has addressed the internal and external narratives surrounding the
Marriott and how the acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts has created an issue of cultural
integration among the company. This message will aid your understanding in Marriotts
situation, background, recommendation and our teams response to the key issue at hand.

Narrative
The Marriotts narrative begins with their core values. In the heart of their core values is their
mission to provide great customer service and create a strong brand. Our narrative aligns
internally and externally with the brand as a whole of the Marriott. Internally through providing
customer service and externally the adaptability to change. Throughout all the changes the
Marriott has to go through, it is necessary for the Marriott brand to be represented in all services
and hotels. Through our narrative, the Marriott team has found our key issue that Marriott will
address as an opportunity.

Background & Analysis

Key Issue
The significant issue facing Marriott is the internal consequences of acquiring Starwood hotels
and controlling the impact it will have on the stakeholders, thus affecting the alignment of the
internal and external narratives. Through previous research, it has become apparent that
Marriotts greatest strength has been their adaptability to change. This can been seen by their
ability to conduct business in the United States, as well as the international market. However,
with the company expanding with the acquisition of the Starwood and building into international
areas, the potential lack of communication about the cultural integration of the two companies
could cause their internal and external narratives to contrast. We see this as an opportunity to
strengthen the Marriott's brand and relationship they hold with their stakeholders.

Opportunity
From gaining Starwood, Marriott has to maintain solid relationship with stakeholders and keep
them informed about the changes occurring in the company. Many sources question and speak
on the Marriott taking over Starwood, leading to potential misalignments in the narratives being
portrayed. As seen in below, there are numerous difficulties that come with an acquisition that
directly affect a companys stakeholders.
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In order to reassure their stakeholders, Marriott must effectively communicate implementing

cultural integration with them. Through this communication, the Marriott brand will be
continually represented. The Marriotts main objective is having our core values aligned with the
Starwood hotels and maintaining communication with our stakeholders representing our brand
through this acquisition.

Key Stakeholders
The Marriott has three key stakeholders that are being impacted to the adjustments caused by the
acquisition of the Starwood Hotels. Employee, customers, and shareholders can be categorized
as the stakeholders that hold the most importance to the Marriott. All of these stakeholders will
be communicated to individually to ensure that the transition process is as smooth as possible,
and to communicate Marriotts core values are upheld to their standards during the process.

For the customers this acquisition brings great opportunity, and expands the Marriott to over 30
brands to provide an experience to guests. The customers will have the same loyalty program and
their points will be interchangeable between the two companies. Overall, the customers should
not be heavily impacted by the acquisition because Marriott will be providing the same services
and even expanding into international areas giving the customers more options to choose stay at.

Shareholders are the decision makers for the Marriott and make the important decisions that
impact the company's growth overall. They took advantage of the opportunity by acquiring the
Starwood, and predicted this would give a chance to expand Marriott into international areas and
in turn, increased their market share to 26%. Also, with the acquisition of another large hotel
chain comes the chance to increase profits across the company and improve operations as a
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whole. All in all, each of these stakeholders are a high priority within the Marriott, but overall
employees are the ones being impacted the most by this transition.

After our acquisition of the Starwood Hotels, Marriott currently employs over 675,000 people at
the different 6,100 locations around the world. However, there have been reports of upset
Starwood employees ranging from all levels, worrying that they will not have the same work
environment and some of upper management concerned about their job security. In a recent
survey of the employees from the Starwood Hotel, they showed their concern by 40% of them
voting they are worried about the change in brand culture and around 35% are concerned with
the standards Marriott holds themselves to.

During the transition, there is concern of the employee satisfaction affecting the ability to
maintain a high level of customer service. While there may be upset employees joining the
Marriott family, from the recent reports there have not been any signs of poor customer service
externally impacting Marriott. Overall, this opportunity is affecting the Marriott employees in a
positive way because there is growth for employees within the company, but the concern is
making sure that our employees are happy with their new work environment and that the two
company cultures are able to align with each other. Through this transition, Marriott will work to
educate and communicate with employees so they are able to understand the business and create
a work environment beneficial for both parties.

Recommendation

Employees
Reviewing our three primary stakeholders we have the shareholders, the customers, and the
employees. We prioritized the employee's first with the most significant impact relating to the
Marriott Starwood merger. They are responsible for upholding Marriotts core values throughout
their daily customer service operations. In doing so, the goal is for the employees to build
relationships with the guests transferring them into long term loyal customers.

Since the Starwood merger, Starwood employees have had to adapt and integrate into Marriotts
company culture. Whether this integration is successful or not has a major effect on the
companys success. Also, whether Marriott will be able to retain key Legacy-Starwood personnel
will be an issue. If key personnel choose to leave the loss of their institutional knowledge and
key business relationships could cause Marriotts business to suffer.

Communication
In order to best communicate with our Starwood legacy employees, we will work from the top
management, down. By educating our upper management of the issues that have arisen, those
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who yield the most power in the company are able implement changes that can affect the whole
brand. All information will be framed to best reflect the interests of the employees. By doing
this, the employees will actually listen and appreciate how Marriott values them as people.

Hotel Management
The executives need to communicate with the hotel management about the misalignment in the
Marriott and Starwood narratives. With the acquisition of over 1,500 Starwood Legacy hotels,
the best solution is to contact this new division of our company and have the message go from
the top, down the chain of command. We need to incorporate the human resources department
and have them host a web seminar detailing what being a Marriott employee means and what
the company stands for. In these seminars we will clearly state that the purpose is to integrate the
Starwood Legacy employees into our Marriott family. We will be going into detail in the seminar
about what makes the Marriott excellence such as their mission statement, core values and how
the employees uphold our work culture. Our web seminar will be sent via email to each hotel
manager who can then relay the message to their subordinates.

Two of both companys core values are identical in how they both want to exceed the customers
expectations and to act with integrity. We want our hotel management to understand how we, at
Marriott, have some of the same values as Starwood held and then some; and will have them
reiterate these messages in meetings with their employees. Also, the executives should send out
emails to the whole company welcoming the new employees and repeating the seminars
message, therefore ensuring all of our Starwood Legacy Hotels are educated. This introduction
to who we are at Marriott can help ease this transition.

Entry- Intermediate Level Employees

To help start the transition for our entry- intermediate level employees we are having the hotel
management inform them about who the Marriott is. However, in order to ensure that our new
Starwood Legacy employees are prepared to serve as a Marriott employee, we find the best
strategy is to learn by example. This is an attempt to imitate the J.P. Morgan- Bank One
acquisition strategy. By temporarily having a Starwood legacy employees from each division in
the hotel see their respective Marriott counterpart, they will witness the standard of how our
employees treat our customers, perform their jobs and maintain their attitudes. This training will
be engaging for Starwood employees and will focus on teamwork and adaptability to make the
employees feel embraced into the new company.

We need to welcome our new employees into the Marriott family and show them why we have
been ranked one of the best companies to work at for eighteen years. As seen in the figure below,
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our Marriott employees are proud to work with us and feel good about the way they contribute to
our community among other outstanding reviews about their job.

Our Starwood employees need to know that our work culture and service are unbeatable and we
look forward to fully transitioning them into Marriott employees.

Response

Next Steps
We plan on starting this communication plan in the low-travel season of the month of
November. Below is the step-by-step outline of how we plan to implement the communication
plan along with a timeline.

1. On November 1, Human Resources will be notified to create an online seminar revolving

around the culture integration of Marriott and Starwood.
2. On the same day, Starwood legacy hotel management will be notified through email by
Marriott executives of the date of the web seminar; November 8.
3. Welcoming email from Marriott Executives and its Board of Directors will be sent out to
all new Starwood employees on November 7.
4. Web Seminar link will be sent to Starwood hotel management via email November 8, and
managers will spend 2 hours completing the seminar.
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5. Starwood hotel managers will compile information and knowledge gained from seminar
and will relay to subordinate employees during short team meeting on November 10
6. Five Starwood employees will be sent from each hotel to shadow a respective counterpart
at a nearby Marriott brand on November 12.
7. Finally, previously selected Starwood employees will implement learned Marriott work
culture into their hotel.

Projected Budget
After researching the costs of putting together a web seminar, we found that a large corporation
like Marriott wanting to put on a one time seminar for a large audience would cost at least
$5,000. The main costs forming our budget will be sending Starwood legacy employees to
Marriott branded hotels to be mentored and learn the Marriott service culture. Having 5
employees from different services from each of the 1,500 Starwood hotels go to a Marriott
comparable brand would be a total of 7,500 employees. As the average hourly pay of a Starwood
employee is $12.09, we multiply 7,500 by $12.09 to reach the product of $90,675. By adding
these two costs of $5,000 and $90,675 we come to our request projected budget of $95,675. This
total is a low cost for a plan that will serve a major role in integrating company cultures after a
merger and acquisition.

ROI
Through the implementation of our communication strategy, we will expect to see a high return
on investment in employee engagement. In a Bain survey of executives who have managed
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through mergers, the number one reason for a deals failure to achieve promised value is culture
clash. Employees know that M&As often lead to layoffs, which can create survivor outcasts,
where instead of working together, employees from both merging sides act to protect their own
rather looking out for one another. In a Deloitte report, 61% of employees ranked effective
integration as one of their most important concerns during mergers. Companies that fail to
develop their employees could be doing damage not only to morale, but to the bottom line as
well. According to HR Magazine, organizations with highly engaged employees endure double
the success, because engaged employees are more productive and efficient and are genuinely
interested in making an impact in their role.

The web seminar will place Starwood employees in assurance that there should be concern over
job safety and that the Marriott values and culture is accepting of our new Starwood family. The
seminar coupled with the invaluable time that Starwood employees will spend being mentored
by Marriott employees will finalize the cultural integration between Marriott and Starwood. The
return on investing in our recommended communication plan is an integrated culture with
engaged employees who are motivated to fulfill Marriotts values of exquisite customer service.
With Marriotts culture serving as the dominant core values for all Marriott and Starwood
brands, customers will be able to expect and receive Marriott level service at every one of the 30
brands.

Conclusion

Reviewing our communication plan we first identified our companys key issue/challenge to be
the acquisition of Starwood Hotels and how it will impact Marriotts business. Analyzing our
issue we concluded the employees will have the most significant impact relating to the Starwood
acquisition therefore, we must communicate with them first in order to succeed. We provided
you with the recommendations that will be most successful in allowing you to effectively
communicate with these stakeholders. Our recommendations included a web seminar sent to
upper management detailing what being a Marriott employee means and what values the
company represents. In addition, we recommended establishing a training program
incorporating Starwood employees from each division into a Marriott hotel to work alongside
Marriott employees experiencing and learning how they fulfill their responsibilities.
Furthermore, we outlined the next steps necessary to put our communication plan into action
including the projected budget and timeline of implementation. Overall, this communication plan
provides you with a detailed strategy to communicate with our employees in order to keep
fostering company growth and success.
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Appendix A: References

About Marriott Hotels. Marriott Corporate Business Information. (n.d.). Retrieved

October 9th, 2017, from http://www.marriott.com/marriott/aboutmarriott.mi

Agreement and Plan of Merger. (2004). Retrieved October 10, 2017, from

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/19617/000095012304000909/y93579exv2w1.h

tm

Alvarez, A. (2017). IBISWorld Industry Report 72111. Hotels & Motels in the U.S. Retrieved

October 7th, 2017 from IBISWorld database.

Beyond the Beach: Marriott International Reveals Top Trends in Inaugural Summer Travel

Trend Report 2017. (2017). Retrieved October 5th, 2017, from EBSCOhost.

EBSCOhost.Marriott International SWOT Analysis | USP & Competitors | BrandGuide. (n.d.).

Retrieved Marriott goes all in. Fortune, 175(8), 200-208.

Eisen, D. (2017). Marriott and Starwood not the easiest of combinations. Hotel Management

(21582122), 232(6), 6.

Fealy, E. (2011). Culture Integration in M&A. Retrieved 2017, from

http://www.aon.com/attachments/thought-leadership/M_A_Survey.pdf

MarketLine (2016). Marriott International, Inc. SWOT Analysis, 1-8. Retrieved October 7th,

2017, from EBSCOhost.

Marriott International SWOT Analysis, USP & Competitors, BrandGuide. (n.d.). Retrieved

October 12, 2017, from http://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/tourism-and-

hospitality/2370-marriott-international.html

Marriott International Named a Fortune 100 Best Company To Work For - A Winner For Two
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Decades Straight. (2017). Retrieved October 8, 2017, from

http://news.marriott.com/2017/03/marriott-international-named-fortune-100-best-

company-work/

Marriott Makeover Aimed At Youth Market. (2005). Meeting News, 29(6), 9.

King, D. (2017). With Alibaba deal, Marriott sets sights on Chinese travelers. Travel

Weekly, 76(33), 8.

Rauen, S. S., & Akkam, A. (2017). Bigger is better: A look at what's happening after the

Starwood-Marriott merger. Hospitality Design, 39(6), 58-69.

THE NEW CHALLENGES OF HOTEL MARKETING. (2015). Retrieved October 8th, 2017,

from https://www.buzzandgo.com/the-new-challenges-of-hotel-marketing/