Question

Red Carpet LLC is a national hospitality and entertainment company with headquarters in Philadelphia, PA with national operations in the US. Historically, the company has had 3 divisions: hotels, food service, and cruise lines. However, it recently completed the acquisition of Sparkstar theaters, a movie theater company, that it is slated to become its 4th division. Red Carpet now owns 200 hotels in 48 states, 4 brands of restaurants with 1776 locations, 4 Buoy Bay branded cruise ships, and 300 Sparkstar theaters.

Its matrix organizational structure consists of a central HR, accounting, business development, sales, marketing, and research and development departments located at the headquarters in Philadelphia that serve each division. Each division is located in a different part of the US and lead by a VP that reports to the President and CEO. The company is privately owned by a consortium of investors and investor groups.

Red Carpet has 16,000 employees, 1000 of which work at its corporate headquarters. The organizational culture of the headquarters is informal and organic and there are few policies and processes that guide employee behavior. The company, as a whole, does not value HR so employees struggle with many employee relations and employment law concerns. The company outsources all of its training to one of the investor group companies, however this training is commonly not customized to the needs of Red Carpet.

As a whole, Red Carpet struggles with its business to business partners and suppliers because of its reputation for being nonnegotiable. Red Carpet would rather disrupt the quality and availability of its only products and services rather than partner for the supply chain resources that it needs. Likewise, Red Carpet does not hold many of the General Managers in its hotels, restaurants, and its cruise ships accountable for performance, opting instead for a weaker political strategy of blaming and gotcha games.

Being aware of these challenges, Red Carpet acquired Sparkstar for their strong industry reputation and financial performance in the hopes that merging the structure and culture of Sparkstar into Red Carpet would change the organization for the better. Historically, Red Carpet has been a highly successful company, however in recent years, its mismanagement has created noticeable effectives in product and service quality and its bottom line.

Divisions

Hotels: Red Carpet branded hotels are mid-price semi-luxury hotels known for high quality. Each customer is given a red velvet cupcake upon checking in. Red Carpet relies on its General Managers to micromanage the hotel. Despite its corporate parent owning a restaurant division, no Red Carpet hotels have restaurants. The Red Carpet division headquarters are in Sedona AZ. Many of the hotels are in need of refurbishment.

Food Service: Chicken Heaven is a fast-food chain with a long tradition of quality, large customer base, and 1000 locations. It is a solid overall performer for Red Carpet with high employee satisfaction. Burger Blast is another fast-food chain recently launched to cater to upscale customers who seek customized, gourmet-style burgers. It has 200 locations, however General Managers are struggling with budget and supplies causing a poor customer experience and high employee turnover. Food Park is a buffet-style restaurant with 500 locations that has been recently struggling because of high competition and poor marketing. Delicacy is a high-end restaurant with an urban theme. It has 76 locations, is the oldest of Red Carpet's food service operations, and provides a unique dining experience for customers. However, General Managers have a high turnover at Delicacy because of the grueling schedule. The food service division is located in Burke, ID.

Cruise Ships: Buoy Bay cruise ships offer low-cost, short-term cruises from Port Canaveral, FL only to the US Virgin Islands. Buoy Bay offers customers average quality staterooms and food from Chicken Heaven, Burger Blast, and Food Park. However, it does not offer a non-buffet formal dining option such as Delicacy. Although they are known for their over-the-top entertainment, employee turnover is very high relying primary on seasonal employees who are poorly trained. Buoy Bay has had much controversy. Just 5 years ago, the Buoy Bay cruise ship, Garland of the Sails, hit a reef, partially sank, and had to be salvaged in a 1.5 billion dollar operation. This resulted in a Federal investigation that is still pending. The Buoy Bay division is located in Lapsowanne, OR.

Movie Theaters: Sparkstar theaters were recently purchased from the Vegamega group for 2.3 billion dollars. Sparkstar is the highest rated movie theater chain the US. It has high customer and employee satisfaction, an efficient organizational structure, and solid financial results. Sparkstar's culture is one of high HR involvement including a strong training and development department, Sparkstar Institute. Sparkstar has a customer rewards program that provides a free movie rental of the film that the customer saw in the theater which has been very popular and has increased its strong customer base. Sparkstar has its divisional headquarters in Pasadena, CA.

The Issues

With the purchase of Sparkstar theaters, Red Carpet is hoping to redefine its operations in the next 5 years. It sees opportunities to integrate its divisions, products, and services to better serve its customers and employees. Here is a summary of some of the issues that Red Carpet must address in its strategic plan:

Internal politics and communication
Improved HR and training
Employee relations issues
Federal investigations
Product and service quality
Marketing support
Performance issues
Redefining the organizational structure
Improving its organizational culture
Integrating products and services
Resource and supply chain issues

Your Role

Leroy Banks, the Director of Change management at Red Carpet is seeking an Organization Development Consultant to address Red Carpet's need for change. You've just received a consulting contract from him to help prepare a plan to assist Red Carpet. You're excited about the opportunity and are motivated to work on this project. You know that your insight will assist Red Carpet with managing organizational change.

Leroy Banks is the Director of Change Management for Red Carpet, a national hospitality and entertainment company. He has contracted you to be an OD Consultant because Red Carpet has recently acquired a movie theater company and needs to create a new division. Leroy realized that this acquisition has provided an opportunity to restructure some other parts of the Red Carpet as well so it can streamline its operations. Leroy has asked you to begin by assessing Red Carpet’s organizational environment.

Review the Red Carpet scenario for this course and with your classmates; discuss the following questions that will help you become familiar with Red Carpet:

Identify and describe 3 examples of external forces affecting Red Carpet.
Identify and describe 3 examples of internal forces affecting Red Carpet
What challenges have these forces created at Red Carpet?

Answer 1

1. The three external factors are federal investigation, Resource and supply chain issue, marketing support.

The first thing that the company faces externally is federal investigation which is not being handled properly and which affects the company reputation.

The other external factor affecting company is it does not have proper supply chain management which otherwise would have solve the problem of good and fast service with reduction in waste and time.

The third is the marketing support that it does not have also hampering the interest of company by not maximizing the profit.

2. The three internal issues are internal politics and communication gap, lack of proper human resource management, and Employees behavioral issue.

The first is the political issue and communication gap. The senior members seem less concerned about overall business loss and factors affecting the company. There seems to be communication gap as well between the members and different department.

The main internal issue is mismanagement. The employee is not answerable to the senior management. This certainly due to the lack of strict policies for the managers to oversee the projects and work also there is no mechanism for strategy development and implementation at the company.

The other thing is employee behavior issue which is the result of absence of good policy or code conduct of employees at work place. Also when employee take it casual, it is very unlikely that they will follow Human resource management.

3. The challenges that these forces have created for company is huge and needs to be resolved earlier. The best way to solve these challenges is to solve them separately. The main challenge before the company are , lack of proper human resource management, lack of coordination between the employee and department, Employment and labor issue of employees have to be addressed properly, federal investigation, accountability of employees, proper marketing of products, strong policy decision and supply chain management.

The first thing is to do is go for conflict resolution as to talk to all senior members of the company and understand their views on political issues affecting the company and resolve the conflict. The organization need to have very strong human resource management which will also solve labor and employment issues along with implementation of proper code of conduct for employee. The senior management will have to make sure that managers are accountable and there shall be proper communication and coordination between different department and business of the parent company. There has to be outsourcing of products and service which it cannot deliver on its own or where integrating its different services does not help. Maintaining a good supply chain network. These are some of the ways that could help the company in resolving its internal and external factors affecting it.