You are trying to decide whether to take a vacation. Most of the costs of the vacation (airfare, hotel, and forgone wages) are measured in dollars, but the benefits of the vacation are psychological. How can you compare the benefits to the costs? Compare the airfare and hotel costs of the vacation to the foregone wages. Determine the benefits of what you give up by going on the vacation, and compare them to the benefits of going on the vacation. Get a degree in psychology.

1. How would you calculate the population size of a species of plant? How would you calculate the population size of a species of mice?

2. Practice: A biologist originally marked 40 butterflies in a park. Over a period of 30 days, butterfly traps caught 200 butterflies. Of the 200 captured, 8 were found to have tags. Based on this information, what is the estimated population size of the butterflies in the Park?

For each of the following policy changes, explaim why the change is or is not likely to be a Pareto improvement.
a) Building a park, financed by an increase in the local property tax rate
b) Building a park, financed by the donatiom of a rich philanthropist
c)Increasing medical facilities for lung cancer, financed out of a general revenues
d)Increasing medical rate facilities for lung cancer, finances out of an increase in the cigarette tax

A hotel chain wanted to learn about the level of experience of its general managers. A random sample of 14 general managers was taken, and these managers had a mean of 11.72 years of experience. Suppose that the standard deviation of years of experience for all general managers in the chain is known to be 3.2 years. What is the lower limit of a 95% confidence interval for the mean experience of all general managers in this hotel chain?

In regards to modern operating systems If you are asked to design a hotel check-in system that has three steps, what would you like to propose? If you are asked to detail your previous design so that it has five steps, how would you update it and why? If you are asked to propose a hotel check-in system without any limitation in steps, what would it be and why?

You are part of a Design and Construct team for a conference centre and 300 bed hotel accommodation in Darwin, Northern Territory. The site is 10 hectares on the oceanfront. The developer wants the project to be environmentally friendly and to minimise energy consumption and water usage while maintaining a luxury hotel feel. List the factors and strategies that you would consider most important in the design of this building, i.e. the design adaptations for the building.

You are part of a Design and Construct team for a conference centre and 300 bed hotel accommodation in Darwin, Northern Territory. The site is 10 hectares on the oceanfront. The developer wants the project to be environmentally friendly and to minimise energy consumption and water usage while maintaining a luxury hotel feel. List the factors and strategies that you would consider most important in the design of this building, i.e. the design adaptations for the building.

Serial Case

1. C6-72Calculate and compare cost estimates using high-low and regression methods (Learning Objectives 4 & 5)

This case is a continuation of the Caesars Entertainment Corporation serial case that began in Chapter 1. Refer to the introductory story in Chapter 1, here for additional background. (The components of the Caesars serial case can be completed in any order.)

Caesar Entertainment Corporation’s Form 10-K contains a variety of data in addition to financial statements. Below is a list that contains Caesars’ food and beverage costs (adapted) taken from its Statements of Operations for the past 22 years. In addition, the number of hotel rooms and suites owned by Caesars at the end of each of those 22 years has been gathered from other information provided in the Form 10-Ks.

Requirements (use excel)

1. Using the high-low method, find the following cost estimates:
   1. Variable food and beverage cost per hotel room/suite
   2. Fixed food and beverage cost per hotel room/suite
2. Perform a regression analysis using Excel. Use # of hotel rooms & suites as the X and the Food and beverage costs as the Y in your regression analysis.
   1. What is the estimated variable food and beverage cost per hotel room/suite?
   2. What is the estimated fixed food and beverage cost per hotel room/suite?
   3. In your opinion, is the number of hotel rooms and suites a good predictor of Caesars’ food and beverage costs? Why or why not?

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?