This case focuses on the topic of strategic selection, specifically whether or not the Taj Group should invest in The Pierre Hotel in New York. The case write-up includes information about the Taj Group, the Tata Group, The Pierre Hotel, the hotel industry, the Taj's domestic and international strategies, related challenges, investment options and selection criteria. It also includes various exhibits for the user to analyse: Taj's corporate holding structure, its financial highlights, strategic planning process, organisational chart, and the company's action plan development and deployment process.
Global Transfer of Best Practices Carlos Camarero led Rank Xerox's Wave C initiative. Wave I (to improve revenues) was successful and Wave II (to redefine sales processes) was disappointing. Carlos prepared to discuss with Rank Xerox's Managing Directior (Bernard Fournier) Wave I's success, Wave II's failure, and lessons learned about best-practice transfer.
Fournier rejected Carlos' request to re-implement Wave II. Carlos visited Colombia and Dubai to determine whether to apply their telephone selling approach ("Telemarketing") elsewhere. Carlos had to decide whether to tell Fournier of Dubai's revolutionary tool that could transform Rank Xerox's sales operations or put the idea aside.
Carlos obtained Fournier's approval to implement "Telesales" (i.e., Carlos's renamed version of Dubai's Telemarketing). Telesales was successful within a year of launch. Success factors were: project's IT aspect; salespeople's acceptance of using computers; salespeople not resisting potential added control of Telesales; and offering of a complete package.
Fournier rejected Carlos' request to re-implement Wave II. Carlos visited Colombia and Dubai to determine whether to apply their telephone selling approach ("Telemarketing") elsewhere. Carlos had to decide whether to tell Fournier of Dubai's revolutionary tool that could transform Rank Xerox's sales operations or put the idea aside.
Carlos obtained Fournier's approval to implement "Telesales" (i.e., Carlos's renamed version of Dubai's Telemarketing). Telesales was successful within a year of launch. Success factors were: project's IT aspect; salespeople's acceptance of using computers; salespeople not resisting potential added control of Telesales; and offering of a complete package.
Once a business performs a complex activity well, the parent organization often wants to replicate that success. But doing that is surprisingly difficult, and businesses nearly always fail when they try to reproduce a best practice. The reason? People approaching best-practice replication are overly optimistic and overconfident. Getting it right the second time (and all the times after that) involves adjusting for overconfidence in your own abilities and imposing strict discipline on the process and the organization. The authors studied numerous business settings to find out how organizational routines were successfully reproduced, and they identified five steps for successful replication. First, make sure you've got something that can be copied and that's worth copying. Second, work from a single template. It provides proof of success, performance measurements, a tactical approach, and a reference for when problems arise. Third, copy the example exactly, and fourth, make changes only after you achieve acceptable results. Fifth, don't throw away the template. If your copy doesn't work, you can use the template to identify and solve problems. Best-practice replication, while less glamorous than pure innovation, contributes enormously to the bottom line of most companies. The article's examples--Banc One, Rank Xerox, Intel, Starbucks, and Re/Max Israel--prove that exact copying is a nontrivial, challenging accomplishment.