Case Study on the Implementation of Six Sigma within Starwood Hotels & Resorts

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, University of Brighton (School of Service Management), course: International Hospitality Management, language: English, abstract: During the last years, quality and consistent service experience has become crucial factor in the hospitality industry; shareholders invest only in reliable products, customers become more demanding and evaluate the received services more critically and the employees drive for training and development. Continuously change and rethinking is required to keep track. The author will analyze the change strategies used by Starwood Hotels & Resorts to launch the quality management tool Six Sigma in order to reduce the amount of bad service encounters and align the organization into one direction. The 5-P model was chosen, as it gives a simple and logical approach to the purpose for change, priorities during the implementations, involved people, change process as well as the proof of the change outcome. The analysis shows, that the successful top down transformational change approach by Starwood Hotels & Resorts Executives led to short term financial benefits and increased guest satisfaction and employee motivation in the long run.