1. Shangri-La Background: Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts is a deluxe Asian hotel chain, founded in 1971 in Singapore by the Malaysian-Chinese tycoon Robert Kuok. The company quickly differentiated itself from the competition and provided distinctive Asian standards of hospitality and service. As of 2006, Shangri-La was the largest Asian-based deluxe hotel group in Southeast Asia.The company managed a total of 50 hotels under two brands: the five-star Shangri-La and the four-star Traders- a sister brand established in 1989 to deliver high value, mid-range, and quality accommodation to the business traveler- with total inventory of over 23,000 rooms across 39 locations.
As of November 2006 the company still had over 40 projects under development worldwide [1]. 2. SWOT Analysis 2. 1Strengths: ooking at the table -1 of annex-1, which shows the financial ratios of Shangri-La Hotel compared to other competitors for the year of 2006 except for Hyatt the year of 2007 is considered instead since the financial data were not available on Internet, we conclude that Shangri-La has a good liquidity, efficiency in terms of the cost-of-revenues, and low debt as well.
Shangri-LA’s Current Ratio is 1. 77 compared to 0. 74 of Starwood, 1. 53 of Hyatt, and 0.
71of Intercontinental. On the other hand its Gross Profit Margin is 59. 24% compared to 53. 86% of Starwood, 23.
84% of Hyatt, and 49. 8% of Intercontinental. And its Debt-to-Asset ratio is 0. 31 compared to 0. 68 of Starwood, 0. 45 of Hyatt, and 0.
64 of Intercontinental. Shangri-La’s other strengths are the good occupancy rate which reached to 73 percent in 2005, the broad experience in the Asian hospitality market, the solid corporate culture and mission statement which revolves around the personalized customer service, the empowerment of the front-line employees, the competitive employee training programs, the well defined career paths, and the opportunities for career growth, 2. 2Weaknesses:Back to table-1 of annex-1, we conclude that Shangri-La Hotels has poor profitability, inefficiency in running its assets, and inefficiency in collecting its accounts receivable. Where its return-on-assets is 3.
98% compared to 11. 24% of Starwood, 4. 32% of Hyatt, and 21. 39% of Intercontinental, its Return-on Equity is, 7.
49% compared to, 34. 67% of Starwood, 7. 86% of Hyatt, and 59. 04% of Intercontinental, its assets turnover ratio is 0. 2 compared to 0. 64 of Starwood, 0.
6 of Hyatt, and 0. 51 of Intercontinental, and its average collection period is 40. 76 days compared to 36. 2 days of Starwood, and 31. 05 days of Hyatt.Shangri-La’s other weaknesses are the comparatively low salary offerings, the variations in performance in terms of offering a highly customized guest service from hotel to hotel, the comparatively low global expertise, and its cadre of the front-line Chinese employees were not used to exercise to decision-making authority.
2. 3 Opportunities: Shangri-La’s opportunities are the continuing growth in the Chinese hospitality market, the expansion globally into Europe, North America, Australia, and the Middle East, improving the customers’ loyalty, improving the global brand awareness, and the global increasing-trend in the income level [2]. . 4Threats: Shangri-La’s threats are the fierce competition, the poaching of the Shangri-La’s qualified employees by the competitors, a global economy slowdown accompanied with Shangri-La expansion into Europe, North America, Australia, and the Middle East, exchange rate fluctuation, and the risk of wars and unrest in the Middle East.
3. Shangri-La’s Competitive Advantage: Personalized guest service is the Shangri-La’s main competitive advantage. Shangri-La differentiates its self from competitors by providing distinctive Asian standards of hospitality and service.
