Portman Case

Each student team should write a brief diagnosis of the case and sketch their basic vision for the direction of the private valet system (limit work to three pages). As a guide the following questions may assist in structuring your thinking and frame your write-up:

1. What is the "private valet system" trying to accomplish? What are its business goals?

The Private valet system was introduced in the Portman hotel with just one aim in mind - To have a luxury hotel based on the standards of Asian hospitality. The idea was to provide the guests with not just a luxury hotel but an unparallalled experience at affordable rates. It was to be achieved through the introduction of personal valets who would be like personal butlers to the guests. Their only aim was to satisy the guests through either servancy or through cheerful and friendly conversation depending on what the guests would prefer. There were no rules for the guests. Since no other hotel had the concept of PVs, this was a unique selling point for the hotel and the hotel believed that it was this feature that would set them apart from other hotels and make is a preferred choice for guests.

2. What are the problems with the system? Are these implementation problems (ones that can be corrected with attention to detail or better management) or more fundamental problems of job design?

When the plan was first put into action the following problems surfaced:

• Recruitment system - The recruitment agency put more emphasis on the employees being friendly than their real skills. Lack of enough training sessions.

• Too much reliance on the decision making abilities of the PVs and an overload of responsibilities for the PVs (because of the broad job design) making it difficult for them to achieve expertise on one thing and hence affected the quality of service and increased the turnover.

• Flat organization structure – Too many people at the bottom and no mid - level management made the job of the...