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Module 1 write a 6- to 7-page paper in which you do the following: Using the criteria for development of quality, meaningful vision and mission statements, create the vision and mission statements for the Saint Francis de Sales Schools, providing comprehensive support for the statements you have developed. Keys to the Assignment The key aspects of this assignment that are to be covered in your paper include the following: • State the criteria that you believe are essential to meaningful, quality vision and mission statements. Provide a minimum of five criteria for each of the two statements (vision and mission). Briefly justify each criterion (1-2 sentences for each). • Using the criteria you have selected above, develop the vision and mission statements for the Saint Francis de Sales Schools. • Next, using the criteria you have selected, justify the mission and vision statements you have developed. • Give clear and convincing rationale for why – in light of events and circumstances discussed in the article – you believe that John Handover should adopt your version of the school’s vision and mission statements. • Be sure to use a minimum of three library sources in support of your answers! References that must be used: 1) Klag, M., Giroux, H., & Langley, A. (2012). Strategic planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools. International Journal of Case Studies in Management (Online), 10(2), 1-20. Retrieved from ProQuest. 2) Cady, S. H., Wheeler, J. V., DeWolf, J., & Brodke, M. (2011). Mission, vision, and values: What do they say? Organization Development Journal, 29(1), 63-78. Retrieved from ProQuest. 3) United States Air War College - National Defense University. (n.d.). Strategic vision. Strategic Leadership and Decision Making. Retrieved from http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/ndu/strat-ldr-dm/pt4ch18.html Module 2 In the Module 2 Case, we will examine the innumerable ways in which the external environment affects the choice of strategy (creation of threats and opportunities), and how the external environment affects an organization’s chosen strategic direction. Let’s begin here by reading the following case concerning McCain Foods (note that there are several pages of text): How McCain responds to changes in the external environment. (2014). The Times 100. Retrieved on April 29, 2014, from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/mccain-foods/how-mccain-responds-tochanges-in-the-external-environment/introduction.html#axzz2m8hClVBn Using the Times 100 article above, write a 6- to 7-page paper in which you address the following: After performing some current research on McKain Foods, use SLEPT analysis to critically assess the external environment of McCain Foods, and determine the extent to which the company’s strategies should be adjusted pursuant to the opportunities and/or threats presenting themselves in the external environment. Keys to the Assignment In a 6- to 7-page paper, do the following: • Describe the strategy (or strategies) followed by McCain Foods. • Using the SLEPT analysis tool, assess the external environment of McCain Foods. What are the major opportunities and threats presented by the external environment? Be sure that you include the most current information about the company. • Based on your research and informed analysis, should McCain Foods consider making any adjustments to the strategy or strategies you described above? Why or why not? Provide clear, rational support for your answer. • How effectively do you believe McCain Foods has been in responding to changes in the external environment? Discuss. • Be sure to use a minimum of three library sources in support of your answers! References That Must be Used: 1) How McCain responds to changes in the external environment. (2014). The Times 100. Retrieved on April 29, 2014, from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/mccainfoods/how-mccain-responds-to-changes-in-the-externalenvironment/introduction.html#axzz2m8hClVBn 2) http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/business-theory/external- environment/slept-analysis.html#axzz2m8aLEn54 3) Kukalis, S. (2009). Survey of recent developments in strategic management: Implications for practitioners. International Journal of Management, 26(1), 99-106. Retrieved from ProQuest. Module 3 Volume 10 Issue 2 May 2012 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools Case prepared by Malvina KLAG, 1 and Professors Hélène GIROUX 2 and Ann LANGLEY 3 It was the first week of October, 2009, early in the new academic school year. John Handover, President of the Board of Trustees of Saint Francis de Sales Schools, a private Catholic school system in the district of Bristol, England, had just completed the first year of his two-year mandate. He reviewed the agenda for an upcoming Board meeting with his Vice-President, Keith Regan. Strategic planning did not appear anywhere on the agenda. For two years, the Board of Trustees had attempted to initiate important strategic decisions about its future direction in order to pave the way for the long-term success it so deserved. Yet multiple planning projects just did not seem to gain traction and had failed to stem the declining enrolment and the financial distress that the school system continued to face. Nonetheless, John strongly believed that the school system could not move forward without a plan. John turned to Keith and said, “Keith, strategic planning has got to be back on the agenda for this meeting.” Saint Francis de Sales Schools: The Organization Saint Francis de Sales Schools had been in existence for over a century. It had graduated a high number of students with accolades and boasted many world-renowned scientists, lawyers, professors, business people and politicians in its roster of alumni. It operated at two physical sites, called the Centre Site and the Urban Site, with a primary and secondary school at each site. The organizational structure of the school system appears in Appendix 1. For many years running, it had received the district’s #1 performance rating in secondary school academic performance at the Centre Site. In fact, whenever John mentioned his position at the school to individuals who had either graduated from Saint Francis de Sales Schools themselves or had children who had graduated decades earlier, the comment was always the same: “That school is incredible, I don’t know what its secret is, but the people who graduate are great people who go on to do great things….” The school system was largely funded by student tuition, district government grants and funding from the Bristol Catholic Community Funding Agency. It also received some project funding from private donors who were most often alumni of the school system. 1 Malvina Klag is a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at HEC Montréal. 2 Hélène Giroux is a Professor in the Department of Logistics and Operations Management at HEC Montréal. 3 Ann Langley is a Professor in the Department of Management at HEC Montréal. © HEC Montréal 2012 All rights reserved for all countries. Any translation or alteration in any form whatsoever is prohibited. The International Journal of Case Studies in Management is published on-line (www.hec.ca/revuedecas/en), ISSN 1911-2599. This case is intended to be used as the framework for an educational discussion and does not imply any judgement on the administrative situation presented. Deposited under number 9 40 2012 009 with the HEC Montréal Case Centre, 3000, chemin de la Côte-Sainte-Catherine, Montréal (Québec) Canada H3T 2A7. Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools The Bristol Catholic Community Funding Agency (BCCFA) BCCFA was the umbrella funding agency for the Catholic community in the district of Bristol. It had been in existence since 1921 and was entirely funded by private donations from corporations, charitable foundations and individuals. The agency fundraised over £30 million annually. It played a central role in supporting Catholic educational institutions, informal religious educational programs in camps and churches, and local social services such as food banks, job training and meals for the underprivileged in the community. Catholic education was considered to be the most important priority for BCCFA, as the agency saw formal education as a critical vehicle through which to promote the continuity of Catholic values and practices for the future. As such, the agency provided financial assistance to Catholic schools in the community and even orchestrated professional development programs for teachers in the Catholic schools. The BCCFA provided £464,000 of the approximate £7,200,000 of Saint Francis de Sales School’s annual budget. Most of the funds from BCCFA were used to allow the school system to offer financial assistance to over 20% of families whose children would not otherwise have been able to afford a private education. This funding was extremely important for the school system, as it received a fixed subsidy from the district for each student enrolled in the school. This subsidy contributed to the fixed overhead costs of running the school. Without that 20% of its student body, the school system would not be able to fully cover its fixed costs. A changing environment Saint Francis de Sales Schools began as a small community school of 20 students in 1890. At its peak in the late 1980s, almost 100 years later, it housed more than 1,100 students. It was the first private Catholic school in its district. Saint Francis de Sales Schools had overcome multiple financial crises over the years necessitating relocations and/or site closings. However, it always managed to survive as the local community and BCCFA rallied to provide financial support. As of the 2003-2004 academic school year, the school system had begun to encounter significant challenges affecting the overall health of the school system. In addition to increasing unionized teacher salaries, the district government had imposed curriculum reforms for all schools, necessitating dramatic changes in the way teachers prepared and taught their curriculums. A high rate of turnover in teaching staff and two changeovers in the secondary school principal for the Centre Site further contributed to the growing difficulties. The situation was exacerbated by significant enrolment declines that seemed to be linked not only to the staff volatility, but also to larger social trends: evolving family needs and decision-making patterns that were drawing more parents to other private schools; increasing integration of technology into schools across the United Kingdom that Saint Francis de Sales Schools was slow to embrace; and demographic trends, as explained below. Evolving parent needs with respect to choice of schools Over the years, one other Catholic school system had emerged that, while including Catholic studies in its curriculum, focused less on religious studies than did Saint Francis de Sales Schools, and more on secular studies. St. Francis de Sales tended to attract the more observant © HEC Montréal 2 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools families who also wanted a high level of academic excellence. The other school tended to attract families who wanted their children in a Catholic environment, but with a lower level of religious study and more well-rounded curricular and extra-curricular programs. Over the years, the other Catholic school system had grown substantially and, as of 2009, housed more students than did St. Francis de Sales. Whereas St. Francis de Sales Schools had once been revered for the high calibre of its academic programming, one-on-one interviews in 2007 by parent volunteers of the school with Catholic families making decisions about secondary schools in particular showed an increasing number of families looking for schools that would produce well-rounded graduates. Parents were in search of schools that could provide a multitude of extra-curricular activities, modern facilities and stateof-the art technology. These were all areas in which Saint Francis de Sales Schools could not effectively compete with multiple other, albeit more expensive, private schools in the community. Also, fewer parents relative to the past seemed to be interested in a high level of religious instruction. Furthermore, whereas Saint Francis de Sales Schools, as a relatively small school, had always attracted parents looking for a home-like nurturing environment, the families interviewed seemed instead to be more concerned with having a large enough pool of students from which their children could form friendships. Finally, particularly for families who could afford to send their children to private schools, parents indicated that their children were having a significant influence on the choice of school, and that their children were drawn to the attractive physical facilities made available by other private schools in the area and by the other Catholic school system in the area that had received a large endowment from a private donor years earlier to fund completely new facilities. Saint Francis de Sales Schools, due to funding constraints, had not been able to extensively renovate in over 25 years. Changing approaches to technology Around the developed world, schools were increasingly integrating technology into the curriculum. Some schools, at the extreme end of the technological revolution, used smart board technology in every classroom 1 and provided laptop computers for every student at the secondary school level. Saint Francis de Sales Schools had begun to make small inroads technologically. However, barriers to full technological integration were significant. First, the costs to do so were substantial. Second, many teachers had been with the institution for 30 years and were technologically illiterate, with little inclination to integrate technology into their teaching. Teachers’ unions ensured that teachers could not be terminated after five years with the institution so that the perceived pressure to evolve to a new way of teaching was negligible. Demographic trends The school took great pride in providing financial assistance for many of its students. However, the changing face of the parent body in the area, including a significantly higher number of 1 Smart boards were replacing traditional blackboards. Smart boards are white boards onto which computer images and handwritten notes are projected via an automated projector. Smarts boards are purported to allow for more interactive and dynamic teaching in the classroom. © HEC Montréal 3 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools immigrants, resulted in an increasing number of parents unable to afford private schooling, even with partial tuition subsidies. Many of these families were turning to free public schools in the district. Furthermore, the number of young families in the geographic area of the Urban Site had been declining for the prior 10 years as younger families seemed to be moving to rural areas that offered more affordable housing. The 2007 Decision to Merge the Two Sites By October 2007, there were 687 students registered in the entire school system, compared to 802 in the prior academic school year (see Appendix 2 for enrolment trends). The two primary school sites were housing 218 students combined, operating at less than 50% of capacity. The Executive Committee engaged in several rounds of financial modeling to study various scenarios that would salvage the school, and finally voted to merge the two primary schools. At a meeting of the Board of Trustees in November, 2007, the President, Rolston Chamberland, presented a review of the expected financial statements for that academic school year should the school continue to operate at the status quo (Appendix 3). He stated: “Enrolment at Saint Francis de Sales Schools has been declining for some time. The key challenge is our primary schools, both of which are currently running well under capacity, and […] have had declining enrolment for quite some time.” Rolston, speaking on behalf of the Executive Committee of the Board of Trustees, then formally presented a proposal to merge the two primary school sites: In merging the two primary schools, we will realize improved cost savings on our administrative structure and services, such as salaries, programming, curriculum and technology enhancements as well as basics such as supplies, maintenance, cleaning and heating. The financial analyses and demographic studies we have been conducting for the past year and a half support this move for long term growth and viability. Rolston added that several other strategic initiatives would be undertaken simultaneously to strengthen and renew the school system. First, he noted that the school had hired an expert change consultant, “to help find solutions and to help prepare a strategic plan to keep the schools viable.” This change consultant had been jointly funded by Saint Francis de Sales Schools and the BCCFA, which had a vested interest in ensuring the long-term success of the school. Second, a new task force would be set up to review the possibility of opening an additional site in an area where the demographics could justify the presence of a Catholic school for the long term. Third, the school would immediately begin developing a plan for new and improved academic and extra-curricular programming. Fourth and finally, he announced that an ad hoc New Building Committee had been appointed to design a new building on the grounds of the nearby Catholic Community Centre that would potentially be used for the secondary school near the merged Centre Site. This committee was to be chaired by Michael Murphy, an architect who was also a member of the Board of Trustees and had two children in the school system. Rolston added that a small group of donors who preferred to remain anonymous were considering donating substantial funds to the new building project and that the committee had already begun discussions with the Catholic Community Centre. © HEC Montréal 4 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools Heated discussion ensued during the Board meeting after Rolston put forth this proposal, with one member, a parent who would be directly affected by the closing, stating, “You and the Executive Committee are ramming this down our throats! We have never even participated in any discussions about this and you are asking for an immediate vote??! What is going on?!” Rolston insisted that there was no choice if the school was to be salvaged. A motion was put forth and passed to move forward with the merger. Of the 34 members present, 20 voted for the merger, though some did so grudgingly, 10 voted against it and four members abstained. Four members of the Board of Trustees walked out of the meeting immediately after the vote. Rolston issued an email letter to the parent body that evening announcing the merger. Parents at the Urban Site Primary School were shocked. As one parent exclaimed, “The transparency in the process by which this decision was made was disastrous, absolutely disastrous. This is the first time we are even hearing about financial problems. We were never consulted, not even once!” Rolston received dozens of letters and a petition signed by 100 parents insisting that the decision be reversed. The Executive Committee met to discuss required actions based on the outcry and decided to hold an open Town Hall meeting the next evening. At that meeting, several parents came forward, some of whom had graduated from that very same school some 30 years before. They explained, with great anger and sadness, the significant impact that closing the school would have on their families. Members of the larger community, from local churches and other Catholic institutions remarked that closing the school would force them to close eventually as well and that this move would literally “kill the local Catholic community.” The day after the Town Hall meeting, several parents, also large donors to BCCFA, contacted BCCFA and threatened to discontinue their donations if BCCFA did not intervene to help keep the school open. In addition, a small group of parents of that campus quickly mobilized to collect £100,000 that would be given to Saint Francis de Sales Schools only if the Board of Trustees agreed to keep the primary school at the Urban Site open. They even set up their own student recruitment committee to directly assist in increasing enrolment. The members of the Board of Trustees were shocked, not having realized how quickly and effectively the parent body could mobilize to block their decision. The Reversal of the Merger Decision After the Town Hall meeting and the immediate fundraising and recruiting efforts of the parent body, the members of the school system’s Executive Committee felt compelled to meet with BCCFA to see if additional funding support could be secured to keep the site open. However, many Executive Committee members, including Rolston, still felt that the merger was a necessary step on the road to financial health. After multiple meetings between the Board of Trustees and concerned parents, several meetings of the smaller Executive Committee, and approval and financial support from BCCFA, the closure decision was officially revoked by Rolston in March 2008, via a letter to the Board of Trustees: On behalf of the entire Executive, we would like to, once again, thank everyone who has been working tirelessly to ensure the health of our school system. The energy and efforts of our parent body over the past five months has been extraordinary. Thanks to your fundraising and recruitment © HEC Montréal 5 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools efforts, we are pleased to announce that the recommendation for both schools to remain open has been approved! A joint task force comprised of members of Saint Francis de Sales Schools’ Board of Trustees and members of BCCFA was formed in order to monitor the school’s ongoing financial health and to ensure that steps were being taken by the school to improve its financial position. In return for increased financial support to the school, BCCFA mandated the school to commit to specific annual enrolment and fundraising targets. BCCFA also insisted on having two of its representatives attend all of the school system’s Board of Trustee meetings from that point on. In the meantime, some of the strategic initiatives presented at the November 2007 meeting were launched, including the hiring of the external change consultant. A steering committee for this project was formed by BCCFA that same month, with representation from two members of Saint Francis de Sales Schools’ Board of Trustees, its Headmistress Mrs. Deirdre Frye, and two staff members from BCCFA. Report from the External Change Consultant In March 2008, a preliminary report was submitted by the external change consultant, first to the project steering committee for review and approval, and then to the Board of Trustees of Saint Francis de Sales Schools and BCCFA, with the final report submitted in the summer of 2008. The report called for a dramatic organizational overhaul with respect to overall governance, professional leadership and organizational structure. The report also called for the hiring of a Director of Recruitment to increase enrolment and a Fundraising Director, as well as “bold and visionary leadership at the top in order to generate real energy and excitement about the future of Saint Francis de Sales Schools.” Finally, the report called for a strategic planning process, as noted in the following excerpt: The Board should undertake a strategic planning process with an outside facilitator. Identifying specific goals and priorities as well as developing benchmarks for the school’s progress in achieving those goals over the next five years is an important process for the Board. Soon after the preliminary report was presented, Deirdre, with the blessing of the Executive Committee, took steps to address some of the actions called for in the report, including the hiring of a Recruitment Officer, Mr. Patrick Shannon, and a Fundraising Director, Mr. Alex Worther. John Takes Over as President It was around the time that the external consultant submitted his final report in the summer of 2008 that Rolston’s presidential term expired and John, already a member of the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee for five years prior to this point, was nominated for, and accepted to become, President of the Board of Trustees. The nominating process had been tumultuous. For the first time ever in the history of the school, the slate of directors proposed to the parent body by the nominating committee was immediately rebuked. A group of concerned parents, having lost trust in Rolston and several members of the Executive Committee after the merger debacle, came forth with an alternative slate. John was nominated as President on both © HEC Montréal 6 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools slates. However, the Executive and Board of Trustee members were different on the two slates. The nominating committee called the parents who had organized this alternative slate and suggested negotiating a compromise slate. Finally, at the annual meeting, at which a record number of parents were present, a vote was taken and the compromise slate was approved. John had a difficult decision to make. He knew that he would be coming into a situation in which there would be divisiveness. He knew that those board members directly affected by the merger incident were still angry and lacked trust in some of the Board and Executive Committee members. He knew that the school system had reached a crossroad at which major decisions would have to be taken. Yet, having attended the school himself, having four children at the school, being committed to its future, and knowing that no other individual was willing to step into the position, he felt a moral obligation to accept a two-year term. John’s First Two Months: Operational Upheaval The challenges faced by the school seemed so daunting and complex. The staff was overwhelmed with urgent day-to-day issues and periodic short-term planning for the academic year. Overall staff morale was low due to multiple pressures: financial constraints affecting their ability to purchase teaching materials and to participate in professional development programs, ongoing enrolment issues that they knew put the school system at risk and the additional workload accompanying the government-imposed curriculum reform that they had to absorb given the lack of funding for additional staff. The collective agreement for the teachers’ union was up for renewal and there was uncertainty with respect to pending union demands for wages and working conditions. In addition to having to grapple with an uncertain future, the members of the Board of Trustees were divided with respect to their own priorities and required roles at that point. Some members insisted that the Board of Trustees should focus on fundraising and on donating their own funds in order to help turn around the financial situation. Others felt that the Board of Trustees absolutely had to focus on developing a strategic direction for the future. All members agreed that change was required in some form. Meanwhile, as President of the Board of Trustees, John quickly became frustrated at having to be deeply involved in the school system’s day-to-day operations. After all, he had a full-time job and this position was a volunteer position! Furthermore, he had no training as an educator. He simply wanted to help the school that he had come to love, having graduated from the school himself and having put all his children through the same school. John’s Growing Conviction of the Need for a Comprehensive Planning Effort Historically, it seemed as if the board had always played a hands-on role in day-to-day operations and overall decision making. The day-to-day emergencies required attention in order to allow the school to “live another day.” However, what seemed to be a perpetual cycle of financial crisis could not, in John’s view, be broken without a proper plan and vision for the future. Moreover, making decisions related to the everyday urgent issues was becoming increasingly difficult without knowing the overall direction of the school for the medium and long term. As only one example, the other private Catholic school in the community had recently decided to slash its © HEC Montréal 7 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools tuition for kindergarten, using kindergarten entry as a “loss leader.” This would potentially affect enrolment at Saint Francis de Sales Schools at a time when enrolment was already a significant issue and the financial situation was tenuous. On the other hand, entering into a price war could have serious ramifications. How much could the school afford? How far should the school go to ensure enrolment is sustained? How could the school make a decision around this issue without some serious deliberations about its optimal “target market,” number of students and overall fee structure? Without strategic grounding, the same issues seemed to get “rehashed” over and over again by the Board and staff, often with much disagreement about the direction to take and, ultimately, without definitive decisions being taken. Moreover, the accreditation body of the U.K. Education Ministry included a strategic plan as part of the necessary elements for the accreditation that was now being mandated by BCCFA. Finally, Alex had approached John repeatedly asking for a strategic plan on which he could base a fundraising plan for the school. John decided that one of his key priorities would necessarily be to ensure that the school system underwent a strategic planning process. The notion of strategic planning had been raised many times in different meetings with respect to the new building project, the potential closure of the school, the need to improve the financial situation, the need for a fundraising plan which Alex felt had to be based on an overall strategic plan and the external consultant’s report as noted. During one Executive Committee meeting on July 2, 2008, there were multiple references to strategic issues. John had asked, as per the meeting minutes, “How can we enter into a new building project without being clear on strategy?” Michael, as chair of the New Building Committee, insisted on the need for a strategic planning work group, “We cannot move forward on designing a new building without knowing what the overall vision, goals and strategies of the school system are. The building must be designed to meet certain strategic parameters that have not been identified!” Another member noted, “We really need a strategic plan and funding commitments in order to go out publicly with our new building plans.” Yet another member added, “What is needed is the buzz and excitement that comes from committing to a vision and direction.” One of the professional senior management team members attending the meeting, the Head of the Secondary School, asked whether or not “strategically the school wishes to grow in numbers.” After that July 2 meeting, John reflected on the numerous questions and comments about strategy, as well as the remarks in the report from the change consultant calling for a strategic plan. The school system, as far back as he could remember, had never undergone the proper strategic planning process it deserved. The need for this was now unquestionable. The process would necessarily have to be consultative in order to avoid the disaster of the merger decision that was ultimately revoked earlier in the year. John asked a member of the Executive Committee, Ferdinand Smythe, to co-chair an ad hoc Strategic Planning Committee. Ferdinand accepted the mandate and, together, John and Ferdinand asked Emily Burns to be the second co-chair, in response to the change consultant’s recommendation for an outside facilitator. Emily, while not directly involved with the school at the time, had a significant interest in, and many years of experience volunteering for, the local Catholic community. © HEC Montréal 8 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools Developing a Strategic Orientation Grid The two co-chairs, Ferdinand and Emily, met to develop a framework for the strategic planning process. They decided that the end product of the process was to be a grid that would identify all the key areas to be addressed, along with preliminary information on how, when and by whom each area would be addressed. This grid, according to Ferdinand, had been successfully used at another local school as a tool to guide strategic planning process participants toward a concrete end product. The process from that point through to the projected end point, a completed grid, ran smoothly. The co-chairs officially began the process on August 14, 2008, by chairing a structured workshop attended by Deirdre, her direct reports, all Executive Committee members and two BCCFA members. The purpose of the workshop was to identify the key strategic areas to be addressed by the school system over the following three to five years. The participants were divided into small groups of four people each. Each person at the workshop was first asked to individually note the three most important short- and medium-term issues they felt had to be addressed. Then, each group of four came to a consensus on these issues. The group next convened as a whole to develop a full list of strategic areas identified by all groups. The four categories of priorities identified by the group were, as per the minutes of that meeting: 1) Mission statement; 2) Funding development / Stability building; 3) Human resources – staff and volunteers – empower them, show appreciation for them so that they will be school ambassadors; 4) Physical resources and facilities – allow the school to operate at acceptable standards. The group also began to discuss preliminary goals, actions, tasks and responsibilities and timelines, where possible, for each strategic area. This was accomplished with the use of flip charts. One Executive Committee member, Reginald Corsick, stated that it would be important to examine strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis) before developing a plan. Reginald also sat on the New Building Committee and was the driving force behind the new building negotiations with the Catholic Community Centre. Reginald had been the lead person in the solicitations to, and ongoing communications with, the donor group for the potential new building. After discussing a preliminary set of goals, actions, tasks, responsibilities and timelines by area, Ferdinand and Emily summarized the next steps as follows, “We will synthesize our priorities, compile them, put them on the grid and show responsibilities, required actions, et cetera. This will then be brought back to this group at the next Executive meeting.” Emily thanked everyone for their diligent work and time – and especially for the mutual respect exhibited by all groups during the discussions. After the workshop, Ferdinand and Emily met, synthesized the information from the flip charts and formulated four overriding goals for the school system that they felt had emerged from the workshop. These were: 1. Achieve financial stability; 2. Develop a vision and mission statement for the school; 3. Become an attractive schooling option for families who value Catholic education; © HEC Montréal 9 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools 4. Deliver state-of-the-art academic excellence. They developed the first draft of the strategic orientation grid, and sent it, along with the four goals, to the workshop participants for review. After comments were received and incorporated, Ferdinand and Emily took the preliminary grid, still with many blank spaces with respect to specific budgets, timing and responsibilities, to a Board of Trustees meeting in October 2008. Emily presented the grid, and then opened the floor for discussion. There were few questions or comments. She asked the members to review the goals and the grid in detail after the meeting and to forward any feedback prior to the next meeting that would take place in December. At that October meeting, the Board decided to move forward on another ad hoc committee to revisit the school system’s mission statement, as the mission had been identified as a key strategic area in the preliminary grid. The development of a vision and a mission statement had also been identified as one of the four overriding goals. This committee would be chaired by the recently hired Fundraising Director, Alex Worther. Ferdinand volunteered to sit on that committee. Alex asked two senior staff members to join the committee, as well as an external member who was a generous donor and long-standing, staunch supporter of the school system. By November 2008, Ferdinand and Emily had received little feedback on the grid from the members of the Board of Trustees. One member suggested, during an informal conversation with both Ferdinand and Emily, that the Board of Trustees would have been more engaged in the process if it had had more of an active role in developing the strategic areas, as opposed to only reviewing what had already been developed at the workshop. John, Ferdinand and Emily decided to set up a special Board meeting on November 24, 2008, to engage the Board members in an open discussion on strategic areas. At that meeting, Ferdinand and Emily brought the overriding goals to the Board for their comments and solicited feedback from each member on the key strategic areas to be addressed, as well as the next steps moving forward for each one. At the end of the session, Ferdinand thanked the members for their input and remarked that the session had been productive. After that meeting, Ferdinand and Emily revised the grid based on feedback and re-issued it to the Board of Trustees for comments. Hope is Lost for a New Building with the Catholic Community Centre On November 28, 2008, during this period of development of the strategic orientation grid, the negotiations for a new building on the grounds of the Catholic Community Centre collapsed, as Saint Francis de Sales Schools and the Catholic Community Centre were unable to agree on the financial terms of the agreement. There were no other options for alternate sites for a new building. Though the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee were in agreement with the termination, this development was a blow to many of the members who had begun to really see a brighter future at a new site. The New Building Committee decided to forge ahead to find an alternative site. © HEC Montréal 10 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools Progress on the Development of a Mission Statement and Strategic Orientation Grid At the next meeting of the Board of Trustees in December 2008, Alex returned to the Board of Trustees with a proposed mission statement. With slight suggested changes from two members, a motion to approve the new mission statement was passed with unanimous support. The mission statement was as follows: Our mission is to foster academic achievement by creating a nurturing environment and promoting excellence in all aspects of life. We embrace the diverse Catholic community of modern Bristol and encourage students to reach out to their fellow brothers and sisters, in the true Christian spirit. Ferdinand noted that “the new mission statement will guide us for the Strategic Plan.” He further noted that the task force had yet to develop a fully articulated vision for the school system. At that same meeting, Ferdinand and Emily asked that final comments on the revised strategic plan grid be submitted to them before the next Board meeting in January 2009, at which the final grid would be tabled for Board approval. At that meeting, John thanked both Ferdinand and Emily “for the outstanding work” on the strategic plan. One member of the Board of Trustees noted, as per the meeting minutes, “that a lot of what is in the Strategic Plan has been implemented and worked on. We are making progress.” At the January 2009 Board meeting, before voting on the final strategic plan grid, Ferdinand reminded everyone that “adopting the strategic plan means that we are all taking responsibility to make it happen.” A motion to approve the strategic plan grid was passed, with no objections and one abstention by Rolston, who proposed that there was a need to focus on fundraising as opposed to strategic planning. The completed grid appears in Appendix 4. Reduced Momentum: Taking Stock of Strategic Planning Accomplishments and Required Next Steps The two co-chairs, Ferdinand and Emily, had set out to develop a strategic planning grid and, by all accounts, had succeeded in that mission. Several members of the Board of Trustees referred to this grid as the strategic plan for the school system. Sub-committees were formed to address some of the specific strategic areas of the grid. Ferdinand and Emily saw this grid as the end of the strategic planning process for which they had been engaged by John. They further assumed that this grid would, from that point on, drive priorities for the school system. Ferdinand recommended that the grid be used as a benchmark with which to focus Executive Committee and Board of Trustee meetings and monitor progress on the areas defined. © HEC Montréal 11 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools However, it quickly became apparent to both Ferdinand and Emily that the strategic plan, as an area of focus, had become buried amidst ongoing operational crises and urgent needs for shortterm decisions to ensure that enrolment targets could be met for the following academic school year. In fact, the strategic plan did not appear on the agenda of any subsequent Executive or Board of Trustee meetings for the following eight months, though particular initiatives such as the new building deliberations continued to be discussed at these meetings. Ferdinand and Emily had assumed that once the overall strategic orientations were ratified by the Board of Trustees, Deirdre, in her role as Headmistress, would next undertake to operationalize a plan based on these orientations. In February 2009, Ferdinand and Emily met with John on this issue. Ferdinand remarked, “Wouldn’t it be logical for the senior management to now take the lead as the plan becomes operationalized? Emily and I, as well as the members of the Board of Trustees, are just volunteers! We are not sufficiently skilled to delve into the details of how to run an educational institution. It is also critically important that the staff begin to take ownership of this plan that they ultimately will have the responsibility to execute.” John agreed and asked Deirdre to take the lead on an operational plan during one of their weekly status report meetings. Deirdre seemed uncomfortable, “I have never had to do anything like this before and it really does not fall within my job description.” In fact, Deirdre, in her role as Headmistress of the school system over the prior eight years, had been tasked mainly with administrative duties related to physical plant, unions, school calendar, hiring and management of administrative and teaching staff, and curriculum, as well as with maintaining relationships with representatives of the District of Bristol. Furthermore, the Board of Trustees had always been highly involved in any important decisions that would affect the future of the school. Given Deirdre’s lack of experience in strategic planning, John offered her coaching from an outside strategic planning expert who had worked in a school environment, to which Deirdre agreed. This coaching took place in March 2009. Ferdinand, Emily and John then met with Deirdre and advised her to set up an ad hoc task force to develop the operational plan. They suggested that the membership be comprised of senior management and a few members of the Board of Trustees who had experience in strategic planning. Ferdinand offered to be a part of this task force as did John. Ferdinand provided Deirdre with a proposed plan format he had used for an operational plan of another non-profit organization for which he had served in the past. The format would specify, for each identified strategic area, the goals, strategies, beginning dates and completion dates. He also suggested that annual financial projections over a three-year period should accompany the plan. Strategic Questions Resurface By April 2009, Deirdre had not yet convened the Plan Operationalization Task Force to a meeting. At an Executive Committee meeting that month, strategic questions began to resurface once again related to the potential new building, as per the meeting minutes: Michael Murphy stated that the committee had met several times. They had looked for a venue to replace the Catholic Community Centre site. At this time, there is no such site. They had begun to look at renovating the existing building. This site offered a central location, proximity to the Catholic Community Centre, and close proximity to public transit. He added that several strategic questions had to be answered in the context of an overall plan in order to move forward: © HEC Montréal 12 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools - Who is this school for? - Who does it serve? - Would it serve both the primary and secondary school or would they consider two separate buildings for these? - What are the strategic goals of the school? - What are the required timelines and allotted budget? Once he would have answers to these questions, the committee would be able to assess the suitability of the current building or of alternative sites. He also noted that before any of these questions could be answered, an overall vision for the school was required. At that same meeting, as per the meeting minutes, John brought forward an urgent issue related to the ongoing cash flow: Over the last few weeks, the bank has become very tight with respect to our capacity to stay below the maximum allowable limit on our credit line. The bank is very nervous. Most recent cash flow shows that we have gone over our credit line and will continue to do so in the near future. This is a critical two weeks period before the next payroll goes through. The bank has told us that they are not happy with the situation and want to know what we are going to do about it. They want to reduce our credit line effective immediately. There is a meeting on Monday with the bank in which they expect us to present a plan. There is a group that is willing to help with cash flow problem in form of interest free loan with condition that it gets repaid within 12 months. One of the members of BCCFA who attended that meeting noted, as per the minutes: The short-term cash flow situation must be solved immediately. However, the longer-term strategic and financial plans must be attended to as well. During this period, although the decision to merge the two sites had been reversed, fewer parents were enrolling their children at the kindergarten level of the Urban primary school site as they had lost confidence in the longer term future of the school at that site. From Strategic Orientation Grid to Plan Operationalization – Gridlock On May 1, 2009, the newly constituted Plan Operationalization Task Force, chaired by Deirdre, met for the first time. The members of the task force included the Head of the Secondary School, the Urban Site Primary School Principal, Ferdinand, Michael and Reginald. Deirdre handed out an agenda for the meeting and began the meeting by asking, “Ferdinand, given your extensive experience bringing us to this point, may I please ask you to chair this meeting?” Ferdinand deferred to Deirdre, noting that it was critically important for the professional staff to lead the process at that particular point. Deirdre proceeded to present the latest enrolment statistics as well as some demographic projections for the Catholic community for the following five years. The discussion quickly reverted to the question of whether to merge the two sites. By the end of the meeting, two hours later, there had been much discussion about the sites with no closure on the issue. Reginald suggested, as he had in the preliminary workshop for the development of the strategic orientation grid, that an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats was needed (SWOT). The committee agreed that the Head of the © HEC Montréal 13 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools Secondary School and the Urban Site Primary School Principal would prepare a draft SWOT chart for the next meeting as a discussion document. They did so and circulated the preliminary SWOT analysis to the committee members via email (Appendix 5). The process then evolved intermittently, with multiple meeting cancellations and without visible progress on an operational planning document. The committee never got to discuss the SWOT chart. At the next meeting on May 15, 2008, Deirdre and John were not present, as Deirdre had been asked by John to meet with him on an urgent financial issue instead. At this meeting, once again, the discussion often reverted to the sites, in terms of which one(s) should remain open and which students should be housed where. This issue remained unresolved. John was unable to attend many of the subsequent meetings, as his time was taken up by day-to-day issues. Between meetings, Ferdinand and Reginald expressed frustration at the lack of progress both to each other and to all committee members via email. Michael reiterated the need to have strategic questions answered in order to move the new building project forward. In the summer of 2009, Deirdre announced at a task force meeting that she did not have the time or resources to complete financial scenarios and analysis for the operationalization of the strategic plan and that the task force deliberations would have to be delayed in the face of the financial crisis faced by the school. Enrolment and fundraising targets that had been put in place by the BCCFA were not being met. That summer, Alex resigned as Fundraising Director, stating that he felt unable to fulfill his mandate. In September 2009, as per the minutes of the meeting of the Board of Trustees, Deirdre provided an update to the members on the plan operationalization process: As administrators we continue to be concerned with the numbers in our four schools. Our administrator’s team has been brainstorming possible scenarios to ensure the financial viability of our schools. Since we were very much involved with our school opening we put this issue on hold until we can give it our full attention. John reflected on all the important decisions to be made and all the significant events that had transpired over the prior two years. The timeline for some of the key events, strategic initiatives and strategic planning processes between 2007 and 2009 appears in Appendix 6. No Board members had responded to the above comments made by Deirdre a month earlier at the Board of Trustees meeting. There had been no formal approval to halt the planning process at that meeting. However, no one argued the point either. The members just continued onto another discussion on enrolment for the current year. The school was in crisis without any solid way out. There were enrolment and financial targets that BCCFA had set in order for it to continue providing financial support. The private interest-free loan provided to the school system had to be repaid within six months. It seemed to him that strategic planning had to be back on the agenda for the upcoming Board of Trustees meeting and that he should find a way to move it forward quickly. 2012-04-16 © HEC Montréal 14 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools Appendix 1 Saint Francis de Sales Schools Organizational Chart Note: Shaded boxes signify committees chaired by volunteers and non-shaded boxes signify paid professional staff. Board of Trustees (25 members) Executive Committee Home and School Committee Headmistress Evaluation and Hiring Committee Nominating Committee Fundraising Committee Finance Headmistress: Deirdre Frye Hea Head of Secondary School (both sites) Secondary School Principals (2) Academic department heads Head of Primary School (both sites) Administrative Support Team Primary School Principals (2) Academic department heads Director of Finance Director of Fundraising Executive Assistant Marketing and Public Relations Coordinator Administrative Support Team Notes: 1. The Board of Trustees was constituted by parents from both campuses and two past presidents, both of whom were former parents at the school. 2. The above committees reporting to the Board of Trustees were standing committees. Each of these committees, though chaired by volunteers, included at least one professional staff member. Ad hoc or short-term committees and task forces such as the New Building Committee, the Strategic Planning Committee or the Mission/Vision Committee, all of which are discussed in the case, are not included in the above chart. 3. The Executive Committee was a small committee made up of the President, Vice-President, Immediate Past President, Secretary and Treasurer of the Board of Trustees. This committee was delegated by the Board of Trustees to make recommendations as necessary on strategic issues affecting the organization. The kinds of issues addressed by the committee included but were not limited to strategies around fundraising, governance, strategic planning and financial assistance for families in the school or entering the school. 4. The Home and School Committee served as a liaison between parents and administrators and organized events to raise funds for its own projects to support social activities for parents and school equipment. © HEC Montréal 15 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools Appendix 2 Saint Francis de Sales Schools Enrolment Trends Between the 2002-2003 and 2008-2009 Academic School Years Campus 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-20081 2008-2009 Centre Site Primary School 132 127 140 132 138 110 113 Urban Site Primary School 212 191 191 164 141 108 108 Centre Site Secondary School 286 290 292 254 296 258 244 Urban Site Secondary School 230 236 220 225 227 211 204 Total 860 844 843 775 802 687 669 Notes: The primary school housed students from ages 5-11. The secondary school housed students from ages 11-16. Approximately 50% of primary school students for both sites combined continued on in the Saint Francis de Sales Secondary School. The other 50% left the school system after primary school, moving either to public schools (thinking that a Catholic education was less important at the secondary level) or to the other Catholic school in the area. 1 Note that in that school year, over 90 students who had been in the school system left mid-way. A survey of these parents showed that over 60% of these students, according to their parents, left for financial reasons. In addition, the entry-level class at the primary level (i.e., kindergarten) at the Urban Site saw a dramatically reduced number of registrants in that year, with only 10 children. © HEC Montréal 16 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools Appendix 3 Saint Francis de Sales Schools Projected Financial Statements 2009-2010 Academic School Year Presented by Rolston to the Board of Trustees, September 2009 Urban site Primary Total Center site Primary Urban site Secondary Center site Secondary Income Net Tuition (after subsidies) Additional school fees Government grants Donations from parents Event Donations Grants from LCCFA TOTAL £3 777 671 £204 973 £2 456 266 £182 699 £73 949 £464 406 £7 159 964 £463 041 £61 509 £328 761 £43 500 £11 758 £103 530 £1 012 099 £596 054 £22 533 £330 223 £44 370 £11 832 £30 450 £1 035 462 £1 381 121 £45 415 £841 741 £43 717 £23 664 £106 314 £2 441 972 £1 337 455 £75 516 £955 541 £51 112 £26 695 £224 112 £2 670 431 £6 432 511 £624 533 £455 008 £43 500 £112 230 £7 667 782 £1 107 417 £100 137 £65 787 £8 700 £20 880 £1 302 921 £1 140 348 £102 036 £82 928 £8 700 £20 880 £1 354 892 £1 866 046 £198 912 £131 926 £13 050 £31 320 £2 241 254 £2 318 700 £223 448 £174 367 £13 050 £39 150 £2 768 715 -£507 818 -£290 822 -£319 430 £200 718 -£98 284 Expenses Salaries Office expenses Physical plant maintenance Security Other TOTAL Projected Net income/deficit Enrollment Assumption: © HEC Montréal 669 students in total 17 Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools Appendix 4 Saint Francis de Sales Schools Strategic Orientation Grid Strategic Area Goals Mission/ Vision Develop mission and vision Financial resources Achieve financial stability for current operations and in the long term Action Plan Next Steps Establish small task force to develop mission and vision statements Vet preliminary statement by task force with Board and other stakeholders Resources Budget Mission Statement Committee N/A Headmistress Secure budget for Director of Recruitment Timeline Complete mission and vision statements by end of November 2008 • Enhance short-term facilities Physical resources Human resources © HEC Montréal Raise £60,000 toward new computers and other technologies Establish a long-term plan for Saint Francis de Sales Schools’ physical infrastructure needs Create a culture of engagement and excellence Increase enrolment/retention Begin to build sustainable annual revenue base from fundraising • Establish immediate priorities for each site • Solicit BCCFA for funds Prepare and implement plan for ongoing enrolment/ retention • Hire Director of Recruitment Establish a task force to develop fundraising tactics and plan fundraising events Board Establish a task force to plan fundraising events Vet preliminary plan by task force with Board New Building Committee to also assume this mandate Begin to identify and collect required information in order to generate a plan Two-year plan for a) professional development and staff retreats b) incentives for excellence and innovation 18 Develop, vet and implement plan Complete plan and negotiation by end of June 2009 Headmistress with school principals Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools Appendix 5 Saint Francis de Sales Schools Preliminary SWOT Chart Prepared for the Plan Operationalization Task Force Primary School Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats Nurturing environment Limited funds Strong academic program Lack of a proper gym Possibility of other Catholic school closing as they are also having financial problems Inability to attract families due to many weaknesses Opportunity to learn French Exceptional science program Individualized programming for special needs Experiential religious programming Committed professional staff Inadequate playground Out-of-date safety and security measures Possibility of attracting parents dissatisfied with other private and public schools from the urban area Administrator and teacher discontent Out-of-date plumbing and electrical Lack of technology and professional resources Easy and prompt accessibility to staff for parents Secondary School Excellent customer service from support staff Nurturing environment Strong academic program Opportunity to learn French World class integrated and experiential religious curriculum Streamed programming to meet individual competency levels Student-driven programming Easy and prompt accessibility to staff for parents Clear and ongoing communication with parents © HEC Montréal Lack of funds Lack of an adequate gym Out-of-date safety and security measures Lack of technology and professional resources Out-of-date plumbing and electrical Inadequate physical building layout: lack of proper reception area and administrative offices too far removed from students 19 Possibility of other Catholic school closing as they are also having financial problems Inability to attract families due to many weaknesses Inability to attract highquality staff Administrator and teacher discontent Strategic Planning at Saint Francis de Sales Schools Appendix 6 Saint Francis de Sales Schools Time Line 1 Strategic Initiatives, Strategic Planning Processes and Key Events 2007 Q1 Discussions with the Catholic Community Centre for a new campus on their site Decision to close Urban Site External change consultant study and reporting process Decision to leave Urban Site open contingent upon financial/enrolment targets John becomes President Q2 Q3 2008 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q1 Q2 Q3 ● ● ● ● ● New mission statement is approved by the Board ● Strategic orientation grid is approved by the Board ● Strategic plan operationalization task force is struck ● Strategic plan operationalization task force comes to a halt “Q” refers to the quarter in the year. For example, “Q1” refers to the first quarter of a particular year. © HEC Montréal 2009 Q4 ● Launch of the strategic planning process by John Negotiations with the Catholic Community Centre for a new building are officially terminated Development of strategic orientation grid 1 Q3 20 Q4 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Mission, Vision, and Values: What Do They Say? Cady, Steven H;Wheeler, Jane V;DeWolf, Jeff;Brodke, Michelle Organization Development Journal; Spring 2011; 29, 1; ProQuest One Academic pg. 63 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 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Wilderom School of Management and Governance, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands, and John Caparella Gaylord Hotels, Orlando, Florida, USA Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to show how the content of a firm’s culture, carefully developed by top managers, can create effective employee experiences and how this exemplary case of strategic culture shaping relate to various academic insights on intangible social or collaborative capital. Design/methodology/approach – Inductive case study (of a large American convention hotel), highlighting the strategic crafting of a service-firm culture, both descriptively (in terms of what took place) and analytically (in terms of various OB-literatures). Findings – Describes how organizational culture can be part of strategizing in terms of aligning cultural expressions regarding various employees’ practices, including continuous organizational improvement. Analyzes and integrates various extant culture insights on service cultures and culture strength. Research limitations/implications – Insights are applicable to a wide variety of work settings beyond the hospitality and service sectors; it expands the view of organizational culture to the broader and more complex, strategic issue of how organizations can craft or amend cultures that fit their missions. Practical implications – One may learn from this case (including the authors’ reflections), how to put a well-articulated service mission into operational practice: through taking a particular, desired culture quite seriously when creating employee experiences, so that they are effectively focused on that mission. Originality/value – The paper illustrates specific tactics for implementing culture plus the value of developing a strategic approach to creating a particular culture. It offers a template of crafting a culture, based on the strategic pairing of managerial mission with action (or employee and client experiences). Strategizing with culture, also referred to as firm-cultural content shaping, is meant for researchers and practitioners seeking to help develop a mission-focused organizational culture. Keywords Customer orientation, Organizational culture, Hotels, Service levels Paper type Case study 1. Introduction This paper depicts a strategic approach to developing an emerging firm’s cultural content. In order to focus in-depth on the various cultural elements that may need to be considered in a firm’s formation effort, we first describe a remarkable case using a Journal of Strategy and Management Vol. 1 No. 2, 2008 pp. 143-167 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 1755-425X DOI 10.1108/17554250810926348 JSMA 1,2 144 hotel as a lens to focus our inductively derived arguments about how to strategize with organizational culture. While this hotel receives top rating scores with both its customers and employees, it is also profitable. It repeatedly wins the “Best Place to Work” awards in its community. The case is important as it suggests a link between the hotel’s financial success and a strategically created culture[1]. Our inductive pairing of this case with recent academic insights on service cultures is framed in the literatures of both strategy and organizational (service) culture. Through this (inductively analyzed) case we attempt to move both fields forward (Locke, 2007, p. 887). The hotel in this case is the 1406 room four diamond Gaylord Palms convention hotel, opened in February 2002, in Orlando, Florida. The owners gave the opening manager full reign to implement his previously developed approach to use a service culture to deliver profitable top quality service. The opening manager believed that it was critical to strategically shape a coherent and inspiring culture. Based on his prior experience and belief in the essential ideas of total quality management, he was convinced of its business value. Our ensuing case depiction of the Gaylord Palms’ culture is based on numerous interviews with the founding manager and his associates: spanning a period of seven years. Even though our case is not a systematically pre-designed longitudinal case study, the content of the open-ended interviews held throughout the years is based on the first author’s close relationship with the manager and the manager’s active participation in this paper; the belief and insight that the opening manager is able and well-situated to create an unusual firm culture; and our own in-depth knowledge of service cultures, especially in the hospitality industry, witnessed by earlier work published by the two main authors of this paper (Ashkanasy et al., 2000; van den Berg and Wilderom, 2004; Crotts et al., 2005; Bowen and Ford, 2002; Ford and Heaton, 2000; Klidas et al., 2007). The opening manager had studied culture in his formal education and learned of its value as a practicing manager. His previous experience at the Sheraton Manhattan taught him that culture could elicit the best efforts of a staff to deliver a service experience. There he had relied on changing the culture as part of his strategy for turning around an underperforming hotel property. The dramatic results he had achieved convinced him that a hotel’s culture can be crafted to make a difference in organizational performance. Thinking of culture as the “software” of an organization producing an intangible service, he felt that it needed to be strategically designed to align the organizational need (i.e. mission) with the software’s capability (i.e. culture’s specific content). He was also impressed with the total quality management concepts and its associated literature (Crosby’s Quality is Free, 1979) and a believer of the idea that what gets measured gets managed. These beliefs are reflected in his strategic approach to creating the Gaylord Palms’ culture. In this paper, we first describe the strategic elements of the Gaylord Palms’ culture and the larger environmental context in which it was crafted. Next, with the help of insights from academic literature relevant to service-culture cueing, we analyze this strategy. In this paper, we not only report the emergence of a remarkable service-firm culture, we also offer a compelling example of the value of strategically shaping a firm’s cultural content. We believe that a strategic approach to culture creation, illustrated by the Gaylord Palms, has applicability to a wide variety of organizational settings beyond the hospitality and service sectors. Hence, we conclude the paper with new insights on culture creation: to expand the current literature’s preoccupation with culture strength to the broader and more complex, strategic issue of how organizations can craft cultures that fit their missions. 2. Context of the Gaylord Palms The Gaylord Palms is one of four somewhat similar convention hotels in the USA owned by Gaylord Entertainment. Gaylord Entertainment is a publically held company listed on the NYSE (symbol GET) with a market capitalization of over $1.2 billion. The four hotels, in their order of opening, are: (1) Opryland in Nashville; (2) the Gaylord Palms in Orlando; (3) the Texan in Dallas; and (4) the National in Washington, DC. They are all built to serve the convention and meetings market for clients needing meeting space and sleeping rooms in the approximate range they offer. Their strategic niche is larger sized convention hotels in the four diamond price and customer amenity range. They hope to capture repeat business concentrating on meetings that prefer to rotate geographically across the USA: to balance out travel expenses for geographically dispersed attendees. Gaylord Palms’ strategy was to produce the kind of guest and customer experience that would be noticeable and memorable so that the attendees would be attracted to one of their hotels for their next meeting because of their high quality experiences. Due to space constraints, our largely internal, cultural analysis leaves out external market conditions. By commonly used industry measures the culture strategy used at Gaylord Palms is successful. Expressed in total REVPAR (revenue per available room), Gaylord Palms is ranked by Smith Travel (a widely used company) as first in its competitive group. Using a measure of customer satisfaction that counts only the percentage of Gaylord Palms’ customers giving “top box” scores, it currently scores at 60 percent and has a goal of 70 percent for 2010. This means they are evaluated as “excellent” which is the top box on their evaluation scale by over half of their customers. They are not content to rest on their laurals and have a goal of getting even better. In terms of awards, they have every major award that can be earned in the hotel and convention industry business including; Gold Key Award, Pinnacle Award, Florida Monthly’s Best Florida Resort, Wine Spectator magazine’s Award of Excellence and many more. Furthermore, they win them consistently on an annual basis. In terms of its employee satisfaction metrics, the Gaylord Palms is also the most successful in its market. Current employee turnover for the Palms is below 28 percent while that of all Gaylord Hotels is currently 33 percent. These turnover numbers are far better than its peer competitors in the hotel industry, notorious for its high labor turnover. The Gaylord Palms scores three times the overall industry averages on three key measures it uses to assess its employee satisfaction. These are job satisfaction (37 percent very satisfied vs 14 percent for other US hotels); likelihood of remaining (40 percent vs 13 percent); and likelihood of buying stock from their employer (43 percent vs 12 percent). The three other Gaylord Entertainment hotels, whose cultural strategy was eventually copied from the Gaylord Palms, are doing Customerfocused culture 145 JSMA 1,2 146 similarly well. In the next section we describe the cultural components of Gaylord Palms’ firm-formation efforts. 3. Creating Gaylord Palms’ service culture A strategic approach to creating a culture is to begin by identifying the key elements in that strategy and then aligning these elements with the operational practices of the firm. Thus, the first step is to articulate a mission towards which all other actions and activities can be directed. Next is to identify the tactical elements of the strategy, human resource policies and procedures, and operational systems that need to be created and aligned with the mission selected (Crotts et al., 2005; Ford and Heaton, 2000). Gaylord followed this process. It began with the articulation of a customer focused mission and then it systematically translated that mission into the specific tactics, human resources policies, and operational systems that fit or aligned with that mission. 3.1 Mission, goals, and firm values of Gaylord Palms The general manager believed that the mission of the Gaylord Palms should be to create, sustain and model a high level of customer service orientation every day, by all of its employees. He started with this mission to craft the culture. He believed culture would have two important outcomes for his new hotel: (1) A customer-driven culture can be a competitive advantage over other hotels as it competes for both customers and employees (echoed in the literature, e.g. by Ogbonna and Harris, 2002; Simpson and Cacioppe, 2001; Derry and Shaw, 1999). (2) He felt that organizations with a positive culture are more attractive places to work and are more desirable places to visit than places that are unpleasant, unfocused, and uncaring. He also believed culture could substitute for direct supervision. This is important in service organizations particularly as employees serving guests must rely on their interpretation of how their values fit the service mission to drive behavior and guide decision making. A manager may not be available for guidance when an employee is trying to meet a customer’s expectations while co-producing an intangible service experience (Hallowell et al., 2002; Klidas et al., 2007). He believed that the more a customer-culture can guide employees, the less need there is to rely on traditional management controls such as policies, procedures, and direct managerial oversight. It was his experience that employees who know the right thing to do and are motivated to do it consistently, achieve better performance. The culture of Palms was crafted to guide employee behavior especially when encountering situations that are unique. No matter how much an organization trains its employees, customers seeking experiences that exist only in their memories are as varied as their expectations (Schein, 1992). Exceeding expectations is not only important to satisfying customers but it is also the key driver of repeat business and positive word of mouth. In sum, before the Gaylord Palms opened, the opening manager’s “industry experience” (Song et al., 2008) gave him a belief in the value of a firm’s service culture. He designed the Palms’ culture software systematically, starting with its mission and values. After considerable discussion by Gaylord Palms’ founding team (Schein, 1991), the formal mission was defined as: “At Gaylord Palms, it is our goal to become a legend in guest service.” They felt that the way to become known for legendary service would be through consistently providing “flawless service” to each and every guest. They further believed that the only way to achieve this is to make a strong commitment to those who had to deliver it: the employees. This commitment was felt so important that it was formally stated as an organizational goal; “Our goal is to develop a rewarding FUN culture that makes our STARS excited to come to work with a passion to serve every single day.” It was decided that everything Palms’ management did, said, and wrote must be supportive of mission accomplishment and its aligned corporate values (Crotts et al., 2005). Mission, goals and the articulated work values that the mission and goals represent were created to drive everything in the Gaylord Palms. For example, seven corporate values were created (see Figure 1: note their operationalizations) to focus the employees on the mission, defined as: (1) service; (2) citizenship; (3) integrity; (4) respect; (5) excellence; (6) creativity; and (7) passion. The acronym STARS stands for smiles, teamwork, attitude, reliability and service with a passion. It created to do two things: (1) It defines what employees are supposed to be focused on while doing their jobs. (2) It is a term that became part of the language of the hotel’s culture used by all to refer to any member of the organization: leader, non-supervisory staff or hourly. In other words, the term STARS created not only a unified sense among employees about their organizational role. It also reminded the employees that each individual is valued by the company. 3.2 Staffing to build Gaylord Palms’ culture Once the mission, goals, positions and values had been established (messaging why the organization exists and how it would help employees to excel in customer service), the next step was to hire, train, and motivate the people that would be the STARS. This was part of the founding strategy. This process was carefully thought through. The basic notion was to hire only “10’s” or the 1 out of 10 that truly possessed a “passion to serve.” The hiring process was begun by identifying the “right” managers who in turn would hire the “right” employees. Each job finalist was given a formal talent assessment and results were carefully reviewed by the hiring team managers. The talent assessment tool would ensure that all those hired were aligned with the Palms’ mission and comprehensively included the necessary talents. No leader was hired without everyone on the hiring team agreeing that the candidate was the right fit for the Palms. This included the Vice President and general manager who interviewed Customerfocused culture 147 JSMA 1,2 148 Figure 1. Gaylord’s values all candidates for all leadership positions. The Palms founding team believed that making this commitment to the process of identifying leaders sent a signal that it placed great importance on getting the right people hired. When the opening leadership team was in place, a structured interview process was created for identifying the other STARS. A video was made for all potential STARS to view prior to a screening interview that emphasized the Palms’ culture. This was to provide applicants with the information they would need to decide for themselves if the Palms’ culture would be a good fit for them. If applicants felt that this culture was a fit after viewing the video, they would be individually interviewed by a hiring team member who asked a set of structured screening questions designed to identify the job specific talents necessary and to inform the candidate of the non-negotiable cultural values for success in the Gaylord Palms’ culture. In that hiring process the Palms’ management invented several ways to signal the intended culture and its potential fit to those it sought to hire. The Palms’ new staff members were, for example, offered their positions in an “offer experience:” This was an individually tailored, fun way of showing each of the selected STARS how enthusiastic the Palms was about them joining the hotel. It offered, for example, the Horticulture Manager her job by burying the official letter in the dirt of the unfinished atrium and invited her to dig it up. The Front Desk Manager was given a Wizard of Oz themed offer experience (since she loved that movie), complete with ruby red shoes and an offer letter with the words, “There’s no place like home. Come home to Gaylord Palms and become our new Front Desk Manager.” The point was to discover what was important to prospective team members and create an individualized experience that would delight them. This not only showed the value that the organization placed on the person being hired by making the effort to personalize the offer but also provided a model of the behavior expected of the new employee in that culture. The process continues today at the Gaylord Palms and has been adopted by all other Gaylord Hotels. The Palms’ commitment to hiring only “10’s” led to four important outcomes: (1) It made everyone involved in hiring understand that they should only hire those that were truly committed to giving flawless or legendary service. They knew that the company wanted them to “hold out for talent.” (2) It allowed all those that got hired to feel like they were part of a special group of highly committed employees – the top 10 percent. (3) It showed all that were interviewed, whether they were hired or not, the Palms’ commitment to employees and company values. (4) It provided a standard for the human resource people to use in guiding their employment efforts. This plan helped create a company brand image in the labor market that it then used in advertising and word of mouth to build a strong labor pool. Even those who were not hired were impressed with the values of the hotel and its commitment to employees. Thus, the entire initial hiring process was organized around the goal of finding and hiring people who would become STARS and be willing to commit to the hotel’s work values. Not only did the job advertisements stress this, the interview process did as well. All employees entered the organization knowing they had been chosen because of their commitment to the organization’s values and their capability of delivering the flawless service mission. Orientation was also considered an essential component of the Gaylord Palms’ staffing strategy for creating a culture. It was designed to begin with two days of training that everybody joining the company attends; 60 percent of this time is dedicated to teaching culture. This much time allocated to culture was felt critical to Customerfocused culture 149 JSMA 1,2 150 ensure employees has a clear understanding of the company and its values. Orientation is followed by 1-4 weeks in the individual departments where new employees not only get training in specific job skills but additional training in the Gaylord culture. STARS learn that there is no difference between serving a guest and serving each other. This initial orientation is followed by a 90 day “orientation reunion” to ensure the STARS know their benefits, are comfortable in their job roles, and can see how to apply the flawless service philosophy in their specific departments. A dishwasher, for example, might be grouped with some banquet servers to talk about the ways in which the work of the dishwasher is linked to the servers. These groupings are designed to eliminate the dysfunctions of functional silos often found in hotels (and other organizations) and to show everyone how their work is connected with each other. The general manager had learned that one of the key impediments to achieving flawless service is the tendency of employees to get locked into their functional loyalties and forget the overarching service mission. Both in their orientation reunions and in their regular pre-shift meetings all STARS are reminded of the interdependencies of all functions. Not only is entry training and orientation designed to teach the culture; the company also demonstrates its commitment to its STARS by offering extensive further learning opportunities. Since the Palms sets as a goal to get 60 percent of its leadership from internal promotions, these programs are important in communicating the value of helping all employees achieve their aspirations. The Palms attempts to empower its employees to respond to the variation in guest/customer expectations by avoiding the creation of rules as much as possible. Instead, it created “guidelines” to assist STARS in their decision making. Its leadership believes that guidelines would provide a framework for managers and other STARS to perform their jobs well while still allowing for the individual flexibility needed to respond to customer variation. Employees could base their work performance to respond to the specific circumstances of a service experience rather than following specific rules that do not allow such variability. 3.3 Systems to communicate the Palms’ culture Beyond systematic efforts in strategy and staffing, the Palms’ opening manager realized that everything leaders said, did and wrote would cue culture for all other employees. Even though he and his opening team had exerted considerable effort on the front end of the hotel’s opening to define a mission, core work values, and a hiring process to bring the right people into the organization, he appreciated the critical nature of communicating the culture in a clear and consistent way: both at the point of entry and on an ongoing basis. He established multiple communication channels for employees with special emphasis on two-way communication. The Palms also made extensive use of cultural communication tools such as telling stories about service heroes, having celebrations and creating rituals (Trice and Beyer, 1993). Communicating values. During orientation a considerable amount of time is spent on explaining the multiple ways to communicate with “leaders.” New STARS are informed of the open door policy, given the phone numbers of the general manager, given access to an intranet web site, and taught the metrics of the business. STARS are told they do not have to follow the chain of command if they see an issue that needs management attention and their own leader does not share their concern. If a STAR brings an issue to his or her boss’ attention, it is that manager’s issue to resolve. Each issue gets documented so that everyone can get to know what issues require action or resolution. Although this seems to be an invitation to chaos as every subordinate knows that he or she can access any manager freely, the reality is that it is not used much as this approach makes the employee’s immediate supervisor less inclined to ignore employee issues, suggestions, and concerns. This anti-hierarchical norm serves to keep leaders engaged in soliciting employee feedback and input. As part of its strategy to communicate its cultural values, an internal guarantee was made and communicated to employees; the Gaylord Palms explicitly recognized each employee as an internal customer (Hart, 1995). This unique guarantee states; “STARS first, always” and goes on to spell out what this means at this hotel and company. “At Gaylord Entertainment we are committed to providing our STARS with the support and resources necessary to offer flawless service in an environment that fosters fun, encourages open communication and development and upholds our values.” This guarantee is published and painted on a common area wall that each employee sees every day as a reminder of both what the STARS’ values are and the commitment the company has made to its employees. The employee guarantee was created to emulate the value and power of guarantees offered to customers. The reasoning was simple. If it could offer a guarantee of service excellence for our guests, why not do the same for its employees? By exercising the guarantee, employees could have a direct path to voice their concerns, reducing internal “service failure.” This guarantee concept also signals that top management takes its commitment to employees seriously and any manager without that commitment is unlikely to be successful. Since managers know that the guarantee was available to all employees, the guarantee also serves as a reminder of the importance of taking into account STARS’ needs, wants, and expectations in all their decisions. It forces managers to test what they do as supervisors against the guarantee by asking, “Will this decision support what we guarantee our STARS?” The general manager decided to add three unique positions to the hotel staff. The first resulted in a person responsible for new employee orientation. Although most organizations have people responsible for new employee training, Gaylord would have a person whose only role was to communicate its work values upon entry and again 90 days later. This job was created to teach the culture. The second position was the manager of STARS Communications and Events: responsible for creating and executing employee communications and celebrations. The third position created was the manager of STARS relations who would be responsible for ensuring that all employees had a voice in managing the organization. While each of these roles can be found dispersed in other organizations, Gaylord’s assignment of those roles to a specific person – whose only function was to perform these roles well – was designed to ensure that the culture of Gaylord, the “software” of its operations, was focused, consistent and thoroughly communicated. The message that is sent to employees at orientation (and reinforced continuously) is that Gaylord wants to have issues put openly on the table and get every employee involved in solving them. It establishes a norm of self disclosure of mistakes as a valued behavior while hiding them is not. The general manager developed an intranet based tool called “hits and misses” to create and disseminate a record of their good and bad performances in delivering the customer experience. This intranet site allows all employees to see customer comments generated by Gaylord’s convention services staff Customerfocused culture 151 ...
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Running head: MODULE 1

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Module 1
Institution Affiliation
Date

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Introduction

A mission statement is a statement or writing that is brief and is used to indicate the
principles, value, and goals of an organization. Its purpose is to give direction to the curriculums
and the different functional departments of an organization. A flawed mission statement is that
statement that misguides on purpose and the objectives of an organization by failing to submit
them clearly. This leads the organization to head into the wrong direction regarding development
and in all the visions that they would hope to achieve in the future. On the other hand, a vision
statement is a statement or a document that contains both the current and future objectives of an
organization. During the formulation of any firm or company, there are always the goals and
objectives that they intend to achieve both in the near and distant future. All this is contained in
the vision statement that each organization is expected to develop during its inception. Saint
Francis de Sales Schools as an institution is expecting to have an update on their current mission
and vision statements. This update will help in emphasizing more on their strategic plan and how
it will make an impact on people’s lives.
Criteria for Developing a Meaningful, Quality Vision and Mission Statements
Criteria for the mission statement
One of the criteria for developing a mission statement is that it must be informative in the
sense that it must be able to communicate and convey the overall goal of the organization. It is
important that the mission statement in being informative should clarify the overall purpose of
the organization. Secondly, another criterion is that it should be simple whereby it is supposed to
be composed of few and precise words (Aithal, 2015).. Having a heavily detailed mission
statement most of the times loses or fails to give the intended purpose of the organization.

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Another criterion is that it should be memorable where the words used to compose it should be
descriptive and have the possibility of inspiring action. A memorable mission statement can
motivate the employees and inform them what the organization is all about all the time. A fourth
criterion is that the mission statement should be achievable and not overly exaggerated. Many of
the companies may intend to formulate a grand mission statement to attract investors, but
sometimes, they should set a realistic system that is achievable (Klag, Giroux, & Langley, 2012).
A fifth criterion of developing a mission statement is that it should be an employee buy-in. This
means that during the formulation stage, all the employees and stakeholders of the organization
should be asked for views and feedback on what they would propose to be included in the
mission statement.
Criteria for the vision statement
To begin with, the first criterion of the development of a vision statement is that it is
supposed to be future-oriented. The vision statement must be able to demonstrate where the
company or organization is headed to and what the future has in store for the employees, the
stakeholders, and the society at large. Secondly, the vision statement should be unique. Being
unique refers to whether the statement is embracing the diversity that may be found both in and
outside the country. Thirdly the vision statement should be memorable just as the mission
statement. The statement should be easy to remember where it should also state the intention of
the company (Cady et al. 2011). Another criterion for the development of a vision statement is
that it should be purpose-driven. It should hold a connection between the company employees
where they should be given a purpose to keep doing what they are doing. A fifth criterion is that
the vision statement should be achievable. The formulation of the vision statement should make
it become realistic and achievable where, on the other hand, it should be exaggerated.

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Saint Francis de Sales Schools Mission Statement

To change the lives of students, parents, and the society at large through the integration of
education with technology and in the process, help in the evolution of the education curriculum
system.
Saint Francis de Sales Schools Vision Statement
To become a leading global center of excellence in terms of helping the students, parents, and
society in the aspects of the curriculum, co-curriculum, and life issues.
Justifying the Mission Statement
Saint Francis de Sales school in the previous was a very renowned institution not only in
England but in different countries around the world. However recently it has been facing some
major problems in different sectors of its administration and running of things. The mission
statement that I am proposing to the institution is “To change the lives of students, parents and
the society at large through the integration of education with technology and help in the
evolution of the education curriculum system." One of the reasons for this is because the student
enrollment process in the school has been decreasing recently. The main reason for this is the
evolution that is taking place in terms of technology. The school has been very slow in terms of
keeping up with the change in terms of technology, and this has been affecting its functions. This
has led to parents opting to move their children to other schools that are up to date with the
current technology. The proposed mission statement will help the school is changing its direction
towards embracing technology. Another reason as to why the school has been on the decline is
due to the introduction of free education in the country. This has led to parents moving to other
public schools, which are free. According to the proposed mission statement, the society

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members who are not able to raise the tuition fees will be assisted by the school in the pursuit of
changing their lives and assisting them in getting a quality education.
Justifying the Vision Statement
A few years ago Saint Francis de Sales School was highly honored due to its offering of
quality education, moreover their goal plan of being extremely the best that made them
implement the strategies for developing different ways on how education and other life factors
would be improved. One of their big goals was to pervasively spread education and opening up
of new platforms to accommodate students and scholars from everywhere around the globe. The
institution should look forward to implementing a strategy for bringing back the old days of
success to become the current ones. On the other hand, Saint Francis de Sales school strategic
goal plan should be to change the lives of all the stakeholders in all aspects of life. They should
go out of the education part, although it is still important and extend to other aspects which
include co-curriculum activities. Not every student might be excellent in terms of education, and
because of this, the school in the near future should aim to have an impact in such student lives
in terms of enhancing their talents and skills. This would help the institution in the future to be
the leading institution in the world in all aspects of life (Gurley et al. 2015). Lastly, according to
the proposed vision statement, the institution should in future have proper mechanisms that will
enable it to embrace diversity, especially in this time that the world is becoming globalized.
The rationale for the Adopting of My Version of the School's Vision and Mission
Statements
John Handover, who is the head of the board of trustees, has every reason to accept and
adopt the vision and mission statements that I have developed for the Saint Francis de Sales

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school. When he was elected to head the board, the school was performing well and was being
reckoned by many students and parents in the whole of England. However, things started falling
apart, and the enrollment ratio of new students in the school started decreasing (Gurley et al.
2015). This was brought due to different factors that were all revolving around the failing of the
future strategic plan of the institution. This is mostly driven by the mission and vision statements
of the institution which the school failed to take advantage of ones it started facing challenges.
One of the challenges that the institution started facing was the low numbers of student’s
enrollment. This was mainly brought by the introduction of free education in the country by the
government, forcing parents to take their children to public schools. Saint Francis de Sales
school as a private catholic institution could not offer free education due to the business aspect of
the organization. John Handover should adopt my proposed mission and vision statement
because they both offer a solution to the mentioned problem (Klag, Giroux, & Langley, 2012).
The less abled parents who cannot raise tuition fees would be assisted in a way and enabled to
provide quality education for their children. A second reason for the deteriorating state of the
institution was its delaying in the adaptation of technology. According to the proposed mission
and vision statements, the institution will shift focus in the adaptation of new technological ways
in the improvement of the students, parents, and the society at large.
Another reason as to why John Handover should accept the proposed mission and vision
statements is because it is not flawed. A flawed mission statement, which is not the true
statement, brings confusion and fails to align with the actual units mission, job descriptions, and
goals. In the inception of any organization, there are those major obje...


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