Corporate Challenges And Research Agendas -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Corporate Challenges And Research Agendas? Answer: Introduction Disruptive technology is the kind of technology that replaces any established technology and produces something that is unique and groundbreaking. Clayton M. Christensen a Professor of Harvard Business School first introduced the term Disruptive Technology. In the book, "The Innovator's Dilemma," which was one of the bestsellingbooks of the year 1997 Professor Christensen segregates new technology into two parts the sustaining and the disruptive technology. Sustaining technology refers to the type of technology that modifies and improves the already existing technology. Disruptive technology refers to the kind of technology that introduces a radical change in the technological field, something that has never been seen or heard or tested by anyone, it may have performance issues as it is a recent discovery and the people may be apprehensive to use the form of technology, as its application has not yet been proven. This report is going to talk about the use of disruptive technology in the Australian Hospitality industry and hotels, the report will assess the impact that this technology in this industry and its future implications. Thesis statement Disruptive Technology is making a positive impact upon the Australian hotel and hospitality industry. Role of Latest Technologies in Hospitality Industry Technology has been advancing at a really fast pace than the past, and due to this trend the expectations of the customers as well as the way the hospitality industry functions is changing continuously (Xiang et al., 2015). Quite a few of the current trends in the industry are creating great improvements and also helping in creating savings for the hospitality companies; the staff management, infrastructure and other requirements are being redesigned by the hotels and the companies providing hospitality services to accommodate with the client requirements in a better way . Wi-Fi infrastructure Nowadays, when the guests come to a hotel they travel with various electronic devices and gadgets like tablets, laptops and phones, they expect the hotels to provide Wi-Fi services as a necessity and not as some additional perk. The guests expect that they will get seamless internet connectivity and with no interruption and will be able to continue with their work without any problem (Parker, Alstyne Choudary, 2016). This requirement makes the leading hospitality companies to include this feature as a compulsory feature in their hotels, so that their guests can continue with their respective business and use their devices whenever required. Digital conference facilities Apart from providing high quality of Wi-Fi connectivity for various conferences or meetings held by the guests, the hotels at the same time need to provide access to audio-visual facility and other digital perks to the guests so that they can hold conferences within the hotel premises. The demands for the hotels, which provide such facilities ,are quite high while the equipment needed to provide the audio visual and digital facilities in a room are comparatively less costly (Chan et al., 2014). Mobile communication and automation In several airports, it is no more necessary for the people to stand in long queues to check in, in a similar way the people expect the same facilities to be available to check into the hotels as well, people expect check ins which are driven by technology. Due to the advent of digital innovation and use of social media, the guests now also expect the interactions with the hotels to be digitalized so that they can personalise their choices easily. While investing in apps meant to ensure check-ins, interactions with the guests, ordering room service and other types of necessary interaction, the hotels are trying to invest in such kind of technologies, which can enhance the personalized experience of the guests (Sigala, 2017). The personalized experience includes the name of a guest being displayed on the digital check in platform, the food room service menu is arranged according to their purchase history and preferences. The digital facility of concierge in your pocket is rapidly gaining popularity among the guests as it has the ability to include important informations regarding the hotel guests like the entertainment centres available nearby, medical services and other similar helpful services. NFC technology NFC or Near field communication technology refers to a high frequency and wireless technology with short range which helps the users to share data with other gadgets. Communication between the NFC devices is able to transfer data up to 424 kilo bytes per second. This type of communication can occurs when the two devices are touched with each other, by making payment by mobile an easy task (only by touching the smart phone to a credit card) the process is completely secure and happens in an instant (Guttentag Smith, 2017). Apart from payments this technology paves way to an easier way to gain access to any room by a guest in a hotel, thus NFC technology can be used to make a the stay of a guest in a hotel a personalized experience. Robots and infrared sensors There are some hotels, which offer the guests a futuristic staying experience in their hotels where robots delivers the items that the guests order in other words robotic room service experience. There is a boutique hotel located between the headquarters of Apple and another tech company, named the Aloft Cupertino. This hotel has a robot butler who is named Botlr the robot is able carry various small things such as snacks, toothbrushes or can take small orders from the guests by moving floor to floor (Ford, 2015). Such type of digitalized experience not only help the staffs of the hotels to work in an efficient manner but also offer the guests a unique experience. Smart room keys The hotels will soon be introducing smart access to the rooms that will enable the visitors to open the doors of their hotel rooms by just swiping their mobiles over a keyless pad, which will be built on each of the doors in the hotel (Du, 2013). This innovation will imply that the guests will not require to ask fir keys to their rooms and the staffs would also not need to issue new keys if a visitor loses their room key. Another way to offer a keyless access to the room is by allowing the guests to use their fingerprints to access the doors or by retina scanning (Du, 2013). Cloud services The cloud services have helped the hotels to provide 24 hours of entertainment in the hotels. While the hotels need to have the ability to offer advanced digital technology, they would prefer essentially not to put resources into IT infrastructure and IT staff, making cloud computing the perfect way (Chathoth et al., 2016). Cloud computing is constantly improving the standards of the hotel experience of the guests and in future as well it will help the hotels to have top-notch digital infrastructure. Feedback on social media Technology has entered almost in the everyday functioning of the human beings and the developers of the hotels require to understand that the people who are checking in at any hotel will have gadgets along with them. Several companies in the hospitality industry are using their social media platformsin order to check in the guests and helping the guests to have a digitalized experience, the hotels are encouraging the guests to talk or share their experiences on Twitter and share the pictures of their stay in the Facebook or Instagram. This type of activity will continue into the future, the hotels need to upgrade their technology so that the guests can provide feedbacks about their experience, lodge a complaint or provide positive feedbacks about their stay (Cook, Hsu Marqua, 2014). Hotel staffs are in a similar way expected to provide their feedbacks and grievances or questions that they would like to ask the visitors. Converged LANs supporting multiple services Converged local area networks (LANs) makes the hotels to turn into smart buildings. A computer-based service in the building means that the air conditioning, refrigeration, lighting and the heating can be controlled through automated methods (Guttentag, 2015). Thus if a guest has certain preferences of having his or her room temperature at 18C and the lights 65% dimmed, then this can be easily programmed to suit the needs of the particular guest. Impact of OTA(Online Travel Agents) on Australian Hospitality Industry The advent of Online Travel Agents (OTA) was very popular with the customers and was also very widespread. The timing of the launching of OTAs coincided with the increase in use of the computers by the consumersand also an increase in the use of internet. The operation of the Online Travel Agents introduced a transparency in price in the hotel industry. Meaning, the customers could see all the rates of the hotels and the availability of the rooms, which was present in the market (Healy, Nicholson Parker, 2017). This resulted in the decrease in the price rates of the hotels and thus diminished the level of profits in the industry. The introduction of the OTAs was disruptive and had increased the financial expenditure of the hotels. OTAs required radical shift in the management skills as well as the methodologies needed to generate and manage hotel reservations. The high cost for the reaction to this new kind of innovation or the disruptive technology. Impact of Disruptive Technology in the Hotel Industry Knowing the way to serve a customer at the right place on the right time is important to run a business properly. The marketing, finance, revenue management, operations, and sales all have their separate future predictions and these predictions most of the time is not that much accurate (Jones, Hillier Comfort, 2016). At the same time if thecalculations are done in a correct manner, then the forecasting of the demand can provide the hotels with a proper solution and the stakeholders can profit from the investment. Investing in Mobility The key word for hospitality in this digital age is mobility. The traveler in the recent times is always connected to the internet and the outside world, due to this reason the hotels are investing a lot of money in order to use technology in every aspect of their business (Marqus, Merig Acosta, 2015). The smart phone and these apps allow the customers to search for a hotel according to their need, to book the same and at the same time receive a key pass to access their rooms Personal Experience Personal data of the guests are of great importance to the hotel staff. These data is equivalent to wealth to the hotels as they can provide personalized experiences to the guests, each and every one of them (Varma et al., 2016). Considering the fact that, if a certain hotel knew the preferences of their guests whether the person is a fitness fanatic or have a bad food allergy to a specific type of food, to these guests the hotel could provide a free gym pass or a specific food list for ordering. Recommendations The hotels should keep on updating their knowledge on the disruptive technologies and invest a good amount of capital for digitalizing their hotels. Each of the hotels should have an online app with the details of their price quotes and other amenities that they offer to the guests. The hotel buildings should be digitally efficient, starting from the check-ins, room services, checking out, and feedbacks. The requirements of each of the guests should be addressed separately through the help of online support. The hotels should not forget about the hotel staff, as human touch is always needed in the hospitality industry. The hotel staffs should be adequately trained to handle the digital equipments with ease. Thus with the combination of efficient staff management and digital technology will help the hospitality industry to grow rapidly. Conclusion Fuelled by innovation and the gigantic power of the Internet of Things (IoT), buyer desires are developing. This is a valid fact within each industry and even more so in the hospitality industry segment. In an industry where client desires a high technological experience, the disruptive technology can provide the customers adequate satisfactory experience. Innovations to satisfy the requirements of the guests imply that the needs of the human beings will always be on the rise and demands for aneasy life will always be. While technology can make things easier for the people and enhance their satisfaction quotient, there is uniqueness and feeling of warmth in the human touch bin that experience, without the presence of hotel staffs the use of technology alone will diminish the experience of the customers. The hotel administrators must include an environment of a positive human communication as well. Reference List: Chathoth, P. K., Ungson, G. R., Harrington, R. J., Chan, E. S. (2016). Co-creation and higher order customer engagement in hospitality and tourism services: A critical review.International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,28(2), 222-245. Chen, L. B., Chang, J. H., Chuang, C. H., Chuang, C. H., Tseng, Y. C., Hung, C. L., ... Li, K. S. M. (2014, June). 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