New process to accelerate brand innovation for a major hospitality company

Although the company operated several well-known hotel brands and had a track record for growth and innovation, this leader in the hospitality industry needed to re-establish its brand as a leader in innovation.

Challenge
According to industry studies, the market no longer perceived “innovation” as one of the company’s brand assets, despite management’s commitment to innovation as a core brand value and strategic priority of the corporation. In addition, because the company was fast-growing and increasingly decentralized, the organization was becoming less and less responsive to pressure to generate innovation.

A.T. Kearney was engaged to help the company develop a new innovation process that included a focus on core brand values.

Approach
The team drew on A.T. Kearney’s expertise in innovation, plus external benchmarks and specialized literature to identify key success factors for innovation in the hospitality industry. Then they tailored the success factors specifically for the company’s strategy and organization.

The team also conducted a diagnostic of the company’s innovation performance, based on several interviews with key personnel. From the combined analysis, they built a new innovation process, including a stage-gate model and with roles for cross-functional teams.

To launch the process and drive home its importance to the organization, the team conducted a workshop using peer comparison methodology to enlist support for the innovation strategy.

Results
As a result of this project, the hospitality company gained:

• Detailed innovation process – complete with actions, deliverables, selection grids, and roles/responsibilities
• Toolkit for innovation process implementation (“Innovation Book” for project leaders, process presentation)
• Set of rules for cross-functional project teams

With the new process, tools, and the strategy defined in the innovation workshop, the company was on its way to effectively embedding innovation – consistent with its brand values.

Contact

For more information, please contact Jerome Lescure.