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TEACHING NOTE
CASE 26
Rosen Hotels & Resorts: Delivering
Superior Customer Service
Overview
Mr. Harris Rosen, 76, was the Founder, President and Chief Operating Officer of Rosen Hotels & Resorts.
Founded in 1974 in Orlando, Florida, Rosen began with the purchase of one hotel during the 1970’s
OPEC oil embargo and a slumping tourist market. He presided over a chain of seven hotels and two
wholly owned subsidiaries in the greater Orlando, Florida metropolis. The private hotel chain was 41 years
old, debt free, had an inventory across its seven Orlando hotels of 6300-6400 rooms, with a total of 400 people
working for the chain. Rosen Hotels & Resorts, popular Orlando tourism destinations, were noted for their
superior customer service. The chain’s premiere resort hotel, Rosen Shingle Creek, was a Four Diamond rated
facility.
In 2015, Rosen Hotels & Resorts consisted of seven hotels: Rosen Inn, Rosen Inn International, Rosen Inn
at Pointe Orlando, Rosen Plaza, Rosen Centre, Rosen Shingle Creek, and the Clarion Inn Lake Buena Vista.
Each hotel had their own General Manager and staff. There were two subsidies, ProvInsure and Millennium
Technology Group. ProvInsure handled healthcare, onsite clinics, benefits and risk management consulting, both
for Rosen Hotels and for outside clients. Millennium Technology Group was involved with technology solutions,
including network security, technology compliance issues, IT staffing, video conferencing and phone systems,
and technology consulting. Millennium worked with Rosen Hotels and external companies as well. In addition
to the leadership of the seven hotels and two subsidiaries, there were a number of centralized functions. Human
Resources was centralized, as well as Health Services, Reservations and Convention Marketing. Harris Rosen
also kept an office, onsite at one of his hotels, but removed from the rest of hotel’s offices.
The hotels in the Rosen chain competed in two sectors of the Orlando hotel market: leisure and convention.
Rosen Inn, Rosen Inn International and Rosen Inn Pointe Orlando all competed in the leisure segment, with the
location of these hotels, on International Drive, putting them in close proximity to Universal Studios. Clarion Inn
Lake Buena Vista, the remaining leisure hotel, competed with other hotels near Walt Disney World Resort. The
International Drive hotels competed in the Economy price range, while the Clarion Inn hotel competed slightly
higher in the Upper Midscale price range.
Rosen also had three convention hotels: Rosen Plaza, Rosen Centre and Rosen Shingle Creek. Both Rosen Plaza
and Rosen Centre were located in close proximity to the Orange County Convention center, and competed to
lodge groups and organizations that attended conventions and trade shows at the Convention Center. Rosen
*This teaching note reflects the thinking and analysis of the case author, Professor Randall Harris, Texas A&M University-Corpus
Christi. We are most grateful for his insight, analysis and contributions to how the case can be taught successfully.
*
Case 26 Teaching Note Rosen Hotels & Resorts: Delivering Superior Customer Service
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Shingle Creek, in addition to catering to convention traffic, was also a convention and meeting facility in its own
right, with close to 500,000 square feet of meeting space and conference facilities, enough to stage even very
large events. The convention hotels competed in the Upper Midscale to Upscale price range.
The Rosen Hotels chain competed in the leisure and convention tourism markets on a number of competitive
factors: location, facilities, amenities including food and beverage, price, and most importantly, customer service.
The case sets forth Rosen Hotel’s strategy, then describes in some detail all of the various policies, practices and
operating procedures that Rosen management has employed to implement and execute the strategy. Rosen Hotel’s
culture and values are also covered in depth, including their dedication to Corporate Social Responsibility.
Suggestions for Using the Case
The Rosen Hotels & Resorts case is an exceptionally good case to assign in conjunction with your module on
implementing and executing strategy. It can be assigned at any time following your lectures and coverage of
the material in Chapters 10-12. You’ll find the Rosen Hotels case to be a terrific vehicle for exposing students
to the hows of implementing and executing a service-based differentiation strategy and how core values and a
strategy-supportive corporate culture can be deeply planted. There is also an opportunity to have students assess
the entrepreneurial talents of Harris Rosen and how his leadership style has contributed to the company’s success
in the Orlando hotel market.
Videos for Use with the Rosen Hotels & Resorts Case. There are two videos available for use with the
Rosen case.
One is a 7:17-minute 2016 Al Jazeera video examining changes in the hotel industry entitled “The
Hospitality Business: Adapting to Survive—Counting the Cost.” It can be accessed at https://www.
youtube.com/watch?v=m5yRTUpXxRM.
The second is a 6:01-minute 2015 Cornell University interview with Harris that can be accessed at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8rJhWiU_dU.
Both can be shown at the beginning of class. If you prefer that students simply watch the videos on their own
before or after the class discussion, all you have to do is provide them with the links.
In our experience, it is quite difficult to have an insightful and constructive class discussion of an assigned case
unless students have conscientiously have made use of pertinent core concepts and analytical tools in preparing
substantive answers to a set of well-conceived study questions before they come to class. In our classes, we
expect students to bring their notes to the study questions to use/refer to in responding to the questions that
we pose. Moreover, students often find that a set of study questions is useful in helping them prepare oral
team presentations and written case assignments—in addition to whatever directive question(s) you supply for
these assignments. Hence, we urge that you provide students with assignment questions—either those we have
provided or a set of your own questions—for all those aspects of a case that you believe are worthy of student
analysis or that you plan to cover during your class discussion of the case.
To facilitate assigning study questions and making them available to students, we have posted a file of the
Assignment Questions contained in this teaching note in the instructor resources section of the Connect
Library. (You should be aware that there is a set of assignment questions posted in the Connect Library for
each of the cases included in the 21th edition.) In all instances, these assignment questions correspond to the
assignment questions in the teaching note for the case.
Utilizing the Guide to Case Analysis. If this is your first assigned case, you may find it beneficial to have
class members read the Guide to Case Analysis that appears at the end of Case 31. The content of this Guide
should be particularly helpful to students if your course is their first experience with cases and they are unsure
about the mechanics of how to prepare a case for class discussion, oral presentation, or written analysis.
Case 26 Teaching Note Rosen Hotels & Resorts: Delivering Superior Customer Service
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Suggested Assignment Questions for an Oral Team Presentation or Written Case Analysis. The
Southwest Airlines case merits consideration for either a written case assignment or an oral team presentation.
Below are four suggested assignment questions for a written case or oral team presentation:
What grade would you give Rosen Hotels & Resorts management for the job it has done over the
years in implementing and executing its strategy? Please prepare a 5-6 page report detailing and fully
supporting your evaluation. Your report must absolutely reflect command of and use of the material
covered in Chapters 10-12.
Mr. Harris Rosen has asked you to advise him on what policies, procedures, and operating practices at
Rosen Hotels & Resorts are working particularly well and what changes might be needed to improve
the company’s performance. Please present Mr. Rosen with a 3-4 page report detailing the things
that Rosen Hotels does right, the problems that you see and the areas where it needs to improve, and
your recommendations to further improve its performance prospects. It is imperative that your report
demonstrate command of the material in Chapters 10-12 and that each of your action recommendations
be supported with reasoned arguments and factual evidence.
Assignment Questions
1. What impresses you about Rosen Hotels & Resorts? What has accounted for Rosen Hotels & Resorts
success? What aspects of Rosen Hotels & Resorts do you find unimpressive?
2. What is Rosen Hotels & Resorts’ strategy? Which of the five generic competitive strategies discussed in
Chapter 5 most closely fit with the competitive approach that Rosen Hotels & Resorts is taking?
3. Is Rosen Hotels & Resorts’ competitive strategy working well? What information from the case leads you to
this conclusion?
4. What policies, practices, support systems and management approaches underlie Rosen Hotels & Resorts
daily operations? Has Rosen Hotels & Resorts built an organization capable of good strategy execution?
5. What are the key elements of Rosen Hotels & Resorts’ culture? Is Rosen Hotels & Resorts a strong culture
company? Why or why not? How does the company culture support the execution of the Rosen Hotels
strategy?
6. What is your assessment of the internal leadership of Rosen Hotels & Resorts? Does the company have the
leadership in place to take the company to the next level of performance?
7. What issues do Harris Rosen and the management team need to address?
8. What recommendations would you make to Harris Rosen?
Teaching Outline and Analysis
1. What impresses you about Rosen Hotels & Resorts? What has accounted for Rosen Hotels
& Resorts success? What aspects of Rosen Hotels & Resorts do you find unimpressive?
There is certainly a great deal to admire about Rosen Hotels & Resorts. After a brief class discussion, the list
of positive attributes would most certainly include:
The warmth and friendliness of company employees. Rosen Hotel associates exuded an infectious
warmth, and that positive demeanor is reflected from all of the individuals described in the case. The
company exhibits a special attitude that is rare for any industry, and is a particularly desirable attribute
in the lodging industry.
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Excellent leadership. Harris Rosen is described as a caring leader of Rosen Hotels & Resorts, and
this is confirmed by associates such as conference sales manager Sarah Sherwin. Associates of the
Commitment to corporate social responsibility. The Harris Rosen Foundation’s Tangelo Park program
was a demonstration of the company’s dedication to corporate social responsibility. Rather than blindly
Open lines of communication. In the case, Sarah Sherwin states that she can go straight to the President
of the company if she needs to communicate an. She further states that while she has a clear chain of
command, she is not bound by that chain of command when it comes to the organization’s decision
making. This statement is also reflected by Harris Rosen, who states that the organization does not have
an organization chart. Employees apparently feel free to communicate with whomever they need in the
organization to accomplish their tasks, or to share a new idea.
Unclear leadership succession at the top of the organization. There is no discussion in the case about
the potential future leadership of Rosen Hotels & Resorts. At 77, Harris Rosen is likely beginning to
Case 26 Teaching Note Rosen Hotels & Resorts: Delivering Superior Customer Service
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suffered. Rosen Hotels & Resorts faces the same risks in the event of a tourism downturn in general,
and a downturn in Florida and Orlando tourism in particular. Note that this exposure may also be tied to
Disney and Universal theme park attendance as well.
Concentration of the firm in Lodging and Hospitality. All of Rosen Hotels & Resorts revenues
are tied, directly or indirectly, to lodging and hospitality. The two Rosen subsidiaries, ProvInsure and
Millenium Technology Group, both appear to support the core Rosen lodging operations. While both
2. What is Rosen Hotels & Resorts’ strategy? Which of the five generic competitive strategies
discussed in Chapter 5 most closely fit with the competitive approach that Rosen Hotels &
Resorts is taking?
Rosen Hotels & Resorts was pursuing a focused differentiation strategy. The company focuses on competing
slightly higher rate. The company’s three convention hotels competed in the Upper Midscale to Upscale
price ranges. Overall, Rosen Hotels & Resorts had approximately 5% market share in the greater Orlando
metro market. This niche strategy has enabled Rosen Hotels & Resorts to thrive in the Florida tourism
industry for 42 years.
Consistent with Chapter Five in the textbook, there are two key reasons that the company’s focused
differentiation strategy appears to have been so effective:
3. Is Rosen Hotels & Resorts’ competitive strategy working well? What information from the
case leads you to this conclusion?
There are three main pieces of evidence from the case to suggest that Rosen Hotel’s strategy is working
Comments from the case support the evidence for enthusiastic and happy employees. One customer
commented that the staff at their Rosen hotel was friendly and professional. The case also talks about a
special attitude and an infectious warmth exuding from Rosen hotel employees. Jonni Kimberly mentions
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Customer comments from the case indicate high satisfaction as well. “I love it,” said one customer. A number
of other customer comments fit a similar pattern. The linkage between employee satisfaction and customer
satisfaction is stated directly at the beginning of the case by Harris Rosen. “That’s really what it’s all about,
isn’t it? Exemplary service. What we’ve discovered, and I’m sure that others have identified as well, is that
there is a distinct relationship between enthusiastic, happy associates and the company that they work for,”
said Rosen.
4. What policies, practices, support systems and management approaches underlie Rosen
Hotels & Resorts daily operations? Has Rosen Hotels & Resorts built an organization capable
of good strategy execution?
This is a good question to introduce the concepts from Chapter 10 – Building an Organization Capable of
Good Strategy Execution. Elements of Rosen Hotels and Resorts’ strategy execution can then be mapped to
the 10 basic managerial tasks contained in Figure 10.1:
1. Staff the organization with managers and employees capable of executing the strategy well.
2. Build the organizational capabilities required for successful strategy execution.
3. Create a strategy-supportive organizational structure.
Working from the “checklist” of managerial tasks from Figure 10.1, a class analysis of Rosen Hotels and
Resorts’ strategy execution efforts should look something like this:
1. Staff the organization with managers and employees capable of executing the strategy well. Rosen
Hotels appeared to be staffed with competent, experienced personnel, particularly at the corporate level.
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2. Build the organizational capabilities required for successful strategy execution. In addition to the
staffing efforts discussed above, the Rosen organization also appeared to have successfully build the
organizational capabilities that enabled the company to successfully execute their strategy. Examples
3. Create a strategy-supportive organizational structure. Harris Rosen had created a strategy-
supportive organizational structure for his organization. While the company lacked a formal organization
structure, comments by the organization’s employees indicated that they recognized a formal chain
7. Install information and operating systems that enable company personnel to carry out their
strategic roles proficiently. The case discusses the Millenium Technology Group as the organization’s
technology solutions provider. Millenium was involved with network security, technology compliance
issues, IT staffing, video conferencing, phone systems, and technology consulting. The Rosen organization
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5. What are the key elements of Rosen Hotels & Resorts’ culture? Is Rosen Hotels & Resorts
a strong culture company? Why or why not? How does the company culture support the
execution of the Rosen Hotels strategy?
The central component of Rosen Hotels and Resorts’ culture could be described in a single word: caring. This
culture of caring started at the top of the organization with Harris Rosen. Rosen set the tone for the culture
through the concern shown to the company’s employees and also through the company’s commitment to
Corporate Social Responsibility.
Jonni Kimberly, Director of Human Resources, described the culture as being embodied in the Golden Rule
(Do unto others as you would have them do unto you). Kimberly went on to say that this culture of caring
was reflected in the concern that the management of the company showed for their employees (termed
Associates by Rosen Hotels). “It’s one thing for a manager in an organization to put their hand on your
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6. What is your assessment of the internal leadership of Rosen Hotels & Resorts? Does the
company have the leadership in place to take the company to the next level of performance?
In 2016, Rosen Hotels & Resorts consisted of seven hotels: Rosen Inn International, Rosen Inn, Rosen
Inn Pointe Orlando, Rosen Plaza, Rosen Centre, Rosen Shingle Creek, and the Clarion Inn Lake Buena
Vista. Each hotel had their own management team and staff. Based upon the case, it was reasonable to
conclude that each hotel conducted daily operations in a fairly autonomous manner. Each hotel appeared to
be coordinated by Rosen Hotel central operations, which included the office for President Harris Rosen, as
well as Human Resources, Health Services, Reservations and Convention Marketing.
The majority of the case’s discussion of the internal leadership for Rosen Hotel concerned the founder
and President, Harris Rosen. Clearly, there is a great deal to admire about Mr. Rosen. Born in humble
circumstances, Mr. Rosen faced adversity as he grew as a leader and a manager. Released from the Walt
Disney Company in the 1970’s, he risked his personal “nest egg” during the OPEC oil crisis of 1974 to
purchase his first Orlando-based hotel. From this risky beginning, Mr. Rosen had built a seven hotel chain
into the present day. The Rosen Shingle Creek facility, Mr. Rosen’s crowning achievement, was completed
in 2006. Financing growth entirely with cash, Mr. Rosen ran a debt-free organization.
Rosen had built a dedicated, enthusiastic and loyal management staff. Associates with the organization
stayed at Rosen Hotels, and promotions were primarily from within. These circumstances created a unique
7. What issues do Harris Rosen and the management team need to address?
Based upon a careful reading and review of the Rosen Hotels and Resorts case, a number of items for
management review should be considered. They include the following:
1. Growth,
At the end of the case, Mr. Rosen states that, “I suspect that before I leave we’ll add perhaps another 1000
rooms.” It can be reasonably inferred from this statement that he is discussing the expansion and renovation
of his current hotels, rather than the purchase or construction of another free-standing hotel to drive this
growth. In other words, the current planning over the next several years is for modest organic growth. Where
will future growth come from for Rosen Hotels & Resorts?
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Further, if growth for Rosen Hotels & Resorts is considered, should that growth come from expansion of
its core business, e.g. the hotel group, or should growth be considered from diversification efforts by the
company? Currently, Rosen Hotels has two subsidiaries, one in healthcare insurance and one in information
technology. Do either of these two subsidiaries represent growth vectors for Rosen Hotels? In particular,
does the healthcare subsidiary represent an area for diversification and growth, particularly given the status
of healthcare in the United States in 2016?
Next, the future leadership of Rosen Hotels & Resorts is an open question that is alluded to at the end of the
case. Is there an internal succession process at Rosen Hotels that the case does not discuss? Is there sufficient
8. What recommendations would you make to Harris Rosen?
This might be a good point to revisit the concept of Grand Strategy – Growth, Stability and Retrenchment.
Should the company grow? Be stable? Retrench? Clearly, the company is in a stability phase. With the
completion of Rosen Shingle Creek, all major expansion efforts had come to a conclusion. It was reasonable
to conclude that sales had stabilized following the 2006 opening of Rosen Shingle Creek. Now, in 2016,
should the company embark on a phase of rapid growth?
A strong argument for a major growth initiative would be the condition of the firm’s balance sheet. Liquidity
appeared ample; the firm carried no long-term debt. If Rosen Hotels considered a major acquisition, financing
would likely not be difficult. While likely a longer timeline, financing expansion from internal cash flow did
With that in mind, a list of recommendations for Rosen Hotels & Resorts could include:
Growth through opportunistic acquisition. Rosen Hotels & Resorts should prepare for opportunistic
expansion in the greater Orlando metropolis. Attention should be paid to two possible acquisition
opportunities: Hotels in distress and possible acquisition candidates during a general downturn. Hotels
in the greater Orlando area may find themselves in distress through either poor operational management
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vetting. These priorities, though not large, could significantly enhance the firm’s top and bottom lines.
An example of this type of initiative would include Zayde’s Kosher catering.
Develop a Leadership Succession Plan. Rosen Hotels & Resorts is overdue for a formal leadership
succession plan. Efforts should be put into place to formalize this process, and to begin selection and
Epilogue
Orlando, Florida. Student who live in the Parramore neighborhood are eligible for the awards, which cover four
years at a public college, university or trade school. Recipients included Jahquetta Jones, who planned to study
criminal justice at the University of Central Florida. Jones said she almost cried when she learned of being
awarded the scholarship. “I was shocked,” Jones said, “I didn’t know Rosen would come to this area and give
us money like this.” Harris Rosen estimated that the new Parramore program would eventually cost the Rosen
2016 also represented ten years of excellence at the Four Diamond rated Rosen Shingle Creek Resort. The