Lion Park Resort Free Essay Example

1. Executive Summary The Report discusses the already established Lion Park Resort; which was first opened in 2009, with the goal of making it achieve better, more attractive facilities and improvements in the general environment. The task which was set was by no means straightforward. A lot had to be considered before coming up with an approach to Lion Park; its markets, stakeholders, missions and visions were to be broken down and assessed. Lion Park’s current mission, vision and primary objectives are reviewed and explored in detail as well as weaknesses and areas for improvement in the current structure.

An internal analysis of the channels of communication, employee structure is mapped and revised, concequentially; the external environment is looked at with great consideration and the current position of the Lion Park Resort in the compeitive entertainment market is The study concluded with a review of the firm’s strategy and current objectives that are available the company as well as recommendations offered reguarding the findings of ‘the research.

2. Introduction The Lion Park Resort is a water theme park entertainment facility located along the Lobatse Road, 15km away from Gaborone.

It is a subsidiary of Botswana Development Corportation (BDC) and began operating in 2008. Lion Park was conceived as a Corporate Social Responsibility intiative by BDC to avail decent entertainment at affordable prices to residents of Botswana for all age catagories. This Report is made on the basis of analysing and improving all aspects of the theme park. It highlights the mission and vision, the current structures and strategies, daily operations, challenges and improvements that Lion Park has identified as well as recommandations from my assessmentt.

It evaluates the current position of Lion Park, in order to develop a strategy that would be implemented to improve the current business position of the company. In oder to do this, a study was carried out to observe the internal and external environment of the company, to identify the factors driving the company strategy and the key factors of the industry. The structure of the resort is broken down and assessed accordingly and weaknesses have been identified nd the challenges the resort encounters in the internal operations as well as external marketing operations that deal with the competition at hand. 2.

1 Mission The Lion Park Mission Statement: * To create heart-warming memorable experiences for all our visitors of all ages The Vision Statement: Being the premier entertainment complex by; * Providing an unique mix of quality outdoor family entertainment. * Being the preferred edutainment service provider for schools and other institutions providing mining, science and math experiences for scholars * Being a competitive service provider for conferencing, teambuilding, and company events in Gaborone and immediate area. * Leader in annual event development and hosting, in association with strategic partners.

The Core Values Supporting the strategic plan, act as a moral check and guiding the company in the execution of its duties. The core values are: * Family Values – Will be a core metric in our decision making regarding the development of new business opportunities. * Integrity – We demand honesty and transparency from all our employees whilst interacting with the stakeholders of LP. * Quality – Our focus is on the people we serve, all stakeholders, and we will strive for excellence through evaluation and continuous 2. 2 Strategies.

As a company that is set up in providing a service, Lion Park has set up numerous objectives and goals to work towards on all levels. These include providing customers with the utmost service; and providing an environment for families and friends to come and enjoy themselves is not something that can and should be just said on paper. It is to be implemented through practical application of customer service. The goals of the organization lie not only with the customers, but also in upgrading the current infrastructure in the grounds, to facilitate more customers around the park.

Above all, Lion Park is to maintain its outstanding record of safety in and around the rides and pools, thus keeping their word and promise to maintain a high level of safety – as elaborated later in the report. Lion Park has implemented an Edutainment platform as a means of encouraging schools and educational facilities to bring in students of any age group to learn about Lion Park and have a chance to enjoy the facilities there after. This has been very successful and many schools – preschools in particular bring their students over for the experience. Staff members would dress as clowns and act as chaperones for the children.

Many churches also participate in this as a means of Sunday school outings. 3. Performance Objectives In oder to uphold the Lion Park mission, goals and objectives have be idenitified as a means of a heart-warming memorable experience for visitors of all ages. A key task in this process is the identification of appropriate measures of performance that relate to the internal and external factors that are relevant to organisational competitiveness. Slack et al. (2007) There are several projects that Lion Park plans to impliment in the near future to improve customers service and increase revenue.

3. 1 Infrastructure 3. 1. 1 An Amusement Park Lion Park’s facilitiesrange from a Water Park with a Wave Pool, Super Tube and Slides. The pool itself is thermally heated during cold days with an electricity bill of around P10, 000 per month. This can be quite costly for the park so the pool is not heated during Winter Times (May – July). 3. 1. 2 Conference Centre Currently, the conference room holds a capacity of 60 people and around 45 people with tables, 90% of which are corporate customers in Gaborone and the remainder being bookings from the government sector.

Demand is relatively low; with around 3 working days active out of the 5. The Conference Centre, aside from it’s low demand makes up around 40% of the parks’ total revenue. This is large considering that the park operates seasonally and cannot reach peak turnover all year round. This particular area leads a promising investment area to maximise profits. In response to the complaints about the size and comfort of the existing conference facility; which has no air conditioning and with plastic chairs and tables. Lion Park is building a new conference facility which will be completed by June 2013.

The new facility will house 300 people and will have comfortableseats, adequate infrastructure such as slide show projectors, air conditioning and heating systems, speakers and microphones and nice seating arrangements . Considering that the existing conference centre makes up around 40% of the revenue, the new facility is expected to more than tripple the company’s revenue; given the size and what it has to offer, Lion Park will be bringing in new customers from all backgrounds. 3. 1. 3 Bar and Restaurant expansion Lion Park has a bar to cater for customers who may enjoy a drink or a meal at the restuarant.

The restrurant heads a lot opportunities for improvement. Already complaints have been raised reguarding it’s size and the time taken to receive meals; which also suggests the need for expansion. The current bar and restaurant facilities are lacking heavily. The time it takes to make and serve customers food is simply too long. This is primarily due to the size of the kitchen itself and the staff behind it. Customers have even complained about how the food tastes as well as the lack of variety in the menu, which is a clear indication that Lion Park needs to step it up.

With the expansion of other facilities around Lion Park that show potential of more and more customers, the kitchen also needs to be able to cater for all the people and for Lion Park not to bite off more than it can chew, expanding the kitchen and employing catering staff and a chef would be an excellent way to facilitate all the potential customers. 3. 1. 4 Shuttle Bus Due to the distance between Lion Park and Gaborone City, a shuttle bus, that would travel to and from Lion Park periodically throughout the day from a vantage point, at a fee which will incorporate both transport and entrance cost is being planned.

The vantage point for the shuttle bus would be at the Game City shopping complex. Potentially there would be several vantage points throughtout the city – including the University of Botswana, Riverwalk and Airport Junction shopping malls. 3. 1. 5 Science Centre As part of the Edutainment platform, a Science Centre is being built within Lion Park to bring fun to learning. This facility will encourage children to learning more of the sciences by switching from the normal classroom style to an exciting hands on experience.

This Science Centre will be combined with the Lazy Ride Train – a ride that proved to be dull and boring; now as an attempt to revamp it, it has been encorporated into the Science Centre such that the science facility will act as a tunnel for the train to go through. The idea is definitly set to kill two birds with one stone by giving an all new look to the Lazy Ride Train as well as encorporating an exciting learning experience to look forward to at the end of each ride. 3. 1. 6 Paintball Shooting & Dune buggy rides

Lion Park has a Paintball shooting and the Dune Buggy rides facility are heavily underrated, this is particularly due to the lack of promotion and advertisement about them. 3. 2 Five Forces Competitve Analysis for Lion Park Porter’s Five Forces model can lend some insight into the current situation at Lion Park. The forces are (1) the threat of new entrants, (2) the power of suppliers, (3) the power of buyers, (4) the threat of product substitutes, and (5) the intensity of rivalries. A. Threats of New Entrants The threat of new entrants is generaly low in this industry.

Botswana’s small and slow growing market would not catar formore than one business of Lion Park type.. Moreover, due the the size of the company and amount of resources needed to become successful, Lion Park has implemented ‘Entry Barriers’(elaborate more on entry barriers) which make initial breakthrough for competitors very difficult. B. Power of Suppliers Power of Suppliers for Lion Park is moderate. Frequent power cuts by Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) due to load shedding; which is what electric utilities do when there is a huge demand for electricity that exceeds the generation available.

can significantly affect the business on the company. This may excerbated by the fact that The Lion Park Resort shares it’s main power line with several other companies in the area; consequentially the voltage is also shared. This is a hindrence because when voltage is shared, the operations in Lion Park cannot operate at full power due to the fact that there is a minimum amount of voltage needed for certain rides C. Power of Buyers Power of Buyers if very high. Lion Park a service industry that relies on customers for revenue and it is due to the economic recesion that people have limited their spending.

The Lion Park resort, is a luxury good, which in a time of recesion, most customers are not able to be afford, it can be easily substituted for cheaper forms of entertainment and therefor in times of recesion this is substituted. D. Threats of Substitutes Threats of Substitutes is also very high. The company faces trouble of other competitors in the city (Gaborone); meaning basically every business in the entertainment sector. where already the location factor of companies closer to residents win over the market.

Other than distance barriers, Lion Park is a seasonal business and as a Water Park, it is not favorable to visit during winter times and during that time it significantly loses its customers. E. Intensity of Rivalries The intensity of Rivalries is high for Lion Park. This can be taken together with the high threat of substitutes. Lion Park has to battle for customers with other companies who may be more expensive than Lion Park itself but you may find that customers are willing to forgo going to Lion Park and take it as an opportunity cost when considering the distance.

The significant competitors are the major shopping complexes in Gaborone City; namely Game City, Riverwalk, Sebele Centre and Airport Junction. Particularly when it comes to social gatherings, events and birthdays parties Some families would prefere pack or buy ready made meals with them to the park instead of taking the restraunt and bar into consideration, the Park therefor loses out to food catering companies elsewhere. 3. 2. 1 Summary of Porta’s Five Forces Forces | Level of competition | Threats of New Entrants| Low| Power of Suppliers| Moderate| Threats of Substitutes| Very High|.

Intensity of Rivalries | High| 4. Stakeholders Stakeholders are people and groups that have a legitamate interest in the operation’s activities Nigal Slack (2010). Some stakeholders are Internal, some external and some connected in between, thus for any kind of organisation, it is the responsibility of the operations fucntions to understand the objectives of it’s stakeholders and set the objectives accordingly, though they may conflict. Mapping all the stakeholders against this grid is basically you are looking at their interest in what Lion Park is doing and their power to influence it.

Minimal Effort – the people with a low interest in your initiative combined with their low power Keep Informed – a bit more required here, particularly on the communications front. These people have a high interest in what you are doing, but relatively low power. Keep Satisfied – these people need to be kept happy. Those with a high level of power but low level of interest need to be kept satisfied Manage Closely – here come your “key players” who should be the key focus of your stakeholder management time and effort 5. Internal Analysis 5. 1 Organizational Structure.

The Lion Park resort employs 43 people in total with a flat organisational structure that is made up of only 3 top managers; the General Manager, Accountant and Operations Manager, with both the Accountant and Operations Manager reporting to the General Manager. See Appendix 1 The Operations Manager deals with implementing the overall strategy of the company and other operational functions. The Accountant is in charge of all financial functions and the Operations Manager is in charge of scheduling rides, maintaining the bar and restaurant and other general functions.

This is the new organisational structure with the newly added Marketing Department which had not existed until quite recently in the resort. With the new Marketing Manager appointed, the planning, coordinating and implimenting of marketing policies can be handled while the General Manager. See Appendix 1. 1. The staff in Lion Park has generally been unmotivated, customers have raised complaints about bad attitudes expressed by some employees around the resort.

The core group of employees – which is made of 35 permanant employees; with the surplus being the sub-employees, need to undergo a customer service programme or some kinda of employee training scheme. Moreover, the sub-employees; which are recruited during peek seasons when work around the resort is intense need to go through a thorough screening prosses, to ensure that they are bringing a positive input to the resort, not only as labour but attitude wise as well. This ensures that te standards of Lion Park are kept at an all high. The use of Staff Uniforms will ensure that all staff members have a sense of unity and operate as one.

Different colors and patters in the uniform can signify different roles, achievements and rank. In fact, there is a motivational programme that is being implimented. This is the ‘Star of the Month’ system whereby the employee with the best performance throughout the month is given recognition and awared the star of the month status. This is to boost moral and motivation levels amoung staff members. The star of the month will get an added bonus to the initial salary for achieving this star of the month award. 5. 2 Problems with the Structure and Recommendations.

All managers have in common the overall aim of getting things done, delegating to other people rather than doing everything themselves. The ACCA F1 (2011), Managers can be defined as ‘the effective use and co-ordination of resources such as capital, plant, materials and labour to achieve defined objectives with maximum efficiency’. The Current flat orgizational structure does not employ delegation or diversifacation and with a lot of projects underway, the top management need not deal with all day to day matters and can concentrate on the operations objectives. A new structure can be drawn up. See Appendix 1. 2.

This new structure allows for a much smalling span of controll; where not a lot of staff report directly to one manager, with the new Marketing manager added to the heirachy. The marketing department will now be able to thoroughly research on the markets and concequentially pull in customers to the business. 6. Corporate Resources 6. 1 Marketing Lion Park utalizes a Market Oriented Strategy; A marketing orientated approach means a business reacts to what customers want. The decisions taken are based around information about customers’ needs and wants, rather than what the business thinks is right for the customer.

With this approach, Lion Park has identified customer needs, which are areas of improvement that the company is working on regarding the customer needs. This will all reflect back on the customer. According to Jim Futrell (2004, p. 14) what the early theme parks had in common was a location close to interstate highways on the outskirts of town, high standards of design and operations. And the geography of theme parks can be summarized by considering the three kinds of places where these have been developed: city fringes, holiday areas and historic estates (Urry 1995).

Lion Park strategically positioned itself on the outskirts of Gaborone City, the other potential site for positioning Lion Park was at the Fair Grounds inside Gaborone area which was forgone after some consideration. 6. 2 Finance To date, BDC has invested close to P44m in Lion Park and is still to invest more in the organisation. Lion Park’s asset base is not very liquid. In relation to the projects lion park has undertaken estimated costs are: Lion Park Resort Operations estimated costs| Conference Facilty| 2,000,000. 00| Science Centre| 900,000. 00| Bar and Restaurant expansion | 750,000.

00| Shuttle Bus | 170,000. 00| Employee Training programme | 28,000. 00| Total Estimate| 3,848,000. 00| Staff development and training can be done by the Batho Maduo Consultancy. See Appendix 2. 0 7. Conclusions and Recommendations Lion Park shows great opportunity for improvement in operations and overall infrastructure and as highlighted in the report. Keeping the children entertained and happy is of strategic importance to the Lion Park Resort and the report highlighted the fact that people are going for a higher educational theme rather than a full on entertainment theme.

Aiming for these sectors such as the Lion Park Edutainment platform I recommend that market survey’s regarding customer demand be done regularly. This feedback is important in order for the park to meet the needs and wants of customers. Another is to monitor competitors that are dealing with similar attractions closely; i,e Lion Parks’ Birthday Club scheme. Upgrading the restaurant, kitchen and bar plays a key role in keeping the customer happy, this is certainly an area to look at and this will discourage customers from buying food elsewhere before entering the park. Word Count: 3, 227.

Bibliography (2012). Accessibility, sustainability, excellence: how to expand . Boulton, D. W. (2001). Understanding the Strategic Analysis Model. Fahy, J. , & Jobber, D. (2012). Foundations of Marketing (4th uitg. ). Berkshire: McGraw-Hill Education. Lion Park Resort . (s. j. ). Onttrek April 4, 2012 uit Lion Park Resort Web Site: http://www. lionpark. co. bw/content. php? title=About%20Resort Markowitz, E. (2010, September 15). How to Write an Executive Summary. Onttrek April 4 , 2013 uit Inc. com: http://www. inc. com/guides/2010/09/how-to-write-an-executive-summary.

html Parkin, M. , Powell, M. , & Matthews, K. (2012). Economics (8th uitg. ). Edinburgh: Pearson Education Limited. Slack, N. , Chambers, S. , & Johnston, R. (2010). Operations Management (6th uitg. ). Harlow, England: Pearson Education Limited. Tutor(s), E. (2011). ACCA: Accountant in Business (Vol. Paper F1). Great Britain: KAPLAN Publishing . Appendix 1 1. 1 2. 0 Batho Maduo Consult ABOUT BATHO MADUO CONSULT * BACKGROUND Batho Maduo Consult ( BTMC) is an established management consulting business duly registered with the Register of Companies in (2005).

It is fully registered and accredited with Botswana Training Authority (BOTA) – see attached documents at appendix ). Batho Maduo Consult provides a wide range of comprehensive training and transformation oriented consulting services using modern management consulting products. BTMC offers client oriented support that is differentiated by approaches that specifically focus on: * Support through facilitation the creation of performance culture in organizations * Embracing people centered methodologies to deliver results * Placing the customer at the core of all intentions.

* KEY SERVICES Team Building Facilitation for team building for customer and business results, problem solving, motivation, conflict management as well as relationship building. Consciousness of mindsets and paradigms at play in a team setting are a prominent feature also. Customer Service Customer service training at all levels, internal and external customer satisfaction assessments, using up to date techniques.

Strategic Planning and Management Facilitation of the formulation and review of strategic foundations (i.e. Vision, mission, values, key result Areas,) strategic focus areas, action planning, and monitoring and evaluation. Support with up to date templates for implementation and monitoring to keep the performance momentum. 3. 0 TECHNICAL PROPOSAL CAPABILITY STATEMENT OF BATHO-MADUO CONSULT (BTMC) The Department of Industrial Affairs of the Ministry of Trade and Industry requires a capable facilitator to facilitate a two (2) day Team Building and Diversity workshop in the workplace for forty ( 40) officers.

The terms of reference are as follows : a) Develop a program of activities/exercises designed to learn about and stimulate discussion on specific elements of good teamwork b) Give the team an opportunity to learn and also have some fun through demonstration/exercises that show the importance of teamwork and effects of lack of teamwork c)

A program that helps the Department to build an effective team d) Engage all participants in a meaningful and active explanation of issues facing the department and how a good team and leadership skills benefit all team members e) A program that emphasizes leadership skills as integral to great teamwork f) Come up with ways to ensure that the team sees the department’s mission and values applied in their day -to-day work. g) Recommend ways how the Department could maintain high performance teams.

BATHO MADUO CONSULT RESPONSE TO THE TERMS OF REFERENCE (TOR) In response to the terms of reference requirements, Batho-Maduo Consult presents the following capability position areas: Amongst other areas of performance improvement facilitation inter alia strategic management, work ethics and service quality, Batho Maduo Consult has the following capabilities within the team building arena:

Facilitating for Team Transformation The development and building of team, in the Department of Industrial Affairs (DIA) places facilitation and training for transformation at the core of all intentions. Facilitating for transformation being inclusive of experiential learning, on the job as well as classroom (workshop) training. Batho Maduo Consult is capable of using tried and tested methods of facilitating for transformation which are all in alignment to the team building process.

It is noted that the Department has developed strategic foundation pillars such as mission, vision values within the Performance Management System (PMS) Strategy . This indeed is an added advantage to both the facilitator and the expected team building results. Team building and diversity is not in this case an end but a process that will facilitate the achievement of results envisaged through the department’s strategic intent. Capacity Building In line with its mission of transferring knowledge and skills, in particular to teams and leaders, the approach used by Batho-Maduo Consult is one that would allow the DIA to continue managing and monitoring the development of the team beyond the facilitation process.

The tools gained would be used periodically and continuously to gauge performance. Challenges for Building Successful Work Teams People in every workplace talk about building the team, working as a team, and may team, but few understand how to create the experience of team work or how to develop an effective team in diversity. Belonging to a team, in the broadest sense, is a result of feeling part of something larger than yourself. It has a lot to do with your understanding of the mission or objectives of your organization or unit. In a team-oriented environment, you contribute to the overall success of the organization. You work with fellow members of the organization to produce these results.

Even though you have a specific job function and you belong to a specific department, you are unified with other organization members to accomplish the overall objectives. The bigger picture drives your actions; your function exists to serve the bigger picture. Considerations for Team Building Executives, managers and organization staff members universally explore ways to improve business results and profitability. Many view team-based, horizontal, organization structures as the best design for involving all employees in creating business success. No matter what you call your team-based improvement effort: continuous improvement, total quality, WITS or self-directed work teams, you are striving to improve results for customers.

Few organizations, however, are totally pleased with the results their team improvement efforts produce. If your team improvement efforts are not living up to your expectations, it would be important to pause, reflect on your areas of need, in a more focused but stimulating format. BTMC provides an opportunity for such reflection such that an action plan for real results is created to bridge such gaps on periodic basis . METHODOLOGY AND APPROACH RELEVANT FOR THE ASSIGNMENT Batho Maduo Consult proposes the methodology and approach outlined below: A consultative partnership Approach The staff and other stakeholders know themselves and their organizations far better than any consultant..

The role of the consultant is that of coaching, training for results and auditing to ensure that all deliverables are realistically achieved. Once this is done , the organization and individuals role is to implement agreed decisions derived for the transformation of themselves and their organization. Ideas on how to reinforce the facilitation would be sourced internally from the team and the leadership in a collaborative mode. Buy-in and ownership The process of team building involves changes amongst individuals with deeply rooted seated cultural roots . These can only come into effect when all players equally develop a deep sense of ownership of both the envisaged processes and outputs Simplicity.

In the journey to team building and diversity, it is common that new ideas/methods can become overwhelming leading to anxiety and performance fatigue. Batho-Maduo aims to keep the delivery process simple with examples that are relevant and to the highest degree extracted from the team members ‘environment. Hands on learning The facilitation process will encompass the use of hands- on exercises and games to support the team to address vital issues so it can move to an improved level of cohesiveness. . This would involve starting with the individual personal responsibility, his/her immediate response and action to effect change followed by the team responsibility. FINANCIAL SUBMISSION.

ITEM| Delivery Area | UNIT COST | No of people| TOTAL COST( Pula) | 1| Preparation and development of workshop materials /including assessment of current team development status /reality| 0| | 0| 2| Delivery according to the Technical specifications shown above for two(2) days | 625| 40| 25,000. 00| 3| A follow-up support for team building after 30 days of delivery | 0| | 0| 4| Sub-Total | | | 25,000. 00| 5| VAT ( 12%)| | | 3 000 . 00| 6| TOTAL COST| | | 28,000. 00| Please Note : 1. This price is fixed for a period of 12 months from the date of award 2. Payment be made within 30 days of the submission of the invoice 3. The proposal validity period is 90 days.