Introduction to Hospitality or Strategics

Introduction to Hospitality

Author: John R Walker

Tomorrow's managers are off to a strong start with this fully updated and streamlined edition. Each chapter includes an increased emphasis on globalization and environmental responsibility and a new chapter on Events Marketing appears in Part V. 

The practicality of previous editions continues with mini-case studies, contributions from industry experts, profiles of corporations, profiles of hospitality professionals and a new student CD-ROM packed with resources to support readers’ coursework and their careers. It covers tourism, lodging, restaurants, managed services, beverages, conventions and meeting, and leisure/recreation; in addition to examining gaming entertainment, marketing and human resources, and leadership and management.

For individuals interested in a hospitality industry career.

 

Booknews

Designed for an introductory course in hospitality for students in hospitality management, this text reviews areas of the industry and features career information and personal and corporate profiles of leaders in the field. Coverage includes travel and tourism, lodging, conventions, and recreation, as well as marketing, human resources, and leadership. Learning features include case studies, key terms and concepts, and review questions. This third edition includes a new first chapter overview, and a new section on culinary arts. Walker is professor and director of Hotel, Restaurant, and Tourism management at Alliant International University. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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Strategics

Author: William J Cook

Most of what passes for strategic planning is not strategic at all. It is long-range planning or comprehensive planning, or in some cases just program or project planning. The result is a relinquishment of control to external conditions and circumstances, the perpetuation of obsolete systems, and organizational fragmentation and internal conflict. The opportunity to create new possibilities and realities--the ultimate object of strategy--is lost. Cook maintains that even to attempt strategy there must first be a strategic system, a system that deals with strategic issues, decision-making, and strategic action, which is preceded by strategic thinking. Cook combines these three aspects of strategy into a coherent, powerful concept that reinvigorates strategy with its original forceful meaning: "strategos--to lead an army." In this way strategy becomes the "means by which communities continuously create artifactual systems to serve extraordinary purposes." His book contains sound, pragmatic theory, original insights into strategic issues, and detailed hands-on guidance on all phases of strategic thinking, planning, and action. Cook explains that stragetics can be expressed as thinking, planning, and action. Strategic thinking "will always embrace five arenas: the definition of strategy, the meaning of leaders and leading, the distinction between condition and cause, the nature of systems, and the characteristics of organizations." Strategic planning, as a currently popular management practice, is not what it was originally. The definition has changed. The only definition that captures the original intent is: the means by which a community of people create artifactual systemsto serve extraordinary purposes. Dr. Cook points out that strategic action is seldom included in any contemporary intepretation or application of strategy, yet action is both the realization of strategy and the creation of new possibilities beyond strategy. In that sense, strategic action is the end and the beinning of strategics. Thus, Cook takes the traditional idea of strategic planning, infuses it with strategic thinking, and carries it to strategic action. Instead of merely improving what already exists, organizations can create new systems that are capable of what he calls "constant emergence--always vital, always creative."

Table of Contents:

Introduction
Strategic Thinking
The Five Arenas
Arena I: Definitions
Arena II: Leaders vs. Leadership
Arena III: Condition vs. Cause
Arena IV: The Nature of Systems
Arena V: The Dynamics of Human Organization
Strategic Planning
The Discipline of a Strategic Plan
The Strategic Planning Process: Planning in Action
Strategic Action
Whole-Context Organization: The Four Dimensions
Whole-Context Organization: The First Dynamic
Whole-Context Organization: The Second Dynamic
Continuous Creation
The Emergence of New Systems
Conclusion
Appendix