Group 3: Uchral, Inna, JD, Adam, Deanne

Revised Version
HEC Case Analysis

1. George is looking to improve the HEC customer experience by utilizing the staff on hand
and making up for any shortcomings in the guest experience by hiring outside vendors.
For example, George needs to outsource to develop the application. He can do this by
recruiting from different clubs and student group on Cornell’s campus to help develop the
best product possible. In terms of technology, George is looking to continue to
developing the app while maintaining the mobile site. In addition, George is looking to
improve upon the HEC guest experience by creating a calendar of events as well as
tracking guest satisfaction. George’s ideas can be assessed using the idea napkin and the
feasibility component of the critique pad. In this way, George will be equipped to
determine the feasibility and impact of his ideas and can see if he actually should go
forward and spend all this money on the application.

2. We believe a great recruitment strategy involves recruiting internally within Cornell’s

student body. This approach will ensure that costs are kept low, and we are confident that
there are students with the necessary skills on campus. With this in mind, an appropriate
place to start in terms of brainstorming is twofold. First, George should define and outline
the specific IT skills that are necessary for the “home-grown solutions” he has in mind,
and second he should conduct due diligence on what student groups at Cornell would be
able to assist.

Some groups initially identified that may be able to help are: SHA Financial &
Technology Professionals, Financial Technology Cornell and Cornell Hospitality
Consulting. These are the groups that we believe can help add value to the HEC by
streamlining the customer experience. In addition to these student groups who can help
by connecting George to a large volume of students, George can conduct recruiting
 research online on LinkedIn. Surely there are students with app development experience,
and finding a student who would be interested in developing an app and impacting HEC
would be extremely helpful for the execution of the HEC Mobile App.

Trina had a diverse role, and to achieve success, needs to operate in a “rainmaker” role.
Between recruiting assistant directors, planning the tailgate, and scrappily acquiring
resources to execute on her idea, Trina needed to be a “rainmaker” to efficiently use the
resources allocated and get results. A key BP10 skill for Trina to show is determination.
In order to execute on numerous goals, she needs to visualize her long-term goals and
stay focused on her overall plan.

George is “paving the role” for the IT Director, since the role was just created. With this
in mind, the role requires a high level of independence. George needs to be able to
develop systems to handle the service tasks that will occur during HEC, and he’ll need to
autonomously set goals and take action. George’s role demands the BP10 skill
determination as well, but in a different way. Because George inherited some of Trina’s
problems and issues, George needs to exhibit a tremendous work ethic, and be tenacious
to have the ability to recover from setbacks that had occurred in past years.

3. Trina approached the challenge of incorporating technology goals by first assembling a

team of people that could assist her in implementing her ideas, including the managing
director of HEC, who opened up channels for her to gain funding for her initiatives and
be able to hire an IT Assistant Director. She also reached out to alumni and industry
advisors and was able to secure a partnership with Apple to source the iPads used for the
conference. Finally, she worked with Paul Harris, a PhD student studying information
systems to launch a mobile friendly site. Her efforts and approach aligned with the
mission of HEC to “Showcase Hospitality Education through Student Leadership” in that
Trina took a position as a student leader and used the resources presented to her to
incorporate new ideas that were concurrent with the global state of hospitality into the
 conference. Some areas that did seem misaligned were in hiring an IT Assistant Director
with a paid position as HEC roles are typically unpaid and also in working with a large
amount of people outside of the Hotel School. The main factor that contributed to her
success was that she had a vast array of resources and was able to work with a team of
other people.

4. Trina brought value by being focused, goal-driven, and fully dedicated to HEC. While
her goals were ambitious, she executed to a point where there was significant
“groundwork for what would define a successful event for the following year”. It seems
like she took antiquated practices and implemented new technology that would become a
prominent part of HEC’s tradition. Trina also brought value by being tenacious. She
didn’t have any experience creating technology and this issue was compounded by a
limited budget, but she was able to persevere and tackle these challenges by assembling
appropriate teams.

Additionally, we thought that Trina attending the IHMRS in New York City was quite
innovative of her. Not only did she attend, but she went to as many of the technology-
focused events and networked with as many industry professionals as possible. Because
she took this initiative, she was inspired by a mobile-technology event and selectively
focused her energy and efforts on mobile technology for HEC. Because the industry
leaders were always “on the go”, it was important that HEC catered to them with a
positive mobile experience, and they could find conference information on mobile
devices.

5. The IT Assistant Director was tasked with coding and launching an entire mobile site for
the event in only three months, yet Trina was not able to hire a professional coder due to
budget constraints. As a result, the IT Assistant Director was overwhelmed and ultimately
discontinued participation. Trina could have dealt with this by providing the AD with
more resources and potentially a team of other students to work with to create the website
 rather than leaving the task solely up to the AD.
We thought that Trina’s approach of reaching out to Paul was helpful in that she gained
perspective and assistance from someone who is more specialized in the field of IT,
however this seemed to partially stray from the principles of HEC in that Paul was not an
undergraduate student, a Hotel School student or an alumni yet he ended up doing most
of the work with coding and setting up the website. It might have been more helpful for a
team of students, including the IT Assistant Director, to work directly with Paul to learn
the process of setting up the site. The Apple grant of iPads for the event allowed the
leadership of HEC to have the resources to allow for innovation and bring the conference
‘up to speed’ with the technology of the industry and the world. While the guests
appreciated the increased technology, they were not overly impressed.

6. To accomplish George’s aims of improving the HEC customer experience, both human
capital and funding resources are needed. The task list Tina (the previous HEC
Communications Director) created could be updated to further align. Since the IT team
was recently established, the task could be separated out with a laser focus on the IT
aspects.

Some of the important tasks to focus on:

1. Recruit the right students with a strong IT background and/or interest,
2. Further update and develop the HEC mobile application,
3. Create a corresponding application that includes program information,
4. Create a training guide and steps for the next HEC members and leaders

The reason George should focus on these recommended tasks in the future is that George
aspires to improve the overall HEC experience by making it easy for attendees to access
program information via phone. As technology becomes more integrated into our
everyday life, it is important to reflect this trend and simplify the process to find
information without having to carry extra paper materials. By focusing on these tasks to
 improve the mobile application with the help of engaged students with technical skills,
HEC could help reduce administrative costs that are associated with printing and uphold
a sustainable measure that immediately creates an impact via paper waste reduction.

7. George’s goals are to focus on technology leadership and incorporate it into the tradition
of HEC by making an application to make it easier for industry leaders and guests to
communicate, receive communication, and be up-to-date during the weekend. He wants
to take HEC into the modern technological era and for guests to see that.
Success for George would be to create this application and have it be a major two-way
communication channel between students and guests, where all the guests are using it to
be organized, have a calendar of events, be updated, and be able to give feedback. Factors
that will contribute to this success would be the actual creation and design of this
application, getting approval to use this application as the main communication point
between students and guests for HEC, and ensuring the security of users’ personal
information.

8. The difference between the mobile website and the mobile application is that the mobile
website is much easier to create and takes much less time and resources. The mobile
website is also just a copy of the HEC website that is easier to see on a mobile device, so
it adds no new value to the guest besides being easier to use. The mobile application,
however, is an entirely new communication point between students and guests that can be
downloaded well ahead of the HEC event and guests can receive updates, see a calendar,
make themselves organized, and give feedback, all on an application platform that is in
addition to any information that the HEC website has.
That is why George decided to create a mobile application instead of just updating
Trina’s website. He also decided to create this application because it would impress
guests more than just having a mobile website; nowadays, everyone expects a mobile
website, but an application is considered more “modern” and would push HEC into the
new technological era, as well as hopefully be easier for guests to use and leave guests
 feeling more satisfied.

9. There are few differences in the leadership styles of Trina and George. Trina appears to
be great at social situations and networking events to build teams and find mentors. On
the other hand, George is on the introverted side where he prefers to research and identify
the pain points of the situation before working on the solution.

Moreover, Trina was determined to update HEC’s communication because she felt that
updated technology could improve the experience for industry leaders. However, a
misalignment stemmed when she realized too late in the year to budget an adequate
portion of funds for communication which included promotion and media relations. Due
to inadequate funding from the SAFC in that budget cycle, Trina found it challenging to
find the resources needed to fully commit to execute her vision. This encouraged Trina to
be resourceful. She later utilized both her personal and Cornell network, especially Paul
Harris. The ultimate outcome of her efforts was Trina secured the Apple grant of iPads
for the HEC and laid the groundwork of technology integration.

Considering that we are highly organized students, we would prefer to work with George
so we can do a mass current analysis of the HEC IT problems. If Trina had been IT
Director, her leadership engagement would not have seamlessly translated due to her lack
of knowledge in IT details. From the case study, it appears that Trina is more of a
visionary. Since the IT tasks include daunting amounts of coding under three months, we
don’t think she would have been able to effectively lead with such a passion.

10. For next year’s HEC, the director should look into the prospect of creating a social
network component to the HEC application. In this way, conference goers will already
be familiar with who is attending and how to best spend their time network during the
event. Next year’s director should also consider sending email surveys throughout the
event to improve customer experience while at the event. For example, if an attendee is
unhappy with the timeliness of their service, the conference can do their best to quickly
address this issue before the conference concludes and, in this way, help salvage
customer satisfaction.