Orchid Ecotel:

Leveraging Green
Hoteling As Core
Competency
Presentation by: Tania Shaheen
Reg # FA13-BS (BA)-019
BBA-6
 Introduction to Orchid Hotel
One of the five verticals of Kamat Hotels India Ltd.
Vithal Kamat is the Managing Director of Kamat Hotels India Ltd.
It was known as one of the pioneers of concept of ecoteling in India
and had used the Ecotel effectively as its core competency to set
itself apart from the competition in luxury hotel segment.
It was Asias first and ISO 14001 certified eco-friendly five-star
hotel and had won 23 International awards for building its core
competency of being an environmentally sustainable hotel.
Decision-Hotel want to make

Changing the name of company from

Kamat Hotels India Ltd to Orchid
Hotels India Ltd .
Shareholders believe that name
changing would enable them to
leverage their core competency in
other verticals.
 Limitations

Difference among verticals in:

Basic infrastructure
Capital expenditures
Other verticals had their own
brand personality and targeted
different customer segments.
Operational strategies for each
vertical were quite different from
one another.
Challenge for sustainability:
SCALE V/S VALUE

Orchid was known for his commitment

to and support for environmentally
friendly hotel, however could they
augment all verticals of the company
using its core competency by offering
environmentally friendly service?
 Competitors

Luxury hotels such as Taj, Hayat, Oberoi.

Promoted luxury and consumption experience.
Competitors were of the view:
If you promote eco-friendly services as the only
competitive advantage you will be serving a handful of
customers. There are business travelers, luxury seekers
and short-term tourists who may not be readily inclined
to pay extra bucks for an eco-friendly service
 Hotel industry-India
Divided into four segments, each having their own
customers.
Domesti
c users

Busine
ss custom Foreign
tourist ers tourists
s

Leisure
traveler
s
Reduction in travelling

Global economic slowdown in Sept

2008
Mumbai terrorist attack in Nov 2008
Recovery:
End of summer 2009, appeared to
be end of bottom of curve
Predicted the annual growth rate of
the hotel by 15%
 Orchid Ecotel Hotel

The branding of Ecotel restricted only to Orchid.

Add value by providing eco-friendly and organic food and
service
Collaboration with International firms like HVS Eco services
Environmental programs for lower operational cost,
increased revenue.
Training workshops for its employees to provide awareness
about ecoteling
Environmentally friendly activities
 Major initiatives

Aerators/ flow restrictors

Cisterns and flushes
Triple-gazed windows
Fluorescent tubes
Air conditioning
 Initial high cost always payof

Replaced 55w light with 36w tube light,

4993 kWh saved per year
Replacing 18W lamp with 10W CFL
lamp; 22608.10 kWh saved per year
Energy saving by using solar light;
9194.4 per year
it created ecological-economic win-win
situation
 Research by Federation of
Hotel:
Key most
Electricity consumption Points
monitored,
followed by water consumption
Solid waste production least monitored
environmental issue
Staff training in environmental issue
increased to 56.8% from 48.3%
Energy expenses accounted for 8.9% of
total revenue in 2004-05 against 10.5% in
2003-04
 Building core competency

Building core competency by integrating physical

infrastructure and human resources of Hotel
Environmental initiatives taken by green team
Conducting internal and external activities; internal activities
for staff like poster competition, wealth out of waste
competitions etc.
External activities for community like plantation drives, school
visits.
Introduction of Best Eco Green award for showing extra
concern towards the environment.
 Marketing strategy
Orchids marketing and positioning strategy has helped it to
create a leading edge against the competitors and gives an
opportunity to not only make people aware of environment
initiatives but also involve them to be a part of it.
Its marketing strategies included various promotions and
offers:
Discount on food and beverages
Membership program
Orchid Gold card
 Brand Positioni Brand Existing Future Expansio Website
ng personal location expansio n
ity s ns strategy
The Orchid 5-star Ecotel Eco-friendly Mumbai Raipur Owned www.orchidh
hotel Pune Udaipur properties otel.com
Jallandar Orissa

VITS 4-star luxury State of the Mumbai Various tier ll Division of www.vitshotel.c
Nagpur om
Guest business art business cities subsidiary
restaurant hotel Centre Pune company
Aurangabad

LOTUS Beach Chill, still Ratnagiri 20 properties Brand www.lotusresorth

Goa otels.com
RESORTS resorts leisure by 2010 management
Silvassa contracts

Fort Heritage Historic fort Maharashtra Other Leased www.fortjadhavg

adh.com
JadhavGADH hotels architecture heritage properties
properties

VITHAL Restaurant Economy Several Fast food Subsidiary www.vithalkama

restaurants t.com
Kamat chain class quality chains on company/
food located at highways brand
national
franchising
 Strategic Dilemma

Every aspect have to be pre-planned for Ecotel.

These hotel include heritage property where certain
changes are not possible.
Back-end planning has to be perfect to compliment the
front-end planning. For achievement of such a network it
is important that we should have a clear and error free
supply chain.
 Conclusion
The point which is important in this case study is that:
it is not compulsory that one thing which is giving us
benefit in one sector or one vertical will also give us
benefit in rest of the business verticals

As in case of Orchid Hotel, it was experiencing success because

of competitive edge achieved on the basis of eco-friendly
services, but it cant be applied to all business verticals of
Kamat Hotel India Ltd. Each and every business has different
needs, environment and different targeted market so we should
act accordingly with the nature of business.
 Linking with Product and
operation management
This case is closely related with our subject in certain ways:
This subject deals with the process and operation efficiency,
inventory management, quality control, cost minimization,
flexibility, core competencies, supply chain management and
many more to achieve success.
By analyzing the overall case, we come to know that how the
Orchid Hotel grows through the core competency: green
hoteling. They focused upon the eco-friendly services for
betterment of society and also for earning benefit.
 Contin
They focused on their customers by offering Quality food
which in turn increases the customer satisfaction and their
profit.
They introduced the external activities for community which
increases the customers awareness about the environment
issues and gave them a chance to participate in such activities
to play an active role for environment sustainability.
Green hoteling as a core competency helped the Orchid
Hotel to attain the competitive advantage over competitors and
to create a distinctive image in the minds of customers.