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330 PART 5 • KEY STRATEGIC-MANAGEMENT TOPICS

Doing Great in a Weak Economy. How?

Marriott International

mong all hotels, casinos, and resorts, Marriott
AInternational scored the highest on Fortune’s
“Most Admired Companies” both in 2007 and 2008.
When most firms were struggling, Marriott made $362
million in net income on $12.88 billion in revenues,
quite impressive for a hotel/motel firm in 2008. Fortune
rated Marriott as their 13th overall “Most Admired
Company in the World” in terms of their management
and performance. Marriott is looking past the current
slump in travel by planning to open 130 new hotels in
the next four years. About half of the new hotels are
targeted for emerging markets such as China, India,
and the United Arab Emirates. The new hotels will add
32,000 rooms to Bethesda, Maryland–based Marriott’s
capacity of 560,000 rooms at 3,178 properties. Marriott Marriott prefers to manage rather than own proper-
declared a new stock dividend in August 2009. ties. The firm is planning to purchase some of the
Marriott is one of the world’s leading hoteliers, with Greenbrier Hotel Corporation’s assets, including its historic
some 3,000 properties in more than 65 countries, luxury White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, resort. Then
including Renaissance Hotels and Marriott Hotels & Marriott will sell that property to another hotel owner but
Resorts, as well as Courtyard and Fairfield Inn. It also maintain management rights to the property. Greenbrier
owns the Ritz-Carlton and time-share properties oper- entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, which prompted
ated by Marriott Vacation Club International. Marriott Marriott to offer to acquire some of their assets.
additionally provides more than 2,000 rental units for
Source: Based On Geoff Colvin, “The World’s Most Admired
corporate housing and manages 45 golf courses. The
Companies,” Fortune (March 16, 2009): 76–86; Rachel Feintzeig and
Marriott family, including CEO J. W. Marriott Jr., owns Kris Hudson, “Greenbrier Hotel Seeks Chapter 11, Plans to Sell to
about 30 percent of the firm. Marriott,” Wall Street Journal (March 20, 2009): B3.

As illustrated in Figure 11-1, global considerations impact virtually all strategic deci-
sions. The boundaries of countries no longer can define the limits of our imaginations.
To see and appreciate the world from the perspective of others has become a matter of
survival for businesses. The underpinnings of strategic management hinge on managers
gaining an understanding of competitors, markets, prices, suppliers, distributors,
governments, creditors, shareholders, and customers worldwide. The price and quality
of a firm’s products and services must be competitive on a worldwide basis, not just on
a local basis. As indicated above, Marriott International is an example global business
that performed outstandingly well during the recent global recession.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) in March 2009 issued the most pessimistic
report on global trade in its 62-year history: that global trade would drop by 9 percent or
1
more in 2009. A world market has emerged from what previously was a multitude of