Read the case study and answer the question below

STARWOOD ANNUAL REPORT 2009

"We are one of the world's largest hotel and leisure companies. We conduct our hotel and leisure business both directly and through our subsidiaries. Our brand names include the following: St. Regis, The Luxury Collection, W, Westin, FourPoints, Le Meridien, Shami Sheraton, Aloft and Element. Through our brands, we are well represented in most major markets around the world. Our operations are most may represented i reported in two business segments, hotels and vacation ownership and idential operations residential operations.

Our revenue and earnings are derived primarily from hotel operations, which include management and other fees earned from hotels we manage pursuant to management contracts, the receipt of franchise and other fees and the operation of our owned hotels. Our hotel business emphasizes the global operation.of.hotels and resorts.primarily in the luxury and upscale segment of the-lodging. industry. We seek to acquire interests in, or management or franchise rights with respect to properties in this segment. At December 31, 2009, our hotel portfolio included owned, leased, managed and franchised hotels totaling 979 hotels with approximately 292,000 rooms in approximately 100 countries, and is comprised of 63 hotels that we own or lease or in which we have a majority equity interest, 440 hotels managed by us on behalf of third-party owners (including entities in which we have a minority equity interest) and 476 hotels for which we receive franchise fees.

Our revenues and earnings are also derived from the development, ownership and operation of vacation ownership resorts, marketing and selling vacation ownership interests ("VOls") in the resorts and providing financing to customers who purchase such interests. Generally these resorts are marketed under the brand names described above. Additionally, our revenues and earnings are derived from the development, marketing and selling of residential units at mixed use hotel projects owned by us as well as fees earned from the marketing and selling of residential units at mixed use hotel projects developed by third-party owners of hotels operated under our brands. At December 31, 2009, we had 22 owned vacation ownership resorts and residential properties (including 13 stand- alone, eight mixed-use and one unconsolidated joint venture) in the United States, Mexico, and the Bahamas.

Due to the global economic crisis and its impact on the long-term growth outlook for the timeshare industry, during the fourth quarter of 2009 we evaluated all of our existing vacation ownership projects, as well as iand held for future vacation ownership projects. We have thereby decided that no new vacation ownership projects are being initiated and we have decided not to develop certain vacation ownership sites and future phases of certain existing projects.

Our operations are in geographically diverse locations around the world. The following tables reflect our hotel and vacation ownership and residential properties by type of revenue source and geographical presence by major geographic area as of December 31, 2009:

Revenue Source. Nbr of

Properties Rooms

Managed and unconsolidated joint venture hotels 440 153,800

Franchised hotels 476 116,300

Owned hotels (a) 63 21,500

Vacation ownership resorts and stand-alone properties 13 6,900

Total properties 992 298,500

(a) includes wholly owned, majority owned and leased hotels

Geographical presence Nbr of

Properties Rooms

North America (and Caribbean) 533 175,000

Europe, Africa and the Middle East 244 60,000

Asia Pacific 155 51,200

Latin America 60 12,300

Total 992 298,500

We have implemented a strategy of reducing our investment in owned real estate and the management and franchise business. In furtherance of this strategy, since 2006, we have sold 60 hotels for approximately $5.2 billion. As a result, our primary business objective is to maximize earnings and cash flow by increasing the number of our hotel management contracts and franchise agreements; developing vacation ownership resorts and selling VOls; and investing in real estate assets where there is a strategic rationale for doing so, which may include selectively acquiring interests in additional assets and disposing of non-core hotels (including hotels where the return on invested capital is not adequate) and "trophy" assets that may be sold at significant premiums. We plan to meet these objectives by leveraging our global assets, broad customer base and other resources and by taking advantage of our scale to reduce costs. The implementation of our strategy and financial planning are impacted by the uncertainty relating to geopolitical and economic environments around the world and their consequent impact on travel in their respective regions and the rest of the world".

Our Mission

"Create the most successful branded, global, lifestyle hospitality company by forming a trust- and respect-based corporate family committed to re-imagining our business with creativity and innovation, resulting in the most fun workplace in the history of the world".

Company Values

At Starwood, we call our shared values "promises." These promises guide our everyday actions and ensure a common understanding of what we can expect from one another. Starwood's values are:

- Go the Extra Step by taking actions that build lasting connections and loyalty

- Play as a Team by working globally and across all teams in the company

- Do the Right Thing by using good judgment, respecting our communities, associates, owners, partners and the environment

We're committed to creating a company that is a great place to work and provides wonderful guest experiences, great returns to shareholders and is:

- Growing

- Strong

- Stable

"What a difference a year makes. As we entered 2009, the U.S. economy was on the verge of collapse and a severe global economic contraction had cost nearly 30 million jobs around the world. By every measure, 2009 was a challenging year and the lodging industry was severely affected. But it was also a year of great progress for Starwood. While the global economy struggled, our team remained focused and continued to execute. Today, macroeconomic conditions remain tenuous but Starwood is in excellent shape. Our cost discipline ailowed us to exceed earnings expectations throughout 2009 and, beginning in the fourth quarter, we were able to achieve better than expected ton line top-line results. Our brands are performing well, emerging markets are outperforming the developed ones and guests are beginning to return to luxury. This benefits us as we are the global leader in the four- and five-star categories. While our recovery is partly driven by stabilization in the overall economy, it is also thanks to several critical decisions we made to manage through the most challenging environment during our lifetimes.

These initiatives included:

STRENGTHENING OUR FINANCIAL POSITION

During the year, we continued to cut costs, sell non-strategic assets such as Bliss and the St. Regis retail space, along with the W San Francisco and generate positive operating cash flow. This allowed us to reduce our total debt by roughly $1.1 billion from peak levels. In fact, we beat our target and ended the year with less than $3 billion in debt. At the same time, we extended our maturities and now have no debt coming due until 2012.

FOCUSING ON INNOVATION AND INVESTING IN OUR BRANDS Innovation is core to who we are and gives us our competitive edge. We continued to push our innovation agenda in the face of a poor economy, delivering excellent results and an outstanding response from our guests. At Sheraton, we reinvented the hotel lobby by introducing the Link@SheratonSM experienced with Microsoft in 95% of our hotels around the world. We opened 40 Aloft Hotels since the summer of 2008 the fastest launch in the history of select serve. We also introduced Element, the world's first major hotel brand to mandate that all of its properties pursue the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. To support these new brands, and Four Points by Sheraton, we created a dedicated select serve organization focusing on the future growth we expect from this segment. Together with our owner/partners, we also completed a $6 billion revitalization of Sheraton, and are continuing to grow W internationally with plans to double its footprint between 2008 and 2011".

QUESTIONS WORKSHOP 1-STRATEGIC HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT: STARWOOD CASE

1. What strategic information about the organization can be derived from the mission? In your opinion is the mission clearly indicating scope and boundaries of the organization?

2. What do you think is the desired future state of Starwood Inc.? In other words what could be the vision of the organisation, based on its mission and values?

3. What overall strategic goal(s) can be found in the information provided?

4. On what strategic levels can an organisation define strategies? Given Starwood's organisational structure, to what extent do you expect to find these strategic levels within Starwood?

5. State the strategies that can be derived from the case and, with the information you have, provide additional information on what possible level these strategies are formed.

6. Going more into detail: what strategic objectives can be found in the case?

7. In your opinion: do you believe that Starwood's mission, vision and overall strategic goals and objectives are aligned? Why or why not? What could be improved?

8. In your opinion is there still information missing that you need to have, to be able to make well- based assumptions on Starwood's mission, vision, strategies, goals & objectives?