1. What is HID's mission at present? How may this mission change?
2. What do you think HID's mission, strategic goals, and strategic plans are at the end of this planning season? Why?
3. What goal-setting behavior is being used here to reach an agreement among HID's managers? Do managers typically disagree about the direction of their organization?

Think about the goal-setting process in this case. Are there any issues you can identify which might undermine HID's planning effectiveness? Explain.

Dave Collins, CEO of HID sat down at the conference table with his management team members. Karen Setz, Tony Briggs, Dave King and Andy Johnson. HID owns 10 Holiday Inns, eight hotels of different types and one property in Fiji. It also owns two Quality Inns. Dave Collins and his managers got together to define their mission and goals, and to set strategic plans. As they began their strategic planning session, the consultant they had hired suggested that each describe what he or she wanted for the company's Australian operations in the next 10 years- how many hotels it should own, where to locate them and who the target market was. Another question he asked them to consider was what the driving force of the company should be, that is, the single characteristic that would separate HID from other companies. The team members wrote their answers on flip-charts, and the consultant summarised the results. Dave Collins' goal included 50 hotels in 10 years, with the number increasing to 26 or 27 in five years. All the other members saw no more than 20 hotels in 10 years and a maximum of 15 or 16 within five years. Clearly there was disagreement among the top managers about long-term goals and the desirable growth rate. Tony Briggs responded: Well, you know we have always looked at the smaller town hotels as being our niche, although we deviated from that for the hotel in Fiji. But we generally stay in smaller towns where we don't have much competition. Now we are talking about an expensive hotel in New Zealand, too. Dave Collins suggested 'Maybe it's time we changed our target market, changed our pricing strategy and went for larger hotels in urban areas across the whole country. Maybe we need to change a lot of factors about our company. CASE FOR CRITICAL ANALYSIS With the consultant's direction. the team members began to critique their growth targets. Dave King, director of operations and development, observed: We just can't build that many hotels in that time period. certainly not given our current staffing, or any reasonable staffing we could afford. I don't see how we could achieve that goal. Andy Johnson, the accountant, agreed Karen Setz then asked: Could we build them all in Australia? You know we've centred on the medium priced hotel in smaller towns. Do we need to move to bigger towns now, or add another to the one we have in Sydney?' Dave Collins responded: We have an opportunity out in Newcastle, we may have one in Coffs Harbour, and we are looking at the possibility of going to New Zealand. The consultant attempted to refocus the discussion Well, how does this all fit with your mission? Where are you willing to locate geographically? Most of your operation is in certain limited areas of Australia. Can you adequately support a national building effort?"