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The Imperial

The Imperial is a seaside hotel in Mombasa, Kenya. It was founded in 1906 by Roger Williams,
a citizen of the United Kingdom (UK) who had made a large fortune in the primary sector of
British East Africa. Identifying a market opportunity and wanting to diversify his investments,
Roger founded The Imperial. The Imperial initially had some financial problems, especially
5 regarding cash flow and liquidity management. Roger operated the hotel as a sole trader. By 1920,
The Imperial was the most famous seaside hotel in Mombasa: it had a very positive corporate
image and a well-deserved reputation for its grandiose architecture, its high-quality service and its
elegant décor. It held that reputation for several decades, until the 1950s.

The 1950s were a turbulent time in Kenya. Following the Second World War, independence
10 movements emerged throughout the British Empire. Fearing that the situation would turn violent,
in 1959 Roger’s son and heir Jeff Williams, decided to sell all the family properties in Kenya,
including The Imperial. In the decades that followed, The Imperial was bought and sold several
times: between 1959 and 1989, The Imperial had five different owners. Investors were often
interested in the hotel, as it was an attractive 200-room property with a private beach and easy
15 access to Mombasa airport. However, because of recurring political unrest in neighbouring
countries, the owners feared the situation in Kenya would deteriorate. They often panicked when
the political situation seemed to worsen and sold the hotel.

In 1989, Global Properties (GP), an international investment group, set up a subsidiary private
limited company that purchased the hotel. GP was a good symbol of the new globalized world:
20 GP’s shareholders were from the United States, Japan and South Korea. GP’s relationship to
the hotel was “hands off”: GP did not want to be involved in the daily management of the hotel
operations, preferring to have a manager on-site. The manager would have to generate profits,
most of which would be paid in dividends to GP. Once a year, the manager and a representative
from GP would meet to calculate the break-even quantity for the coming year, set target profits and
25 determine the margin of safety.

In 2009, Martin Kimathi was appointed manager of The Imperial. This appointment was a
remarkable coincidence of personal history and the history of The Imperial. Martin’s father,
Jomo Kimathi, had been a trusted groundskeeper at The Imperial when the Williams family still
owned it. When Jeff Williams sold the hotel in 1959, he used his influence to help Jomo obtain
30 a work permit in the UK. Jomo moved to London, where he worked the rest of his career in
the hotel industry. Martin was born in London, where he grew up in a multicultural society and
sometimes as a schoolboy he was a victim of racist bullying. He went to university and graduated
with a degree in Hotel Management. When Jomo retired in 2000, he returned home to Kenya.
Martin wanted to connect with his Kenyan heritage and went with his parents. At the time, The
35 Imperial was recruiting receptionists. Martin applied and got one of the positions. Five years
later, he was promoted to head of reception, and four years after that, though only 30 years old,
he was appointed as manager of the entire hotel. GP particularly liked the fact that Martin was of
African descent but that, at the same time, he was westernized. GP thought that this was a perfect
combination.

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40 Martin’s situation was actually more complicated than GP realized. Though Martin spoke some
Kikuyu, the language of his parents’ tribe, most Kenyan employees in the hotel thought of him
as too westernized and not Kenyan enough. Apart from that, however, his life in Kenya and now
his appointment as manager seemed to fulfill most of his needs. Though the country experienced
some post-election violence in 2008, it was generally safe and stable. Martin had a well-paid
45 professional position, with a salary based on performance-related pay. In Kenya, he met and
married Anima, and they had two lovely daughters. He was proud that he was managing the hotel
where his father had been a groundskeeper years earlier.

When appointed manager, Martin had to address a long-term problem: the fact that over the
years, the competitive position of The Imperial as Mombasa’s premier seaside hotel had slowly
50 deteriorated. New luxurious hotels were opening in the vicinity; with their spas, themed restaurants
and fast WiFi Internet access, they offered better facilities and better services than The Imperial.
They had a modern, high-tech feel; in comparison, the colonial charm of The Imperial looked
old-fashioned. Its market share was shrinking. Because GP’s interest in The Imperial was solely
for profits, Martin was only given a limited budget each year for improvements and renovation. The
55 long-term trend for The Imperial was worrying: there was a steady decline in room bookings, at a
time when ironically tourism in Kenya was doing rather well. The number of tourists travelling to
Kenya was increasing annually, and other hotels were experiencing a general trend of increasing,
not decreasing, occupancy rates (Appendix 1). Martin read statistics from the Kenya National
Bureau of Statistics and other sources of secondary market data. He conducted a marketing audit,
60 constructed a position map and realized that The Imperial could attract new types of traveller
interested in safaris or in cultural tourism.

Besides his long-term marketing challenges, Martin had found that managing the working
capital sometimes proved difficult in the short term, especially because of the seasonality
of hotel operations. The Imperial occasionally had problems to follow its month-by-month
65 budget. Now that he was manager, and not just Head of Reception, Martin had to design and
implement strategies for dealing with those liquidity problems. His accountant recommended that
The Imperial use separate profit centres for the hotel itself, for the restaurant and for the special
events services. Non-revenue producing departments, such as housekeeping, would be established
as separate cost centres. Martin also had to organize the preparation of final accounts for GP (profit
70 and loss accounts, balance sheets) as he was accountable to GP for the financial performance of
The Imperial. A particular challenge came from the Catering Department overseeing the restaurant.
The Head of Catering struggled both to manage the actual stock and to make the appropriate
calculations of closing stock values.

Martin also had a problem of human resources: how to improve his working relationship with
75 Susan Chapman, the Head of Housekeeping. Susan’s grandfather, Craig Chapman, had travelled
to Kenya from Liverpool (UK) in the early 20th century to open and operate an orphanage near
Nairobi. Unlike Roger Williams, who was already wealthy before he left England and went to
Kenya to make even more money, Craig Chapman had a humanitarian motivation. When Kenya
became independent, Craig stayed and continued to work for other non-profit organizations. His
80 whole family lived in Kenya; his grand-daughter only left the country to study Hotel Management
in the UK. In 2002, she came back and began working at The Imperial. The problem between
Susan and Martin began when he was appointed as manager. Susan, too, had applied for the
position. When she was not selected, Susan was very angry. Even three years later, she could not
get over her feeling that she had been discriminated against.

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85 Martin and Susan had similarities: they were the same age, had similar university educations, and
neither fitted perfectly well in Kenyan society. They had, however, an important difference: their
leadership style. Susan, though efficient, hard-working and committed, was very task-oriented.
She liked bureaucracy, formal accountability, and a clear chain of command. She had a scientific
approach to decision-making. Her staff found her cold, official and impersonal. Martin, on the other
90 hand, had a much more laissez-faire style. He believed in empowerment and delegation. Though
he felt anxious when he saw there were minor problems that he knew he could fix quickly, he was
always careful to let supervisors resolve problems. He was also warm, friendly and outgoing.

Susan liked The Imperial very much; however, she still resented the fact that Martin had been
appointed manager instead of her. As a result, she wanted others to think that GP had made a
95 mistake in selecting Martin instead of her. She focused harder than ever on her job. She demanded
more of the employees and was intolerant of even minor mistakes. The hotel, she was determined,
should always be absolutely spotless and shining. However, as she became more demanding, the
employees perceived her as too autocratic. They began to complain amongst themselves. The
networks of informal communication amongst the employees enabled gossip and messages to
100 move quickly through the hotel, such as stories and anecdotes of Susan acting overly autocratic.
Fearing that the situation would soon become a major problem, Martin suggested that she should
soften her leadership style. However, in every appraisal meeting, she resisted any discussion about
how she managed staff. Martin did not want to dismiss her; he highly regarded her as a valuable
member of staff, whose role in the Housekeeping Department was essential. A French travel
105 journalist who had recently stayed at The Imperial had written an article praising the high quality
of its housekeeping: “We reach here the top of the highest international standards”, he wrote, “in
terms of benchmarking, The Imperial is très magnifique”. Martin fully appreciated the professional
importance of Susan. However he believed that, professionally, she needed leadership training.

In November 2013, a particular situation brought these tensions to the surface. One employee
110 in the Housekeeping Department, Guthoni, was frequently calling in sick and did not come to
work. Rather than enquiring about the reason, Susan dismissed Guthoni for repeated absenteeism.
What Susan did not know is that Guthoni had been diagnosed with a terminal illness and required
frequent medical treatment. Upon news of her dismissal, the other employees were outraged.
They decided to go on strike in December, one of the busiest months of the year for The Imperial.
115 When Martin heard of the planned strike, he was very worried. If it occurred in December,
The Imperial would not be able to reach its annual target profits. He started negotiations with
employee representatives. He realized that the collective action was giving the employees a sense
of solidarity that they previously never displayed. He also noticed that many other frustrations
were coming out into the open – and he ironically saw the threat of strike action as empowering
120 for the employees. They seemed to be taking responsibility for the operations of the hotel to a far
greater degree than before. Martin wanted to channel their frustrations toward constructive ends.
He believed that The Imperial would emerge stronger from the conflict. He knew that he needed
the full commitment and support of all the employees because big changes were on the horizon.

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Equally important, he had to address the long-term external issues facing The Imperial because
125 of changes in the external environment. Strategic decisions were necessary. He considered three
options for The Imperial.

Option 1: Make the case to GP that The Imperial needs to close for a whole year to allow for mass
renovations in order to upgrade the hotel and reposition it to its former place as the premier hotel
in Mombasa. Martin had recently travelled to Dubai and Muscat to see the most luxurious hotels
130 in these regions. He understood that The Imperial had reached the decline phase of its product
life cycle and needed rejuvenation. He believed that it was possible, although this would require
substantial investment:
• in the physical condition of the hotel almost to rebuild it entirely
• in its marketing in order to relaunch it, maybe even with a new brand name.
135 The new hotel would attract the same customer types, but the product would be much improved.
It would also need an improved workforce to match its new vision. Martin sketched out two
possible approaches for a Human Resources Strategic Plan (Appendix 3).

Option 2: Change the nature of the hotel by transforming all the rooms into self-contained
apartments with small kitchens. The target market for these apartments would be business travellers
140 staying at least one week. The marketing audit had revealed that:
• there is an increasing demand for such apartments
• very few hotels in Mombasa offer such apartments
• the market is still small
• the market has high growth potential.
145 The revenue from these apartments would almost match the revenue from the current hotel
operations; it would be more stable, with fewer seasonal fluctuations; both fixed costs and variable
costs for cleaning and maintenance would be much lower. The apartments would be serviced once
a week, rather than daily. According to Martin’s workforce planning, this option could reduce the
housekeeping staff by 70 %.

150 Option 3: Form a strategic alliance with the famous safari tour company KenSafar. Together they
would offer a two-week package tour. Customers would arrive in Mombasa, spend three nights at
The Imperial, go on a seven-day safari tour, and then return to The Imperial for four more nights.
This would allow tourists to go on a safari, first getting adjusted to the time zone and climate and
later rest for four days before returning home. The owner and manager of KenSafar was Kamau
155 Onyango, a spontaneous, dynamic and charismatic Kenyan who had many networks and contacts,
and intuitively knew market trends, even without market research. Kamau insisted that if the
strategic alliance were to go ahead The Imperial would have to:
• make some improvements to the appearance of the hotel
• pay Kensafar a 20 % commission for all hotel guests staying at The Imperial and booking
160 through KenSafar
• undertake a marketing audit.

Which option was best? Martin was unsure…

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Appendix 1: Tourism and hotel accommodation in Kenya (all figures in 000s)

Tourism 2008 2009 2010 2011

Foreign tourist 1203 1490 1609 1823
arrivals
Admissions to 1633 2385 2764 2644
safari parks
Admissions to 493 763 942 843
museums and
historic sites

Hotel 2008 2009 2010 2011

accommodation
Rooms available 8143 10 335 10 190 10 552
Rooms occupied 2619 4065 3702 4788

[Source: adapted from Kenya Facts & Figures 2012, Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (2012)]

Appendix 2: Excerpt from The Constitution of Kenya, 2010

Equality and freedom from discrimination.

27.
(1) Every person is equal before the law and has the right to equal protection and equal benefit of the
law.
(2) Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and fundamental freedoms.
(3) Women and men have the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in
political, economic, cultural and social spheres.
(4) The State shall not discriminate directly or indirectly against any person on any ground, including
race, sex, pregnancy, marital status, health status, ethnic or social origin, colour, age, disability,
religion, conscience, belief, culture, dress, language or birth.
(5) A person shall not discriminate directly or indirectly against another person on any of the grounds
specified or contemplated in clause (4).

[Source: www.kenyalaw.org (2010)]

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Appendix 3: Martin’s notes on a Human Resources Strategic Plan for Option 1

Two possible approaches:

Approach 1: “Upskilling” the existing workforce

• emphasis on “internal’’ recruitment
• strong emphasis on training and development
• no concern about staff retention rate, as most employees would be Kenyan.

Approach 2: Building a new global workforce

• emphasis on “external” recruitment
• little emphasis on training and development
• major concerns about staff retention rate, as most employees would be international.

Features common to both:

• recruitment
• training and development
• retention.

Companies, products, or individuals named in this case study are fictitious and any similarities with actual
entities are purely coincidental.

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