Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Hec Case Original
Hec Case Original
1. George is looking to improve the HEC customer experience by utilizing the staff on hand
and making up for any shortcomings in the guest experience by hiring outside vendors.
For example, George needs to outsource to develop the application. He can do this by
recruiting from different clubs and student group on Cornell’s campus to help develop the
best product possible. In terms of technology, George is looking to continue to
developing the app while maintaining the mobile site. In addition, George is looking to
improve upon the HEC guest experience by creating a calendar of events as well as
tracking guest satisfaction. George’s ideas can be assessed using the idea napkin and the
feasibility component of the critique pad. In this way, George will be equipped to
determine the feasibility and impact of his ideas and can see if he actually should go
forward and spend all this money on the application.
4. Trina brought value to the HEC by being focused, goal-driven, and dedicated to HEC.
While her goals were ambitious, she executed to a point where there was significant
“groundwork for what would define a successful event for the following year”. It seems
like she took antiquated practices, and implemented technology that would become a
prominent part of HEC’s tradition. Trina also brought value by being tenacious. While
she didn’t have any experience creating technology, and the issue was compounded by a
limited budget, she assembled teams to tackle these challenges and persevere.
I thought that Trina attending the IHMRS in New York City was quite innovative of her.
Not only did she attend, but she went to as many of the technology-focused events and
networked with as many industry professionals as possible. Because she took this
initiative, she was inspired by a mobile-technology event and selectively focused her
energy and efforts on mobile technology for HEC. Because the industry leaders were
always “on the go”, it was important that HEC catered to them with a positive mobile
experience, and they could find conference information on mobile devices.
5. The IT Assistant Director was tasked with coding and launching an entire mobile site for
the event in only three months, yet Trina was not able to hire a professional coder due to
budget constraints. As a result, the IT Assistant Director was overwhelmed and ultimately
discontinued participation. Trina could have dealt with this by providing the AD with
more resources and potentially a team of other students to work with to create the website
rather than leaving the task solely up to the AD.
We thought that Trina’s approach of reaching out to Paul was helpful in that she gained
perspective and assistance from someone who is more specialized in the field of IT,
however this seemed to partially stray from the principles of HEC in that Paul was not an
undergraduate student, a Hotel School student or an alumni yet he ended up doing most
of the work with coding and setting up the website. It might have been more helpful for a
team of students, including the IT Assistant Director, to work directly with Paul to learn
the process of setting up the site. The Apple grant of iPads for the event allowed the
leadership of HEC to have the resources to allow for innovation and bring the conference
‘up to speed’ with the technology of the industry and the world. While the guests
appreciated the increased technology, they were not overly impressed.
6. To accomplish George’s aims of improving the HEC customer experience, both human
capital and funding resources are needed. The task list Tina (the previous HEC
Communications Director) created could be updated to further align. Since the IT team
was recently established, the task could be separated out with a laser focus on the IT
aspects.
7. George’s goals are to focus on technology leadership and incorporate it into the tradition
of HEC by making an application to make it easier for industry leaders and guests to
communicate, receive communication, and be up-to-date during the weekend. He wants
to take HEC into the modern technological era and for guests to see that. Success for
George would be to create this application and have it be a major two-way
communication channel between students and guests, where all the guests are using it to
be organized, have a calendar of events, be updated, and be able to give feedback. Factors
that will contribute to this success would be the actual creation and design of this
application, getting approval to use this application as the main communication point
between students and guests for HEC, and ensuring the security of users’ personal
information.
8. The difference between the mobile website and the mobile application is that the mobile
website is much easier to create and takes much less time and resources, as well as that
it’s just a copy of the HEC website that is easier to see on a mobile device (it adds no new
value to the guest besides being easier to use). The mobile application, however, is an
entirely new communication point between students and guests that can be downloaded
well ahead of the HEC event and guests can receive updates, see a calendar, make
themselves organized, and give feedback, all on an application platform that is in addition
to any information that the HEC website has. That is why George decided to create a
mobile application instead of just updating Trina’s website. He also decided to create this
application because it would impress guests more than just having a mobile website;
nowadays, everyone expects a mobile website, but an application is considered more
“modern” and would push HEC into the new technological era, as well as hopefully be
easier for guests to use and leave guests feeling more satisfied.
9. There are few differences in the leadership styles of Trina and George. Trina appears to
be great at social situations and networking events to build teams and find mentors. On
the other hand, George is on the introverted side where he prefers to research and identify
the pain points of the situation before working on the solution. Considering that we are
highly organized students, we would prefer to work with George so we can do a mass
current analysis of the HEC IT problems. If Trina had been IT Director, her leadership
engagement would not have seamlessly translated due to her lack of knowledge in IT
details. From the case study, it appears that Trina is more of a visionary. Since the IT
tasks include daunting amounts of coding under three months, we don’t think she would
have been able to effectively lead with such a passion.
10. For next year’s HEC, the director should look into the prospect of creating a social
network component to the HEC application. In this way, conference goers will already
be familiar with who is attending and how to best spend their time network during the
event. Next year’s director should also consider sending email surveys throughout the
event to improve customer experience while at the event. For example, if an attendee is
unhappy with the timeliness of their service, the conference can do their best to quickly
address this issue before the conference concludes and, in this way, help salvage
customer satisfaction.