MGT 203 Site Visit (draft copy) Star City Casino: Functions

Group Members & Allocated Sections Michael, Eva, Oscar & Mark - 1 MGT 203 Site Visit Outline: Star City - Functions

Michael: Eva: Oscar: Mark:

Internal & External Environments (+ Overview and Introduction) Planning and Strategy Formulation Organisational Change Implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility and Ethical Behaviour (+ Conclusion and Reference List)

Overview

Star City Casino and Hotel, the proponent of the Major Project application for alterations and additions to Start City hotel make the following commitments in association with that application. With the development of Sydney, Star City has played an important role in this modern city. This report will provide four sections: internal and external environment, planning and strategy

formulation, organizational change and the implementation of corporate social responsibility and ethical behaviour.

Introduction Located on Sydney Harbour, Star City is the only casino in New South Wales. It is owned and operated by Tabcorp Holdings Limited, one of Australia's largest entertainment and leisure companies. Star City operates 200 gaming tables and includes a 480-room hotel, a 2000-seat theatre, six restaurants and eight bars. Its 3.34-hectare complex (about the size of seven football fields) is a key part of the citys vibrant Darling Harbour precinct.

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Internal and external environment

SWOT Analysis, is a strategic planning tool used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavorable to achieving that objective. In addition, SWOT analysis is just one method of categorization and has its own weaknesses. For example, it may tend to persuade companies to compile lists rather than think about what is really important in achieving objectives. It also presents the resulting lists uncritically and without clear prioritization so that, for example, weak opportunities may appear to balance strong threats.

Internal factors are the strengths and weaknesses internal to the organization. The internal factors may be viewed as strengths or weaknesses depending upon their impact on the organizations objectives. What may represent strengths with respect to one objective may be weaknesses for another objective. The factors may include all of the 4Ps; as well as personnel, finance, manufacturing capabilities, and so on.

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City & Country Environment Restoration Program presented by Kellie Walters, Senior Project Officer Urban Sustainability Program

Environmental restoration is most successful when communities, industry and government work together. Kellie Walters will provide an overview of the new Urban Sustainability Program developed by the Department of Environment & Climate Change and discuss the challenges facing communities with regards to implementing sustainability projects.

This session will also feature a case study example of a Council partnership recently granted project funding and will discuss the project aims, predicted outcomes and environmental gains to their local communities.

External factors are the opportunities and threats presented by the external environment. The external factors may include macroeconomic matters, technological change, legislation, and socio-cultural changes, as well as changes in the marketplace or competitive position. The results are often presented in the form of a matrix.

Indoor Environmental Quality

- Increased fresh air supply - Carbon dioxide sensors - Avoidance of Volatile Organic Compound emissions - High levels of daylight atrium lobby - High frequency electronic ballasts - Efficient Air conditioning - Maximize External Views

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However, there are still some challenges for the employees who work in Star City.

Maintaining diversity issues on the agenda: Star City has a positive work environment and a history of employee focused initiatives -making the argument that further improvements can be made. A government review is held every three years as part of our casino license on all aspects of our business examining the culture and environment at other times rather than directly in relation to the review. Managers have competing priorities - finding time and resources when there are pressing business pressures. Backlash from other employees about accommodations that are made, in particular to those employees with carers responsibilities.

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Planning and strategy formulation

The meaning of planning All of organizations engage in planning activities. Planning is an important function, and it is the first function of management process. Planning involves setting an organizations goals and deciding how best to achieve them. If planning is well considered, the organization will have a good foundation to operate other process of management.

Setting goals Goals are vital to organization effectiveness. They represent the end result of planned activities. There are four important purposes. Firstly, goals provide guidance and a unified direction for people in the organization. Secondly, goal-setting practices strongly affect other aspects of planning. Thirdly, goals can serve as a source of motivation to employees of the organization. Finally, goals provide an effective mechanism for evaluation and control. About the responsibilities of setting goals, all managers should be involved in the goal setting process.

Establish plans Organizations establish many different kinds of plans. These include strategic, tactical and operational plans. Strategic plans tend to have a long-time focus, Michael, Eva, Oscar & Mark - 6 MGT 203 Site Visit Outline: Star City - Functions

tactical plans an intermediate term focus, operational plans a short term focus, and reaction plan, a plan designed to allow the company to react to an unforeseen circumstance. In organizations, some develop a professional planning staff. Sometimes, they use they use a planning task force to help them develop plans as well. Moreover, board of directors, chief executive officer, executive committee and line management are also the components of organizations planning activities.

Furthermore, development and implementation of operational plans is another important part of effective organizational planning. The two most basic forms of operational plan are single-use plan and standing plan. A single-use plan is developed to carry out a course of action that is not likely to be repeated in the future. There are two types of single-use plan, a program, which is a single-use plan for a large set of activities, and a project, which is similar to a program but is generally of less scope and complexity. There are three types of standing plans, policies, standard operating procedures, and rules and regulations. A policy is the most general form of standing plan. A standard operating procedure is more specific than a policy in that it outlines the steps to be followed in particular situation. Rules and regulations describe the exactly how specific activities are to be carried out. These are all examples of standing plans.

Strategy formulation A strategy is a comprehensive plan for accomplishing an organizations goals. Strategy formulation is the set of processes involved in creating or determining the strategies of an organization. The start point in formulating strategy is usually SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym that stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It is a careful evaluation of an organizations internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as its Michael, Eva, Oscar & Mark - 7 MGT 203 Site Visit Outline: Star City - Functions

environmental opportunities and threats. Many frameworks have been developed for identifying the major strategic alternatives that organizations should consider when choosing their business-level strategies. Porters generic strategies are one of the business-level strategies. They include differentiation, overall cost leadership and focus. Each of these is widely used to many different competitive situations. A second one of the strategies is the mile and snow typology. There are four types of organizations. Three of these, the prospector, the defender, the analyser, can each be effective in certain situations. Another one, the reactor, represents an ineffective way to strategy. The third one of business-level strategies is based on the product life cycle. It is a model that shows how the sales volume changes over the life of a product.

The research of Sydney Harbors Casino Properties Pty Ltd

Casino customer service is the key to improvement and success. As casino wants to grow and prosper in the midst of increased competition, they must provide a better guest experience. It is not enough to have the newest games for their planning. All the other casinos have them, too. The way that casino is going to stand out is through better service and that will require employee training. Casino has assisted over 40 different clients with marketing strategies and detailed plans that address such marketing tools as advertising, direct marketing, internet marketing, on-site marketing,

promotions, player card/loyalty card, special events and entertainment. Casino Consulting has also worked with clients to develop strategies at both the corporate and property levels that will help create and grow brand identity. Casino business is not going away any time soon. And as long as it is not going away and casinos are making money, competition is going to increase. This makes the planning and strategies more important. Michael, Eva, Oscar & Mark - 8 MGT 203 Site Visit Outline: Star City - Functions

Organizational change

The nature of organizational change Definition Organizational change is any substantive modification to some part of organization. Any organizational change is likely to have a considerable influence on extending beyond the area in which the change is implemented. It contributes in the structured way to make an effectively transition in group or organizations. The organizational change includes

Forces for change Forces for change are comprised of two aspects involving external forces and internal forces. External forces for change derive from the organizations general and task environment. Internal forces for change come from inside organization. For example, because there are the existing powerful casinos, Star City will plan to improved gaming and function, such as conferences, gala dinners, weddings, facilities and accommodation in order to be transformed into a world-class casino to get advantages among the competitors. In this case, competitions are external forces for change, for instance, Crown Ltd continues to invest in improving domestic properties and new openings in Macau and Michael, Eva, Oscar & Mark - 9 MGT 203 Site Visit Outline: Star City - Functions

Singapore in 2009-2010. Organizations strategies about improved function are internal forces for change. They will improve their function by science systems and technologies.

Managing change in organizations Managing change in organizations will focus on two steps in organizational change and how to manage resistance to change. A comprehensive approach to change leads to successful change with systemic views. In the useful approach, they need to recognize the need for change which can provide an opportunity to get more market potential and advantages. After that, they establish of goals for the change and analyze relevant factors. Afterwards, they need to choose appropriate techniques and have a science plan for organizational change and implement it. Finally, evaluation of the effectiveness of the chosen change is necessary to decide whether it attains the desired outcomes. For example, transformation has three components in Star City casino, including creating a destination for their customers; deliver outstanding service, securing license and product offering. We have to detect the undesirable and unacceptable practices in the casino. In function, they offer Sydneys best food and beverage choice in clubs and restaurants. STAR entertainment offer and luxurious accommodation are given to customers to make them feel comfortable. Customer service revolution is implemented and they need to keep the private secret about their customers.

Area of organizational change Area of organizational change describes main areas of organizational change. Generally, most of changes are associated with organizational Michael, Eva, Oscar & Mark - 10 MGT 203 Site Visit Outline: Star City - Functions

structure and design, technology and operation, or people. Organizational change is likely to focus on the basic part of organizational structure or design. Star City casino creates a new grand entry to the casino at the harbor side of the existing building, replacing the current staircase. They will build a new, 309 room hotel on a vacant block of land next to the casino. The hotel will be the first major 5 star hotel built in the Sydney CBD since the Olympic Games. The hotel will add 500 car parks to the property. Technology plays an important role in organizational change. Technological changes are getting more and more significant to many organizations due to the rapid rate of all technological innovation. With development of technology, Star City adopts new technology to supervise the order of casino and keep the guests private secrets. Human resources are a key factor of organization, so organizational change has to relate with human resources. This is necessary to need a careful management about how to change people. For instance, Star City casino thinks that employees are the people deliver service to customers so that they can have guarantee to keep customers coming back. Star City spends money on training employees which is treated as an investment in casinos property. Improving employees is one of the best investments of casino. It can pay a huge dividend and casino now has an appreciating asset.

Types of change There are several types of effectiveness of organization change programs. Collaborative change has a relationship of cooperation between employees and management, which results in supports to the change from employees. For example, Star City will get supports by increasing wage 10 per cent per year or making a measure to make employee share schemeshares worth at least $500 per year. Transformational change programs include organizational design,

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technology and people. An example of this is training people to improve their skills of service and ability to offer best services to guest. Another example is adopting technology to manage technology.

IMPLEMENTATION OF CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND ETHICAL BEHAVIOUR

1) Corporate Ethics and Social Responsibility

Areas of Social Responsibility Define social responsibility and the importance of its manifestation from the triple bottom line for organisations When looking at the Function rooms on offer within Star City, the necessity to act with a high level of social responsibility and integrity often comes into question. This section will identify some of the elements of social responsibility that Star City encounters when running their Function sections, as well as discussing these actions taken by Star City in detail.

Organisational constituents Define organizational constituents ie the stakeholders that are impacted by Star Citys performance regarding the use of their functions. Identify and discuss evidence of corporate social responsibility (positive and negative) within these areas

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The main stakeholders directly affected by Star Citys functions include: Clients utilizing the rooms (whether or not they are catered for regarding requests from Islamic groups, disabled access, service of alcohol to minors and excessive use within functions, etc) Star City staff (whether they are fairly compensated, protected by security, RSA) Shareholders (their preferences regarding acting socially responsible against expanding function areas in the long term due to directly affecting profits etc

The Natural Environment Identify whether Star City uses recyclable materials when developing new function areas, as well as the amount of waste, etc used within each function Whether or not Star City reuses its materials from functions, in the interest of conserving the environment (eg conferences using large numbers of flipcharts, other sources of paper) and

brochures/packages that it creates

General Social Welfare Discuss evidence regarding the utilisation of function rooms for charitable events (eg the Astral room with with Aussie superstars to raise cash for Victorian Bushfire Appeal, and the partnership with Camp Quality and subsequent events held within the function rooms) Waiting on response from Dolores Element (looks after Tabcorp community/public statements) otherwise further research into function areas utilised for CSR will need to be undertaken.

Arguments for Social Responsibility

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By acting socially responsible, Star City also has the advantage of increasing its potential market (eg Halaal/Kosher meat provided allows other cultures to use the banquet services and hence the function areas)

Promotes Star Citys operations in a positive light; and in turn has the potential to boost their market share

Star City should be obligated to provide the highest level of social responsibility given that it is the only casino in New South Wales (link back to the effects of gaming possibly under the first point of fixing a problem created?)

Arguments against Social Responsibility

Carrying out socially responsible gestures reduces the amount of capital earned for Star City/Tabcorp overall (eg Camp Qualitys partnership) whereby Tabcorp has a duty of care to its shareholders

People utilizing functions maybe tempted to go into other gaming areas (primary function of Star City); Allowing minors to attend weddings and other functions where they are permitted to attend with adult supervision may cause a positive emotional attachment to develop at a later stage (even philanthropic acts with Camp Quality could potentially create this link, perceived as a self-defeating act of CSR)

The link between Star City and its efforts towards becoming more socially responsible may distract the public from the serious gambling concerns from its gaming function.

Organisational Approaches to Social Responsibility

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Describe the 4 types of approaches and outline which one best represents Star Citys approach in regards to Function (dependent on an evaluation of all the activities it deals with

Elements of different organizational approaches in all functions (eg social obligation for liquor licenses, social response/contribution for Camp Quality)

2) The Government and Social Responsibility

Government influencing Organisations Direct regulation: examples such as RSA and RSG for patrons using the function rooms (ie no excessive drinking, no service to under 18s) Indirect regulation: defining some of the laws regarding the tax brackets on alcohol, as well as the 10min break, and stoppage of serving alcohol after a certain time

Organisations influencing Government Proposals put forward to the government to build a bigger function area Research into other ways that Star City has influenced the government, specifically regarding the Function area

3) Managing Social Responsibility

Formal Organisational Dimensions Legal Compliance: Strong legal compliance regarding Liquor Licenses and the provision of criminal acts being taken within these halls Ethical Compliance: Star City employees requirements to be ethically and legally prepared (eg RSA/RSGs, following code of conduct)

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Philanthropic Giving: Camp Quality, Victorian Bushfire Appeal, other information pending response/interview from Dolores Element.

Informal Organisational Dimensions Research required into the culture of staff taking a strong stance on illegal acts within the function rooms (eg irresponsible service of alcohol, drugs, prostitution, other acts) Pending interview with Function representatives to find out more information

Conclusion

After discussing in depth the management systems around functions within Star City, this report will now present several findings around the internal and external environment, planning and strategy formulation, organizational change, and the methods whereby Star City implements corporate social responsibility and ethical behaviour.

Summarise findings surrounding internal/external environment; outline the main points of the SWOT analysis, and the course of action that needs to be taken (include references to how much Star City can influence these factors)

Summarise the importance of planning for Casinos with reference to the influences of Porters Analysis, as well as detailing the possible strategies that are put into place for functions in the future (especially regarding the large function area that will be built over the coming years)

Summarise the main internal and external forces of change affecting the functions area and what Star City has done and will do to adapt to MGT 203 Site Visit Outline: Star City - Functions

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this change; go into detail regarding how to remain contingent in the face of change (eg GFC results in a loss of potential clients for functions) so Star City is beginning to tie in other areas to functions as well (eg accommodation, dining, gaming, etc) to promote the use of the function areas

Determine whether Star City is really acting socially/ethically with regards to its functions arm, given the hypocrisy of dealings with Camp Quality etc (ie promoting charity and gambling at the same time). Also, provide advice regarding other methods of promoting their corporate social responsibility within function, such as extensive training around corporate guidelines for staff, promoting the necessity of CSR towards shareholders, and continually catering to the needs of a multicultural society, in order to achieve an efficient service area that still focuses on profit maximisation.

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Reference List

(NB dates of internet sites accessed by group members to be determined before full references are given)

http://www.tabcorp.com.au/investor_holder_start.aspx

http://www.tabcorp.com.au/news_mediarel_detail.aspx?view=376

http://www.casinocustomerservice.com/improvement/ccskeytosuccess.htm

http://www.casinocustomerservice.com/improvement/investintraining.htm

http://www.starcity.com.au/Functions-Christmas_Functions.cms? ident=KH56Q8F790Y9HK2GA1CF0B9CTKXKIQ&analyticsLink=Left

http://www.tabcorp.com.au/community_commi.aspx

http://www.casinocontrol.nsw.gov.au/

Davidson, P & Griffin, R.W. 2006, Management, 3rd edn, John Wiley & Sons, Australia Michael, Eva, Oscar & Mark - 18 MGT 203 Site Visit Outline: Star City - Functions

APPENDIX 1

List of all function rooms as shown on the Star City website http://www.starcity.com.au/Functions-Christmas_Functions.cms? ident=KH56Q8F790Y9HK2GA1CF0B9CTKXKIQ&analyticsLink=Left

Function Room
Astral Restaurant Astral Private Dining Room Sean's Kitchen Sean's Table - Private Dining Room Sean's Tapas Lotus Pond Astral Bar (including terrace) 36 Degrees Bar Grand Harbour Ballroom Ballroom 1 Ballroom 2 Ballroom 3 Mill Room Quarry Room

Cocktail
400 500 80 150 250 300 1500 370 350 320 60 100

Banquet
150 20 150* 60 100 400 1000 220 220 200 50 70

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