News Archive

Harvard Business Review, June 2004
"Capitalizing on Capabilities" by Dave Ulrich and Norm Smallwood

"In late 2002 and early 2003, the global [InterContinental Hotels] organization -- recently spun off from Bass Group -- faced bloated overhead costs in the competitive hotel industry, experienced a decline in business and vacation travel because of the worldwide economic downturn and the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), underwent a brand name change (from Six Continents), and battled a hostile takeover attempt by British entrepreneur Hugh Osmond. Deutsche Bank analyst Mark Finnla, in a January 2003 report, described the hotels as "chronically underperforming...[and] making less than a third of what they should be." in an effort to improve performance, chief executive Richard North initiated an "organization review."

Learn how BayHill Group subsidiary 1.0 Consulting helped InterContinental Hotels perform a capabilities audit in this Harvard Business Review article.
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