The Situation

Super Sports Inc., a small company which manufactures T-shirts for sports events, is looking for a hotel in which to hold their annual convention. Consider the following:

• Seventy-five people will attend.

• The conference will last three days.

• The president will deliver her speech the first morning. Guest speakers will follow with open questions from the audience.

• Two workshops will be conducted simultaneously every afternoon.

• A panel discussion will take place on the last morning.

• On the last evening there will be a final address followed by cocktails.

Role a

You are in charge of planning an annual conference out of town for your company. In order to guarantee the best facilities at the best price, you have invited representatives from three large hotels to discuss their offers before selecting the hotel to suit your company’s needs. Read their brochures and consider the following information:

• Where is the hotel situated?

• What are the rooms like?

• What facilities are there to arrange a conference?

• What kind of recreational facilities are there?

• When are the check-in and check-out times?

• Are there any special services?

• Are there tours available?

• What is the nightlife like?

• Where can guests park their cars?

• Are there lounges for residents of the hotel?

• Can you reserve a nightclub for private use?

• How much does it cost to rent an auditorium?

• Is conference equipment extra?

• Is there access to a photocopy machine?

• What are the prices for conference rooms?

• Can the hotel arrange Spanish, French, and Japanese interpreters and does it have AV equipment?

Fill in the worksheet. Use it as a guide to help you get the contract.

Worksheet

RATES	rooms	conference	equipment	other
CITY
INN
RESORT

Role B: You work in public relations for City Hotel and would like to get the convention contract of Super Sports Inc. Below is the brochure describing City Hotel. Read the brochure and prepare your sales pitch.

CITY HOTEL
City Hotel is situated in the heart of town. It is busy, with an exciting nightlife. You can enjoy every moment at City Hotel, rain or shine. Transportation, boutiques, restaurants, movie cinemas, health clubs, bistros, and much more are at your fingertips without your even having to step outside the hotel. Guests enjoy luxury suites with taste-mi decor. Our executive suites include large working desks with computer, video recorders, and wet bars. At night, unwind in comfortable chairs in front of large picture windows capturing breathtaking views of the city's nightlife. During the day enjoy, for a minimum fee, a tour of the city in one of the famous limousines provided by the hotel. The in-house discotheque is available for private use. Conference room prices: $450 per day. $250 if at least half the group stays at the hotel.		Fully equipped audiovisual rooms ideal for workshops: $ 150 per day. Free of charge: a conference organizer and secretary on the premises. Photocopy machines available on the premises: 50 cents per copy. Interpreting facilities can be arranged with a language institute. The price is ap­proximately $400 per day. Other conference equipment includes electric typewriters, IBM and Macintosh computers, microphones, and a lectern. Elegant dining room and cozy cafe for business talk. Three bars to choose from, depending on your mood. Room prices: $85 per day, double occupancy.

Role C: You work in public relations for Madison Inn and would like to get the convention contract of Super Sports Inc. Below is the brochure describing City Hotel. Read the brochure and prepare your sales pitch.

MADISON INN
Located close to the airport, our site is ideal for your company convention. We've got everything you need: • Large airy conference rooms which can be easily partitioned off for small workshops. • $200 per day. Members need not be guests at the Inn. • All AV equipment included: flip charts, overhead projectors, slide projectors, tape recorders, microphones, lecterns, and videotape recorders. • For a minimal fee, state-of-the-art computers, secretarial services, and an experienced conference organizer are available. • Courier service for photocopies is just 10 cents a copy for same-day service.		• We offer, for every 20 guests who stay at the Inn, a free tour of the city during the day. • Nightclub tours are available to the heart of the city. Arrangements can be made for large groups. • Other amenities include a large indoor swimming pool, sauna, whirlpool, and exercise rooms in a wonderfully exotic decor designed especially for your relaxation. • Try our gourmet cooking. Visit our dining room or the vegetarian bar in our Oriental Room. • We have discrete lounges in the lobby plus a brand-new nonsmoking lounge. • We have large air-conditioned rooms with color TV. • Rooms: $50 per day.

Role D: You work in public relations for Mountain Air Resort and would like to get the convention contract of Super Sports Inc. Below is the brochure describing City Hotel. Read the brochure and prepare your sales pitch.

MOUNTAIN AIR RESORT
Mountain Air Resort is situated directly on beautiful and peaceful Indian Lake. It has everything you need for a successful conference. • You have a large conference room. The price is $300 per day and includes all services, AV equipment, and use of computer and printer. • A translator is available for your convenience. Fee: $ 150 per day. • Photocopies are available at a charge of 25 cents per copy. • Afternoon boating tours are available upon request at $6 per person. • The small workshop rooms are $95 per day. These are equipped with a lectern, flip chart, and blackboard. All other equipment is extra.		• Panel discussions can easily be set up in the conference room. • There is free parking for guests. • We have a beautiful view of the mountains. • Free coffee is available all day long. • Other amenities include a large terrace with lounge chairs by the lake, tennis courts, rowboats, outdoor swimming pool, and bicycles. • Rooms with modern private baths include color cable TV. Rooms: $95 per day. All rooms include breakfast and dinner. Lunch, gratuities, and alcoholic beverages are extra.

Supplement 3 File Cards

File card 1

Jan Lubitsch (Managing Director and Chair)

Introduce the background and the problem. Explain that the promotion has been oversubscribed (you forecasted 1,000 takers, and there are 5,000). You fear that the costs of meeting the extra 4,000 will be enormous. The problem is that Blue Balloon does not have the capacity and anyway is contracted only to provide 1,000 trips at $125.

During the discussion, you want to establish what action should be taken. Decide on specific actions that must be dove after the meeting.

File card 2

Andrew / Andrea Eastman (Marketing Director).

You feel ultimately responsible because you decided to run the promotion. You insured Sola against oversubscription but only up to 1,000 extra trips, not 4,000. You took advice from an advertising agency, Promo World. You feel they gave you wrong advice and Sola should seek compensation from them.

File card 3

Fred / Freda Cavani (Director).

You think Sola were wrongly advised and should receive compensation from the advertising agency, Promo World, who advised Sola on the promotion. You want to know what the legal position is on getting compensation.

File card 4

Eric / Erica Whitehead (Director)

You think Blue Balloon should arrange more balloon trips at a cheaper price than $125, or that other companies could be approached to help out. You are concerned about bad publicity surrounding the promotion. You think Promo World should explain why they thought insurance for only 1,000 extra trips would be enough. However, you also think the situation cannot be so serious, as clearly many hundreds people stayed in your hotels and may return for a second visit – so perhaps it has been a good promotion after all. You imagine that Promo World will say that, anyway.

File card 5 A

Your position in the discussion is basically to support investment in public transport. Do this by referring to:

• environmental benefits

• improvements in quality of life

• public transport is cheaper

• cars are heavy consumers of raw materials

• people want improved transport.

In the discussion:

• accept some interruptions but make sure you get all your arguments across

• defend your arguments

• be polite but firm

• repeat if necessary.

You start.

File card 5 B

Your position is to defend the freedom of private car ownership. You think:

• quality of life depends on freedom of choice

• people want personal space – cars make this possible

• people want to live and arrive when they want

• public transport is massively expensive, through taxation

• the car industry employs many thousands of people.

In the discussion:

• opposite simplistic arguments for the explanation of public transport

• interrupt when you think your colleague says something simplistic or wrong

• present the arguments above

• be polite, but firm.

Your partner will start.

File card 6

Staff consultation on leisure facilities in the workplace

The company has money to spend on improving facilities for staff. Among the options are:

• a sports club with new gym and bar facilities

• a crèche and after-school center for employees' children

• a swimming pool and café area

• a bar / restaurant / library / Internet café for staff and families

Decide on priorities. Suggest a recommendation based on one of the above, or 3 con of two.

File card 7

High turnover of staff in Daycare Center

Total employees: 300

170 women

45 are mothers with young children.

Company daycare facilities for children are used:

1. after school before end of working day (5 p.m.)

2. school holidays.

Mothers unhappy because:

• very high turnover of staff in Center

• no continuity

• poor organization of Center.

File card 8

Loss of car parking spaces

Because of a large expansion of office and production space, most staff car parking will soon disappear. How should the company distribute the 100 spaces that are left?

Note: the company employs about 300 staff about 28 staff are disabled the company is located on bus and train routes about 200 staff currently use car parking space at work

File card 9

Policy on contemporary artwork for reception area

The company has always supported contemporary art with regular purchasing and exhibition of paintings and sculpture. It now has quite a good collection of over 100 pieces. Only about a third of the collection is on display.

There are arguments about what to do with the collection and about the purchase and exhibition policy. Are there other more important priorities for the company?

Options:

• Sell the work and stop buying art

• Build a gallery to exhibit the work

• Donate the work to the local City Art Gallery & Museum

• Stay as now, showing some work in the reception area, changing the works occasionally, but buying no more.

File card 10

Sam Adela (Chair)

You have called a meeting of the Executive of Add Passam Inc. to discuss the crisis surrounding the company. Prepare a brief agenda and short opening remarks. Refer to the Checklists in Unit 10 to remind you of your responsibilities as chair and some of the language you may need.

You:

• are the most heavily implicated in the scandal

• are a friend of Cass

• are angry that the press allege that your late father, Mikel Adela, may have profited by up to $ 1 m from Cass's deal

• think API should sue the local papers for libel.

File card 11

Jay Worthy (legal Advisor to APT)

You:

• are worried that the accusations may be true but you cannot say this directly

• think API should wait and see what happens next

• feel that the scandal really involved Cass and politicians but ...

• you cannot say this too loudly because Marta Lucas is married to the former leader of the Democratic People's Party.

Note: From a legal point of view, probably no individual has been libeled because no one has been named in the reports except Mikel Adela who is now dead and the dead cannot be libeled.

File card 12

Marta Lucas (Director)

You:

• have never heard of the scandal until very recently but your husband is deeply embarrassed

• believe your position with the company is compromised if your husband is found to be corrupt

• think that if you resign, it will look like an admission of guilt

• may decide that on the other hand, your relationship with your husband is compromised!

• believe the company should fight to protect its - and your - reputation.

File card 13

Anton Hassim (Director)

You:

• fear that the public will make direct connections based on Sam Adela's friendship with Cass and Marta Lucas's marriage to the leader of the Democratic People's Party

• think that even if Sam Adela did not benefit personally, if people think Mikel Adela was guilty, then the company is in deep trouble

• think the company should wait, admit nothing and deny nothing

• think that to sue the papers for libel is risky and would cost a fortune.

File card 14

Pat Joyce (Director)

You:

• feel that the allegations must be completely false because you knew Mikel Adela for forty years as a completely honest man

• believe that API never had any formal dealings with politics and politicians

• think Marta Lucas's personal life is her own affair

• think the company should issue a statement denying the allegations, publish accounts from the period, etc.

File card 15

Berni Callam (Accountant)

You:

• are new in Adel Passam Inc. and you are shocked by the scandal

• naturally hope that the accusations are false and that the affair only involves the Council and Cass

• feel that a thorough independent investigation of the accounts should clear the company's reputation

• want to avoid a legal battle

• fear that the public will always associate Cass with Adel Passam Inc. and with Mikel and Sam Adela

• think that in time the damage will fade

• think every company has its scandals.