Global Hospitality Management - BSc (Hons) *

Food manufacturing is one of the world's largest industries. Executive chefs, head chefs and kitchen managers have to ensure that management structure, resources and knowledge are in place in order to achieve cost efficiency and profitability. This is in addition to the efficient and safe preparation and production of food and beverage products and services. Furthermore, all legal requirements need to be followed in the manufacturing process.

On this module, you will acquire a broad knowledge of the multitude of factors associated with food processing and food quality assurance. The aim of this module is to enable you to examine different approaches and methods applied to food production planning, preparation and management that exists in a professional kitchen environment.

Food supply chains are becoming more and more complex as global companies attempt to minimise costs in the face of increasing competition. However, this strategy brings multiple risks into the supply chain. This module aims to introduce you to the management of the supply chain, the logistics of global supply chains and how global hospitality companies use their supply chains to achieve competitive advantage.

You will be able to understand the key concepts of the procurement process in the food industry and consider the various stakeholders requirements.  The module will also introduce the areas of storage and inventory across the supply chain.

You will be able to understand the strategies around supply chain management, the key concepts of outsourcing along with modern principles and practices of outsourcing. This module aims to introduce you to the importance of logistics and managing supply chain relationships, both internal and external to the business. You will be expected to consider the importance of how managing supply chain and logistics can be used to create a competitive advantage.

The global hospitality and tourism industries embrace an extensive range of operations within the worldwide service industry, including accommodation, restaurants, amusement parks, transportation, cruise ships together with the strategic planning of activities and development of regions. Tourism and hospitality are now vital forms of income for many regions and countries. The development of low-cost airlines continues to make tourism more affordable and the industry is developing a raft of different opportunities to meet consumer demand (the areas of ecotourism, pro-poor tourism, medical tourism, event tourism and dark tourism).

According to Forbes (2019) Travel and Tourism represents one of the world’s largest industries, comprising more than 9.3% of the global Gross Domestic Product, and accounting for nearly 10% of all jobs in the current world economy. Its reach is now beyond international, with exciting new opportunities in emerging markets in Asia, Africa, South America and Eastern Europe, highlighting the global reach and ongoing growth of an industry that now contributes $8.8 trillion and 319 million jobs to the annual global economy.

The aim of this module is to provide you with an understanding of the nature of hospitality, hospitality products and tourism management from a global perspective. Throughout the module, the global nature of today’s heterogeneous customers is emphasised, driven by factors such as social media, experiential expectations and environmental concerns.

Food Service is one of the world's oldest and largest occupations. Never has the offer to the customer been so diverse or multi-cultural. The choice on offer with their subsequent price points is truly comprehensive. Food and Beverage Executives, Outlet Managers and Supervisory personnel have to ensure that teams, management structure, resources and knowledge are in place in the correct balance to ensure that cost effective, profitable, efficient and safe service of food is achieved. This must be done in accordance with mandatory regulations, the organisation’s style and business targets whilst all the time competing in a very competitive marketplace.

You will acquire a basic knowledge of the myriad of factors associated with food service and service quality assurance. The aim of this unit is to enable you to examine different approaches and methods applied to food service planning, execution and management that exists in a professional food service environment.

Global Food and Beverage Operations Management is very complex and forms a fundamental part of the modern hospitality industry. This module aims to introduce you to a holistic understanding of key operations management concepts, which incorporates different types of establishment and design, types of food service and restaurant operations, marketing policies and market targets, innovations in food service and managing quality and cost control.

The module provides a systematic approach to managing quality in the food and beverage industry and the challenges there-in demonstrating how quality management works in practice. Finally, it aims to introduce you to the objectives and methods of food and beverage cost control and key operating ratios.

You will be able to understand the key concepts of setting, designing and operating a restaurant. The module also introduces areas of food and beverage service methods. You will be able to understand the essentials of marketing strategies for services, Food and Beverage (F&B) operations, merchandising, innovations in food service, sales promotions and also personal selling and upselling techniques.

In the contemporary, dynamic, competitive landscape, it is vital for global hospitality organisations to continually innovate and renew their offerings of services, products and processes. Some of the topics that you will learn about are: the meaning of creativity and innovation, the importance of innovation to global hospitality companies, tools and techniques for creating new ideas, typology of innovation, approaches to innovation, enablers and barriers to innovation and drivers to innovation. 

The main function of a hotel is to provide accommodation to guests. The Hotel Operations and Room Division module examines the function of a hotel and various hotel departments. This module aims to explain you how the departments are interrelated and how they need to integrate for the successful running of a hotel.

You will be able to understand the key functions of hotel departments and management structure. The module also introduces the area of rooms division. You will be able to understand the essentials of financial responsibility for room division, guest reservation system, employee and guest satisfaction goals, guest services and guest relations. This module aims to introduce you to the systematic approach to managing housekeeping personnel, planning and budgeting for housekeeping expenses. Finally, it aims to introduce you to concepts of safety and security, ergonomics and changing trends in housekeeping.

Revenue management is a way of increasing profitability and can be applied to any business that has relatively fixed capacity, perishable inventory, and time-variable demand. This module introduces you to the basics of revenue management in the hospitality industry. You will learn how to apply pricing and length-of-stay tools and how to measure your revenue management performance.

The goal of revenue management can be summed up simply as follows: selling the right service or product to the right customer at the right price at the right time through the right distribution channel. In this module you will learn about the importance of revenue management. You will be able to explain the many complex factors that influence revenue management strategy and tactics.

Currently business analytics are used for business optimisation by companies that are committed to making data-driven decisions. Global hospitality organisations are highly data-driven and treat their data as a corporate asset and actively look for ways to turn it into a competitive advantage.

This module aims to introduce you to the concepts of business analytics, types of data analytics: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive. It embraces a process of the lifecycle of data analytics, the acquisition, filtering and validating of data. It also encompasses such notion as behavioural analytics that are used to find hidden customer behaviour patterns. It will allow you to examine data mining techniques and their application in business. Finally, you will analyse the future trends of data analytics and their impact on organisational profitability and business optimisation.

Global Hospitality Digital Marketing will introduce concepts reflecting the fast changes and developments (e.g. Mobility, Information and Communication Technologies) that influence hospitality businesses. They embrace a set of new global marketing tools and digital channels that transcend traditional constraints of time and geography. They assist in understanding customer needs, develop appropriate products and services to satisfy customers in a globalised context. They encompass such notions as customer segmentation, targeting, competitive eMarketing strategies, locating, developing, pricing and distributing an offer to the customers.

This module aims to introduce you to the key concepts of Global Hospitality Digital Marketing to familiarise you with global marketing strategies, digital marketing and competitive analysis. It also critically examines consumer-business relationship, interactive advertising and distribution channels. Also, you will be able to evaluate the impact of social media on global advertising and marketing strategies. Finally, you will analyse the future trends of digital marketing and their impact on profitability of the global hospitality industry.

The global hospitality industry is the world’s largest employer with multiple challenges and staffing issues. Effective Human Resource Management is of a strategic importance to a hospitality organisation. This module aims to introduce you to the key practices of attracting, selecting, developing and retaining of employees in hospitality organisations.  It also examines critical issues of HRM in hospitality, such as generational changes, outsourcing and downsizing, succession planning, talent management and career development. Also, it examines future trends in the global HRM that have a great impact on contemporary hospitality industry.

You will be able to examine the impacts of generational changes, outsourcing and downsizing on hospitality employees. This module aims to introduce you to the systematic approach of talent management strategies, succession planning and career development in the hospitality organisations. Also, you will be able to examine the future trends in the field of global hospitality HRM. Finally, it aims to analyse diversity at the global hospitality organisation, inter-cultural issues, the effectiveness of cross-cultural training programmes and its impacts on expatriates.

The aim of this module is to provide you with ‘real world’ event management experience. Integral to the module will be a focus on group work, enabling you to utilise your event management skills accrued at level 4 to exhibit decision making skills when choosing a viable event to execute, selecting an appropriate venue and promoting the event, and ultimately running their chosen event. The relevant literature is explored, but with a consistent view of the importance of applying theory and planning in practical business contexts.

The module is delivered through a combination of lectures, seminars, tutorials and workshops in which you will be expected to contribute. Case studies from around the world and presentations will also be used in each session and where possible, guest lectures from practicing Events Venue Managers, Team Leaders and Leisure General Managers will be used.

This module focuses on the trends that are affecting and shaping strategy development in a global context. You will identify issues faced by global hospitality firms and how global/local conflicts emerge with the globalisation of hospitality businesses.

You will learn about the dynamic nature of the external and internal environments that influence the operations of global hospitality companies. You will be able to analyse the capabilities and resources of global hospitality companies.

You will explore the competencies and skills of global hospitality leaders, assess the contemporary scenario shaping the global hospitality industry, and analyse decision-making processes and the implementation of international hospitality companies’ strategies.

You will learn about the challenges that face the global hospitality companies, for example, the cultural differences, the operations of multiple brands and the dynamics of competition with alternative services.

This module aims to develop your knowledge and critical understanding of the financial environment in which hospitality businesses operate. Hospitality businesses need strategic planning to identify, budget and allocate capital relevant for funding the different business assets. Profit maximisation, cash flow and capital cost are important drivers affecting and shaping financial strategies of the top management of hospitality businesses.

The module will focus on financial management concepts and practices within the financial environment of the hospitality industry. It will introduce conceptual frameworks which map the financial decision-making process of the business. Also, it will explore strategies which enable hospitality businesses to make investment plans to achieve long-term objectives.

The use of digital technology is one of the key competitive drivers in the contemporary global hospitality industry. Global hospitality organisations have turned to a wide variety of digital technologies  to cope with issues such as price competition, high customer expectations and delivering services at lower cost with added value. The use of digital technologies in the hospitality industry creates a boundary-less business environment and support key business processes of demand generation, service design and delivery, e-commerce and supply chain management.

This module aims to introduce you to the key digital technology concepts involved in the transformation of hospitality businesses. Contemporary examples will be used to explore, for example, online distribution, pricing and consumer loyalty and decision making in direct web bookings. The module will also critically examine the use of social media sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for both demand generation, reputation management and recruitment purposes. You will be able to examine concepts of smart hospitality, e-business and e-marketing in which big data and artificial intelligence are utilised to support global business processes and management decision making. Finally, the module will explore related contemporary issues to the use of digital technologies such as consumers concerns of privacy, data protection and potential for data mis-use.

Global hospitality companies have grown into scale entities by expanding their operations across borders and continents. This has meant that many have grown into international multi-site ‘chain’ branded businesses. However running and operating ‘home’-generated corporates in foreign ‘host’ markets is problematic. Alongside customising the brand for local consumer preferences, the international hospitality chain (whether hotels, restaurants, leisure parks, resorts etc.) must ensure that its operations conform to ‘host’ National Business System regulations. Also – and crucially – with respect to this module, international hospitality chains have to adapt their leadership approaches and MCS (management control systems) to NCPs (national cultural preferences). Central to the success of this adaptation is the ‘regional’ and ‘local’ leadership talent that is deployed to enforce and monitor the highest level of service, quality and consistency – commensurate with the Global Blueprint of the brand.

This module focuses upon the ‘regional’ and ‘local’ multi-site leadership that oversees a group of singular units (operating according to managed, franchised or licenced business models). This module will enable you to think more broadly about ‘chain leadership’ issues – such as leading at a distance (psychological, geographical and functional) – in complex and ambiguous environments. These so-called ‘International Multi-Unit Hospitality Leaders’ (or IMUHLs) are expected to execute the brand blueprint according to the owner, franchisor or licensor’s specification, whilst adapting it to local inter-cultural demands. This module will give you the knowledge and skills to potentially progress in your future career from single site leaders to District, Area and Regional leadership positions in Global Hospitality chains. Evaluating and reflecting upon how high performing IMUHLs manage the paradox of ‘convergence with divergence’ at this stage of their development, will stand you in good stead to further your career.

The aim of this module is to provide a framework for you to undertake a substantial piece of disciplinary-relevant research. It is founded upon Birmingham City Business School’s teaching and learning philosophy which integrates theory and practice.

The format of the practice-led Integrated Business Research Project will vary, dependent on the discipline you are studying or degree pathway you are on. This is a negotiated project, the topic of which need to be agreed with the course team. The project also has to adhere to the framework of ethical approval applied within the business school in the year of study. Examples of formats include (but are not limited to): integrated case study (accounting; economics); business start-up project (entrepreneurship); consultancy project (management, marketing); organisational improvement project (management); on-placement and post-placement project (all); and, dissertation. The specific requirement of each format will be made clear in the assessment brief provided for each programmespecific application of the Integrated Business Research project. The module provides a framework for integrating the principles, tools and methods of your programme, developing your practitioner skills via research methods, analytical tools and techniques. The project requires a high degree of professionalism in your role, managing the supervisory relationship and (where relevant) collaborations with other students and stakeholders.

The class contact will consist of a programme of lectures/workshops, scheduled by the individual programme teams. There will also be a series of supervisory meetings to be taken according to the schedule provided in the assignment brief (these may be individual or in groups) over the academic year. The supervisory meetings are to be taken over the course of the academic year and supervisions not taken by specified dates will be lost. In the absence of scheduled supervisions, it is your responsibility to schedule the meeting with the supervisor at a mutually convenient time.

Although there is some recommended reading for devising the research project the essential reading will reflect the negotiated topic and organisation under investigation.