Marriot/Starwood Merger: Communication and Financial Planning Problems

MARRIOT/STARWOOD MERGER: COMMUNICATION AND FINANCIAL PLANNING PROBLEMS
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Marriot/Starwood Merger: Communication and Financial Planning Problems
Introduction
Different constraints have always accompanied acquisitions reshaping and redirecting the corporate strategy. Besides, companies, especially in the hotel industry, advocate for unique resources, financial strategies, and management talents to shape the acquisition process (Renneboog and Vansteenkiste, 2019). Despite successful acquisitions, different research shows that companies are not meeting specific thresholds due to communication and financial problems. Therefore, there is a big vacuum between engaging in acquisitions and streamlining them to achieve the goals. There is a need to look into specific project management measures that can allow the managers to make acquisitions work. Albuquerque et al. (2019) define acquisition as the process whereby a primary company buys another company's shares to enable it to gain control. Therefore, the acquisition is an example of a project which goes through specific phases of the project lifecycle. Many researchers believe that acquisitions only occur within large corporations; however, small corporations can also engage in the acquisitions as long as they meet all the threshold and financial obligations.
The paper addresses the merger between Marriot and Starwood, which faced many project management issues such as communication and financial complexities. The major issues that the two companies encountered include IT problems, problematic membership files, external and internal communication problems, and poor PR through social media and websites (Dogru et al., 2018). Therefore, all the identified aspects can be summarized as having been generated by poor project planning. The main approach to appraising the merger is project planning focusing on communication as the major threat. The project management theories will focus on project planning to limit any possible challenges that may jeopardize project development and growth. Communication is a critical aspect of project management since it determines the company's capacity to provide a reliable channel that shapes employee information delivery (Davenport and Barrow, 2017). A merger is a critical process that requires an open and valid communication channel to prevent any possible challenges such as resistance. Therefore, the appraisal of the merger is based on communication issues and project planning.
Project Management Theories
Project Planning
The theory of planning is one of the most elements in project management. Planning is accompanied by elements such as schedule development, cost budgeting, resource planning, activity definition, scope definition, and scope planning (Naeem et al., 2018). Project planning is significant since it reduces any possible challenges and financial constraints. According to Kerzner (2018), project management is based on planning which determines the failure or success of any mergers and acquisitions. The critical aspect for success in merger and acquisition is project planning. Project planning is a critical part of project management theories which involves appropriate...