July 2012 (Revised January 2014)
Case
HBS Case Collection

HGRM: Bringing Back High Touch Hospitality

By: Lynda M. Applegate and Gabriele Piccoli

Format:Print
| Language:English
| Pages:27

Abstract

The case centers on the dilemma faced by Carlo Fontana, the owner-operator of a small chain of two four-star urban hotels located in Lugano, Switzerland, and the other in Milan, Italy. Having developed an extensive customer service and operations information system, called Happy Guests Relationship Management, Fontana is entertaining the possibility of commercializing his innovation. Doing so may provide a welcome new source of income during the greatest economic slowdown in recent history, and it would help in keeping the HGRM design and development team motivated to refine and improve the solution. However, commercializing the innovation may also stretch his organization too thin and bring his team into a business, the software industry, completely foreign to them.

Keywords

Entrepreneurship; Customer Relationship Management

Citation

Applegate, Lynda M., and Gabriele Piccoli. "HGRM: Bringing Back High Touch Hospitality." Harvard Business School Case 813-019, July 2012. (Revised January 2014.)