The impact of a digital transformation strategy: A case study of the AccorHotels group.

In the past two decades, the development of the internet and new digital technologies led to new means of consumption, new ways to capture and create value and to new channels of communication. These changes were a source of opportunities and threats for existing companies, leading them to ask themselves if digital transformation was a necessity if they wanted to remain competitive in a more digitalised industry. The Hotel industry was particularly impacted by these transformations, with the rise of new digital competitors, either driving their profits down or deviating business from them. The present research aimed to analyse if the implementation of a digital transformation strategy was a necessity for a company of the hotel industry to remain competitive. To answer this question, the research process revolved around several objectives: Identify the motivations, whether they are threats or opportunities that led the company to undertake a digital transformation strategy, outline the new ways to capture value that resulted from it, assess the impact of this strategy, and finally determine if digital transformation allowed the company to remain competitive. The research process took the shape of a qualitative analysis of a single global company, operating at the highest level of the hotel industry, Accor. Interviews were conducted with executives of the company and documents regarding the company’s digital transformation were gathered. Several things emerged from the analysis of the collected data. The first one being that the digital transformation process goes far beyond technology, but also encapsulates a deep change in the company’s organisation, how it operates and how it thinks its products. Additionally, this strategy led to a diversification of the group’s operations in sectors complementary to the hotel industry, through digital. It was also a mean to acquire new skills and competencies that would allow the company to take advantage of the use of data towards its revenue maximisation. It also emerged that digital transformation became a way to broaden the company’s partnerships and, most importantly, it allowed Accor to amend the threats that arose in its industry and to take advantage of digital opportunities; leading us to conclude that the digital transformation process was a necessity if Accor wanted to remain efficiently competitive in its native industry