strategies that are good for the growth of a business
Running a business is itself a hard task, considering how much effort it requires for it to start and publicize. Before any business becomes stable, in terms of the number of sales, it requires a good marketing team that corporate and understands the companies goals. Everything in business begins with how much strategy it has put towards all of its activities. In this assignment, we will focus on a few strategies that are good for the growth of a business.
In this assignment, we are going to focus on the available strategic options for gulf air specifically. This is a known airline that is owned by the Kingdom of Bahrain. Its headquarters are found in Muharaaq, and it has a line of flights that usually head to 52 destinations. In 2018, it organized an event and hosted a couple of other business gurus. The purpose of this particular event was to unveil its operation strategy and was also a way of publicizing it to its potential customers. This event, they rolled out a couple of expansion plans to a set of new destinations that included an additional eight countries. Their new strategy of expansion was directed towards a set of goals that would simultaneously improve customer experiences. By achieving this, Gulf air would have a boom in booked flights and new customers since the satisfied ones would make referrals.
Its strategic plans also include assessing the business so that they would manage to plan on how best they would nurture and expand the network, workforce, products, customers, and so on. The key pillars of their new strategy include a set of six values; human resource, network growth, safety, innovation, cost, customer focus, and revenue.
While carrying out the audit and analysis, we went further to look into the industrial review of Gulf Air. Alliances are an integral part of the airline businesses since it opens doors for a new set of unforeseen opportunities. According to research, alliances are, in fact, the most significant revenue collectors, by 86%, since most of the business trips to the top a hundred cities are usually booked through alliances. Gulf Air alliance with the OneWorld has made the airline witness significant milestones. There has been increased competition, and the companies, therefore, have to be strategic in terms of their geographical destinations to reduce air traffic.
Until recently, Gulf Air had considered a merger with Etihad when they called off this proposal, stating that both companies have strong DNA with the Middle East. Thus, they couldn’t create a merger because they were competing for the position of number one Airline in all of the Middle East. They continued to state each of the two companies has their strategies, and the only way they could work together is through an extended partnership. This airline also included a set of new marketing strategies to ensure it got its popularity again. It introduced a family-first program that catered for slashed and more economical prices the families that traveled together. It also had a set of new plans for corporate flights, whereby it accorded their customers more privileges and benefits. It also focused on the needs of their local customers by conducting a survey.
On the segment for external audits, we did this by using the PESTEL model. This form of an audit focuses on six different levels of an organization,, namely; political, environmental regulations, tax policy, reform, trade restrictions, and the legal part. This method makes it possible to know and understand the different challenges that the airline faces externally. The political factors that could affect it include political stability and legal framework for getting a contract. A business cannot run smoothly if the country is not stable politically. There are high risks associated with such situations because of the occurrences of war, which might put the customers’ lives in danger. Economic factors mostly include inflation rates whereby, if the economy is going through an inflation, the cost of flights will have to increase, and this will lead to a decrease in the number of customers.
Social factors also impact the business, especially in terms of the beliefs of the people who live there. They are the direct and first line of target customer wise and if the beliefs and attitudes and leisure do not agree with the service’s use, then the business will suffer. Gulf air identifies with technological advancements since it is an excellent means of transport, and it also has different services that appreciate the use of technology. This includes the provision for the service of online booking of flights. Before a business starts, it has to evaluate the environmental factors and how they affect the running of the business; these include weather and climate change.
A SWOT analysis focus on four aspects of a business, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and its threats. To create a proper SWOT analysis for Gulf Airlines, which is the business we are currently focusing on, we have to first begin by determining of doing it in the first place, create a grid, label all the boxes, identify the strengths and weaknesses and lastly draw a conclusion. This kind of analysis is important because it helps the company be more informed when carrying out decision-making and implementing a lot of its policies. Generally, it can measure how beneficial a decision will be to the business.
By doing one for Gulf Air, we were able to establish a few of its strengths and why they give it an edge over other airlines. First off, it is the flag bearer of the Kingdom of Bahrain, and this gives it some kind of publicity among the citizens of the country. What is more, it is also in the right place, in terms of the relationship with most of the influencial people of that Kingdom. This does not make it untouchable in the event of a mistake, but it makes it a trustworthy brand among the passengers who identify more with these leaders.
Additionally, the airline would not be able to operate effectively if it was flying around politically unstable areas. The fact that the Kingdom is stable and has little or no war instances makes its operations quite easy. It is able to carry on with its daily programmed flights without the risk and worry of attacks mid-journey. Most importantly, the airline is located in a purely Muslim country, and its leaders are also Muslim faithful. For this reason, it is able to base all of its activities and services on their religion.
However, as an established company, it also has its downsides, which are inevitable in every situation. Some of its weaknesses include, it does not offer flights to some counties that most of the customers are interested in traveling to. This gives other airlines an edge over it because customers will prefer to go to places where all their needs are met in one go. Additionally, the company has also failed in some of its diversification strategies, meaning that it has not entirely been able to incorporate some new ideas into its plans. This could be in terms of such factors as employees, whereby most of its employees are Muslims. As much as the airline is based in a Muslim country, it should create equal opportunities for employment so that it is able to get more customers from all the religions.
Consequently, most of its flights are not budget friendly, and this sidelines average-income earners from being beneficiaries of its services. For instance, it has recently included a new package, the family package, which caters to the needs of the spouses and families that travel together. However, the question remains, what should happen to the people who do not fall under this category? The services still remain unaffordable to them, and the company should, therefore, consider making adjustments.
The airline also faces threats from other big airlines such as Emirates, Qatar Airlines, and Etihad, which it resisted creating a merger with. Gulf Air, therefore, has to become very intentional and strategic in terms of the services it offers to its customers so that it can create an edge between it and the competing airlines. It also faces another significant threat, inflation in the prices of fuel. This will compel it to hike its transport prices, and although this is a threat that cuts across all airlines, it will be affected by the decrease in the number of passengers. This airline is also the flag bearer of its location, and it has been ranked as the number one airline company. This gives it a sense of pride and negligence over some of the things it should work on because it has become comfortable in its current position. It is not a good trait of a business that deals with people because it will ignore changes that are essential and decrease the number of sales it makes.
Currently, the airline stands at the right place in terms of its strategies. This is after it unveiled a fresh set of strategies in 2018 that aimed at improving the amount of income it s able to generate. By that year, it had already organized a new collection of airplanes to ensure that the expansion of flights was implemented. It currently has a total of 82 destinations, unlike its position before it made any of these changes. The same year marked the beginning of a new time since it also changed the company’s outlook. This made it possible for the consumers to notice the difference, and get interested in being the first individuals to enjoy the new services. Additionally, the fact that this company is focusing on adding the benefits to its corporate department ensures that more corporates become a part of their customers, which influences its position in the market.