Qatar airline was founded in the year 1920 in the outback of Queensland, Australia. Qantas is one of the biggest airlines both domestically and across the globe. It's considered as the top long distance airline in the globe and also the top brand in Australia. The major business of the Qatar Company is shipping of people and goods which is enhanced by the use of the two Qatar units; Qantas and Jetsar. Qatar has built a good reputation in its service delivery both in the main and subsidiary businesses (Qantas Airways, 2012). This paper will conduct an internal analysis of Qantas Airline.
In the analysis of the capabilities of Qantas Airlines, four areas will be examined.
- Resources and competencies
- Cost Effectiveness
This is one of the most important ways that the capabilities of an organization can be measured. There are several methods of achieving this. These are, taking advantage of economies of scale, using the company’s experience to increase efficiency and lower costs of operation, redesigning products and fetching for low costs of supply. Qantas Airlines understand the need for cost effectiveness. However, the company takes a lot of precautions to ensure that it does not water down its services. As will be observed, the company’s target is to have services that are favorable to both the organization and the customers. To take advantage of the economies of scale, Qantas purchase Australia Airlines (Qantas, 2013). The aim of this move was to take advantage of the emerging markets in Asia. The move was productive as Qantas increased their market share in the Australian International Travels. To take advantage of the need for a low price domestic flight operator, Qantas purchased Jetstar. While Qantas remained a high cost option for traveling, the company tapped into the low cost air travel market through the purchase of the two companies. Also, at Qantas, the employees are paid above average wages. This ensures that the employees stay at Qantas for a longer period of time. The experience brought into the company means that the operations of Qantas run smoothly with minimum overheads.
- Organization’s knowledge
Having been in existence for over ninety years, Qantas has accumulated a lot of knowledge on the airlines industry. Save for that, the attractive salaries paid to the employees ensure that the company can attract the best brains in the industry and also maintain its workforce for a long period (Qantas, 2013). The new members provide new insight into the business while the old members offer knowledge based on experience. This provides distinctive competitive advantage to the organization.
- Dynamic capabilities
Qantas understands that what is good today may not be viable tomorrow. Therefore, the company ensures that it implements changes to be ahead of the competition. In 2003, Qantas became the first airline to install specialized cabin lighting for long flights. The company has also introduced luxury lounges to its customers that equal no other airline lounges (Qantas, 2009). Qantas seems to have invented a new method of doing things right from the waiting room to the flight and even to the time people check out their luggage. With such an arrangement, the company remains fresh throughout. Therefore, it is able to compete with both the established and new airlines.
Value Chain
The primary value chain has four main components. These are inbound logistics, outbound logistics, sales and marketing and services. The first is the inbound logistics which are involved in the reception, storage, and dissemination of inputs to the product. Some of the inbound logistic at Qantas include the plane companies that enable Qantas to ply the various routes. These companies include, Boeing, which has a long history of providing luxury airplanes to target (John, 2012). Others include Airbus A380 and A320 neo (Qantas, 2013). In selecting these companies, Qantas ensured that their airplanes are also cost effective in terms of fuel consumption.
The outbound logistics at Qantas include ticketing, catering services, baggage claim, cooperating with hotels and car services on behalf of the customers and providing security. As a premium airline service provider, Qantas has ensured that all these services are of high quality (Qantas, 2013). Qantas has improved the process of ticketing by ensuring that tickets can be purchased online. The baggage confirmation process has also been simplified through application of technology.
In the sales and marketing department, Qantas has utilized many methods of advertising to ensure that their services are known by everyone. The company has ventured into sports as a way of advertising where it sponsored the football federation of Australia in 2010. The company also uses its trademark words “come lets play” in advertisement of its services.
Qantas has also partnered with the Australian Tourism industry where it offers a $44 million sponsorship to the industry (Qantas, 2009). Through this, the company ensures that there is a steady flow of tourists into the country thus availing customers to the airline. The company has also opened a lot of ticket sales points to ensure that all potential customers can easily access tickets.
Services delivered include the areas through which the company receives plain maintenance. These include LTQ engineering which provides engineering services to the company. The maintenance department of Qantas has over 200 employees.
Corporate governance
At Qantas, the organization realized that the main failure of organization boards came from vested interest of board members and lack of clarity of the input the board members were required to put into the company. To tackle this, Qantas has eleven board members. Apart from the chairman and the CEO, the other nine are non-executive board members (Qantas, 2013). Each of them has specific departments that they are in charge of. This reduces ambiguity on the roles they should perform. Through the good structure of the board, the company has a high level of competence from the highest organ to the front line employees.
Internal Factor Evaluation
The two major internal factors that raise concern are the employees and the customers. The employees at Qantas are well taken care of. Qantas employees are among the employees with the highest level of job satisfaction in the industry. This can be seen through the fact that they tend to stay in the organization for a long time. The company has ensured that it offers good remuneration to the employees. Also, the services enjoyed by the employees are comparable to no other in the industry. In the company, employees are offered up to three months of paid paternity leave (Qantas Airline, 2011). This is an initiative that only Qantas has. Other services include the reduced fair travel for employees and their families and comprehensive health insurance covers. Due to this, the employees work without having to worry about the health of their families. This has led to a highly motivated staff. The customers are also well taken care of. As a result of this, Qantas has grown to become the largest and most profitable airline service provider in Australia. Returns from ticket sales have continued to increase every year.
Stakeholder Mapping
Qantas has been holding annual general meetings with the shareholders. These are the main economic stakeholders of the organization. The organization ensures that all its activities are run transparently and the shareholders are informed of any major decisions that require their approval. Technology stakeholders have also had a great influence on the company. Technology has been developing at a high rate. The main source of pressure for the organization in terms of technology is the customers. The customers are demanding for more advanced technology services every day. In the airline industry, one of the main uses of technology is dissemination of information (James, 2010). Most of the customers want to find a way in which they can access air tickets, information about airline services and the routes the airline uses. At Qantas, the challenge posed by the customers has been taken positively (Qantas,2009). The company offers online ticket buying services to its customers. Through this, the airline has increased its customer and customer satisfaction. As the main source of income for the company, these are the most powerful stakeholders. The other stakeholders of Qantas are the community to which the organization owes a social responsibility (Qantas, 2013). In line with this, the organization has ensured that it fulfills its mandate to the community. Some of Qantas flights go to rural areas. Through this, the company offer over 1200 direct employment opportunities to people in the rural areas. As a good citizen of Australia, the company also offers corporate sponsorship to the sports industry in Australia as a way of youth empowerment.
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