British Airways strategic management - Case Study Example

and Stahl, M.J. (1997, p. 2) that managers of organizations need to anticipate and adapt to change by keeping in touch with the external environment of the organization. The present chapter is focused on British Airways which is one of the world's favourite airlines as it carries more international passengers to more destinations than any other air carriers (Haberberg, A and Rieple, A, 2008:458). Since its establishment in the year 1919, the British Airways has come a long way to be one of the reputed airlines in the world and continuously returning profits at the end of financial years, which most of its competitors are unable to do so.

The secret for the success of British airways is attributed to its strategic management decisions (Cole, G.A., 2003:191) and hence the present research is undertaken to study the process of planning, development and implementation of management strategies in order to know the actual success factors like management, human resource, finance, marketing and communication. The British Airways' forerunner company Aircraft Transport and Travel Limited (AT&T) launched the world's first daily international scheduled air service between London and Paris, way back on 25th August, 1919 (www.

britishairways.com). Presently it is the world's largest international airline and has global flight network through USAir, Qantas, and TAT European Airlines serving 95 million passengers a year using 441 airports in 86 countries and more than 1000 planes. (www.fundinguniverse.com) British Airways Ltd came into existence with the merger of many smaller airlines to form Imperial Airlines which was later nationalized into the present original form. (www.bizcovering.com) Cole A.G. (2003, p.192) states that the company has been able to achieve considerable rate of success all these years just because of its effective strategic management decisions including maintaining a sustained marketing campaign, focusing on the requirements and preferences of business customers which resulted into development of brands like Concorde, First Class, etc; focusing on the needs of private passengers and tourists, marketing the excellent reputation of the company's safety and engineering aspect, providing effective customer service through the use of information technology, promoting an extensive programme of staff training ensuring the efficiency, productivity and awareness of the employees.

The company adopted a strategy of alliance and mergers which was advantageous to provide service to more