'A Report On The Strategic Change Issues Facing British\r'

'Ancient philosophers endlessly said that the only room that never gets ripe is the room for metamorphose and yield to transgress levels. ex spay brings a sound of celebration and relief. In the headache sector whatsoever change is forever gear to the increase in profit. Any stemma think has 1 driving force: creation of wealthiness and economic growth. This is the reason for existence of taskes like: banking, hotels, airlines, schools, hospitals among others. movement concern is the day to day decisions and ventures that argon undertaken to suffer the comp both(prenominal). This nookie help give a protuberance into the future 5, 10 or so age.One issue that is very basic is that the globe is changing, and an effective clientele should everywherely help to bring this very infallible difference. â€Å"One of the mention roles of a serious charabanc and enterpriser is to solve lines decision making is other major role of this officer. ” These were t he confession of Carleton (2005). Decisions pertaining various dep inventionments in a comp any argon made by key management faculty in all firm: The key drivers for change that atomic number 18 round likely to impact on the future of business and management argon: Stiff and ever increase competition from key rival firms.One must invariably be the best in the grocery dumbfound in order to re primary(prenominal) advantaged. This ordain cl repulse for several reforms towards improvement, and such take exceptions will be dealt with as they come down. nigh decisions to be made, take clipping and energy. However, the knee-jerk solvent is to jump straight to the just about obvious resultant role: training and coaching to develop souls leadership skills and potential. This hands coldcock bypasses the problem-diagnosis stage. It also all overlooks the disconnect in the midst of what happens at individual and organizational levels. Managerial and human resource aspects go for al panaches put press on firms.Such pressure is sure argent of change. A global crusade is another driving factor towards change. Any naked as a jaybird standards set up must be adhered to if unity considers to e in the food market. The main project is to develop an appreciation to the role of management in the process change in the firms of interest. prudence of such a change stomach never be an individual affair. It explores the forces driving organizational change and offers a contextual grounds of change management principles. Do you do it al matchless as a passenger car? Do you involve others? Do you let others compel the decisions?Management is an organized, systematic application of the k without delayledge, tools, and resources of change that forgets organizations with a key process to strain their business st footstepgy. vary Management is a critical part of any project that leads, manages and enables hoi polloi to accept rising processes, technol ogies, systems structures and values. transports argon inevitable in any firm or sector. Of great interest is change management in British Airline Company. Many such firms as this exist. This calls for true(a) outstanding leadership in the market lay out. BRITISH AIRWAYS This is an airline with it’s headquarters in London.Europe has increased sharply over the past cristal as the introduction of virgin airlines has helped push prices d suffer significantly. This airline has routes both within and without the great unite Kingdom sky. This airline is the worlds second largest multinational airline, with a passenger carrying competency of much than 27 trillion passengers from one country to another. Also, as one of the world’s doggedest established airlines, it has unceasingly been regarded as an industry-leader. British Airways’ worldwide route net encounter covers more than 216 destinations in 94 countries (including franchises, subsidiaries and one world partners).British Airways is one of the founding partners of the one world alliance, which took off in February 1999. Fel upset members now include American Airlines, Aer Lingus, mainland China Pacific, Finnie, Iberia, LanChile and Qantas and Swiss. The original predecessor airline, called Aircraft ecstasy and Travel, launched the worlds first quotidian scheduled international air service, British Airways traces its origins grit to August 1919. At the moment the airline has an astounding fleet of 312 aircraft; including 100 wide bodied long lot aircraft (57 Boeing 747-400s and 43 Boeing 777s).The current world has foregone into corporate alliances, with mergers and acquisitions being the common norm of doing business. For this reason, British Airways has one-on-one dealingships with a number of airlines. It owns a 17 per cent stake in Qantas and 9 per cent in Iberia. It also fully owns subsidiaries such as British Airways CitiExpress. Members of British Airways’ franchise family include British Mediterranean Airways, GB Airways, Comair, Loganair and Regional Air. Some of the main components of British Airway’s business strategy include investing in its tidy sum and products, and proceed to build a competitive cost base.These objectives, on with other strategic goals and values, cave in been delivered done a program called â€Å"The BA Way,” which was launched in 2004. This was in repartee to the race wanting real clarity to the highest degree where telephoner is positioning itself in the marketplace. The leading entrepreneur once observed that major firms a great deal started as either government or public properties. This nevertheless is never the case with British Airways. This troupe is own entirely by private investors, with more than a quarter of a million sh are exerters. British airways serious like any business switch its own problems.The problems always arise in the process of woful to greater heights. As executive assistant to the conductor of British airways, change issues facing the organization in the nigh 5 five years are amazing. The major problems are as below: omnibusial The BA Way has five factors for success: be the best U. K. - ground network, understand the customers better than the competition, be a powerful brand that peck know and trust, nourish a competitive cost base and work together as one team. For a forward increment of a business, proper leadership is basic principle to build on.Managerialism, especially in the public and quasi-market sectors, has provided a key development in how organizations are managed, co-coordinated and controlled, and is apocalyptical of new relationships and a reordering of organizations and management. In the prove issue of Fast Company magazine, a riveting article titled â€Å"What is the Biggest Change Facing crinkle in the Next 10 Years? ” Avram Miler, the chief operating officer of Avram Miller enterprise explai ned that â€Å"The cornerstone for this millennium is the stop over of time and space. Most organizations today are manoeuver the same way as early-20th-century businesses.Everyone goes to his car, drives to work, has certain hours, and has a certain job. Its all built on the factory model. Moving forward, it really isnt going to be principal(prenominal) where you are in order to do your job. Ideas are being worked on 24 hours a day. zero seems surprised anymore if I wake up in the middle of the night and start IM-ing aroundone in Europe, beca character the fact is, they dont even know where I am. And it doesnt matter. ’’ He continues to say that â€Å"Fewer and fewer people will want to be employees of corporations, because corporations dont have anything to offer.Corporations dont provide security and provide fewer and fewer benefits. batch may find new ways to lot their skills. ” This illustrates that many people often get busy in companies, but th e never have any intentions of staying for long periods. Tim Brown President and CEO, Ideo, Palo Alto, humorously says â€Å"people are ever on the move to greener pastures. ” This is one major problem in management. Employees, nigh of whom hold very key positions in the company always transfer to the so called green pastures.The human resources charabanc of British airways observed that many of their staff has often moved to start their own ventures. These range from topical anaesthetic to international ventures. The best way to manage this problem is to create laws governing business. Its true that a soul performs best only after getting unafraid orientation on an surround. Consistency is another key to excellence. To avoid loosing employees, a minimum duration should be put, such that no employee can leave forward finishing some specific time duration. This will help the airline to retain workers for some great time and hence foster consistency.The major obstructo r to this implementation is some weakness in management. Friends to departmental heads are always favored and the axe rarely falls on them. This however can be managed by prosecution of any corrupt staff. other managerial problem often realized in British Airways is lack of commitment in some of the employees. They often take long to finish any assignment given to them, and when asked to give an explanation, this is a fine to being their enemies. This vice in a company leads into loss of property, because people are paid their valuation account while they don’t perform their duties.Many enquiryes reason that training and development programs increase the organizations mathematical operation and effectiveness. This can help increase the work output because more experience is injected to the generally trained staff. Toward a better understanding of the effects of training and development in the workplace, this research points out the importance of training and developmen t the workforce, determines the major types of training and development programs, discusses the relationship betwixt training and the overall organizational performance, and offers some guidelines for HR managers to design effective training and development programs.Signing of performance contracts has helped to alleviate this vice. This helps to ascertain that an employee therefore deserves to get his salary. Burnes (2004) in his book arrives at a style which enables healthful competition within a firm, resulting into increase of occupation. He says â€Å"the ability of an enterprise to grapple within the general settings relies on two qualities: • The capacity of the firm to spot and understand the competitive forces in play and how they change over time linked together.• The competency of a business to mobilize and manage the resources obligatory for the elect competitive retort through time. British Airways have implemented this, and many staff has always be en awarded for exhibit commitment and excellent performance. GLOBALISATION Another mode British Airways’ learning division has use to abet organizational values is through owning its Future program, which every employee across the enterpriseâ€from in- leakage crews to customer service staffâ€must go through at some point.This is delivered by the immanent senior management teams. It’s about helping people understand the business direction, the environs that they are operating in and the way they are positioning themselves in the business. By understanding that, people will understand the actions the team is victorious in driving the business forward (British Airways, 2005) Some of the changes that British Airways has in the next five years include: • BA to increase function amid New York JFK and Gatwick, but at the same time drop its link to the US city from Manchester Airport.• BA to enhance the passenger experience at the new London Heathrow depot 5 with the installation of art works in its premium lounges. Companies move towards forming alliances, both local and at international level. The environment in which most organizations operate today is continuously changing, and the rate of change is increase. Almost most organizations are now involving in tremendous increase in international business and foreign assignments. British Airways is not go away behind. At the moment, the company has offices in all bang-up cities in the world.At the same time, serious advertisements are on the run. To enhance collisions, BA purchased the gauzy German interior(prenominal) airline Delta Air Transport in 1992 and renamed it Deutsche BA. By the time it was interchange in June 2003, DBA was operating 16 Boeing 737s and was the second-largest German home(prenominal) carrier, after Lufthansa. Globalization is a disposition towards international interaction and co-operation. This comes with the general growth of a knowledge based eco nomy. Impacting on the financing structure of organizations and employment practices.The ability of an enterprise to compete within the prevailing settings majorly relies on two qualities: the capacity of the firm to identify and understand the competitive forces in play and how they change over time, linked to • the competence of a business to mobilize and manage the resources necessary for the chosen competitive response through time. . The environment in which most organizations operate today is continuously changing, and the rate of change is increasing. Almost most organizations are now involving in tremendous increase in international business and foreign assignments.BA schools at increasing the number of passengers greatly. New infrastructure is required for this. Heathrow Terminal 5 was built exclusively for the use of British Airways at a cost of ? 4. 3 meg and officially opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 14 March 2008. It opened to passengers on 27 March 2008. more a ir crafts are also to be purchased come 2013. for instance, On 27 September 2007, BA announced their biggest order since 1998 by ordering 36 new long haul aircraft. The company ordered 12 A380s with options on a come on 7, and 24 Boeing 787s with options on a further 18. TECHNOLOGYTechnological factors are information technology/the internet, new production processes computerization of processes and changes in transport technology (Human mental imagery Management Journal, 2008). There are also internal triggers for change which include: new chief executive, unionization or de-unionization, structural a change, re-design of factory or office layout, re-design of jobs, new IT equipment or software introduced, cuts in overtime working and redundancies (Epmbook, 2007). As research continues in the energy sector, Bio fuel may be used by BA planes. This is an improvement towards good environment creation.Indeed this is amazing. Currently the test of planes is going on, on their respons e to bio fuel. The above forces are for easier information transfer, facilitates global structures, requires new competencies and wantations, facilitates telecommuting; new employment relationships, more speech pattern on knowledge management, quick competition through globalization, more educated workforce etc (McShane and Travaglione, 2003). Change management entails thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation, and above all, computer address with, and involvement of, the people affected by the changes and BA has mastered this art.Change must be realistic, achievable and measurable. These aspects are especially relevant to managing individualized change. Before starting time organizational change, ask yourself: What do we want to achieve with this change, why, and how will we know that the change has been achieved? Who is affected by this change, and how will they react to it? How much of this change can be achieve without? These aspects also relate strongly to the mana gement of personal as well as organizational change (Business balls, 2006). If you think that you need to pass on up a change quickly, probe the reasons †is the urgency real?Will the effects of agreeing a more sure time-frame really be more disastrous than presiding over a disastrous change? Quick change prevents proper consultation and involvement, which leads to difficulties that take time to resolve, ( destroy & adenosine monophosphate; Stalker, 1994). BA does not sell change to people as a way of accelerating ‘agreement and implementation. ‘Selling change to people is not a sustainable strategy for success, unless your aim is to be bitten on the bum at some time in the future when you least expect it. Change can be unremittal, so the manager logically needs to be a settling influence.BA has gone through extreme lengths to ensure that they athletic field the market. They are keen on the use opposite communications to handle sensitive aspects of customer relat ions and encourage managers to communicate face-to-face with their people. They discourage the use of email and written notices as they are super weak at conveying and developing understanding. At all measure involve and agree pay from people within system (system = environment, processes, culture, relationships, behaviors, etc. , whether personal or judicatureal). • In depth understanding of the organisation’s position at all times.• In depth understanding of the direction of the organisation. • Open and clear communication channels. SPECIFIC CHANGES THAT BRITISH AIRWAYS HAS ENCOUNTERED From a lowly background BA has expanded to the giant it is by now. This never occurred in one day, neither was it a very smooth transition. Given time, all have a potential to expand to the highest levels. One of the sterling(prenominal) changes that occurred in BA was mergers and acquisition. During the 1990s BA became the worlds most profitable airline under the slog an â€Å"The valet de chambres favorite Airline”. The management then saw the need to expand.A merger is the business transaction that takes pace between two firms. One firm acts as a buyer, while the other company is bought. Mergers take place to help cub extreme competition and also to widen the market scope. In 1992 BA purchased the small German domestic airline Delta Air Transport and renamed it Deutsche BA. This widened the market space into Germany. By the time it was sold in June 2003, DBA was operating 16 Boeing 737s and was the second-largest German domestic carrier, after Lufthansa. The lesson learnt is that mergers bring expansion and growth.In the year 1995, BA formed British Asia Airways, a subsidiary based in Taiwan, to operate between London and Taipei. owe to political sensitivities, British Asia Airways not only had a diametric name, but also had a different livery, with the Union Jack tailfin being replaced by Chinese characters. Many airlines falled the same practice, e. g. , Qantas flew to Taiwan as â€Å"Australia Asia Airways” and KLMs Taiwan operations became â€Å"KLM Asia”. British Asia Airways ceased operation in 2001 when the airline suspended flights to Taiwan due to low yield. A change brings with it many resettlements.Some include employment of new staff to handle the expansion. This was the case in the two mergers in Germany and Taiwan. Other changes are indeed not pleasing. An ex deoxyadenosine monophosphatele is the laying off of staff incase of closure. Proper marketing must be done. This is to keep the much esteemed customers aware of the company’s developments. The road to success is never a smooth one. Any push to the positive is always met by opposing currents. Some of pitfalls to change into a new market include competition. The main competitors of British Airways are bmi and virgin Atlantic. These offer great rivalry.However BA has managed this through its strategies to make sure that clie nts are satisfactory by the service delivery. nifty is another challenge to expansion. Some expansion ventures require much money. This is money to buy planes and to do office set up, with an aim of getting back the profit. Many a times the company has gone through looses especially when they were pressure to pull back. Withdrawal is not very pleasing but it is the best option especially when things are not working. This was the case in Taiwan. The world universe is large and ever-growing. This has and will provide market for flight industry.The best way to venture is to do market surveys. Once the costumer’s desires are known, follow up can be made to come up with a product to satisfy the need. It pays a lot to be the market leader in terms of innovations. This will give an advantage over other companies. CONCLUSION It takes commitment and vision to be on the top. BA has one dream, which is to be on top in the flight industry. In the next five years, the company shall ha ve diversified its services in terms of quality and quantity expansion. REFERENCES 1. British Airways(2005): The Wings of Learning.Retrieved from human race gigantic Web as from 19th April 2008 from http://www. clomedia. com/content/templates/clo_article. asp 2. Buchanan, D & Boddy, D. (1992). The Expertise of the Change Agent. Hemel Hempstead. US: Prentice Hall. 3. Burns & Stalker, (1994). The Management of Innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 4. Businessballs (2006). Change management. 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