Introduction
Emirates Airline is situated in Dubai international airport, UAE. Besides, it is regarded as the biggest and most successful airline in the whole of Middle East. It serves approximately 70 nations globally. The company is also able to operate more than 200 trips every week. Since it is regarded as one of the airline companies with excellent and high quality services, the company has gained a strong image in the aviation industry. For instance, its customers are always satisfied with the quality of services they get (Graham, 2010). Additionally, Emirates airline is also recognized for its rapid development and consistent profitability. Although the company is recognized for its rapid advancements, it is necessary for it to carryout performance measurement to ensure that it remains relevant in the market.
Performance Measurement
The rapid change and growth currently noticed in the aviation industry have forced the Emirates Airline’s managers to enact novel business strategies. On the other hand, there has been an increase in overcrowding of infrastructure and sustainability. Additionally, the managers are facing the challenge of commercialization and privatization of the airline companies (Pfeifer, 2002). Continuous control of the markets and low cost carriers are also some of the encounters being faced by the airline managers. Due to all these challenges, managers, planners and supervisors of the company have decided to apply different performance management practices. This would ensue that the managers, planners and supervisors are able to evaluate and manage performance of the Emirates airline. Moreover, they have acknowledged the significance of performance measurement. For instance, they have discovered that it is important to carryout performance measurement in the financial and operational sectors.
The managers and supervisors of Emirates airline have decided to use performance data to assess the various reactions of their customers regarding the type and quality of service they are able to offer. In addition, they have used the performance data to retain the management control of the physically different route networks. They have managed to gather the performance data electronically. Besides, the data is being managed through numerous databases that are made available to the analysts and decision makers of the Emirates airline. For instance, Operational and financial data have been used by the managers and supervisors to make some vital changes that would improve the performance of the company. For instance, they have used the operational and financial data to manage their flight operations and financial statements. The company has signed a treaty with some other airline industries which requires some level of operational, safety and service principles to be achieved. Through signing the agreement, the company will be able to retain its brand quality for its clients. This is a vital provision when considered critically.
Quality Management Strategy
For the Emirates airline company to improve in the quality of service they provide to their customers, its managers and supervisors are supposed to check on the internal and external failures. Additionally, they are also supposed to check on the costs involved in prevention of poor quality services and the inspection costs. The various complaints from the customers should be used to recognize the various sectors in the organization with weaknesses (Pfeifer, 2002). Consequently, the company’s decision makers should use the data as an indicator of quality. Complaints like flight complications, refunds and customer service should serve as a tool to improvement in the affected sections of the company. Additionally, the company should carryout fresh education and training of its staff to ensure that the customers are satisfied with their services.
They should also check on the various resources that have been put a side for the various customers’ complaints like dispensation of the refunds and luggage claims. Moreover, the management is supposed to the time taken to resolve customer’s complaint is short. This will ensure that they are able to retain most of their customers. The other viable plan that would ensure that there is adequate quality management is by applying a corporate program. This will motivate and authorize the local workers to immediately solve the problems raised by their customers. Besides, Emirates airline should adopt the use of automatic luggage identification tugs. This will automatically reduce the chances of customer’s luggage getting lost or going to another destination. The team of the company’s decision makers should consider reducing the costs of customer services and aircraft. This will improve its image in the local and international market.
Key resources and capabilities of the company
Due to the improved technology and outstanding service strategies, the company is regarded to be one of the best in the airline industry. This is because it is able to provide high quality service to its customers across the world. Moreover, it has very more than 110 current aircrafts that is capable of making approximately 200 trips per week across the continent. It is also capable of serving approximately 70 nations in the international market as discussed earlier (Pfeifer, 2002). Emirates airline has not only employed more than 10,000 qualified workers from all over the world but also has a significant market share. Arguably, the above resources are important to the success of the company. Emirates airline has a well-established infrastructure like home-base airport and special terminals. They are capable of providing excellent supporting services to their customers. Besides, Emirates airline has a steady and well-established finance.
TQM – The distinctive competencies of Emirates airline and its potential sources of sustainable competitive advantage
Since the company enjoys an excellent topographical location, it is able to access all the nations through a direct flight. Due to its profitable location, their aircrafts seat capacity is equally distributed all over the different nation of the world. This is in contrary to some other European counterparts who also provide the same services. Furthermore, the development plan for the Emirates airport is more advanced hence is capable of accommodating a large number of aircrafts. The available space is also enough for the movement of the aircraft when landing and taking off. The construction of the Mega-hub, by the Emirates airline, at Dubai international airport has made the hauler to collect traffic from all over the continent. Additionally, it is able to distribute back all the traffic to its hub. The company is able to provide flights at a cheaper cost compared to other companies. This is because of its minimal cost structure. There are numerous issues that have forced the Emirates management to adopt various managerial strategies to stay competitive within the industry. Notably, one of the issues that have forced the management to react swiftly is competition within the industry.
Competition is an external factor, which must be handled by internal approaches. The company must restructure its internal provisions in order to respond to stringent external challenges. To handle this matter, the management has decided to provide competitive services to their clients. Additionally, the company has increased its operational capacity and worldwide destinations in the recent past to serve the increasing number of clients. This was meant to capture additional customers, create avenues for expansion, give additional services, and add competitive advantages. The management schemes to improve its services, offer flexible flight schedules, gives provisions for return tickets, buy more capacious planes, embrace technology, and refurbish Terminal 3, which is their main flight station in Dubai. These approaches by the management and leadership of Emirates Airline have allowed the company to realize a global visibility, increase its activities, and augment its revenues. Evidently, competition is a critical phenomenon in every industry. It requires tactical approaches like the ones enacted by emirates to storm the airline industry. Changing the operational cultures to respond to the emerging external and internal challenges within the company remains critical.
Concurrently, competition is both a short-term and long-term challenge that must be handled with promptness and precision. Emirate Airline recognized this provision within the industry. Hence, it had to enact appropriate approaches with regard to the issue. The need to compete favourably requires the ratification and nurturing of various competitive advantages within the company. This contributes to what will make clients prefer the company to the rest. The approach by the Emirates’ management to uphold these factors helped the company to grow and attain its periodic and long-term objectives in the realms of business. Considerably, the company has the capacity to handle numerous clients and schedule numerous flights to various destinations with limited hiccups.
Another issue that the emirates airline management has been dealing with is diversity within its workforce. The company’s management and leadership have set stringent measures and approaches to handle the issues relating to diversity. Evidently, Emirates Airline operates globally and has employees of various cultural orientation, sex, race, religion, and beliefs. These are internal factors within the organization and they have long-term impacts on the fates, businesses, and operational capabilities of the company (Graham, 2010). One of the approaches taken by the managements to handle this challenge is the creation of a viable working environment that would favor all genres of employees. This move has always promoted productivity, distinctiveness, creativity, novelty, and dynamism among employees. Various employees of Emirates Airline are able to work anywhere in the world following the culture of diversity that the company embraces. Crucially, recognizing the importance of diversity enables organizations to scrutinize their moves and gain the acquired business norms and operational growth.
Another issue in this context is the emergence and use of new technologies within the airline industry and beyond. Current businesses use technologies to enhance their operations, promote transactions, and stay competitive among other rivals. The efforts to enact technological issues and prospects in Emirates Airline are evident and considerable within the company. The management and leadership have approached these issues with positivity and enthusiasm. The company has embraced numerous novel technologies within the industry and beyond to enhance customer services, meet the global market demands, and stay dynamic with their services. Technology has been applied in the booking processes, production of airplanes, communication aspects, flight coordination, and other provisions relevant to the industry. The fact that the company has established strong customer service provisions is crucial in this context.
Additionally, another issue that the company management has to handle during its development and global expansion is the territorial legislations that govern flights globally. Different countries and airports have varying legislations that might hinder the operations of Emirates Airline and other competitive companies. The approach taken by the management is to promote coherency, territorial tolerance, and consents among governments, private sectors, and the industry players to promote global businesses.
Another important issue tackled by the management to ensure that the business remains relevant in the market and meet its financial obligations is their approach to the global economic crisis. The recent economic challenges have reduced travelling transactions, exchange rates, financial obligations and other options that are useful to the business in question. The Emirates’ management and leadership have approached this challenge with novelty, dynamism, and creativity needed to counter the economic hiccups. The reduction of flight prices in order to capture numerous clients has worked miracles among the concerned parties. Additionally, the provision of flight offers to increase the frequency and volume of flights has worked considerably in increasing the revenues of the Emirates. This has occurred through its management and leadership. Conclusively, there are numerous issues emerging with regards to approaches taken by the Emirates’ management. These are meant to handle the witnessed challenges.
Recommendations
Capacity building and apprenticeship remain basic for proper management of the organization. For international corporations within the aviation sector, the managers ought to alleviate notable barriers to successful integration of global staff within the workforce. Training programs should concentrate on training objectives, which should be practical and job-specific. Encouraging teamwork among culturally diverse workers and improving cross-cultural skills ought to be embedded within the n capacity building goals. These would enhance employee participation and ultimately assist in facilitating the identification of cultural disparities. Moreover, induction initiatives could be established for newly-arrived international employees.
Emirates airline should create opportunities for career development amidst workers. Furthermore, the employees ought to be encouraged to develop their linguistic capabilities. As stated earlier, multilingual capabilities are very critical for overcoming cultural diversity setbacks within the hospitality sector. For this reason, the recruitment process should take into consideration the multiple language competencies amongst the potential candidates for employment. In addition, the skills training schemes should be developed with quality provisions in mind. Technological issues have affected numerous organizations globally. Emirates Airline in UAE is no exception in this context (Graham, 2010). Nonetheless, technology has changed business operations, transactional mechanisms, service provisions, and communicational aspects within the airline industry. Emirates management and leadership must approach the challenges of technology with positivity for growth, expansion, and prosperity. In this context, the management must enact and embrace advanced technological aspects (as a culture).
Conclusion
Conclusively, by examining the external and internal environments of the company, it will be able to recognize some of its proficiencies and competitive advantages. They are also able to establish the competitiveness in the world market. Consequently, the analysis will also help the make relevant changes due to the changes in the economic market, politics and technological advancements. The management must have some information about some of the issues in this context and create new strategies for their sustainability.
References
Graham, A. (2010). Aviation and tourism: Implications for leisure travel. Aldershot: ASHGATE.
Pfeifer, T. (2002).Quality management: Strategies, methods, techniques; with 3 tables$nElektronischeRessource. München: Hanser Press.