strategic management

STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT

2006

Strategic Management

Introduction

Strategic Management is a vast field of study . It contains numerous concepts which contain various sub-concepts . Despite the endless field of study , there is a core purpose of the strategic management concept This purpose is -arguably- to define the competitive advantage of a business and take advantage of them in developing the company

Discovering the competitive advantage of a business might not be an easy task , thus explaining the complexity of strategic management itself . It contains various analyses that lead to the reduction

of every situation into corporate strengths and weaknesses . Afterwards , taking advantage of the discovered competitive advantage to enhance the company might also not as easy as it sound . It includes expanding the competitive advantage into a series of strategies and plans and monitors them as they are implemented in the targeted environment

Sometimes , in the process of defining the alternatives of strategies , we discover the need to alter some portion of the competitive advantage itself . This is due to the nature of competitive strategy which has an inseparable connection with the environment in which a company exists Because business environment contains numerous influential factors , this undeniable connection is what made strategic management a dissimilar challenge for each and every business design . In to cope with such challenge entrepreneurs generally used several analysis tools that will help them discover the competitive advantages of their business and take advantage of them for the betterment of their companies

Within this , we will use the Porter 's Five Forces , PEST analysis and background studies to analyze the competitive conditions surrounding the business of a well-known airline , the British Airways . The goal of this study is to define the strategic positioning of the company and finding an explanation regarding the causes and directions of the strategy

Corporate Background

British Airways is currently the largest scheduled airline in United Kingdom and the third largest airline in Europe . The company has more than 200 aircraft flying to 550 destinations . The company is famous for being the airline with more flights from Europe across the Atlantic than any other airline . Their main base airport is the London Heathrow and London Gatwick . The airline has wide-reaching European and domestic shorthaul networks , increasing the reputation for being one of the largest airlines in the world in terms of area coverage and number of destinations

II .1 History

The company is a result of a merger between a numbers of smaller UK air transport companies . The company was formed in 1935 . It was nationalized in 1939 to form the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC . The BOAC was then merged with the British European Airways to form the British Airways in 1974 . The company was the first to provide a supersonic passenger service in 1976 . The company goes through its privatization process in 1981 and no longer a national airline Afterwards , it experienced considerable downsizing and strategic change to face the challenge of free market . With its slogan `The World 's...