The British Airways Plc. Business Strategy

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For British Airways Plc.!, in her 2016 annual report, it analyzed that “the group carry out cooperate strategic policies by extending her network further, introducing 20 new flight destinations in 2016. These included new long-haul services to Tehran in Iran, San Jose in California, San Jose in Costa Rica and Lima in Peru, and short-haul flights to Porto in Portugal, Mahon in Menorca, Palermo in Sicily, Biarritz in rance and Inverness in Scotland. Also the Group continues to modernize its fleet, introducing more fuel efficient new generation technologically advanced aircraft. In addition, eleven stretch Boeing 787-9s were added to the fleet. During the year the Group operated more than 290 aircraft, carrying customers to more than 200 destinations in over 80 countries”.

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Business Strategy

According to Johnson, Scholes & Whittington (2008, p. 7) “the second level of strategy is business-level strategy, which is about how the various businesses included in the corporate strategy should compete successfully in their particular markets (for this reason, business-level strategy is sometimes called ‘competitive strategy’).

The British Airways Plc. business strategy focusses more on product and service development in order to boost customers experience in a cost efficient manner. For instance, “The Group completed a program to refresh the interior of 18 Boeing 747 aircraft which increased the number of seats in the Club World business cabin. The Group’s first installation of Wi-Fi on aircraft was completed in December 2016. Also, British Airways announced a partnership with Marks and Spencer to start selling food on short haul services within the economy cabin from January 2017, enabling the airline to significantly improve product quality and choice for customers”.

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Functional Strategy

The last level of strategy is operational or functional strategy, Johnson, Scholes & Whittington (2008, p. 7) suggested that “operational strategy is concerned with how the component parts of an organization deliver effectively the corporate-and business-level strategies in terms of resources, processes and people”.

In order for British Airways Plc. to succeed during the year 2016, “the Group made significant change in the senior executive team, including the appointment of a new Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer. A new business plan was developed with a new vision of being the airline of choice with personalized service, exceptional reliability, a digital mind-set and unique British style.” British Annual Report and accounts 2016.

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Balance Scorecard

British Airways Plc. could be strategy could be mapped using the Fourth Generation Balance Scorecard as suggested by excitant.co.uk (no date):

- organizational learning that brings about learning and growth

- organizational values that drives performance and change through effective leadership and management

- strategy and decision making during uncertainty and change

- external perspectives

- social and environmental impact

- well-developed techniques.

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References:

Johnson, G., Scholes, K. and Whittington, R. (2008) Exploring Corporate Strategy, Eighth Ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall.

Segal-Horn, S. (2004). ‘The Modern Roots of Strategic Management’ European Business Journal, pp. 133 - 142. [Online]. Available at: http://vle-usw.unicaf.org/course/view.php?id=392 (Accessed: 08 August 2017).

The Excitant Fourth Generation Balanced Scorecard Approach Managing Strategy, People and Performance, in today’s environment. https://www.excitant.co.uk/resources/white-papers/the-fourth-generation-balanced-scorecard-approach/ (Accessed: 08 August 2017).

Ernst & Young LLP (2016). British Airways PLC Annual Report and Accounts Year ended 31 December 2016. [online] Available at:

https://www.google.ae/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0ahUKEwj7qo7E09HVAhUpK8AKHcZpC1oQFggpMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fphx.corporate-ir.net%2FExternal.File%3Fitem%3DUGFyZW50SUQ9NjYzMTY0fENoaWxkSUQ9MzcwNDUzfFR5cGU9MQ%3D%3D%26t%3D1&usg=AFQjCNENw9E84yCPyxlvu1nPCpHVxZJUzA [Accessed 12 Aug. 2017].