Emirates’ industry and key competitors
The auditing of a company’s quality management strategy plays a significant role in enhancing its efficiency and cost effectiveness in the business processes being undertaken. Emirates Airline’s business excellence is built on a number of vital and strategic business pillars. Diversification of business services and constant innovation and establishment of modernised destinations are major Emirates’ competitive strategies (General Review, 2006).
Emirates Airline’s services focus on more than one hundred and twenty destinations across the globe. The airline constantly works towards discovering new competitive and cost effective business strategies aimed at enriching customer experience in the airline industry. Besides providing scheduled passenger and related cargo services in more than sixty countries, Emirates Airline’s fleets exceed 130 airbus jets, ten cargo flights and more than one hundred and thirty Boeing freighters (Nataraja & Al-Aali, 2011). Having been in the airline industry for a relatively shorter time, challenges and costs such as legacy fees and allegations of undertaking corrupt deals still abound.
In the airline industry in which Emirates operates, the company highly favours comfort, luxury, long distance trips and establishment of a competitive business environment. The company does not focus on only being popular in the industry. As a result, the company’s operations are aligned to a number of price cut strategies in the long haul transport operations. Emirates Airline’s major competitors include British Airways, Etihad Airways, Gulf Air, Qatar Airways, Fly Dubai, Air France – KLM and Deutsche Lufthansa among others. The company has continuously focused on being recognised among the world’s main airline service providers by expanding its Boeing, airbus jets, cargo freighters and other core services connected to the Emirates Group. Its diversification in the cargo management and flight business technologies and management of travel agencies remains to be a major aspect of Emirates business operations. The operational aspect has proved to be of great essence in enhancing the company’s business excellence (Bamber et al, 2009).
Emirates’ business excellence and quality management strategy
Rather than limiting its clients’ service choice to the Emirates Airline’s network, Emirates Airline’s excellence and quality management strategy work towards ensuring that the clients enjoy more than the Emirates operational network by endeavouring to discover new and better business environments. Modern cabin features, services available when one is on air flight, chauffeur driven transport systems and adoption of modernised and technologically advanced operational systems underscore the degree to which Emirates has been focused on enhancing the reliability of the services offered, sustainability of the company services and the company’s accountability to customers. Additionally, the airline has an excellent reputation of efficiency and cost effectiveness in the airline industry (Damian, 2000).
Constant focus on long-term sustainability remains to be a major pillar of Emirates Airline’s business excellence and quality enhancement strategy. Realignment of its operational mechanisms along with modern and cost effective operational mechanisms remains to be of great importance. This fact has continued to ensure that the services being offered by the company do not become obsolete or wholly linked to organic business mechanisms (General Review, 2006).
Fuel efficiency remains to be the backbone of emirates strategy towards full enhancement of efficiency and implementation of cost effective business operations. Unlike some of its major competitors, the company focuses on recycling obsolete laptops, monitors, PCS, toner cartridges and other electronic devices. Emirates Airline also focuses on the use of a “young technologically” advanced airline fleet. Its business excellence is focused on enhancing excellence towards addressing environmental challenges. The use of light weight Kevlar Cargo sections as loading devices and unit loading devices is a popular peculiarity and quality management strategy (General Review, 2006).
Excellence strategy and quality management strategy
The adoption of an attractive business model remains to be crucial to the continued success of Emirates Airline. Its top level management’s strategy which is usually focused on fundamental operational strategic feature plays an important role in enhancing excellence. This aspect has enabled it to remain competitive in spite of the fact that it is a state owned corporation (Evans & Lindsay, 2010). The maintenance of a “state of the art” fleet, high level focus on the provision of competitive customer care services and the undertaking of extensive aviation training of its employees are strategies that enhance the company’s business excellence. This fact is effectively undertaken through the constant diversification of Emirates Airline’s business strategies and realignment of company services with emerging customer demands and market trends.
Constant innovation and research are the backbone of Emirates Airline’s quality management strategy. Constant auditing of its management strategies helps to disclose challenges that could otherwise not be evident and which could hinder delivery of quality services.
The use of quality management systems and relevant information technology mechanisms has continued to be vital operational mechanisms at the different destinations of Emirates Airline’s flights. Integrated management systems have continued to ensure that the elaborate business strategies employed by Emirates Airline’s offer real time solutions to the challenges faced by the company’s top level managers. Rather than enhancing competition, the Emirates Airline should streamline its operations and also exploit the non-fully exploited private flight business avenue (Nataraja & Al-Aali, 2011).
Distinctive competencies and key resources and capabilities
Unlike other airline companies that have financial investments as their key resources, Emirates Airline’s employees and clients are the greatest resources to the company. As key resources, employees from different departments in the company have continued to play significant roles in ensuring that information that is relevant to Emirates Airline’s procurement capacity development remains relevant, streamlined and reliable. This aspect in turn ensures that the overall product output is improved.
Its loyalty programs that include Skywards, Emirates loyalty service, employee training programs and the Emirates CAE flight training are constantly undertaken to foster its well established capability. The capability relates to the establishment of a global network which is an effectively distributed resource management and operational model (Evans & Lindsay, 2010). Though commonly ignored, Emirates Airline’s shareholders, top level managers such as Sir Maurice Flanagan, Gary Chapman, Tim Clark, Maurice Flanagan and product suppliers are some of its key resources. Their relevance and significance is based on the profound degree to which the suppliers and suppliers impact on the overall success of the company.
Price divisions are crucial distinctive mechanisms that could be employed to enhance effective productivity and reliability of the prices offered to customers. This mechanism is a vital Emirates Airline’s business excellence and quality management strategy that aims at ensuring that clients from varied groupings and financial capability and travelling demands are offered the most cost effective travelling experiences possible. Its competitive pricing model and maintenance of a world class service provision remain unique and key attributes to the realisation of the company’s well defined vision, mission and the specific goals. This competency is complemented by the fact that the company has continued to enter into distinctive fuel partnerships that have enabled the company to remain profitable in the course of rising global financial crisis and fuel conflicts and challenges (Bamber et al, 2009). Subdivision of the company’s operations into rewards like membership tiers, membership categories, travel rewards, existence of personalised travel coordinators, journey management mechanisms and transparent employee enrolment are vital and distinctive capabilities of Emirates Airline. Employee training remains very crucial to the continued success of the company services.
In-flight entertainment, unique cabin features and sound airline management strategies of Emirates Airline are unique as opposed to those of other industry players. The distinctive Emirates Group subsidiaries that include information technology, air transport, security and risk management, hotel and resort, training, loyalty programs, air cargo management and support services make up a distinct and elaborate competitive advantage. These features enhance the company’s competence by streamlining its operations, encouraging the practise of a streamlined division of labour strategy and implementation of a competitive business strategy.
Potential sources of sustainable competitive advantage
Continued investment in the long haul is a crucial source of sustainable competitive advantage for Emirates Airline. If implemented, this strategy would ensure that the company continues to be effective in its provision of long haul flights at a cheaper and cost effective rate than its competitors. Expansion of long haul flights to better and new territories is vital. The company can achieve a major competitive advantage by venturing in the provision of personalised flights and widening its scope of offering private and public service cabs so as to ensure the safety of clients in the airports and air strips to their home destinations.
Other potential aspects of long term competitiveness of the Emirates Airline are the increased diversification and investment in the airport related services. However, diversification of services to cab services should not be misinterpreted to mean that the services are of higher priority than the mainstream airline services. The maintenance of a simplified, cost effective and reliable management hierarchy is a crucial mechanism that has continued to give Emirates Airline an unmatched competitive advantage.
Recommendations
It is crucial to ensure that the accessibility level of Emirates Airline’s flights and other related telecommunication services are made accessible to clients. While it is important and beneficial to continue undertaking employee training, the training should be more objective. It should also be focused on addressing employees’ personal welfare concerns that can hinder their effectiveness in job performance. This way, both corporate clients and customers would receive appropriate services.
Terrorism is a major threat to the operations of Emirates Airline especially in the Middle East region. Terrorism has continued to discourage clients from using certain routes that have previously been a preserve of the Emirates Airline. The airline should reinforce its security strategies and thus boost the customer loyalty and trust in the services offered by the company. This idea can best be realised by constantly evaluating its security strategies and any existing challenges and in turn employ streamlined information technologies that would not compromise customers’ privacy (General Review, 2006).
Accident and environmental degradation incidences which have been on the increase should be minimised by integrating relevant security processes and enhancing openness in all security agencies. Installation of efficiency engines should be undertaken in an appropriate manner thus minimising the amount of carbon emitted to the environment. The adopted global strategy should not only be limited to increasing flight numbers to the United States but also on reforming its operational mechanisms in the pacific region. This strategy should be incorporated to the already existing “open skies” stratagem which eliminates unwarranted travel sanctions. However, the company needs to adopt a more realistic approach when forming alliances. This idea is brought about by the fact that the “open skies” strategy is not accepted in all airline state partners such as Australia, Egypt and Canada. Due to the high cost of fuel, Emirates Airline needs to be more focused on enhancing reliability and minimising its unwarranted expenses that could in turn discourage the company’s clients from using Emirates Airline (Damian, 2000).
It is crucial that the Emirates Airline’s top level managers critically examine both the positive and negative potential impact of the company’s business operations with the aim of streamlining business operations and enhancing productivity. In enhancing efficiency and independence, Emirates Airline should work towards eliminating overdependence on government protection (Learmount, 2006). This fact would ensure that the airline’s operations are not interfered with as a result of possible national financial crisis. For sustainability, the company should endeavour to undertake effective and ethical business processes aimed at minimising inefficiency. This aspect could be realised by adhering to its well defined ethical values, moral code of conduct and undertaking ethical competitive strategies. Emirates Airline needs to focus on enhancing customer experience, reliability of services and minimisation of travel risks.
References
Bamber et al. (2009). Up in the Air: How Airlines Can Improve Performance by Engaging their Employees. Ithaca, USA: Cornell University Press.
Damian, R. (2000). Emirates poised to join Star Alliance. Daily Telegraph, p. 11.
Evans, J. R. & Lindsay, W. M. (2010). Managing for Quality and Performance Excellence. Connecticut, USA: South-Western Cengage Learning.
General Review. (2006). Emirates, American and Embraer, why are these three air industry companies beating the odds. Strategic Direction, 22 (6), 23-36.
Learmount, D. (2006). Emirates censured in Airbus A340 Johannesburg runway overrun probe. Flightglobal, 34(4), 35-46.
Nataraja, S., & Al-Aali, A. (2011). The Exceptional performance strategies of Emirates Airline, Competitveness Review. An International Business Journal, 21 (5), 12-26.