1. Mission and Vision Statements
Mission Statement:
British airways is dedicated to providing year round low-fare flights to global destinations, professional maintenance and quality cargo services; Offering the best by setting the industry standards through brilliant innovation.
Vision:
Thriving to become the leader in world travel, to create the largest route network in the world and to inspire flight for all.
(Tough, n.d.)
(British Airways, 2010)
(Sinek, 2007)
2. Stakeholders
British Airlines should consider its stakeholders. These include Employees, Shareholders, customers, the government and the community. British airlines must identify its most important stakeholders who have high influence and high interest in their business on board. In my opinion the three most important stakeholders are employees, customers, and shareholders.
Employees are one of the company’s most important assets. Pilots, engineers, customer service and maintenance and flight crews amongst others are what drive the airline business. Employees must always be on board with the companies decisions especially high profile managers and pilots, those who are skilled and cannot be easily replaced. “It’s about offering greater diversity, more development, better training and more valuable experience. It’s about investing in our employees and their futures. For its only when they realise their full potential that we can achieve our broader business goals.” (British Airways, 2010) This shows how dedicated BA is to its ethical responsibilities towards its employees. BA can keep its employees on board by encouraging their input and providing them not only with job security but with a sense of importance and justice in treatment. BA provides its employees with training opportunities, discounts on flights, holiday entitlements and several profit sharing schemes amongst many others available to employees depending on their contracts. BA is very generous when it comes to remuneration packages. (British Airways, 2010)
Shareholders are the owners of the business they hold the right to elect the board of directors who manage the business, this shows how powerful shareholders are and how important it is to keep them on board with BA. I believe shareholders are the most powerful stakeholders at British airlines. BA has dedicated a website to inform its shareholder of its latest news and created a special platform for investor relations at bashares.com. BA must keep shareholders informed at all times, they must hold meetings with shareholders to discuss the performance of the business and what steps are being taken to improve it. I believe BA is doing more than enough to keep shareholders close and within its inner loop by providing them with published financial statements and a yearly prospectus amongst other means of reporting and further more collaboration. Shareholders have received a fair rate of return on their investments so far with dividends percentages ranging from 2.25% up to 12.8% from 1987 up till 2008 (British Airlines, 2010)
“Customer satisfaction and the opinion of all of our stakeholders is key to defining our success. British Airways needs to understand its stakeholders – customers, opinion leaders and employees – to better inform business decisions. Therefore, in-depth and thorough measurement and research are in place to provide this important information.” (British Airlines, 2010) Customers are important not only to BA but to any business no-one can deny that. British Airlines values its customers and keeps them on board through efficient means of research. BA conducts an ongoing survey which measures customer response to their services. “Over 570,000 people completed the on-board survey, an average of over 48,000 per month.” (British Airlines, 2010) British Airlines use the customer feedback to improve customer satisfaction. According to BA they have used the survey’s results to make available more cost effective meal options during their flights and to put in place an easy to use pre-flight booking and checking in system amongst others. BA currently provides special offers to its frequent flyers through membership in its executives club.
“We started our journey towards responsible air travel in 1984 and along the way we discovered that our customers love to fly but are concerned about their impact on the environment.” (British Airways, 2010) British Airways is currently working towards meeting the needs of the community and the environment through a government approved CO2 offsetting scheme where money raised is used to support the use renewable energy all over the world. British Airways is also supporting the local communities in countries they operate by providing donations, free flights and cargo amongst others.
3. Economic and Social Environment
“Rules doubling the amount of passenger duty people pay when taking flights from the UK have come into force.” (BBC, 2007) The U.K forces duties on passengers flying out of the U.K with any airline including British Airways. The duty has raised costs for passengers in the U.K. drastically In 2009 IATA described the tax as “irresponsible” and urged the U.K government to reconsider. This duty may create less demand for British Airlines Services in the U.K where it is based. I believe that British Airways is most affected by this duty as it is based in the U.K and it’s the most popular for Internal flights within the U.K. British Airways PLC is registered in England and It abides by the laws and legislations set by the U.K and this effects its operations in the U.K and abroad.
The U.K’s has a mixed economy where resources are owned and allocated by both the public and private sectors. In a mixed economy the government has partial control and it effects the operations of the private sector through different economic policies. The fiscal policy includes changes in government taxation, spending and borrowing and how these policies are administered can have a great effect on British Airways. Lower rates of corporate tax and other taxes that maybe applied to BA would encourage the company to increase its capital investment in the U.K. The Government’s fiscal policy controls the economy mainly through the manipulation of demand. The government may apply its influence through several areas it controls as in tax revenues welfare spending and the budget balance. The UK economic policy aims to encourage “higher levels of capital investment and labour productivity” (Riley, 2008)
British Airways is expected to abide by the U.K’s employment legislations in the U.K and at its offices abroad. Some of the legislations include anti-discrimination acts, equal opportunity and the 48-hour work week which restricts BA from forcing their workers to work over 48-hours a week unless they give away this right by signing an “opt -out” agreement. BA was privatized and turned into a public limited company in 1987 by offering shares to the public. BA’s profits increased drastically after its privatisation and its privatization remains one of the most successful. The services sector is the dominant sector of the U.K economy and BA is one of the largest in the sector as its revenues have reached � 8.9 Billion in the year 2009 (British Airways, 2009).
The UK Health and Safety Commission (HSC) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) are responsible for the regulation health and safety in the U.K. British Airways is to be monitored and regulated by these government agencies with accordance to the Health and Safety at Work Act (HASAWA) regarding all its activities within the borders of the U.K “The Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 applies to aircraft in and over Great Britain but has no role outside the airspace above Great Britain…. Thus, HSE has no active responsibilities in relation to the health of airline passengers or crew.” (House of Lords, 2000) Since 911 the airlines industry has realized how targeted it is and how it affects society. British Airways has assumed its responsibility and currently spends over �100 Million yearly on security measures to keep the world safe.
Bibliography
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British Airlines (2010) Customer Care, [Online], Available: http://www.britishairways.com/travel/crcusthome/public/en_gb [7 March 2010].
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Riley, G. (2008) AS Economics Course Companion.
Sinek, S. (2007) Re:Focus, 10June, [Online], Available: http://sinekpartners.typepad.com/refocus/2007/06/writing_a_visio.html.
Tough, M. Creating a Mission and Vision Statement, [Online], Available: http://www.sideroad.com/Business_Communication/mission-and-vision-statement.html [7 March 2010]