Case Study Description of Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B)
This is a Darden case study.Despite the incident at takeoff, the British Airways pilots, after discussion with the airline engineers at Heathrow Airport in London, decided to continue the flight uninterrupted. Although the plane landed safely in England, the decision to continue flying set off a hailstorm of criticism and sparked tension between the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and the CAA, the British equivalent. This case discusses the fallout from the incident, and the ramifications of the decision that was made. See also the A case (UV0773).
Authors :: R. Edward Freeman, Jenny Mead
Topics :: Technology & Operations
Tags :: Ethics, Government, International business, Leadership, Risk management, Social responsibility, Sustainability, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis
Swot Analysis of "Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B)" written by R. Edward Freeman, Jenny Mead includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that British Flying facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Ethics, Government, International business, Leadership, Risk management, Social responsibility, Sustainability and Technology & Operations.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, increasing transportation and logistics costs, supply chains are disrupted by pandemic , competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, wage bills are increasing, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, digital marketing is dominated by two big players Facebook and Google,
challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B)
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the British Flying, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which British Flying operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of British Flying
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Technology & Operations field.
4. Making a Technology & Operations topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of British Flying
Strengths Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of British Flying in Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) Harvard Business Review case study are -
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that British Flying has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Digital Transformation in Technology & Operations segment
- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For British Flying digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. British Flying has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.
Superior customer experience
– The customer experience strategy of British Flying in the segment is based on four key concepts – personalization, simplification of complex needs, prompt response, and continuous engagement.
Analytics focus
– British Flying is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by R. Edward Freeman, Jenny Mead can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Technology & Operations industry
– Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled British Flying to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Technology & Operations industry. The sustainable margins have also helped British Flying to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
Highly skilled collaborators
– British Flying has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of British Flying in the sector have low bargaining power. Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps British Flying to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
Training and development
– British Flying has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the British Flying are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Successful track record of launching new products
– British Flying has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. British Flying has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.
Effective Research and Development (R&D)
– British Flying has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.
Operational resilience
– The operational resilience strategy in the Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.
Weaknesses Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) are -
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract British Flying 's lucrative customers.
Increasing silos among functional specialists
– The organizational structure of British Flying is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Technology & Operations segment. British Flying needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help British Flying to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) HBR case study mentions - British Flying takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, British Flying needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
Products dominated business model
– Even though British Flying has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, British Flying is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Interest costs
– Compare to the competition, British Flying has borrowed money from the capital market at higher rates. It needs to restructure the interest payment and costs so that it can compete better and improve profitability.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B), is just above the industry average. British Flying needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
Skills based hiring
– The stress on hiring functional specialists at British Flying has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though British Flying has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
No frontier risks strategy
– After analyzing the HBR case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B), it seems that company is thinking about the frontier risks that can impact Technology & Operations strategy. But it has very little resources allocation to manage the risks emerging from events such as natural disasters, climate change, melting of permafrost, tacking the rise of artificial intelligence, opportunities and threats emerging from commercialization of space etc.
Opportunities Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) are -
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for British Flying in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Technology & Operations segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for British Flying to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Reforming the budgeting process
- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects British Flying can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at British Flying can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Technology & Operations segment.
Redefining models of collaboration and team work
– As explained in the weaknesses section, British Flying is facing challenges because of the dominance of functional experts in the organization. Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) case study suggests that firm can utilize new technology to build more coordinated teams and streamline operations and communications using tools such as CAD, Zoom, etc.
Increase in government spending
– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, British Flying can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that British Flying operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Technology & Operations sector.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help British Flying to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Creating value in data economy
– The success of analytics program of British Flying has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help British Flying to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) case study. British Flying can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– British Flying has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help British Flying to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for British Flying in the consumer business. Now British Flying can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Manufacturing automation
– British Flying can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Technology & Operations segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities
– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for British Flying to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for British Flying to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.
Loyalty marketing
– British Flying has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Threats Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) are -
Learning curve for new practices
– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B), British Flying may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Technology & Operations .
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, British Flying can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) .
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for British Flying in the Technology & Operations sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
High dependence on third party suppliers
– British Flying high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Instability in the European markets
– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. British Flying will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for British Flying in the Technology & Operations industry. The Technology & Operations industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
High level of anxiety and lack of motivation
– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. British Flying needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Technology & Operations industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.
Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc
– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.
Environmental challenges
– British Flying needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. British Flying can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Technology & Operations industry.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Technology & Operations field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. British Flying can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Regulatory challenges
– British Flying needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Technology & Operations industry regulations.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– British Flying can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Flying Light: British Airways Flight 268 (B) is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that British Flying needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
