Strategic Planning for Virginia Airline Organization

Introduction

Strategic planning refers to a set of activities and decisions that managers take to help their organizations to achieve their goals. Strategic planning is a tool that help in managers in making decisions with the aim of provision of innovative changes in an organization to a satisfactory level (Lorange,2010).  Strategic planning aims at the identification of the most promising sections of the organization that will help in its prosperity (Richard, 2010). Strategic planning should have its base on the analysis of prospects which focus on the organization development with an assumption of the dynamics in the environment under which it operates.  This report will focus on the application of strategic planning in Virginia Airline organization and how it works. The organization works in a very challenging environment which requires a proper plan to meet the market demands and fulfil the expectations of the stakeholders. The report will also provide an assessment of Virginia Airline business vision, mission, and the major competencies that that help the organization to prosper in its business.

Virginia Airline is a global flight transport service company that was opened to the public in 1984. It is located in the United Kingdom in Washington DC. It is a private industry strategically located to serve the people effectively.  In 1984, Richard Branson was the Chief Executive Officer.  The company operates at a global level and offer transport services to over two hundred countries across the world.  In the year 2012, the average capacity service of that the company offered was 5.4 million passengers making it merit the seventh-largest airline transport company in the United Kingdom. Additionally, the company released a profit pre-tax of $14.4 million in December in the year 2014. The company started from a small aircraft called Boeing and applied various approaches for strategic development. The company made its Aircraft sit roomie help it compete effectively in the market.  It implemented the application of television in all it planes for every client to be more comfortable to choose a preferred channel to watch. Moreover, the company made procurement for the frequent top travelers through offering special pick up services from their home to the airport. The company implemented a VIP lounge to make the passengers more comfortable. These activities made the company to achieve a higher capacity of passengers than its competitors.

The company has competitors who require an organized system of leadership and planning of activities to ensure that it maximizes on the provision of satisfactory services. The organization applies two concepts of strategy to ensure they are at the top of the market environment. It applies operational plan in the mobilization of its staff to ensure that that there is coordination among various departments. The organization use tactic plan to ensure that it ensure that it embraces activities that affect all the smaller divisions within it. Virginia Airline organization merges all these strategies to ensure that there is efficient operation within the company to ensure the provision of quality services that satisfy the customers. The organization meets the tactic plans to meet the objectives of the operational plan which finally result in the advancement of the final purpose of the strategic plan. The company has a wide area of operation that requires it to plan its way of operations well to ensure that it wins most of the customers. Its competitors are also out to implement unique strategies that force the company to advance its strategic plans to ensure that they achieve its goals. Strategic planning will entail looking at the dynamics in the market environment to help the company to advance in its ways of operations that will ensure maximization of profit.

Virginia Airline organization operates under mission, vision, goals, and objectives to fulfil in its strategic plan to be at the top in the competitive market environment. Its vision statement includes organizational values and directs the employees’ behavior through assisting in the provision of inspiration.  Strategic plans may need marketing strategies that may involve a vision statement that helps in the inspiration of the consumers to cooperate with the organization (Bryson, 2011). The vision statement of Virginia organization is “Fulfilling the potential demands of the customers through making their journey more comfortable and set the standards for others who operate in the same industry. The mission statement of Virginia airline organization clarifies the purpose and key quantifiable objectives of the company. Some of the concerns of the strategic plan is a change in the mission statement to give a reflection on the new direction that the organization will take. Strategic planning has successes and failures. Mission statement help in gauging whether the plan aligns itself with the general goals of the organization.  Virginia Airline mission is to grow a beneficial airline where people prefer to fly and work.

In the context of strategic planning, a goal refers to the expected position of an organization or the desired destination.  It is possible for an organization to set many goals that will determine its path to follow for the achievement of the vision. Objectives measure change to clarify on the achievement of the goals which the organization set. It is necessary for an organization to set goals to ensure that all the objectives are achieved. Similarly, every goal that is in the strategic plan will need some objectives for the success of their achievement. Among the goals of the Virginia Airline organization includes making a profit that will help in the maintenance of the shareholders. In the process, the customers should be happy to continue with their investment in the company to enable it to expand. Secondly, the organization aims at expanding its services in other countries which are not yet reached. Finally, the company focus on providing quality services to the customers which will make them win more markets in the competitive environment.

Some theories explain strategic planning which the leadership of the company should know. Among these theories is the core competence theory. This is a strategy theory that is concerned with the prescription of actions that an organization should apply for the achievement of competitive advantage in the market environment. It states that an organization must major on the strengths and all the areas of competencies. The theory also defines the components of core competency that will make it difficult for the competitors to imitate. It can be reutilized all over the market in which the organization dominates and the product it offers.  Focus on value addition is also important to the end user of the product that originates from the competencies of the organization involved in the production.  It is therefore important for an organization to apply all the core competencies because these competencies are the fundamental basis for the value addition within the organization. Richard Branson is the major core competency of Virginia Airline company.

The employees of the company also form its competency. Richard’s charismatic style of leadership proves him be an asset to the organization.  Richard expresses effective leadership through the management of the available human resource effectively. The employees can give their opinion on what they feel can improve the operation of the organization to be preferable to most of the customers. Giving employees an opportunity to air their views make them be motivated to work towards the achievement of the vision of the company. The other competency that the company possesses is its brand name. The company is famous in different countries because of its brand name which people associate with quality services. The esteemed customers of the company influence others to prefer it because of its quality services. The name is also prestigious to most of the people who make them to passionately like the company.

For strategic plans to effectively function, there are some important factors to consider. It is important to develop a strategic plan by creating a vision which focuses on the future and formulates strategies that will enable it to achieve the goals. Some of the strategic plans may fail to give the expected results. The top leadership within the organization can some times fail to identify some of the reasons why these plans fail and continue to implement the same plan cycle severally with a hope of getting a positive result in future (Thompson, 2001). It is necessary to identify the factors that can affect the success of any organization. Some of these factors include internal and external factors. Internal business factors are those factors that are found within the organization and will affect the strategies and success of all the options selected for the success of the organization (Kokemuler, 2016).  The internal environment will evaluate the qualities of and the weaknesses of the organization and enable it to have a focus on the relative quality variations.  The internal factors include the behavior of the employees, the culture of the organization and all other factors which enhance the operation of the organization. Virginia Airline company is successful in the expansion of its market and its fame because of clear vision which enables the emp0loyee to observe good conduct. The employees observe ethics to ensure peaceful coexistence. There is also an opportunity given to the employees to give their opinion on some issues. They can explore more to enable the company to have more markets.

The external environment involves the factors which are out of the company door which is not easy to control. The management of the strength of the internal operations and organization of potential opportunities and threats which are not within the organization are keys in ensuring the success of the business (Kokemuller, 2016).  For instance, the manager cannot control some of the changes in the external environment of an organization like competition, change in business regulation, or monetary condition. However, the Chief Executive Officer can apply some measures that will help in the control and responding to the external environment variations. It is possible to regulate these external environment variations through the application of many activities. First, it is important to identify the competitors. Competition is one of the issues that can make the most organization to fail in their way of operation. It is important for an organization to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors to enable it to select approaches that will enable it to overcome the competitors in the market. The organization should also be aware of its competitors’ strategies to identify the best ways to approach the competitive market environment to be the best. Virginia company is trying so hard to improve its services to outcompete the competitors. It emphasizes comforting its customers through the implementation of VIP lounge in the planes which most of the competitors lack. The lounges have very comfortable seats which the customers can position at their own prefer comfort. Additionally, the company has fitted the plane with television where each passenger can watch their channel of preference. These improvements have made the company to win more customers and boosted their company fame. From the quality services, many people prefer the company because they are sure of comfort. It is difficult to copy the strategy that Virginia company applies to maximize its marketability. The company, therefore, competes for a lot of the related company organizations and is almost at the position of outdoing them in the market field.  It is therefor important for the managers to identify their competitors to have control at a given level for this external factor.

Communication is also another important part of the process of planning. It is important to inform all the employees within an organization about the process of undertaking a strategic plan. It is also important to inform them about their roles during the planning process. It will help in getting their opinion by using surveys, focus groups, or holding meetings to get their opinion on the direction to take during the implementation of the strategic plan (Whittington & Scholes, 2011). After collecting the ideas of the employees, the manager communicates the strategic plan to all the employees and communicate the role they will play during the execution of the program. Virginia Airline organization has a good communication structure which enables its employees to cooperate with the management to ensure that all the strategic plans are undertaken according to the set standards of the organization.

It is important to focus on the innovative in cases where the innovation of a new product is needed. Innovation strategies that organizations can apply include reshaping of the culture of the organization to be more innovative and implementation of the process of management of innovations. It will be possible to drive and deliver newly introduced products and services. It is important for the organization to identify all the necessary projects that will ensure success in executing the strategies. It is important to give priority to these projects to make them succeed (Stanleigh, 2016).

SWOT analysis

Virginia Airline should focus on all its strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and treats to ensure there is effectiveness in its strategic plan. It is important to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the organization and all the suspected and available threats. After understanding all these issues, an organization will be able to identify the opportunities that can help it to grab more markets. Understanding of these issues will enable the organizations to identify its weaknesses and improve where necessary. Virginia company has a lot of strengths. One of tis strength is the brand name it has which has enabled it to be famous in most of the countries in the world. The company also offers quality services that enable it to defeat all the similar companies. Many customers prefer Virginia services because they are quality and at an affordable cost to most of the individuals. The organization also have a good management structure with well-trained employees who are responsible. Virginia airline also has many awards from their efficiency in performance.  Analyzing the strengths of the company will enable it to be more ambitious to exploit more of the markets that it has not reached through encouraging innovation. There are opportunities that the company has not to exploit.

The available opportunity for the Virginia company includes the application of online services to make the services more convenient to the customers. It will make the customers to book the company transport services at their comfort zones comfortably. There is also an opportunity for the expansion of the market because of the global operation of the company. Some of the competitors in the US are very weak, and the company can thwart their operations.  There are more holidays destinations in the Caribbean Island.  Additionally, the company has the opportunity to advertise its products online through creation of a website and linking it to different social networks where many people will get access to the information about the latest services that the company offers. The company has failed to implement ways through which it can identify the appropriate time to offer maximum services. This is because there is still a lack of knowledge on the market research to enable it to predict the future more comfortably.

Among the threats that the company face includes natural calamities like storms and hurricanes, recession, fluctuating fuel prices, cheaper budget airlines, and competition from outer routes. The company identify these threats and is working on the strategies that apply to counteract these threats. Strategic plan requires the managers to look into ways to mitigate all the threats within an organization. Virginia Airline should time the periods for traveling to maximize on the profits tha its competitor’s mite get when they monopolize the market at such periods.

Strategic planning also requires an organization to focus on its culture. Organizational structure is unique just as the personality of an individual. The perception of the employees and their attitude towards change will determine the way through which it will be received by the individuals within the organization. When the employees believe that change should be handled with fear, then implementation of such a change can be reactive and haphazard. However, if they believe that it has value, and everyone has a responsibility to embrace it then the change will occur relatively.  Virginia company emphasize in the collective implementation of any change that the organization plans to embrace. The employees are responsible for ensuring the embracement of the proposed change. The organization is also motivating the employees when the changes are successful. They, therefore, get the morale to embrace all the changes that the company may implement. It is also important to carry out a continuous assessment during the implementation of a new change. After a new plan has been executed, it is important to carry out an evaluation and assessment to ensure improvement in the planning process. This will ensure an improvement of the quality of the planning materials and all the important deliverables (Simerson, 2011). The company assesses all its plans. It does it through collecting information from the customers on their perceptions about a newly implemented activity. The company also give its employees an opportunity to give their views on what they feel about a given proposal that the company focus to implement in its business activities.

The strategic plan also requires the effective application of techniques during the development of the plans. Porter’s Five Force models help an organization in the determination of the type of completion available in the industry area.  These include supplier power, buyer power, treatment of the new entrants, entry of the substitute goods, and the enmity existing among the players. This model is essential for any company which is producing goods for the first time in a new market and assist it to have more knowledge about the business. Virginia applies this approach by joining Delta Airline for it to go to new places where they will be able to get more markets. The model also provides more understanding of the business and will help the organization to identify the appropriate market strategy. The organization will be able to understand the knowledge on the supplier power, the power of the buyers, and the meaning of new entrants, and substitutes in a competitive marketing environment. To Virginia company when the suppliers refuse to offer food to the passengers in the plane, or fuel to enable flight, they will declare their situation as a crisis and look for remedies as quickly as possible to save the situation. Buyer [power in Virginia organization refers to the number of individuals that can book the plane at different times. When the passengers to book the plane is not there, the organization may collapse.

References

Bryson J (2011) Strategic Planning For Profit And Non-Profit Organization. John Wiley and son
Richard T. (2010). Author. 7th Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education Inc. p. 192.
Whittington, R. & Scholes K. (2011) Exploring strategy. London. Prentice Hal
Kokemuller, N. (2016) Chron: What Are Internal & External Environmental Factors That Affect Business. Oxford Press
Thompson J. L (2001) Understanding Corporate Strategy, Thompson Learning