Etihad Airways Business - Case Study Example

Global Соnnесtiоn through Тесhnоlоgy Name: Course: Institution: Tutor: Date: Global Соnnесtiоn through Тесhnоlоgy Introduction Etihad Airway is the national carrier for the United Arab Emirates. The airline is based at Abu Dhabi. Etihad Airways has been dubbed as a fast growing airline within the commercial aviation industry. The airline business model is a low cost premium service airline (High, 2015). . The product lines are passenger flights complemented by the Air Cargo Flights. The airline has several customer products including the Diamond First Class, the Pearl Business Class, as well as the Coral Economy Class. The company offers twenty-four hour check-in and chauffer services as well as boasting of well trained, friendly, and informative employees. The award winning airline has a strong focus on the employees with various training programs designed to enhance the performance of the employees and boost their career progression. The airline has also partnered with several world class airlines including Equity airlines, Air Berlin, All Nippon Airways, and many others depending on their strategic positioning and healthy routes (High, 2015). Etihad key resources are a favorable hub location, a fleet of ninety-one flights, and an efficient ground handling through the airline owned airport. The airline is managed by a board of directors. The board is composed of seven non-executive members. The operational team is led by a president who is also the Chief Executive Director (High, 2015). In 2015, the airline entered into a strategic agreement with Cognizant to drive the digital motion. The digital company is expected to re-image customer experience through data insights that are geared towards the improvement of customers’ needs satisfaction. The web applications are integrated to the digital platform with a key digital center operating as an innovative technology partner (High, 2015). Some of the applications will be booking online, modify a reservation, shop on-line through the redemption of air miles, and signing up for vocational packages. The Etihad Airways implementation of information technology is aimed at bringing all the passenger services as well as the information technology system on a single platform where all reservations, ticketing, scheduling. Slot planning and modification of reservations will be channeled with the aim of ensuring that the passengers’ needs are catered for at all times efficiently and on time (High, 2015). Etihad Airways Business Model Partners Main activities Value proposition Customer relations transactions informational flows Air Malta Air Canada Air France Air New Zealand Air Seychelles Al Nippon Airways Passengers, Travel and cargo movement. Upper middle class upward High-end customers lifestyle Chauffeured taxis, Etihad lounge Book online, make a reservation modify a reservation, shop on-line by redeeming your air miles Management Resources Cost structure Products Board of directors, President and chief executive officer, Management team Airline Hub, Airplane, Planes, code-sharing, and support from the government. Low Cost Carriers with high end The Diamond First Class, the Pearl Business Class, and the Coral Economy Class. Figure 1: Etihad unification model, Business Intelligence: Practices, Technologies, and Management, 2011, (Adopted from the Delta unification model). The core business process model is used to specify the set organizational capabilities that are needed in order to respond to the customers depending on the adopted operating model. In the case of Etihad (the model is adopted from Delta unification model) the core processes are made of the customer experience, the operational pipeline, the employee relations, and the business reflexes (Figure 1). These processes are interlinked through the sharing of data across the product lines. For the Itihad Airways, the nine identifiable databases are positioned at the core of the diagram and are shown to relate to the location, schedule, flight, equipment, maintenance, employee, customer, ticketing, and the aircraft. Placing Etihad Airways on a digital quadrant Etihad Airways qualifies as a digital master because it exhibits strong overarching digital vision, it exhibits strong governance, and has initiated many digital-based operations that are aimed at generating measurable business value, and has also established a strong digital culture. It can, therefore, be said that Etihad Airways is in the classification of Digital Masters. It simply means that in Digital Masters, the leaders of an organization understands the digital experience should not be taken as a technology challenge, rather, it is a transformational opportunity which should be used to make the organization a better business (Westerman, 2015). The Digital Masters experience requires the top management attention in order to make the digital transformation. Digital Playbook The term play book is borrowed from the sporting world. It simply refers to the various strategies, when applied, would result in the team winning. In recent times, the term has been adopted in the business world to define enterprises’ approach to the application of strategies especially in the digitized operations to communicate and deliver superior customer experiences (Dyché, 2015). The play book has also been defined as an operational manual that is used to map out the digital strategies that an organization may wish to pursue. A digital playbook offers much needed structure and governance. The playbook is also used to educate management and employees as well as helping in managing expectations. Ultimately, the playbook enables organizations, and more specifically, the tasks teams, to be more strategic in the management of their digital experiences (Dyché, 2015). Some scholars have viewed the digital playbook as a notional range of the possible strategies and tactics in any area of activity. The play book should outline how an organization is to use its digital capabilities through the established best practices for the chosen channels, learning experiences, and the future plans for better digital exploitation (Dyché, 2015). The first step in establishing the digital playbook is to identify the needs of needs of the groups of people who are to use the digital services and how such services fit with their lives. The organization’s decision makers should include the users into the design process of the digital playbook from the beginning. Thus, the people needs are often used to inform the design and technical decisions. The playbook should also be simple and intuitive so that all the users can succeed on the first exposure without any help (Dyché, 2015). The playbook design should allow for flexible style guide for the digital services by applying accessible best practices to ensure that the service can be used by all the people. The playbook should also use a language that is familiar and easy to understand to the people who use it. References Dyché, J. (2015). Business strategy and it innovation. Retrieved from: http://www.cio.com/article/2920791/customer-relationship-management/creating-your-digital-playbook.html High, P. (2015). The world's fastest growing airline reinvents: the flying experience. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/peterhigh/2015/08/24/the-worlds-fastest-growing-airline-reinvents-the-flying-experience/#710ca93367da Westerman, G. (2015). How ‘Digital Masters’ drive transformation from the top down. Retrieved from: http://www.cio.com/article/2976551/leadership-management/how-digital-masters-drive-transformation-from-the-top-down.html Read More