Royal National Lifeboat Institute - Case Study Example

 Royal National lifeboat Institute Abstract The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a charity registered in England Wales, and Scotland. The foundation of this charity was laid based on an appeal by Sir William Hillary with royal sponsorship, in the year 1824. It was originally known as the National Institution for the Preservation of Life. Hillary was a witness to the wrecking of several numbers of ships and felt pained at the pathetic conditions of the victims. The name was subsequently changed to the Royal National Lifeboat Institution in 1854, when cork lifejackets were first issued to crew members. Since its inception, the RNLI has saved more than 139,000 lives , the proof of which are the innumerable stories of courage of sailors and volunteers who have stood the social and technological change over a period of time. The purpose, vision and values of RNLI clearly define their activities i.e. Purpose is “saving lives at sea”, Vision is to “end preventable loss at sea” and the Values are “selfless, dependable, trustworthy and courageous”. Their philosophy is not to seek funding from the government but the lifesaving service is provided by volunteers, and the organization is supported by contributions, donations and legacies on a purely voluntary basis. The entire operation is performed through local teams but with resources and directions from a central location. They have gained expertise through the history and tradition of the RNLI’s achievement of almost two centuries. The whole objective is to carry out preservation of life at sea and on the water, primarily by prevention and rescue operations. Introduction This report is a case study of Royal National Lifeboat Institute. It is aimed at understanding the institute and in order to do so, the marketing strategy of the institute is analyzed and a SWOT analysis is conducted. Research question “Role of Royal National Lifeboat Institute in saving lives of sea going personnel” Royal National lifeboat Institute (RNLI) It is a charity which saves the lives at sea around the coasts of Great Britain, Ireland, and the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man as well as on the selected inland waterways. It was founded by Sir William Henry on 4th March 1824. It was started with the name of National Institute for the Preservation of Life from Ship wrecks; after thirty years it was named Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI). The idea of this Institute came up in his mind when he was on the Isle of Man and had witnessed the treacherous nature of the sea causing dozens of accidents of ships. So he decided to save their lives and then at his appeal, this charity was founded. In 1854, lifejackets were issued to the crew first time. In 1891, the first street collection was held at Manchester. This charity is established with the purpose of saving lives at sea. Its vision is to end preventable loss of life at sea. They all are dedicated towards their vision. They work together like a team to come up with the situation. Till now RNLI has saved more than 139000 lives. Now it has 444 lifeboats and 235 lifeboat stations. For saving lives, it has two main categories of lifeboats:- All weather boats: Weight of large boats is more than 40 metric tons, 1250hp engines, its speed is 25knots and its cost is around £2 millions. Inshore lifeboats: These are small boats which work at the shores and are able to operate in shallow waters. It has different types of lifeboats for different places. When any incident occurs at the sea, then firstly it gets all the detail about the incident from the coastguard and then the crew can plot a course to the casualty. After arriving at the scene, they tell about their arrival to the coastguard and after that they assess the situation and take up the further steps. If possible they had a talk With the casualty and provide them reassurance. With courage, determination and skills the crew Is able to carry out their plans and work towards successful outcomes. The crew members are the well trained and skilled people. Today there are over 4500 lifeboat crew members who ordinary people are doing an extra job. They can be called out whenever required from their beds. They are very courageous people. The different types of people who work in RNLI are Crew members: They are volunteers to work for saving lives. They are dedicated and willing to work. They respond in a minute time as soon as they get the information of the incident. Lifeguards: Like crew members, they are also willing to work and they are paid professionals. The number of lifeguards varies according to the risks at the sea. They keep a check on the people playing and surfing at the sea. They work in drastic situations. Shore helpers: They help in assisting the lifeboat station and check out the launching of the lifeboat. Fundraisers: They work for raising funds to run out the institute. They raise funds from all parts of the country. They sponsored the events, concerts and race etc for raising funds. Trustees: It is the body of the volunteers who carry out all the financial activities of the RNLI who are responsible for approving the strategic and business plans (RNLI, 2011). Marketing strategy The current marketing situation is very competitive and demands a strategy which will ensure a consistent approach to offer product / service to the customers. This approach should be such that you get advantage over your competitors, in other words, you outsell them in every way. However, in order to implement it, one mush has a very well defined method or process in place so that its implementation is smooth. The RNLI is a very well established and love organization, who are involved in charity task for the service of nation. However being a charity organization, their focus is on social service and they need marketing support. This is essential if they wish to continue spreading the good work done by them and also raise team of volunteers and funds for running the organization. For this purpose, they seek the help of Marketing Matters an organization which has helped them with their charity work for the past 10 years or so (Marketing Matters Ltd, 2011). The marketing strategy involves formulating a reliable and creative marketing communication service programs. The primary aim of this is to add value to an assorted range of promotional and fundraising activities. Marketing Matters takes the route of promotional techniques e.g. corporate displays, publications through direct mailers, on – line advertising etc, to name a few. This kind of strategic and tactical support has helped the charity to attract members and raise substantial voluntary contributions. The team at Marketing Matters is dedicated and creative. Their team members have gained experience with a number of other major charities and this has helped them to provide excellent service to RNLI. SWOT analysis SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats. From a traditional perspective, “a SWOT confines strengths and weaknesses to your company's internal workings while opportunities and threats refer only to the external environment (Pahl & Richter, 2009). Strengths includes the resources and capabilities of the firm used for taking a competitive advantage. The strength of RNLI is the quality of its work; either it is related to the tools they use or the human resource. It had maintained its standards. It gives better service for saving the lives of the people at the sea. It always launched for its rescue operation with full equipments so that it can protect the lives of the people. RNLI doesn’t have any competitor to beat on so it is also an advantage to it. Weakness is an absence of some strength. Every thing has both some positive and negative points in it. So it is with RNLI also. It has some communication problem which may cause delays when coastguard asked for the relevant crew to move on, and then there is degree of uncertainty that the message was received or not. Another weakness was that sometime crew only had little information about the incident which may cause loss to the lives of crew members. Opportunities are needed for earning profits and to grow. From time-to-time RNLI organized different events such as race, exhibitions, etc so as to raise funds which help them in executing their work. RNLI made use of new technology in its equipments so that its crew can make use of it in the dangerous rescue and can save lives. Threats Some threats are also there for the RNLI from its external environment. The future of fleets is under threat due to the increasing quota pressures. Besides this, there are other threats to RNLI such as technological advancements linked to risk-taking could affect the demand of lifeboats; climate change may also increase accidents at sea. Since the organization works purely on voluntary basis, there could be a shortage of funds also. RNLI Heritage Trust This trust works to preserves the objects and the archives of the RNLI which tell its story of service since 1824. It promotes the past, present and future of the RNLI through its museums. It was established in 2004 as a subsidiary charity of RNLI. They work together as partners. This trust receives its grant from RNLI to cover its expenses. It also relies on donations, grants and self-generated funds. RNLI heritage trust maintains the collection of historic records of lifeboat related items including photographs, fine art collection, etc. It has museums which are Grace Darling Museum, Whitby Museum, Henry Blogg Museum, Chatham Museum and Zetland Museum to keep the objects of the RNLI which show their past work and it can be used for future encouragement. All these branches take care of the RNLI for its historic records (RNLI, 2011). Some information about the museums would provide a linkage between RNLI heritage and the working of RNLI. Grace Darling Museum: This museum is located at Bamburg, Northumberland. In this museum one can learn about RNLI and can do research there. Many events are organized here like exhibitions. It was established in 1938 (RNLI, 2011). Whitby Museum: This museum was build in1895 and located at Pier Road, Whitby. The Museum has abundance lifeboat material including models, paintings, medals, etc. It also includes the information on famous Coxswains Henry Freeman and Tom Langlands (RNLI, 2011). Henry Blogg Museum: It was located in Croner, Norfolk. This museum was established to pay homage to the Coxswain Henry Blogg who was the most decorated life boatman of his time. With the help of his crew, he launched 387 times his lifeboats and saved 873 lives. It includes the history of lifeboats of Croner’s and Blogg’s most famous rescues (RNLI, 2011). Chatham Museum: This museum was situated at Chatham, Kent. Its lifeboat gallery contains 17 boats out of which many had earned bravery medals. At the gallery you can see lifeboats from Arun class to inflatable lifeboats (RNLI, 2011) Zetland Museum: This is situated at Esplanade, Redcar in Cleveland. Zetland was the oldest lifeboat built by Henry Greathead in 1802 and then it was named as “The Original”. This museum has figures which seem to have life and they tell us the story of sea rescues on the north coast (RNLI, 2011). The Headquarter of RNLI is located at Poole in Dorset. It holds open days for the public just once in every two years. Here, it encourages public to give charity for the institute so that it can easily carry out its operations for recues RNLI (2011). The heritage of RNLI and the present organization are very well linked together. Analyzing the working of RNLI, we notice that it has 150 lifeguards units around the coast of United Kingdom. Lifeguard members protect the people at the beaches who are enjoying a pleasurable time with their family. They keep an eye watch on their activities and save them from any mishap. They also make them aware about the safety measures to be taken at the beaches. The lifeguard unit has area lifeguard manager to check out the seasonal services provided on the beaches. There is a lifeguard supervisor who assists the manager in his work. Senior lifeguard checks out those services are provided on time and beach lifeguard monitors the activities of the people at the beach (RNLI, 2011). Besides all this, RNLI provides sea safety guide for the general public. Here the practical and informative safety material is given. The aim of the RNLI is to save lives by changing the attitudes of the people towards the safety of sea. This guide provides the top-level safety information to the general public so that they can take care of themselves while enjoying at the sea. Safety measures are taught to the general public by the ways of presentations, demonstrations of equipments and road shows so that people can easily understand them and can make use of it in their life, so that it ultimately leads to lesser accidents (RNLI, 2011). RNLI also provides best training to its employees who risk their lives to save others lives. In 2002, it introduced Crew Competency frameworks which provide appropriate qualifications to the crew members. It also opened the college in July which was named The Lifeboat College. They also give training at the coast to provide them the real experience so that they can perform better when they joined RNLI (RNLI, 2006). Recommendation For an efficient working, it is recommended that RNLI should increase its fund raising activities and engage the services of more agencies who would help them in not only raising of funds but also in creating an image in the minds of general public The working of any charity organization is largely dependent on funds and volunteers. So, if more and more volunteers pitch in their services, the success of the company can be guaranteed. There are a number of sports enthusiasts who love sea faring and voyages. All of them are at risk, while at sea. So if awareness is created amongst the general public about the safety (while having fun) then, more and more people would join as volunteer to help this organization References Marketing Matters Ltd (2011). Clients RNLI. [Online]. Available at: http://www.marketing-matters.co.uk/clients/case-studies/rnli/ Accessed on 3rd April, 2011 Pahl, N. & Richter, A. (2009). SWOT Analysis - Idea, Methodology and A Practical Approach. Norderstedt Germany: GRIN Verlag. RNLI (2006). The RNLI Today. [Online]. Available at: http://www.rnli.org.uk/upload/documents/RNLI%20factsheets/TheRNLITodayjun06.pdf accessed on 3rd April, 2011. RNLI (2011). RNLI people. [Online]. Available at: http://www.rnli.org.uk/who_we_are/rnli_people/ Accessed on 2nd April, 2011. RNLI (2011). The RNLI Heritage Trust. [Online]. Available at: http://www.rnli.org.uk/upload/whoweare/heritage/RNLIHeritage Trust factsheetv2.pdf Accessed on 2nd April, 2011. RNLI (2011). Grace Darling Museum. [Online]. Available at: http://www.rnli.org.uk/who_we_are/the_heritage_trust/grace-darling-museum/ Accessed on 3rd April, 2011 RNLI (2011). RNLI Sea Safety Guide's. [Online]. Available at: http://www.rnlisunderland.org/information/rnli_sea_safety/sea_safety_guides/%20pg194.html Accessed on 2nd April, 2011. RNLI (2011). Lifeguards. [Online]. Available at: http://www.rnli.org.uk/who_we_are/rnli_people/Lifeguards Accessed on 2nd April, 2011) RNLI (2011). The RNLI is the charity that saves lives at sea. [Online]. Available at: http://www.rnli.org.uk/who_we_are/%20press_centre/news_releases/news_release_detail?%20Articleid=475535. Accessed on 4th April, 2011. Read More