Strategy/Problems in Mgmt - Essay Example

Strategy and Problems in Management Introduction Since Woolman started Delta Airlines in 1921, it has gone through anumber of changes. The changes have given Delta Airlines a competitive advantage over other airlines in the region; the airline has grown at a faster rate compared to other airlines (Konstantinos, Andreatta & Amedeo 8). In consideration to Michael Porter’s theory about creating a competitive advantage, a company needs to have three strategies in order to succeed. These strategies include cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategies.

According to Porter, any company that achieves the above strategies will definitely improve in terms of output and profitability. Low Cost Cost leadership is a strategy used by businesses such that a business offers the lowest costs for its goods and services to its customers as compared to other businesses in the same industry (Konstantinos, Andreatta & Amedeo 10). In regard to Delta Airlines, it reduced the cost of the air travelling to different stations. After reducing the fares to the different stations, the application form for travelling was then put online.

This made it easier for customers to access and use booking facilities from different geographic places. This action equally improved profits and revenue. The fair pricing has seen Delta Airlines topping in the airline industry as the most profitable company. To add to that, the company has increased the number of internal flights and even introduced flights with Virgin Atlantic airways. All these activities have made Delta airlines to become one of the best airline companies in the world (Konstantinos, Andreatta & Amedeo 15).

Differentiation The next strategy as stated by Porter is the differentiation strategy. In this case, a company has to make their products different from those of other competitors in the same industry (Konstantinos, Andreatta & Amedeo 39). This helps a company to stand out and thus gain more profits and revenue. In regard to Delta airlines, the first strategy they had to implement in this perspective is to introduce flights to Virgin Atlantic’s airports. This made it easier to coordinate and to dispatch customers to and from the Virgin Atlantic group.

This is so because Virgin Atlantic is the largest airline and controls around 51% of air travel. Getting close connection with it enables easy dispatch of parcels and customers for other flights. The next thing that has made Delta airlines to stand out is its merging with Northwest airlines (Konstantinos, Andreatta & Amedeo 55). This action has reduced the number of competitors offering the same services as them in the market. It has also enabled them to incorporate unique services that were being offered by Northwest airlines, thus standing out as a unique company.

The action of merging with Northwest airlines has also given them a large network of travelling such that their customers can depend on them for flights to any city and continent that they were not able to access before the merge. As an example, the merge enable them to increase flights to Middle East and Africa (Konstantinos, Andreatta & Amedeo 56). In order to maintain quality service delivery, the company removes old aircrafts from operation and orders new ones. The company also ensures that it controls fuel spending while it maximizes on profits.

This ensures that it gives quality service to customers at a cheap price, as compared to other companies in the industry. Focus The last strategy that needs to be implemented by a company in order to realize competitive advantage is focus (Konstantinos, Andreatta and Amedeo 19). In this case, a company decides to select a narrow competitive scope of specialization in an industry. A company selects either cost or differentiation and centers on satisfying customers in that line of specialization.

As for the case of Delta airlines, this company has specialized to give cheap services to its customers. This can be seen from the fact that all services have been simplified so that customers cannot struggle in reaching the company. To start with, booking and payment for tickets can easily be done online. This reduces budgets for the customer to travel to the airport to book for a flight. The company has also ventured into mobile phone applications that can enable customer relationships management (Konstantinos, Andreatta & Amedeo 5).

Through the mobile applications, customers can easily access the company’s website and book flights together with other extended services. The Company also has encouragement for employers to ensure that they deliver quality service to the customers. The CEO of the company calls all employees to work hard and enable the company to break away from the group of airline companies having poor service delivery. As an example, Mr. Anderson the chief executive called all workers to be hard workers to achieve the set objectives for 2013.

This is after the company showed great improvement in 2012 in terms of profits, number of customers and general revenue collection. Conclusion It is clear that Delta Airline Company has good strategies for development. The strategies are seen to give them a direct competitive advantage where they compete favorably for customers and resources in the industry. This is evident from their 2012 improvement where they recorded the highest ever achieved New York corporate shares and profits. Every company thus needs to incorporate Porter’s strategies in order to achieve a competitive advantage over other companies in the same industry (Konstantinos, Andreatta & Amedeo 46).

Works Cited Zografos, K., Andreatta, G. & Amedeo, O. Modelling and Managing Airport Performance. Hoboken: Wiley, 2013. Print.