Ryan Air. (My case study is about RyanAir)
- Details of major issues facing the organisation
The major issues concerning Ryan Air is the number of headlines on the media in regards of their various employment issues and poor customer relationship which has caused an outrageous outburst of criticism, straying people away from travelling with them.
Despite Ryanair is holding a strong position in the low-cost market and increases its income every year (Ryanair Annual Report, 2013), its poor reputation in terms of customer service and job satisfaction (The Guardian, 2014) may have a negative effect on its success in the future.
There have been several job losses over the years due to a change in operation and cancelation or reduction of service in some particular areas. Ryanair’s claims that its plans to reduce services from Edinburgh Airport could mean up to 300 job losses have been dismissed by industry insiders (BBC, 2012). This represents a lack of job safety for their pilots.
Ryanair faced criticism for allegedly forcing pilots to pay tens of thousands of euro for training, then establish limited companies in Ireland and work for Ryanair through an agency (Mirror.co.uk, 2012). This shows the change in employment structure and how its impacted their current staff.
According to Ruddock (2007) Ryanair has been reported to cut thousands of pounds worth of annual salary which greatly affected top pilots and lower salaried pilots.
In 2017 there was an outstanding amount of flight cancellation around September and October. During this time Flights were cancelled with very little notice, sometimes only hours before departure. People who had already taken outbound flights were left with no flight to go back home. Ryanair said that the cancellations aimed “to improve its system-wide punctuality “(Ryanair, 2017).(unique_solution)
- SWOT
| Strength | Weakness |
| · Low Cost pioneer which means competitive advantage · Strong brand · Established market share · Variety of supplementary services · Michael O Leary’s aggressive leadership style · Strong presence in most European markets
| · Weak customer relationship · Weak employee relationship · Unfriendly competitor connection · Poor media/press reputation · Bad Brand perception · Labour relations and change in employee compensation arrangements could Impact Ryanair’s business · No customer loyalty
|
| Opportunities | Threats |
| · Introduce transatlantic long-haul flights · Introduce new European destination · Better marketing communication within social media · Brand development to change customer perception · Improved customer service · Invest in staff specialization
| · Competitive threats such as EasyJet · Fuel cost · EU regulations · Industry criticism · Currency movement · Boycott of Company from customers and current employees · Employee Strikes · Union issues
|
- Report aims and objectives
My personal recommended options for Ryanair to improve is for them to implement a better and specific style of workforce where there’s clear understanding between the company and the employees to eliminate fear of job/pay cuts. This could mean Ryanair should strictly stick to agency work where the company in-itself is not directly affected and where there’s a flexible option for qualified applications. In regard to this, there should still be a clear understanding and relationship with these pilots recruited through agencies to avoid the past employee implications and scandals.
Also, Ryanair must implement a better form of communication between their customers. They can do this using an improved customer service platform. This could be achieved through direct social media interaction, integrated live chat on their website, customer centric ad campaigns. The model that I will be focusing on throughout this assignment is e-CRM which is an electronic customer relationship management with the usage and application of internet-based technologies such as emails, websites, chat rooms, forums and other channels to achieve CRM objectives. It is a well-structured and coordinated process of CRM that automates the processes in marketing, sales and customer service (Technopedia, 2017).
- Implementation issues to include
I will like to gain a better understanding of the consumer perception towards the Ryanair brand. An analysis on customer satisfaction will be made by conducting a questionnaire that will be sent to 10-20 Ryanair customers that has previously travelled with the company. Although, Ryanair serves millions of customers annually, sampling this research directly to around 20 customers of various demographics will give a general and qualitative understanding of the topic. I will be analysing the customer feedback and basing a conclusion on the customer satisfactory levels of the results- The issues of attaining this data will be getting the customers to do the questionnaire and distributing the questionnaire. I plan to overcome this by using a multiple method of distribution, first using social media to find Ryanair customers and directly sending the questionnaires to them and putting the questionnaires in Ryanair forums.
Another challenge that seems likely to appear is the lack of academic literature from/about Ryanair as there seems to be an overload of news reports on the company. I plan to overcome this issue by using Google Scholar and academic readings to reference my view on the topic alongside the newspaper reports.
-I will recommend the use of metrics specifically for the measurement of the customer relationship change and by viewing the rise in customer engagement and feedback to determine the effectiveness of the change.
Reference
Technopedia.com.2018). What is Electronic Customer Relationship Management (E-CRM)? – Definition from Technopedia. [online] Available at https: ://www.technopedia.com/definition/30914/electronic-customer-relationship-management-e-crm [Accessed 16 Mar 2018].
Corporate.ryanair.com. (2018). History of Ryanair | Ryanair’s Corporate Website. [online] Available at: https://corporate.ryanair.com/about-us/history-of-ryanair/ [Accessed 25 Jan. 2018].
Ruddock, Alan (2007). Michael O’Leary – A Life in Full Flight. Dublin: Penguin Ireland
Corporate.ryanair.com. (2017). ryanair to cancel less than 2% of flights over next 6 weeks to improve punctuality“. 2017-09-17. Retrieved 2017-09-17.
BBC News. (2018). Doubt over Ryanair job loss claim. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-17101488 [Accessed 23 Mar. 2018].
Mirror.co.uk (2012)Guess which airline cuts costs by hiring freelance pilots?. article. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
Feedback from lecture:
At the moment it reads as an interesting overview of some of the issues facing the organisation but what you aren’t really doing is addressing the brief i.e.
“Keep in mind that the idea of the assessment i.e. the 4000 word report is that you pick up on a topic that we have covered at some stage since the beginning of the semester or a topic that is somehow linked to one of those topics. The brief is quite clear when it says:
This analysis will include the current organisational brand, the organisational culture, operational structure, the cross functional role and effectiveness of external and internal marketing, the approach to innovation and creativity, evaluation of the managerial/leadership performance including the CEO / leadership team, business development, process of change that the organisation has undergone in recent years (e.g. change in CEO / change in product focus / expansion / change in marketing approach), the role of L&D, the role of external marketing agencies / suppliers in facilitating change/innovation, the application and discussion of relevant management/academic theories in relation to the organisation. All these topics will be covered over the duration of the course so you will gain insight in how to conduct your analysis over the course of the year” What the report is not is a random piece of market research on a topic of your choosing. The report is an opportunity for you demonstrate your deep understanding of a contemporary management/leadership topic, which has to be supported with extensive fully referenced readings around that topic and your ability to apply that understanding to a particular organisation”.
I would like to see therefore more of a deep dive into a conceptual topic relevant to the course, a topic that by its very nature is strategic and not tactical, which yours tend to be e.g. more social media interaction, live chat etc which are all very tactical
Further feedback:
Keep in mind that the idea of the assessment i.e. the 4000 word report is that you pick up on a topic that we have covered at some stage since the beginning of the semester or a topic that is somehow linked to one of those topics. The brief is quite clear when it says:
This analysis will include the current organisational brand, the organisational culture, operational structure, the cross functional role and effectiveness of external and internal marketing, the approach to innovation and creativity, evaluation of the managerial/leadership performance including the CEO / leadership team, business development, process of change that the organisation has undergone in recent years (e.g. change in CEO / change in product focus / expansion / change in marketing approach), the role of L&D, the role of external marketing agencies / suppliers in facilitating change/innovation, the application and discussion of relevant management/academic theories in relation to the organisation. All these topics will be covered over the duration of the course so you will gain insight in how to conduct your analysis over the course of the year”
What the report is not is a random piece of market research on a topic of your choosing. The report is an opportunity for you demonstrate your deep understanding of a contemporary management/leadership topic, which has to be supported with extensive fully referenced readings around that topic and your ability to apply that understanding to a particular organisation.