Virgin Atlantic Strategy

UNIVERSITY OF SURREY

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT AND LAW

School of Management

MSc Programmes

Module Leader:

Dr. Laura A. Costanzo

Academic Year: 2010-2011

|Industry |European Airline Industry |
|Company |Virgin Atlantic Airways |

STRATEGY MODULE

COURSEWORK

|Student URN |MSc Programme |Surname & First Name |
|6098320 |Management Information Systems |Hargley Ikechukwu |
|6142620 |International Hotel management |Lu Chenyao |
|6116950 |International Hotel management |Markan Abhilasha |
|6141001 |International Business management |Zhang Mansheng |

“Your airline’s either got it

or it hasn’t”

Contents
1.0 Introduction 2 1.1 Company Overview 2
2.0 The Analysis of the External of Environment 3 2.1 The Macro-environment 3 2.2 The Competitive Environment 6 2.3 Strategic Groups 8
3.0 The Internal Environment 9 3.1 Swot Analysis 9 3.2 Resource-Based View of Virgin Atlantic 10 3.3 Value Chain Analysis 11
4.0 Recommendation for the Future 13 4.1 Analysing the current strategy 13 4.2 Future Strategic Direction 14
5.0 Conclusion 16
References 17
APPENDIX 1 20 SWOT ANALYSIS 20
Appendix 2 24 Value chain Analysis 24
APPENDIX 3 27

Table of Figures1.0 Introduction 2

1.1 Company Overview 2

2.0 The Analysis of the External of Environment 3

2.1 The Macro-environment 3

2.2 The Competitive Environment 6

2.3 Strategic Groups 8

3.0 The Internal Environment 9

3.1 Swot

References: Barney, J., 1991. Firm 's resources and competitive advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), pp.77-82. Bisignani, G., 2011. Airline International. [Online] International Air Transport Association (IATA) Available at: http://www.iata.org/pressroom/airlines-international/february-2011/Pages/comment.aspx [Accessed 1 March 2011]. Business Travel and shows, 2011. PR Releases: Business Travel and shows. [Online] Available at: http://www.businesstravelshow.com/en/press/pressreleases/11-02-02/BUSINESS_TRAVELLERS_CALL_FOR_KIDS_BAN.aspx?afcode=btupdate [Accessed 10 march 2011]. CAA, 2010. UK Airline Financial Tables: 2009 2010. [Online] CAA Available at: http://www.caa.co.uk/default.aspx?catid=80&pagetype=88&sglid=13&fld=2009_2010 [Accessed 4 March 2011]. Datamonitor, 2010. Airline Industry in the United Kingdom. Industry Analysis. Datamonitor, 2010. Virgin Atlantic Airways. Company Profile Dess, G., Lumpkin, G.T Ekekwe, N., 2011. Beyond core competence: Harvard Business Review. [Online] Available at: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/02/beyond_core_competency.html [Accessed 11 March 2011]. IATA, 2011. Press room: IATA. [Online] Available at: http://www.iata.org/pressroom/pr/Pages/2011-02-28-01.aspx [Accessed 3 March 2011]. Innovation Leaders, 2008. Virgin Atlantic. [Online] Available at http://www.innovationleaders.net/va_company_profile.html [Accessed 10 March 2011]. Marketing week, 2010. Marketing News. [Online] Available at: www.marketingweek.co.uk [Accessed 7 March 2011]. Office for National Statistics, 2010. Office for National Statistics. [Online] Available at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=949 [Accessed 25 February 2011]. Pearce, J. & Robinson, R.B., 2011. Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation, and Control. Twelfth ed. Singapore: McGraw-Hill. The Virgin Atlantic Press Office, 2010. All About Us: Virgin Atlantic. [Online] Available at: http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/allaboutus/pressoffice/pressreleases/news/financialresults.jsp [Accessed 24 February 2011]. Virgin Atlantic, 2010. Awards. [Online] Available at: http://www.virgin-atlantic.com/en/gb/allaboutus/ourstory/awards.jsp [Accessed 11 March 2011]. Virgin Atlantic, 2010. Brief Sustainability Report 2010. [Online] Virgin Atlantic Available at: http://changeisintheair.virginatlantic.com/ [Accessed 2 March 2011]. 2. Leading Transatlantic Airline (World Travel Awards 2010) 3 4. Best Airline based in Western Europe (OAG Airline Industry Awards 2009) All these awards help to boost the brand image and so gives Virgin atlantic competitive advantage. Strong Leader Under the romantic view of leadership, it’s the assumption that the leader is a key driver for the success for the organization (Gregory Dess, 2010) The IATA in December last year predicted that the airline passenger would see an increase of 5.2% this year, however, last week’s report from IATA has this forecast increased to about 5.6%. (IATA, 2011). Increase in cargo traffic Last week, the IATA predicted the global air cargo would rise by 6.1% this year (International Air Transport Association (IATA), 2011)