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Course/Unit Information
Course Extended Diploma in International Business and Strategy
Course Code GP39 04
Unit Name Strategic Management
Unit Code HX41 04

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 STUDENT DECLARATION

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 LEARNING OUTCOMES AND ASSESSMENT FEEDBACK

Name of the Assessor

Module Code & Title HX41 04 Strategic Management

Module Learning Outcomes

Critically evaluate the relationship between strategy, stakeholder expectations and
LO1
organizational performance.
Evaluate the impact of current and emerging Economic, Political and Cultural
LO2
factors on the strategic management of an organization.

Formulate innovative business strategies designed to contribute to the success of an

LO3
organization.

Critically assess different leadership styles in developing corporate values, social

LO4
responsibilities and managing strategic change.

Assessment Types Marks Marks Achieved

Project Format
Executive Summary 10
Introduction & Current Scenario 15
Environmental Analysis and need for change 15
Strategy Identification and implementation 25
Leadership styles and Organizational Performance 20
Recommendations 5
Conclusion 5
Presentation 5
Overall Score 100

Overall Grade Click or tap to enter a date.

Summative Feedback:

Overall Feedback on
current work with
emphasis on how the
student can further
improve in future.
The following grading criteria will be applicable for the course, Executive Diploma in
International Business and Strategy:

Marks Grade
70 to 100 A - Distinction
60 to 69 B - Merit
50 to 59 Pass
40 to 49 Fail with Resubmit
0 to 39 Fail with Retake

GENERAL GUIDELINES
(Please read the instructions carefully)

1. Complete the title page with all necessary student details and ensure that the signature of
the student is marked in the declaration form.

2. All assignments must be submitted as an electronic document in MS Word to the LMS

(Use 12 Times New Roman script).

3. All assignments must be submitted with an accompanying Turnitin report.

4. Assignment that is not submitted to the LMS by the prescribed deadline will be accepted
ONLY under the REDO and RESIT submission policy of Westford.

5. The results are declared only if the student has met the mandatory attendance requirement
of 75% and/or a minimum of 50% under extenuating circumstances approved and ratified
by the Academic Director. The student has to repeat the module (with additional fees
applicable) if the attendance is below 50%.

6. The assignment should not contain any contents including references cited from
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First Name Last Name_ abbreviation of the subject.

Example: John Smith_SM

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Assignment Strategic Management

Learning Outcome 1: Critically evaluate the relationship between strategy, stakeholder

expectations and organizational performance.

▪ PC 1.1: Critically analyse the main concepts and theories of strategic management.
▪ PC 1.2: Discuss the effectiveness of your organization’s vision, mission, and strategic
objectives.
▪ PC 1.3: Assess your organisation’s competitive position and its strategic drivers.
▪ PC 1.4: Evaluate the organizational design of your chosen organisation and its impact on
performance effectiveness.
▪ PC 1.5: Analyse your chosen organization’s influence on its external business environment
based on its current stage of the organisational lifecycle.

Learning Outcome 2: Evaluate the impact of current and emerging Economic, Political and
Cultural factors on the strategic management of an organization.

▪ PC 2.1: Critically analyse the external environment in which your chosen organization
operates.
▪ PC 2.2: Evaluate the impact of at least two key environment factors on a business.
▪ PC 2.3: Evaluate the effectiveness of your organization’s response to environmental factors.

Learning Outcome 3: Formulate innovative business strategies designed to contribute to the

success of an organization.

▪ PC 3.1: Apply strategy formulation tools to design a business strategy for an organization.
▪ PC 3.2: Critically discuss the factors that enhance change readiness and innovation within
organizations
▪ PC 3.3: Prepare a plan for strategy implementation.
▪ PC 3.4: Discuss the critical success factors that need to be in place in a strategic plan to ensure
organisational success.

Learning Outcome 4: Critically assess different leadership styles in developing corporate values,
social responsibilities and managing strategic change.

▪ PC 4.1: Critically assess various leadership styles and the benefits of each in a business
context.
 ▪ PC 4.2: Discuss the application of different leadership styles and its effect on organizational
performance.
▪ PC 4.3: Critically evaluate and share recommendations of possible leadership styles that would
support development of corporate values in your chosen organization.
PC 4.4: Assess the impact of leadership styles on managing change and fulfilling corporate
social responsibilities.

Assignment Task Report [100 Marks] [4000-5000 Words]

Read the following Scenario and prepare a Report with the guidelines provided.

Scenario:

For this assignment you can choose your organization where you are currently working or where you
have worked earlier. If you are choosing any other organization, it has to be one about which you have
firsthand knowledge so as to fulfill the requirements of the assignment. You will write a Report on the
chosen organization’s strategic management changes that it wants to incorporate.

Suggested Report Format

Executive Summary (10 marks) – The Executive Summary content should not be more than one A4
page size. It will contain briefly all the important elements of discussion brought about in your report.

1. Introduction

1. 1 Introduction to the company (5 marks) - Here you can give a current brief of your
organization including vision, mission, strategic objectives, product/services offered, regions
served, revenues, employee size etc. Assess the organization’s competitive position and its
strategic drivers using the concepts of any one strategic management theory.

1.2 Current Business Scenario (10 marks) - Evaluate the organizational design of your
chosen organisation, as well as its current stage of the organizational lifecycle. Discuss their
impact on external business competitors and the chosen organization’s performance
effectiveness.

2. Environmental Analysis and need for change (15 marks) - Critically analyse the effect of
external environment on your chosen organization’s operations. Evaluate the impact of at least two
key environmental factors on your company’s business profitability, and your organization’s response
to it.

3. Strategy Identification and implementation

3.1 Strategy formulation (10 marks) – Apply and critically discuss any one or more strategy
formulation tools to design a business strategy for your organization which will bring
innovation in any business aspect(s).
 3.2 Implementation of strategy (15 marks) – Propose a detailed plan for the strategy
implementation. Discuss the critical success factors that will ensure organisational success and
meet stakeholder expectations. Also critically discuss how the strategy will promote change
readiness and promote innovation.

4. Leadership Styles to Manage Strategic Change

4.1 Leadership Styles and Organizational Performance (10 marks) – Critically assess at
least 2 or more leadership styles which benefitted your organization and enhanced
organizational performance?

4.2 Leadership Styles and Values/ CSR (10 marks) – Critically evaluate and share
recommendations of leadership style(s) that would support further development of corporate
values in your chosen organization. Assess the impact of this style on managing the
company’s corporate social responsibilities and managing organizational change.

5. Recommendations & Conclusion (10 marks) – Give your recommendations to ensure successful
implementation of strategy. Conclude by summarizing the major strategic management issues
highlighted in your chosen organization.

6. Presentation & References (5 marks) - You should present the whole report written well in a good
format, and which makes good use the Harvard Referencing System (HRS).

Performance Descriptors
Performance descriptors indicate how marks will be arrived at against each of the above criteria. The
descriptors indicate the likely characteristics of work that is marked within the percentage bands
indicated.
Performance (70-100%) (60-69%) (50-59%) D (40-49%) E (0-39%)
Criteria Work of an Work of a good Work of a pass Fail Fail
outstanding, standard. standard.
excellent & v.
good standard (*)
Executive A critical A synthesized A reasonable overview Limited overview of Confused overview of
Summary overview with the overview of the of the Executive Executive Summary. Executive Summary.
(10%) help of Executive Executive Summary, Summary, where The work may be an Fundamental
Summary. Bring where good use of satisfactory summary overly descriptive misconceptions of how
out relevant existing academic is given of the whole account demonstrating to write an Executive
authors, rival work and evaluation produced work. There only minimal Summary. The work
theories, and of main work is given is evidence of interpretation, and very is mainly descriptive
major debates to a out coherently. Some engagement with limited presentation of and shows little or no
very good, review of relevant pertinent issues. Key the whole summary. understanding of
possibly excellent authors, rival authors & major No counterarguments summary
(even outstanding) theories, and major debates are presented. or alternative frames of requirements.
standard. debates. Evidence of suitable reference are generated
References . basic reading. or considered.
beyond those .
identified in
session sources.
Introduction Introduction Introduction should Introduction should Introduction is not Too few references to
(15%) should explicitly bring out good bring out satisfactorily satisfactorily bringing appropriate literature
bring out relevant relevant details the local, national, and out the internal and and no evidence of
details necessary necessary to regional context of external context of independent thought
to understand the understand the strategic management strategic management and/ or criticality.
context of context of strategic practices in the practices in the Introduction is very
strategic management practices organization. The organization. The sketchy and does not
management in the organization. current company current company satisfactorily bring out
practices in the The current company details discussed in the details are not the vision, mission,
organization. The details discussed in context of the strategic discussed in the employee size,
business scenario the context of the management. focus. context of the strategic revenues and other
paints a clear strategic The business scenario management. focus. information required to
picture of current management. focus. described but has gaps. The business scenario understand the
situation using The business scenario External sources has not been organization in the
facts and figure or clearly described (academic or non- adequately described. context of strategic
related using adequate academic) not included External sources management practices
information from terminology. Some or poorly used. (academic or non- in the organization at
academic and non- external sources academic) not all.
academic sources (academic or non- evidenced or minimal.
where necessary. academic) referenced Poor/insufficient use
and included to of facts and figures
support discussion. observed.
Environmental Demonstrate Demonstrates a good Demonstrates a The work may be an Fundamental
Analysis and need ability to understanding of satisfactory overly descriptive misconceptions /lack
for change (15%) accurately apply frameworks and tools understanding of account demonstrating of knowledge of the
relevant tools and from academic environmental only minimal and tools and frameworks
frameworks to resources. Good analyses framework descriptive used in analyzing the
analyze and analysis done well in and tools for analysis. interpretation of the environment Limited
identify the respect to application Some analysis done in tools and frameworks analysis of a
various factors of relevant strategic respect to application and very limited superficial nature only
that have a management of relevant models, evidence of analysis, lacks any attempt at
significant frameworks. tools, and frameworks. synthesis, or analysis, relying on
influence on the Examples of effective The work is mainly evaluation. description instead.
organization. Has use of academic descriptive but has
critically analyzed frameworks in order achieved all the
A superficial and Strategy,
the factors in the to analyse the case performance criteria.
routine description of organizational design
external scenario. Examples of Some mention of
the factors some of and lifecycle and its
environment and sound argument and Strategy,
which may not be effect on
evaluate their logical interpretation. organizational design
logical or accurate. Organizational
impact in the and lifecycle and its
performance not
relevant business effect on
Strategy, included in adequate
context. Organizational Strategy,
organizational design detail.
Demonstrates a performance but not organizational design
and lifecycle and its
critical very accurate or and lifecycle and its
effect on
understanding of insightful. effect on
Organizational
how the Organizational
performance
environmental performance
discussed
factors can have a mentioned but not very
significant effect accurate and
on the strategic superficially discussed.
management
process. Strategy,
organizational
design and
lifecycle and its
effect on
Organizational
performance
accurately
identified and
discussed.
Demonstrates
excellent
analytical ability.
The key factors
identified
effectively.
 Strategy Has conducted a The work The work There may be little No application of
Identification and detailed and demonstrates a good demonstrates a evidence of an ability principle and concepts
implementation accurate level of competence to apply to come up with sound in the strategic
(25%) interpretation of understanding of the the tools for analyses strategy and chart out a management module.
the situation. situation/business and adequately the proper implementation Strategy devised
Demonstrates scenario. Relevant various factors and plan. Formulated Primarily based on
excellent concepts and theories interpret them to strategies not very wrong or faulty
knowledge and have been utilized in formulate suitable related to the scenario assumptions
understanding of the formulation. strategies in context of or lacking in Conclusions and
the concepts and Some meaningful the business scenario understanding of core interpretations of the
techniques for evaluation of the described. Has some issues to be resolved. tools confused or
strategy strategies within the awareness and has Implementation plan illogical and
formulation. context described. reflected on the factors and discussion unsubstantiated.
The discussion, Fairly elaborate and identified as well as primarily superficial Implementation and
analysis and in-depth with the consequences Some and lacking in depth understanding of
interpretation different factors helpful insights and and adequate logic. change management
demonstrate considered for fairly good knowledge Does not show either superficial or
excellent implementation and on the application of awareness of the lacking. Possibly no
knowledge of the the consequences change management possible outcomes and real attempt to address
strategic identified and principles. lack a good the consequences and
management discussed. A fir uses understanding of the contemplation of the
process and ability of change change management strategy or its
to formulate and management principles observed. outcomes.
evaluate strategies principles and
and consequences understanding of it
well thought out evidenced.
and addressed in
detail. A detailed,
logical
implementation
plan with an
excellent
understanding of
the change
management
principles has
been evidenced.

Leadership Styles Demonstrates a Demonstrates a good Demonstrates a The work may be an

& Org clear understanding of satisfactory overly descriptive
Performance (20 understanding of literature reviewed understanding of account demonstrating
marks) literature reviewed from academic literature reviewed only minimal
from good resources. Good from academic interpretation of the
academic analysis done well in resources. Some literature, and very
resources, peer respect to application analysis done in limited evidence of
reviewed articles of relevant leadership respect to application analysis, synthesis, or
and journals. styles and the relation of leadership styles to evaluation.
Critical analysis to organizational Organizational
done well in performance. performance.
respect to Examples of effective The work explores and
application of use of academic analyses issues but is
relevant concepts frameworks in order not strong on the
and theories with to analyze the critical reflection and
adequate examples relationship observed. is mainly descriptive,
Clear evidence of Examples of sound Overall, it has the
independent argument and solid component and
thought and very evidence. elements required to
effective use of meet the performance
academic criteria.
frameworks in
order to analyze,
evaluate the
relationships.
There is a
synthesis of the
various insights.
Recommendations Well-organized, Well-organized, Reasonably well- Poor organisation; Assertions little related
(5 marks) logical, fully logical, supported by organized, logical, gaps in reasoning; to evidence, frequently
supported by evidence, generally supported by some obvious illogical or arbitrary;
 evidence, recommendations evidence, recommendations recommendations if
recommendations fairly clear and arise recommendations omitted for the list; presented are
clear and arise from results & fairly clear and arise other conclusions not disorganized;
from discussion; practical from results & especially driven by alternatives not
results/discussion; and feasible, with discussion; practical the findings but from considered; no real
practical and clear consideration of and feasible, with ‘common sense’. No understanding of the
feasible, with clear assumptions and unclear or weak real implications and need to draw
consideration of limitations of the consideration of reflection on the conclusions,
issues. Very well- strategy. The assumptions and recommendations of implications, and
articulated discussion is well limitations of the changes envisaged and recommendations from
recommendations articulated as strategy identified. the corporate values results. Very poorly
of changes recommendations of Recommendations of incorporated to brought out
envisaged, and the changes envisaged changes envisaged, implement the recommendations of
corporate values and the corporate and the corporate changes. changes and the
incorporated to values incorporated to values incorporated to corporate values
implement the implement the implement the changes incorporated to
changes. changes. just brought out implement the
satisfactorily. changes.

Conclusion Well-organized, Well-organized, Reasonably well- Poor organization; Assertions little related
(5%) logical, fully logical, supported by organized, logical, gaps in reasoning; to evidence, frequently
supported by evidence, conclusions generally supported by some obvious illogical or arbitrary;
evidence, fairly clear and arise evidence, conclusions conclusions omitted conclusions if
conclusions clear from results & fairly clear and arise for the list; other presented are
and arise from discussion; practical from results & conclusions not disorganized;
results/discussion; and feasible, with discussion; practical especially driven by alternatives not
practical and clear consideration of and feasible, with the findings but from considered; no real
feasible, with clear marketing issues. unclear or weak ‘common sense’. No understanding of the
consideration of Recommendations consideration of real implications and need to draw
marketing issues. driven by decent marketing issues. recommendations conclusions,
Recommendations deductions from Recommendations not weak and incoherent. implications, and
driven by good findings. always driven by good recommendations from
deductions from deductions. results.
findings.

Presentation (5%) A balanced, well- A balanced, well- Case is cohesive, but Whilst some of the Significant failings in
structured work, structured work. may be hindered by characteristics of a case balance, structure
generally coherent Overall clear well- inappropriate balance, pass have been or writing style.
in approach. Well- written, well structure or writing demonstrated, the Repeated possibly
written, well presented. Some style. Some small, work does not address significant errors in
presented and small, repeated errors repeated errors in the case requirements referencing and/or
largely free of in grammar. Good referencing or overall. Possibly grammar. Critical
spelling and/or application of grammar. Current and lacking in balance, failings in case
typographical Harvard referencing relevant references and structure or writing balance. Possibly
errors. Breadth of system. Breadth of correct application of style. Some repeated lacking in coherence is
appropriate, appropriate, current, the Harvard errors in referencing unstructured and/or is
current, and and Referencing Method. and/or grammar. badly presented.
relevant references relevant references Limited use of
and correct and almost correct references.
application of the application of the
Harvard Harvard Referencing.
Referencing
Method.
 Table of Contents
Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ 12
Introduction to company.................................................................................................. 13
Current Business Scenario ............................................................................................... 14
Environmental Analysis and need for change ...................................................................... 17
Environment Uncertainty Model ..................................................................................... 19
Strategy Identification and Implementation. ........................................................................ 20
Strategy to overcome Challenges. .................................................................................... 20
Implementation of Strategy ............................................................................................. 23
Leadership Values to Manage Strategic Change .................................................................. 26
Leadership styles and Organizational Performance .......................................................... 26
Recommendations ............................................................................................................... 30
Conclusion .......................................................................................................................... 31
References .......................................................................................................................... 32
Executive Summary

Strategic management consists of the analysis, decisions and actions that an organization
follows in order to create and maintain competitive advantage in the industry. Its success and
performance are vital to the country’s economy and well-being of the people. However,
considering current situation of COVID-19, as it is major crisis and pandemic has resulted huge
losses to the organizations and has forced to rethink its business structure for their survival and
further eliminate combination of losses. Talking about Qatar Airways National and Flag Carrier
of State of Qatar has also been impacted and analysis of this company is necessary.

This company was doing well until 2019, posting profits in their fiscals irrespective of the
challenges and had employed thousands of employees, generating revenues, expanding and
growing. Since the beginning of 2020, company started losing its business, as there were
multiple restrictions imposed by governments of different countries, coming down to minimum
operations with only cargo operations, medicals and essentials. This created instability,
underperformance and job losses with a huge economic recession and downfall of GDP.
Considering these facts the below report best describes the Qatar Airways current operating
model and strategy shortfalls, new strategy formation and implementation for its future
progress and success.

Below report describes about Qatar Airways Current Business Scenario and its competitors.
SWOT does its external and internal environment analysis, eventually finding the core
competencies and its strength and weaknesses. The Research based on Miles and Snow
typologies, Porter’s 5 forces, etc. tells current strategy used by the company is defender.
However, it has to move to analyzer in order to grow and sustain in the industry. In addition,
for the change environmental analysis can be done by using PESTLE and uncertainty model
for its success.

New strategy formulation for Qatar Airways can be done by using some best tools namely
Ansoff and BCG Matrix, Porters generic strategies. By the analyzing, them it is found out that,
the company has to follow the combination of cost leadership, differentiation and focus
strategies. Organizational performance is under elaboration stage that means that there is too
much bureaucracy in the organization. Further, this newly formulated strategy implementation
can be done by using Kurt Lewin change model that talk about unfreeze, change and refreeze.

This report also tells about different leadership styles and its impact on organizational
performance and its success on the business. Case study of Nissan tells about Carlos Ghosn
leadership style to turn around the business to profits before the stipulated time. Finally,
research tells that transformational leadership style is the best style for strategic management
change and for organizational performance and its success. Therefore, accurate analysis of
current strategy, its capabilities, right strategy formulation tools and its implementation with
right leadership style are the combination of the factors when used effectively can be key factor
of the organization to change and succeed.
Introduction to company

Qatar Airways world’s fastest and one of the youngest global airlines was first established on
1993 and commenced first operations on 1994 with few destinations. It is the state owned flag
carrier under Government of Qatar headquartered in Doha is proud to serve all six continents
with more than 160 destinations on the map until date. As of April 2020, it has 237 mixed fleets
with more than 45,000 employees with revenue of QAR 42,229 million. (Wikipedia, 2020)
Group CEO Akbar Al Bakar joined airline in 1997, his leadership transformed airline to one
of elite group of airlines worldwide to earn a 5-star rating by Skytrax. This airline achieved
many awards, accolades and voted airline by Skytrax in 2011, 2012, 2015, 2017 and in 2019
ultimately winning the confidence of the travelling public with highest safety. Since Oct 2013,
carrier is a member of Oneworld alliance.

During COVID-19 pandemic, airlines core objective is to Bring People Back Home with 100%
compliance with safety and security. (QatarAirways, 2020)

VISION – “To become world class global brand”.

MISSION – “Excellence in everything we do”.

CORPORATE VALUES - Pride in Qatar, Customer First, Drive Excellence, Honest & Loyal,
One team.

PARTNER Airlines – Bangkok Airways, GOL Linhas Aéreas Inteligentes S.A, LATAM
Airlines and Middle East Airlines.

OneWorld Members – American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, Malaysia
Airlines, Sri Lankan Airlines etc.

BRANDS AND PRODUCTS

Some of them are mentioned below.

• Qatar Executive – At the Paris Air Show in 2009, the carrier first announced formation
of corporate jet subsidiary ‘Qatar Executive’ as part of airlines robust growth strategy
and continued commitment to Middle East and global business travel community. Their
fleets comprises of Global 5000s, Global XRS and various Gulfstream aircrafts with
luxury jet services available for worldwide charter service.
• Lounges – Total of 13 lounges aims to provide cultural, personalized and superior
dining experience with high standards. Namely Al Safwa, Al Mourjan, Oryx, First
Class, Business Class, Al Maha, VIP, London, Paris, Dubai Premium etc.
• Hamad International Airport – Second largest airport spread over 5kms to cater
increase in the volume of traffic after Dubai airport. They started operations at the
airport in 2014 replacing Doha International airport. This airport cater variety of
services for travelers with shop, dine, rest, medical facilities etc.
• Onboard Inflight Entertainment and complimentary wifi service keep customers
entertained throughout the flight.
Current Business Scenario

The national airline of Qatar invested QR 16.8bn in fleet and other assets, had cash balance of
QR 7.3bn, and carried over 32.4mn passengers in 2019-20. This resulted revenue increase to
QR 5bn which is 9.8% of last financial year having seat capacity increased by 3.2%, cargo
tonnes by 2.8% and passenger traffic at Hamad International Airport by 8.6% following a total
revenue increase to QR51.1bn in its last annual report. (QatarAirwaysGroup, 2020)

However, due to ongoing illegal airspace blockade for Qatar, liquidation of Air Italy by
majority shareholder and continuous change in policy and standards by different governments
for Covid-19 pandemic resulted Qatar Airways Group net loss of QR7bn as business
challenges in current business scenario as one of the most unprecedented and difficult times in
the airline history. As per latest IATA data, airline is the largest international airline carrier
during pandemic, never fallen below 30 destinations, carrying two million people safely home,
250,000 tonnes of medical and aid supplies to impacted regions and network never falling
below 30 destinations. Since then until date airline has rebuilt and growing to 650 weekly
flights to over 100 destinations with most advanced hygiene practices at aircraft and at the
airport. In addition, airline took decision to ground its A380 fleet, as it is not commercially and
environmentally suitable in the current market.

The key competitor of Qatar Airways is Emirates airlines, which is owned by government of
UAE and is 35 years old in the market. The main competitive advantage of Qatar is that they
focus on entering new destinations while emirates focus on current routes and develops new
aircraft features. SkyTrax ranks Qatar Airways as 5-Star airline among its competitors for
quality of its airport, young aircrafts, onboard service experience, IFE and Wi-Fi systems,
airport, lounges etc.

There are various theories and models that many organizations use to analyze business
environments like SWOT analysis, VRIO model, Porter’s 5 forces, BCG matrix etc. Evaluation
of Strength and Weakness as internal strategic factors can be done by using SWOT Analysis.

For Qatar Airways SWOT analysis (Bhasin, 2019) Please refer Appendix A attached.

Core competencies is a combination of any organization’s available resources and capabilities.

Global airline rankings in the world airline awards has ranked Qatar airways as ‘world’s top
airline’ making significant for its competitors. From the above analysis, it is clear that they
have good financial, physical, physical, human, organizational and technological resources
with years of experience. Capabilities can contribute to more global network expansion to
operate by using young fleets safely and can have more achievements on the list.

I feel the most important competitive advantage for any company is to have a technique of
developing its reputation as a best service provider and to have trust and confidence from its
consumers. Qatar Airways has already succeeded in achieving market in many countries such
as in Europe, China, India, Singapore, Australia etc and has built public image worldwide for
having volume of sales for the company.
Miles and Snow typologies is a tool to critically analyze Qatar Airways current strategies to
control external challenges. It has four major categories. Please refer Appendix B attached.

Qatar Airways used Prospector strategy before COVID-19, as they were constantly looking
for new market and opportunities and were capable for innovation, risks and were growing.
However, due to COVID-19 strategy has shifted initially to defender in order to reduce
operating cost and protect turf. Slowly, they have shifted to analyzer as a current strategy by
firstly defending stable market, selectively identifying opportunities with cost control and
moderate emphasis on innovation.

Porter’s 5 forces is a tool that critically analyze Qatar Airways five competitive factors in the
industry. The information analyzed using the model can be used by strategic planners to make
strategic decisions. (Henry, 2020)

It has five major categories. Please refer appendix C attached.

1. Competitive Rivalry – HIGH – Rivalry among existing firms shows the number of
competitors that give tough competition to the Qatar Airways, which can limit each
other’s growth potential. They need to have focus on differentiating its products so that
competitors will have less effect on its customers and can be a unique product. In
addition, they can focus on new customers and should build long-term customer
relationship with the existing ones.
 2. Threats of New Entrants – HIGH – As entry in the industry requires more capital and
huge investments, this force losses if product differentiation is high. Qatar Airways will
face low threats if existing regulatory framework imposes certain challenges to new
firms trying to enter market. They can also invest in R&D activities to get valuable
customer data and can introduce innovative products.

3. Threats of Substitutes – MEDIUM – There are very few substitutes available for the
products that are produced in industry where Qatar Airways operates which are also
produced by low profit making industry and other firms cannot take much advantage
of it. They can also focus on providing greater quality in its products so that buyers
would choose at a lower price as compared to substitute products that provide greater
quality but at a higher price.

4. Bargaining power of Buyer – LOW – The number of suppliers in the industry is a lot
more than the number of firms producing the products which results buyers has few
firms to choose from and cannot control prices making a bargaining power a weaker
force in the industry. Qatar airways can focus more on innovation and differentiation
with quality to attract more customers.

5. Bargaining power of Supplier – LOW- The number of suppliers in which the industry
operates is a lot compared to the buyers making the suppliers having less control over
prices making this force as a weaker force. The products supplied are fairly
standardized less differentiated and having low switching cost making easier for the
company to switch suppliers. Qatar airways can tackle this by having multiple suppliers
in its supply chain and can switch for good quality and low cost.

The organization design for Qatar Airways is based on traditional organization for efficiency
that has centralized authority focused on top-level decision-making. They follow mechanistic
(vertical organization) approach that has strict hierarchy with rules, vertical communication
and reporting systems, specified tasks and centralized decision-making.

Organizational performance can be

found out by using the tool organizational
Life Cycle. This model has four stages.

Please refer appendix D attached.

Qatar Airways falls under Elaboration

stage, and needs to be revitalized, affected
by the change in the various government
restrictions and environmental conditions
happened due to Covid-19 pandemic.
Environmental Analysis and need for change

The components of business environment can be divided into internal and external
environmental factors. The internal factors are internal resources, which includes vision and
mission, organization structure, labor union, quality of human resources etc; however, the
external factors are further divided into micro and macro environments. The micro
environment is related to suppliers, customers, marketing and competitors while the macro
environment deals with political, economic, social-cultural, technological, legal,
environmental and demographics that are beyond the scope and control of companies.

The task environment for Qatar Airways are analyzed in the sectors where they interact
directly to achieve the desired goals. These sectors include International, market, same
industries, human resource and raw material supplies. Some of the other sectors where the
organization indirectly (general environment) interacts are as follows -

• Government sector – regulation.

• Natural sector - sustainability.
• Sociocultural sector - working conditions.
• Economic conditions - global recession.
• Technology sector - massive and constant changes.
• Financial resources - important to entrepreneurs.

The main purpose of doing external

environmental analysis is to find out how
it affects the brand and conduct a necessary
strategy. It includes 3 main levels –

• Change to business environment.

• Change in the industry.
• Know the steps of the competitors.

External environmental analysis is a

continuous process involving different
stages that are classified as –

• Scanning – This process identifies early environmental changes and trends with the
exterior business.
• Monitoring – This method helps to find out these actual exterior changes and trends.
• Forecasting - This method develops projections of outcomes based on monitored
exterior trends and changes.
• Assessing – This method finds out the time and importance of exterior environmental
changes and trends for the organizations to formulate strategies.

In order for any organization to enter global market, complete environmental analysis needs to
be conducted that has many high uncertainties. The various reasons for global expansion for
companies can be increased profit, reduced cost, revenues, less competition, unique product
etc.

These can be done through various tools and models available for international business
strategy for change in business environment namely SWOT, PESTLE analysis, environmental
uncertainty model and scenario planning for growth in this challenging environment. These
models are as follows.

Qatar Airways SWOT Analysis - Please refer Appendix A attached.

PESTLE belongs to the macro environment of the external forces in the business environment,
in order to find out emerging opportunities and threats before entering the global market in the
context of strategic management process. This analysis stands for political, economic, socio-
cultural, technological, legal and environmental aspects. Let see these in detail. (Murphy, 2018)

▪ Political factor - The most affected and recent political issues faced by the Qatari
Airline industry is the travel ban, the diplomatic tensions between its neighbouring
countries UAE, Saudi, Bahrain and Egypt. These countries restricted their borders to
cut all political and commercial ties with State of Qatar, banning Qatari to enter and do
business. This forced Qatar Airways to suspend all operations and flights to these four
countries with no permission to fly on their airspace and had to reroute the flights
acquiring more flying time and more fuel consumption. In addition, the restriction by
the Trump administration to restrict travel to the US from certain Muslim country
(terrorism) and banning of laptops, that was lifted recently are some examples of
uncertain unavoidable political issues.

▪ Economical factor – The State of Qatar has large oil and gas reserves, it is the major
driver for Qatar’s economic growth, oil and gas industry contributes 36% of countries
GDP. As the oil, prices are declining here making a downward pressure on premium
travel, influenced business travel to Qatar and other gulf countries while the majority
of the middle class travel is from Asia and Africa with increase amount of income to
travel. As Qatar airways conduct business mostly in foreign markets, exchange rate
fluctuations influence its earnings.

▪ Socio-Culture factor – As a global organisation Qatar airways examine global social

challenges that affect industry. Under previous analysis, it was found that middle class
carries higher potential in emerging markets from Asia and Africa, so airline has
higher opportunity to attract customers from these regions. The young generations has
higher desire to travel and explore different countries for culture, business, studies and
leisure. Hence, generation Y can be larger customer base of the airlines in the business
travel market.

▪ Technological factor – Qatar Airways has been constantly working in updating

technology for emerging opportunities in digital platform to optimise operations to
forecast multiple customer needs. These requires airline to invest and update in
technology such as social media, mobile apps, company website to communicate with
the target audience. In addition, for environmental benefit, manufacturer and airline
 working together on aircraft technology to update with new aircraft technology of low
fuel consumptions and carbon emissions.

▪ Environmental factor - The airline industry is very much blamed for its high amount
of carbon emissions resulting in climate change. Qatar Airways has maximised its
current operations with Airbus 350, modern fleet having feature of lightweight, carrying
more weight, travel longer, low fuel consumption and very less carbon emissions to the
climate.

▪ Legal factor - Apart from the legal blockade tensions faced by Qatari Airline from its
neighbouring countries, it is the new travel policies faced by different government of
different countries due to COVID-19 has impacted the airline to fullest to its customers
and to its staff. In addition, new travel policies for people travelling to US from Muslim
countries like Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen etc. EU also imbibing viable legal
challenges to many Gulf Airlines growth in European markets.

Environment Uncertainty Model

As the environment becomes more complex, events become more unstable, leading to less
financial resources, less investments and hence uncertainty increases. This model helps to find
out the level of uncertainty.

There are three elements of uncertainty –

• Uncertainty - Lack of information about environmental factors.
• Complexity - No similarity of external elements.
• Dynamism - If the organization operates in stable or unstable environment.

For Qatar Airways Uncertainty Model Please refer appendix E attached.

By the uncertainty model, it can be concluded that Qatar Airways lies on the Complex and
Unstable, which is highly uncertain quadrant. Aviation industry is fully depended on oil
Companies, Aircraft Manufactures, its ground handling team and customers to travel. During
crisis like COVID-19, it is important to remain focused on limited operating regions rather than
expansion and cut down extra cost on marketing budgets for stability.

By using the above models SWOT, PESTLE and environment uncertainty model for external
environmental analysis, I feel that Qatar Airways has major challenges related to Political and
legal factors on its operations. The blockade in 2017, by several government bodies in its
neighbouring countries has forced airline to shut down its operations on these nearby counties
leading to revenue loss. The closed borders of air, land and sea has resulted Qatari aircrafts to
fly longer route eliminating airspace, consumed more fuel consumption, longer flying time and
route.

As airlines response, in order to compensate and expand business, Qatar airways has opened
more destinations in different countries in 2018 by closely working with the governments
creating a potential for their citizens to travel with different connections. However, due to
current scenario of COVID-19, many destinations has been shut down as precautionary
measure to limit spread of virus, customers are scared to travel, airline loosing customer load
factor and major revenue. Overall, Qatar Airways and airline industry is not doing so well.

Strategy Identification and Implementation.

Strategy to overcome Challenges.

To design a business strategy for an

organisation there are various strategy
formation tools available that Qatar Airways
can apply in order to change the business. Some
of them are BCG, Ansoff matrix, Porter’s
Generic Strategy, VRIO Model, Miles and
Snow, Porter’s 5 forces etc.

• Ansoff Matrix

As the company’s main focus is to achieve

goals to grow and expand, Ansoff Matrix is a very good tool to determine the growth
opportunities for the company. This matrix suggests the growth mix of products and market
for Qatar Airways. (adamkhankasi, 2020)

Market Penetration - It is a growth strategy dealing with existing products and services of the
company in the existing market. This can be achieved by increasing sales in the market with
customer base that will increase market share with price-cutting, marketing and promotion.
Qatar airways leading airline in gulf, has successfully built booming market in Qatar and
neighboring countries. Company is targeting customers who prefer Emirates for luxury but
finds it expensive, so it provides high quality experience at affordable prices.

Product Development - This is another growth strategy where new product for the existing
market can increase growth rate for the company. They can introduce another version or modify
the existing product to increase sales and market share. Qatar airways has introduced business
class seats that can convert to flat 180 degrees beds, introduced q-suit business class seats with
complete privacy for long haul flights making it luxurious with full flight Wi-Fi service at a
price lesser than Emirates. In addition, company is trying hard on improving services to
European and American countries.

Market Development - It is another strategy in which existing products are targeted in new
market for growth. By using this strategy, company is targeting new geographical locations to
expand business. The various products and services are offered to attract potential customers
with marketing, promotions, distribution channels for increased market share in different areas.
After blockade Qatar airways is using this strategy as a prime tool to expand geographically
for customer base by offering at competitive prices. Moreover, airline has improved its on-
board services and frequencies of flights to developed countries with good connection from
Doha especially to Europe and America.

Diversification – This is a growth strategy where the company is introducing new products in
new market where it did not serve before. In this company can diversify in the same industry
or different industry. Qatar Airways has diversified in hotel industry by offering a chance for
customer to book hotel and cabs after
the flights as one package. This
method helps customers to get
additional discounts for business and
leisure purposes.

• Porter’s Generic Strategy

In 1980, Michael Porter introduced a

strategy framework focusing on
companies to pursue competitive
advantages. It is based on three main
strategies namely cost leadership, differentiation and focus. Qatar Airways being a
multinational global brand has huge competition in the industry making it difficult to sustain
in market leadership position and increase market share. This strategy defines how they can
have a competitive advantage over others.

Cost Leadership – This strategy deals with lowering the cost from others to have competitive
advantage. It is the main generic strategy used by Qatar Airways in different consumer markets
to have market leadership through value chain management. By using this strategy, they target
middle class consumer base to have market share in overall consumer market mix in most of
the countries as middle class pays high importance to pricing factor. In addition, they focus on
accessibility and affordability of its produce to have high brand recognition and to have high
sales growth with lots of discounts and promotional campaigns to achieve sales target.

Differentiation – It is another important strategy used by the company focusing on

differentiating their products from competitors to justify the premium prices. Qatar Airways
use this strategy in combination with cost leadership to expand consumer base over unique
products. By using these above strategies, company has extended its product line after
understanding the consumer changing needs to differentiate from competitors to build stronger
and loyal customer base. Being the oldest and experienced brand, they make a strong presence
in the world by offering different product as brand logo, image and different marketing
strategies.

Focus Strategy – This is the third generic strategy in which companies gain advantage through
niche marketing, brand focus or industry wide strategy. Here companies serve particular market
segments by offering low cost and best value. By focusing on products attributes, Qatar
Airways redesigns its products to satisfy
customer’s expectations through taste, size and
design of the product and gives them value for
money.

• BCG Matrix

It is a strategic management tool helps in

analyzing position of strategic business unit and
its potential. It has four parameters named below
and two dimensions based on relative market
share and market growth. Through this method,
company can find out to which product is doing
well and which one needs more attention or to be
stopped.

Stars – They are Strategic Business unit (SBU) with high market growth rate and high market
share. For Qatar Airways financial business unit operates in a market that shows potential for
future and earns significant amount of income. They should more focus on supply chain that
will help in earning more profits. In addition, brand strategic management also considered as
star products for the company and generates large sales. It has high potential in the customer
forum and company should do more research in the same portfolio.

Cash Cow – SBU with low market growth rate and high market share are termed as cash cows
and company should invest in these to maintain market shares. The supplier management
service business unit are cash cows for Qatar Airways and been in operation for decades and
has earned revenue. As the company outsource it, they should have their own supplier and
should stop further investment in this business. Brand strategic business unit is an innovative
product and has 25% of market share and company should invest more to it to further increase
the share.

Question Mark – SBU with high market growth rate and low market share are termed as
question mark to decide whether the business should continue with them or divert. The food
strategic business unit is a question mark in Qatar airways network. The research relives that
consumers like more local foods and shows more market growth rate. As a result, company has
low market share in this segment. Company should invest more on R&D about the same to
come up with new ideas of food that will in turn into cash cows and brings profits for the
company.

Dogs – SBU with low market growth rate and low market share are the dog products and
company should diverse these SBU. The plastic bags strategic business unit is a dog product
in Qatar Airways that has been in continuous use for last 5 years and creating environmental
issues. In addition, synthetic fiber products and artificially flavored products are also dog
products as these products are declining. With increasing health consciousness, people are
refraining from consumption of artificial flavors. As a growth strategy, Qatar Airways must
stop further investment on these products.
BCG Matrix for Qatar Airways Products Description. Please refer Appendix F attached.

After analyzing from the above strategy formulation tools to generate new business growth
strategy for Qatar Airways, will have the following changes –

▪ A combination of cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategies must be applied

to handle competitive pressure.
▪ Growth opportunities can be obtained by applying market penetration, product
development, market development and diversification.
▪ According to BCG matrix, products are segregated in each quadrant. Stars and cash
cow products should be more enhanced. Question marks needs to be given more of time
and Dogs needs to be replaced with new products.
▪ With the above strategy, dedicated sales representatives should be assigned globally for
tasks who will report with the outcomes to their Station Managers. Station managers
will report to regional manager and he will report to general manager of the department.
▪ Once the reports are obtained with the GM’s it can be discussed with the CFO, COO
and CEO to have it implemented.

The new structure will reduce cost and increase profits and decision making, especially during
unprecedented and challenging times during COVID-19.

Implementation of Strategy

Different steps for Strategy implementation Qatar Airways must follow are as follows –

• Establishing yearly objectives – Company can set clear goals for a year and define key
variables to achieve with a deadline.
• Devise existing policies – A corrective action is needed on the existing policies, it can
either be adjusted, revised or change as necessary.
• Allocate Resources – to different departments depending on financial assessments as to
their budgetary requirements and must be properly documented. Do system checks to
monitor departments are working within the limits.
• Alter existing organizational structure – In order to execute new strategy structural
changes must be done time to time.
• Revise reward and incentive plans – Increase of annual bonus payout to individual and
teams based their performance and outcomes.
• Minimize resistance to change – convincing workers about the benefits should reduce
Perception about change in strategy in people mind.
• Develop strategy supportive culture – can be obtained by companies philosophy formal
statements, designing physical spaces, teaching and coaching, annual reward and
recognition systems and by rich history of the company.
• Adaption of production/operation processes - Determine the key operational tasks and
responsibilities to be performed, and the qualifications required of the person who will
perform them.
 • Developing effective human resource function – experienced and dedicated candidate
should be screened and hired to avoid non-committed employees.
• Link performance – Establishing a co-ordination mechanism among various
departments and their respective divisions and units.

The above diagram demonstrates the various steps involved in the organizations strategy
formulation to implementation.

Organizations change does not have to be a complex process. In order to solve this Kurt Lewin
developed a change model involving in
just three steps namely unfreezing,
changing and refreezing. His model
represents simple and practical model for
understanding change process.
According to Lewin, firstly perception
has to create that change is needed, then
moving towards new desired levels of
behavior and finally solidifying the new
behavior. Let us discuss each one in detail
in order to implement for shift in strategy
for Qatar Airways.

Unfreezing -

In this step, the main aim is to create an

awareness of how the strategy is going to be and people should accept the change where usually
people the resist the change. Here old behaviors, thinking process, organizational structures
must be closely looked to show employees that how much it is needed for the organization to
have competitive advantage. Communication is a very important step here to inform
employees, about the imminent change, the logic behind it, and how much it is urgent and
beneficial.
Changing –

Once people are unfrozen, Lewin found that it is the time that change process can be
implemented to its new state also called as ‘transitioning’ or ‘moving’. It has the time that most
people struggle with new reality become uncertain and difficult to adjust with new behavior
and processes. The more people are prepared and communicated it is easier for them to be
adjusted and become familiar. Hence, change is a process that must be carefully planned and
executed. Through this process, employees should be reminded the reasons for the change and
how it will benefitting them once the whole process is implemented.

Refreezing –

The final step Lewin called of his change is refreezing to denote reinforcing, stabilizing and
solidifying the new state that is implemented recently. The changes made to the organizational
processes, goals, structure, and offerings are refrozen as the new norm. It is another important
step to ensure that employees should not rollback to their older ways of implantation of the
change. Additional efforts are needed to make to cement the changes to organizational culture,
and rewards and acknowledgement of individual efforts are used to reinforce the change.

Some other Techniques necessary for Change Implementation are -

• Creating a sense of essential urgency for change.

• Create a coalition to guide and support the change.
• Make a vision and strategy for change.
• Make an idea that will fit the need for change.
• Make teams for change implementation.
• Foster idea champions.

Another change management principle used for implementing the strategy for positive change
can be Dual Core Approach for Qatar Airways in order to affect some change very quickly
and effectively. This method talks about management and technical changes.

Management changes deals with restructuring, control systems, departments, teams,

hierarchy, coordination, resizing etc. and starts from top management to down. In addition, it
is less frequent then the other changes and mainly depends on the environmental factors. It
follow mechanistic structure.
Technical changes are related to change of processes, concerned with making new products
for the business from time to time and remain updated on technology and starts from down to
the top management. This process is a frequent change process and follows organic structure.

Another change Qatar Airways can adopt after adopting above changes is a cultural change
in order to ensure the implementation of strategy. Some forces necessary includes horizontal
and re-engineering the company, diversity and learning.

Leadership for change plays vital role in change implementation. Change management requires
motivational and transformational leaders who can create a vision and an environment for
innovation and can handle risk management. Research tells that 80% of successful organization
have top leaders who reinforce importance of innovation and change.

Some techniques to overcome Resistance are as follows –

• Support from top management.

• Involvement and participation.
• Alignment with needs and goals of users.
• Training and communication.
• An environment with psychological safety.

In order to improve innovation and readiness to change in Qatar Airways, below are the few
steps mentioned –

• Develop deep customer understanding.

• Establish a favorable company culture.
• Dedicate additional resources for innovation.
• Increase investment in idea generation and R&D.
• Collaborations between people and teams.
• Decentralized handle process.

Readiness is made up of –

• Employees desire for change and believes that it is not too risky.
• Effective communication to inspire change.
• Planning of short term and long term goals.
• Proactive training to accommodate the change.
• Restructured leadership to affect the change.

Leadership Values to Manage Strategic Change

Leadership styles and Organizational Performance

Leadership is the most important key factor for any organization’s success and failure. It is
very much crucial for creating mission, vision, objectives, determination, roles and
responsibilities, making strategies etc. Leadership style is the way in which leader’s direct,
influence and motivate its employees to achieve success for the organization. (Khajeh, 2018)
It can be defined as a relationship used by an individual to make employees work together to
achieve common goals and objectives.
There are six different leadership styles namely transformational, transactional, autocratic,
charismatic, bureaucratic and democratic. Out of these styles, transformational, autocratic,
bureaucratic and democratic styles have positive impact and transactional and charismatic
styles have negative impact on the success of organization.

A good leader is effective when they have some quality characteristics that manifest in results
than describing it. Some qualities making a good leader are dedication, communication, human
relations, crisis manager, administrative skills, decision maker and expert opinion etc.
(Igbaekemen, 2014).

The trait approach to leadership tells that the person emerging as a leader in the group behaves
so because he has certain traits. It is because of saying that “Leaders are born not made”,
Similar to all client there is some element of truth. This approach says that effective leaders
should have integrity so that people believes you. Enthusiasm as a general characteristic of a
leader and warmth as a warm personality who listens and accommodates through calmness.
Warm personality is considered as the best in leadership in terms of qualities.
The situational concept approach is considered as the second important approach for
leadership focusing on the ‘situation’ in finding who should be the ideal leader for the
organization. The have three main areas of need namely need to achieve the same task, need to
held together as on working team and the need by which each individuals has virtue of human
being.

Let us discuss the different leadership styles in detail (Abdulraqeb, 2020)–

Transformational – This style focuses on developing the followers and their needs. Managers
focusing on this type of leadership focus on developing overall structure of employees, skills,
morality and their motivation levels. This style acts as bridge between followers and leaders to
develop understanding with values and levels. This style are effective because it encourages
the employees to look beyond their self-interest. The idealized behavior of this style of leaders
motivates the followers to identify and develops an environment in which employees feel
happy and so their performance is improved. Hence, it can be said that transformational
leadership and organizational performance are associated positively.

Charismatic – This style is considered as the most successful leadership styles, in which
charismatic leaders generates a vision and followers are asked to follow and execute it, invites
innovation and creativity considered as motivational for employees. However, the main
disadvantage of this style of leadership is that the followers completely gets dependent on the
leader and once the leader leaves the organization the follower becomes direction-less. This
style leaves “happy followers, but few future leaders” so it leaves long-term negative effect on
the organizational performance.

Transactional – A leader is called as a transactional leader if they are always giving something
in return. Example, promotion, increment, new responsibilities etc. Expectation is the main
problem with this type of leadership, there is always exchange of targets and rewards between
employees and management. This type of leadership style has positive impact on the
organizational performance and helps in sustaining the context in which organizational and
human capabilities are maximized, employees are always able to achieve to tangible and
intangible rewards. This helps in creating environment optimal for performance and focuses
on enhances the organizational performance and they do not have direct impact on the
performance of organization.

Democratic – This style of leadership is a type of leadership in which decision-making is

decentralized and is shared by all the subordinates. Here, the potential for weak execution and
low decision-making skills is high. In addition, this style is known to motivate employees to
perform better, as their views and opinions are valued. The main problem with this type of
leadership is the assumptions that involves everyone has an equal stake, making a shared level
of expertise. Democratic style of leadership has a positive impact on organizational
performance allowing employees to make decisions with sharing them with group and
manager.

Autocratic – These leaders are classic and bossy in nature. (Dr. Swapna Bhargavi, Ali Yaseen,
2016). They provide a clear picture of the task, what is supposed to be done when the deadline
is around. This leadership style is instruction-centric and the ways to control the followers and
a clear difference between leader and follower. These leaders make decisions independently
without any support. Research found out that it is more difficult to shift from autocratic style
to democratic style than from democratic to authoritarian one. The demerit part of this type of
leadership is viewed as bossy, controlling and dictatorial. It is best used in the cases where
there is limited period and needs decisions where the leader is knowledgeable. This style
however leaves in organizational conflicts, which negatively affect the overall performance.

Bureaucratic – These leaders influence people under their designations to follow the policies
and procedures made by them. These leaders are strongly committed to their standards and
procedures but not to their people resulting not very effective as it does not lead to the
development of the employees. This style has a negative impact on the organizational
performance. These leaders do not induce employees of their company to work in the required
manner, which can lead to improved organizational performance. Bureaucratic method is only
beneficial when the tasks are to be done without a time frame following a generic procedure
for the organization.

The leader and the leadership style has a very significant role in influencing the firm in terms
of performance, culture, technology and innovation of an organization that in turn affect the
organizational performance. This is proven in case study of Nissan, where in late 1990’s the
brand had lot of debts with very little liquid capital for new product development. Nissan was
weakening in the minds of consumers due to non-confidence of suppliers and financiers.
(Millikin, 2005) With this, Carlos Ghosn stepped in as COO and turned Nissan to operate
successfully under his leadership. By 1991, Nissan was operating very profitable with quality,
reliability, technology and fuel efficiency and were producing top cars. They had short-term
market share growth then profitability and long-term success, failed to invest in new product
and innovation and started investing other companies like real estate through with its downfall
started.
Nissan was looking for strategic business partner where its CEO found opportunity with
Renault to expand each other’s business. When Ghosn went to Japan, as non-Japanese COO,
he faced lot of criticism, but understood that he has to respect the culture, existing management
and employees to have strategic change for turnaround the business and strategy
implementation. He found that there is lack of focus on customer and too much focus on
competitor, no lack of urgency, no shared vision or long-term plan, no clear profit orientation.
Despite of all, Ghosn believed that if cultural conflict is handled carefully can provide
opportunity for innovation to grow personally and can bring big difference for the company.
Ghosn bring three principles for change as transparency between leaders and employees.
Execution is 95% of job 5% is strategy. Communication of company direction and priorities.
He turned the company in two years, one year ahead of schedule. From the above it is clear
that Carlos Ghosn applied transformational leadership to have clear vision of company, setting
high expectations and finding individual differences. After all the study of the company Ghosn
created a need of urgency and knew that profit needs to created urgently for companies survival.
He lowered down the production cost not compromising quality and increased sales. He set up
9 Cross-functional Teams (CFTs) of approx. 10 members each to develop a new corporate
culture from best elements of Japan’s national culture. These 9 CFTs were responsible for
business development, logistics, purchasing, sales & marketing etc. who will take radical
decisions for Nissan’s turnaround plans. He embraced cultural differences with Japanese
employees, and understood that if these differences are respected and carefully organized will
do wonders for the growth of company. This explains clearly that leadership styles plays very
important role in organizational success.

As per discussion and literature by Higgs and Dulewicz, Leadership styles and context are
categorized into three major types (Victor Dulewicz, Malcolm Higgs, 2004) –

• Goal oriented – These are the set of behaviors where leader sets direction and behaves
for a significant role in directing others to achieve goals and required performance. This
is purely leader-centric approach and not authoritarian approach.
• Involving – In this category of leadership style, leader’s focus is to provide direction
with significant focus on involving others to chip their ideas for direction to larger
extent in determining how goals will be achieved. It is less leader-centric set of
behaviors.
• Engaging – In this set of style, leaders is more focused to develop capability of others
to achieve than with close direction of the enterprise. It means that leaders are
concerned about both nature of the direction and the means of achieving the goals.

As per the researches and above facts it is proved that transformational leadership achieves
more organizational success compared to transactional leadership and signifies high job
performance. Hence, organizational performance is fully depended on different leadership
styles. Qatar Airways follows transformational and Charismatic leadership style as the
most successful style for it success. They can retain the company’s different corporate values
of One Team, Customer First, Honest and Loyal, Pride in Qatar and driving excellence by
following the above leadership styles.

Leadership and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) now days are most widely studied
literature that discuss important role of leadership implementing CSR practices and growing
interest towards ethics and challenges related to economic, social and environment for
sustainability. (GORSKI, 2017) Leadership plays important role in promoting ethical and
moral behavior to shape organizations as per their characteristics. CSR’s role is to restore most
critical resource for its sustainable business. By incorporating CSR through leadership, a Qatar
Airways can act for benefit of its employees, stakeholders, customers, society, suppliers,
community etc. and can turn the image of it brand.

Finally, I can conclude that different leadership styles has major impact on Qatar Airways
Business and its performance.

Recommendations

Qatar Airways has to focus on below points to incorporate corporate values for the strategic
changes implementation –

➢ The company mostly experience the industry factors, that can be integrated by Porter’s
Generic strategy (combination of cost leadership, differentiation and focus strategies)
to help in dealing with the competitive rivalry in the industry.

➢ All markets have threats and risks therefore the company should make a market entry
at potential locations in the globe to achieve its objectives and sales of products. This
can be done by market penetration, product development, market development and
diversification methods.

➢ Company’s existing strategy being cost leadership and diversification together forming
niche strategy. It is recommended to analyze Miles and Snow Typology and must
follow analyzer strategy to have competitive advantage for current situation of COVID-
19.

➢ For the aspect of customer satisfaction, a strategic action plan can be taken into
consideration that can be done using market survey or by BCG matrix. Focusing on star
and cash cow products and constantly innovating these products will engage our loyal
customers. This gives an opportunity for the company to be relevant in the industry and
achieve its mission.

➢ Transformational and charismatic leadership style will be effective in order to

implement these corporate values and to bring in organizational success.

➢ The company should use franchising as the entry mode to enter the places not served
and ventured. This method entails paying fees and royalties to parent companies to find
its trademark and use its business format. Hence, Qatar Airways will find out a
company already operating in the region that is already doing well to enter retail
markets with ease.
 ➢ Qatar Airways must analyze PESTLE for simultaneous expansion. Needs to be careful
that the parent company might become competitor. Therefore, the company can avoid
such risk by putting a clause in the contract before signing it.

Conclusion

The main strategic management issue faced by Qatar Airways is the Political and Legal issues
on its operation and business. Since 2017, Qatar country is facing blockade by its neibouring
countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Egypt) through land, water and sea for political
reasons. That has impacted the airline to the core and operations to these countries has stopped
and all Qatari Aircraft has not been advised to use the airspace, resulting longer aerial routine
and more fuel consumption. Another issue is due to COVID-19 pandemic company is losing
market share in many regions globally and have new competitor acquiring these shares. These
reasons have left the company behind its competitors.

Qatar Airways needs to have defender and analyzer strategy to monitor cost reduction to protect
current business and slowly innovate on opportunities for further growth by closely working
with the government of other countries. In addition, company needs to peruse a differentiation
strategy to regain lost revenue and lead in the entire industry.

In order to regain market share the company needs to start business in the high potential markets
with different new products with the above strategy. Possible limitation can be the use of
excessive resources usage as the operation cost can be very costly to cover the premium prices
for products. Company has to sustain as a leader in the innovation, technology, and set product
standard to maintain its position as a market leader. In addition, if the senior management team
lacks skill sets then it will create setbacks and needs transformational leadership style in order
to grow and expand the business.

The formulated strategies are considered as the best as it has been significantly researched and
proven and if implemented correctly, it can change the business and can have competitive
advantage in the entire industry. This method will make the company stable and will avoid
further redundancies, downgrades and deductions.
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Appendix A - Qatar Airways SWOT Analysis

Strengths
• Market leadership in luxury travel segment catering more than 150 destinations in all
six continents of the world having clear target segment.
• The airline has been strongly backed by government of Qatar and has a strong
leadership resulting in fast growth of the airline.
• Airline is investing huge resources in training and development of its employees to
achieve high skilled workforce.
• They have dedicated customer relationship department who looks to achieve a high
level of customer satisfaction among present customers and good brand equity among
the potential customers.
• They exhibits a high level of cross-cultural consciousness by incorporating regional
cuisines in their menu. Also, ensuring diverse inflight staff to make customers feel ease.
• They have strong base of reliable supplier of raw material enabling the company to
overcome any supply chain problems.

Weaknesses

• Investment in Research and Development is below the fastest growing players in the
industry.
• The company has not being able to tackle the challenges present by the new entrants in
the segment and has lost small market share in the niche categories.
• Not very good at product demand forecasting leading to higher rate of missed
opportunities compare to its competitors.
• Their primary focus is on business class for which there is a lot of expense in
maintaining quality of service. Also, fluctuations in fuel prices and wage issues from
union making cost management critical.
• Organizations structure is only compatible with present business model thus limiting
expansion in adjacent product segments.

Opportunities

• Increase in demand because of 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

• Formation of strategic alliances with other companies in travel industry.
• Increase in demand of luxury travel from emerging economies such as China and India.
• New aircraft fleets can be used to build customer confidence.
 • The new technology provides an opportunity to practices differentiated pricing strategy
in the new market.

Threats

• Further increase in fuel prices.

• New environmental regulations can have negative implications.
• Rise of raw material pricing can create a threat to the profitability.
• Unfavorable scenarios due to government policies and regulations.
• The major competitor of Qatar Airlines is Emirates and Etihad Airlines.
Appendix B - Miles and Snow Typologies

• Prospector - It is usually a high innovative firm constantly looking for new markets
and new opportunities oriented for organization’s growth with risk taking.

• Defender – In this stage, organization concentrates on protecting its current markets,

maintains stable growth and serves its current customers.

• Analyzer – Here firms maintains market share and tries to be innovative, although
usually not as innovative as an organization that uses a prospector strategy. Most large
companies fall into the third category, because they want to protect their base operations
and to create new market opportunities.

• Reactor – It has no consistent strategic approach but drifting with environmental

events, reacting to but failing to influence those events. These organizations usually do
not perform as well as organizations that implement prospector, defender or analyser
strategies.

Appendix C – Porter’s 5 Forces

• Competitive Rivalry – The Company will face very high rivalry with other firms if
market players are strategically diverse and target same market. If customers are not
loyal with existing brands, they can switch to other brands with low cost. Competitors
with equal size and offering similar products with slow industry growth must adopt
aggressive strategies to compete with each other.

• Threats of New Entrants – This reflects how new market players impose threats to
the existing market players. If the industry is profitable and barriers to enter the industry
is low, it will attract more market players resulting in high threats of new entrants. Qatar
Airways can take advantage of the economies of scale it has within the industry,
fighting off new entrants through its cost advantage.

• Threats of Substitutes – The threat of substitute product increases when a cheaper

product is available from another industry. The switching cost of moving from industry
to substitute product are low. However, the same threat is low for Qatar airways when
customers cannot derive the same utility in terms of quality and performance.
 • Bargaining power of Buyer - Strong bargaining power lowers profitability and makes
the industry more competitive. However, when buyer power is weak, it makes the
industry less competitive and increase the profitability and growth opportunities. Qatar
Airways can manage these by diversifying the customer base by introducing the new
products, target new market segment with marketing and promotional strategies.

• Bargaining power of Supplier - This will be high if suppliers are few and demand for
their offered product is high making suppliers stronger. Suppliers have concentrated
into a specific region, and their concentration is higher than their buyers. Qatar airways
has to decrease dependencies on one or a few supplier developing increase in price
sensitivity and long-term contractual relationship with different suppliers.
Appendix D – Organizational Life Cycle Stages

• Entrepreneurial Stage – It is the first and basic stage when the company is initially
created. Requires leadership for the growth.
• Collectivity Stage – It is the second stage where a company sets direction with mission
and vision.
• Formalization Stage – Here the company makes its standards and procedures, rules
and regulations significantly adding internal systems.
• Elaboration Stage – Here the company collaborate for one team in order for the
company to design its brand accordingly to sustain in the market.

Appendix E – Environment Uncertainty Model

Factors affecting Uncertainty are as follows –

• Complexity – Simple to Complex.

• Dynamism – Stable to Unstable.
• Financial Resources – Abundance to Scarcity.

Simple and Unstable. Complex and Unstable.

High to moderate Uncertainty High Uncertainty
Description: Description:
Simple, unstable environment. Complex, unstable environment.
Much greater uncertainty. Greatest Uncertainty.

• Social Media. • Oil Companies.

Unstable • Duty free at airports • Aircraft Manufacture industry.
• Luxury Brands. • Qatar Aviation Services.

Qatar Airways

Environmental Simple and Stable. Complex and Stable.

Dynamism Low Uncertainty Low to Moderate Uncertainty
 Description: Description:
Simple, stable environment. Complex, stable environment.
Low uncertainty. Great uncertainty.

Stable • QACC Catering company • Aircraft Cleaning

• Essential Supply Chain

Environmental Simple Complex

Complexity

Appendix F - Qatar Airways BCG Matrix.

Relative Market Share

High Low
Stars Question Mark
• Qatar Cargo
• Qatar Executive • QDC
High • Qatar Passenger Flights • Matar
Relative • First & Business Class • Al Maha Services
Growth • Qatar Duty Free • Oryx International School
Rate
Cash Cow Dogs
• QAS
• QACC • Discover Qatar
Low • Economy Class • Dhiafatina Hotels
• Internal Media Services • Plastics
Hamad International Airport,
Doha

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