Question

AirAsia. The airline company even provides business-class services for the same price as a regular ticket for many other airlines. In 2007, The New York Times described the airline company as a “pioneer” of low cost travel in Asia.

a) Discuss how the company designs its activities to support its company’s competitive strategy, in terms of : product designs, scheduling, process designs, human resources

Answer 1

AirAsia has become one of the leading airlines' brands across the globe. The company is performing well in all the competitive strategic sectors, for example, product design, scheduling, process design, and human resource.

Product design

The company has strongly focused on its strategic capabilities for designing its always products. For example- it has updated its technical equipment for developing more upgraded products that can satisfy more number of customers. Moreover, the product design strategy of the company has also emphasized on risk management systems such as delays in aircraft orders.

The company has a significant acknowledgement that only passenger fare cannot be sufficient for compensating the product design cost. A proper application of zeal, and innovative thinking, the company has found out new revenue systems through ancillary products, and services. The execution of the strategy has helped the company in gaining a steady competitive advantage.

Scheduling strategy

The company has a significant scheduling strategy that has helped it to grow strong. Proper execution of scheduling strategy has helped AirAsia taking the upper hand on its competitors. The factors it considers while developing a scheduling strategy are as follows:

• Adequate utilization of load factors

• Consumer reliability

• Long-haul scheduling windows

• Runway slots

• Terminal constraints

• Haul crewing constraints

• Availability of crewing

Process design

The process design includes the process that consists of the organization that handles all its operational processes. The airlines' organization has different departments to manage the operations. Factors that it considers while designing the process are as follows:

• Location

• Massing

• Exposure

• Storage

• Access

Availability of airlines technology

• Availability of customers, and boarder protections

Human resource

The HR objective of the company is guest-centric. The company aims at 'We care and we make it easy'. Thus, a cultural balance can be witnessed in the human resource department of the organization. Human resource managers generally set a target that can be well-achievable for employees. Thus, tasks are allocated according to skill and experience. New trainees are provided proper training to handle customers and to satisfy them to the core.

Smart human resource management correctly handles employees from different cultural orientation and linguistic variation. Strategies are as follows:

• Maintaining diversity in the workforce

• Qualification, and experience-based recruitment

• Mandatory training for employees for successfully satisfying employees