OPERATIONS STRATEGY ANALYSIS 1

Operations Strategy Analysis

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Operations Strategy Analysis of Qantas Company

I. Introduction

All Over the globe businesses have undergone great shifts and changes following the

economic disruption over the last three years. Mainly, the previously well-established firms

have, in greater numbers, continued to prosper despite the eminent challenges. The key driver of

their prosperity can be the realisation that the only thing that can keep them at the top of the

game and make it their basic strategy of achieving a long-term competitive advantage is

excellence in operations management. Operations Management, in this sense, underscores the

measures used in business administration to realise the topmost efficiency level probable within

the company. There is a great need for any organisation to come up with a clear operations

strategy geared towards averting the rising market disruptions and volatility, improving

sustainability efforts and withstanding mounting pressures; otherwise, it will collapse. Any

company’s operations strategy should always translate into a source of competitive advantage. In

this paper, I will conduct a critical operations strategy analysis of Qantas Airline Company and

further recommend some operations strategy adjustments that will provide a long-term

competitive advantage if effected.

II. Slide 2

Qantas Airline Company is based in Australia with international and domestic operations.

The company has been in existence for more than 100 years now. There exist various models

which can be used to describe the operations strategy adopted by Qantas company. However, on

close analysis, it is clear that the 4Vs model is the best-fit model that describes the company’s

operations. The 4Vs model touches on four critical aspects of operations strategy: volume,
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variety, variation and visibility (Prakittachakul, 2020). It is important to note that these four

aspects are crucial for any company involved in services, such as Qantas Airline Company.

Qantas is involved in a competitive and dynamic industry whose dimensions are well addressed

under the 4V model. Focusing on the first dimension, volume, Qantas enjoys many passengers

from day-to-day intervals translating to many flights taking off to different destinations globally.

Qantas has automated check-in, luggage handling and online booking systems designed to serve

this high volume of passengers easily and promptly.

III. Slide 3

Secondly, Qantas has a variety of services offered to her customers, such as a variety of

classes of lounge access, entertainment, in-flight meals and travel. Due to the variety strategy,

the organisation’s operations are structured in a way that offers all the services seamlessly across

all flights while giving room for customisation of services as per customer choice (Spender and

Klimko, 2018). Thirdly, Qantas operations are subject to significant variations such as flight

delays, weather and disruptions from unpredictable happenings. Some of the contingency

mechanisms implemented by Qantas in managing such variations include alternative customer

support systems, flight routes, and backup aircraft. Lastly, the company’s operations are

characterised by high transparency and visibility emphasis. The customers enjoy real-time

updates on flight delays, status and other happenings with more responsive systems for support

and information access when needed. In a nutshell, the 4Vs model offers an operations strategy

model that is more comprehensive and helps analyse the unique opportunities and challenges

Qantas company encounters in service delivery.

IV. Slide 4
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Qantas’s current stage of operations can be identified using the Hayes and Wheelwright

Four Stage model, which will pinpoint the salient stages within the organisation and how they

have led to its outstanding performance. The stages include Internally neutral, externally neutral,

externally supportive and internally supportive. Focusing on Qantas’ general operations, it is

presented in an externally supportive stage. The choice is justified by the fact that the Qantas

operations approach aims to support her general strategy and competitive advantage by

progressively innovating and advancing products and services to address the ever-changing

customers’ needs. As it is in an externally supportive stage, the key goal is always on

customisation and flexibility in a company’s operations. The company is always adapting and

innovating to remain in phase with its customers’ revolving needs. According to Prakittachakul

(2020), Qantas has intensively invested in technology to improve the customer experience in

service delivery, including using Qantas Chatbot by customers in flight booking, check-in, and

Facebook messenger for flight updates.

V. Slide 5

Critically analysing the Qantas operations strategy from bottom-up, top-down, inside-out

and outside-in perspectives, a lot has been realised. The bottom-up perspective shows that the

company enjoys a wide flight network prioritising timely performance, safety and customer

satisfaction (Yu, 2022). It has invested highly in technology, modern aircraft and training to

improve operations, which points to a strong operational strategy. The top-down perspective

shows that the company has a pronounced mission and vision and committed leadership to

customers’ premium experience delivery. In order to support its operations, the company has

invested heavily in infrastructure and technology. The company has a strong corporate
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governance framework with committed leaders towards sustainability. The Inside-out

perspective outlines that Qantas has well-pronounced internal processes and operations,

including several technologies and systems (Xian, 2018). The company’s approach focuses on

automating internal processes by use of booking, baggage handling, check-in systems and

maintenance systems. Outside-in perspective, which scrutinises Qantas’ external environment,

shows that the company exists in a highly competitive sector (Heiets, Oleshko, and Leshchinsky,

2021). Some of the major competitors include Singapore and Emirates airlines. Interestingly,

Qantas has anchored its strength on reliability, safety and exemplary customer service. Following

a declining demand for air travel, the company has developed cost-saving measures and adjusted

its capacity and network.

VI. Slide 6

Based on the analysis, the four perspectives are far reconciled in addressing the Qanta’s

sustainability pressures and operation challenges. The company has been relying on the

employees’ feedback from different departments to make informed decisions on some of the

areas to improve such as technology which has been adopted to reduce ques and save on time

during booking, check-in, and inspection of the passengers. Qantas have clearly set goals on

what they need to achieve and each stakeholder is aware of them such as achieving sustainability

and improving on profits by reducing fuel consumption and always ensuring customer

satisfaction. The company has highly focused on its internal strengths where it has critical

capabilities such as operational excellence, strong brand, and digital operations such as online

booking, mobile apps and social media to improve communication. The company highly focuses

on quality, reliability and safety in a move to be an excellence icon in the airline sector. Qantas
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greatly understands and responds to customer needs and stays updated on market trends. The

company has upgraded airport lounges, flight entertainment and loyalty program to ensure

customer satisfaction. It is now in a move to introduce more competitive prices to outdo

competitors. Nevertheless, given the complexity of the company’s challenges, more so on the

declining number of passengers due to economic turmoil, the four perspectives need to be

tightened to protect the firm against any economic shocks. Generally, Qantas’ current operations

strategy and model are not in bad shape and have great potential to provide a competitive

advantage continually.

VII. Slide 7

Moreover, given that it is in stage three, an externally supportive phase, there are more

chances for improvement and areas that need to be addressed. Qantas company should focus

more on innovation and sustainability through the appropriate use of technology and continuous

advancement of flight models, classes and services to guarantee customers a distinct experience

that addresses all their needs. It should further explore electric aircraft use and sustainable

aviation fuel (Cui and Li, 2021). By so doing, the company will quickly advance to an Internally

supportive stage, which is the Apex of a successful company.

VIII. Slide 8

Individually, I have learnt a lot from completing this operations strategy analysis of

Qantas Company. One of the outstanding lessons is that the key determiner of an organisation’s

success lies in the operations strategy. It is the central driver for any organisation to attain a

competitive advantage. It expansively contributes to the sustainability development of a

company and cushions it against any unfavorable economic times. Utilising the four
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perspectives, which are bottom-up perspective, top-down perspective, inside-out perspective and

outside-in perspective, I learnt that there is a greater need for them to be reconciled to address the

complex sustainability pressures and challenges that face company operations. The Operation

Strategy model is not a rigid framework implemented once and for all. However, it calls for

continuous assessment and evaluation to continually re-engineer and realign it towards

addressing the company’s current challenges and future concerns. The company need to be in

constant search for more approaches that can be articulated in the operations strategy to improve

the company’s path and vision to minimise and, at last, eliminate trade-offs, match its strategy

with the market needs, remain more focused on sustainability and at last upgrade to a better level

in the Hayes and Wheelwright Four Stage Model.

IX. Slide 9

Secondly, I learnt that alignment between operations and business strategies is crucial.

The assessment revealed that the misalignment of the two strategies could result in skyrocketing

operational costs, inefficiencies and poor performance. The result for such an organisation is a

business failure and probably closure. Thirdly, external factors have a great impact on operations

strategy; thus, they cannot be ignored. External forces such as customer needs and demands,

market conditions and legal requirements have a significant impact. For instance, Qantas’

operations, as evident from the assessment, portray how such factors have reshaped their strategy

and adoption to market changes. Technology as a factor under all circumstances cannot be

ignored in operations strategy. Technology is the present and future of businesses as it has been

integrated into a company’s processes to improve quality, efficiency and customer satisfaction.

For a company to achieve operational success, it needs a reliable supply chain with strong
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logistics, supplier and inventory management systems. The subject of employee engagement

cannot be assumed. Employee engagement allows a company to grow a company culture

focusing on employee empowerment and continuous improvement to attain success. Lastly, each

company needs continuous operations strategy improvement by utilising metrics to rate

performance. Generally, the operations strategy analysis was an eye opener and the knowledge

gained will go a long way in making an informed decision when developing and implementing

any strategy in an organisation.

X. Slide 10

References

Cui, Q. and Li, X.Y., 2021. Which airline should undertake a large emission reduction allocation

proportion under the" carbon neutral growth from 2020" strategy? An empirical study

with 27 global airlines. Journal of cleaner production, 279, p.123745.

Heiets, I., Oleshko, T. and Leshchinsky, O., 2021. Airline-within-Airline business model and

strategy: case study of Qantas Group. Transportation Research Procedia, 56, pp.96-109.
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Prakittachakul, V., 2020. Optimising the Marketing Strategies of Qantas and Thai Airways Iryna

Heiets.

Spender, J. C. and Klimko, G. F., 2018. "Qantas Airways: A Strategic Analysis" Journal of Air

Transport Management, vol. 66, pp. 20-30.

Xian, W., 2018. Case Study on Qantas of ITS Strategic Management: The High Flyer of the

Airline Industry.

Yu, M., 2022, October. Impact of Optimal Capital Structure in QANTAS Airways Limited from

2015-2019. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Economy,

Data Modeling and Cloud Computing, ICIDC 2022, 17-19 June 2022, Qingdao, China.