Case Study: Internal analysis of Ryanair

Valuable is measure through the ability of the business in implementing strategies that improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the business operation. In the Ryanair Holdings case the business are valuable since they are able to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their business by using a primary method of the cost control that used a single model of the aircraft that allows minimizing of training and maintenances cost, efficient management of spare part inventory and more flexible scheduling of flight crew. By using a single model that have been widely used, the flight crew are more readily available for hire. This will reduce the cost of training since the company does not need to provide their flight crew with any training and also ensure that they flight crew ability to handle the flight and reduce the possible number of defect. Besides that, the effectiveness of Ryanair Holding customer services that deliberately reduce the services in some area such as free checked bag, meals, flight to major airport and raising the services in other area such as on-time departure and arrival and also fewer bag lost has attract more customer since they believe that the customer will endure discomfort and indignity as long as they get to their destination cheaply and with their suitcase on time. This valuable aspect will assure the competitive advantages of Ryanair in the long run since them able to attract customer with effectiveness and

Ryanair is a company set by the Ryan Family in 1985 with a share capital of £1 and 25 staff. They got permission from the regulatory authorities to compete with British Airways and Aer Lingus’s high fare duopoly on the route of Dublin and London in 1986. Through specialization in care operations cheap and smiling, with low cost as the most crucial factor, CEO Michael O'Leary has made it famous in Airlines zone, flying from eighty five airports and operating one hundred and twenty eight the ryanair.com Web site first inaugurated for conduct e-ticketing in January 2000, it hoped make profit up to 50% of all ticket sales. Though, that goal surpassed rapidly. Within a year it was making up to 72% profit. The success of the Web site is so good at earning profit that Ryanair has not done anything to get bigger in other selling channels, such as tele sales, agent sales or direct sales in the face of the rapid increase of business in current

The purpose of my assignment has been done in terms of strategic analysis, its formulation and implementation of Ryanair organization. The assignment is developed by three parts which includes variety of questions in the each part.

Prior to 1991, Ryanair had suffered from continuous losses from 1985 to 1989. The first reason that put it into this situation was that it tried to position itself as a low fare airline with the first rate services. It tried to keep low and unrestricted fare, while keep focusing on the best customer service and relationship. This mixed model was proven inefficiency. The low price could lure number of

Michael O Leary uses a centralized management style in the company which is also used a functional structure. The organisation structure of Ryanair is tall. As illustrated in my diagram Michael O Leary is the CEO of Ryanair and he deals directly with the chief financial officer, head of marketing, head of customer service, head of pilots union and all the other departments displayed in the structure. A functional structure is a structure that groups people in different departments or functions because they all share common skills or they can make use of the same resources. The members of these teams working in these different departments become very skilled and become more specialized within each function. My reason for choosing functional structure for Ryanair is that there no real hierarchy in the organisation, this improves the channels of communication and ensure there is no confusion. Michael O Leary makes the decisions in the firm and uses a very hands on approach in the business by dealing with other managers in the business on a day to day basis. If any problems are ever encountered Michael O Leary would deal with the problems internally. Staff within the company are also matched with their expertise and assigned to a certain group such as marketing, finance etc. A functional structure helps organisations to group tasks into functions to increase their effectiveness in which the company will be allowed to reach their company goals such as providing customers with cheap flights with excellent customer service. As Ryanair grows in size there may well be more departments added to the structure as there will be more employees and more roles and responsibilities to be

Now I am going to discuss Ryan air’s (RA) current strategic position by analysing its macro (external)and micro (internal) environment.

Generally speaking, the launch strategy of Ryanair was not the best one for that moment in time. They began operations between Dublin and London, in a very saturated market, which was already served by two competing and very experienced companies owned by the governments:

The strategic plan of Ryanair has been to establish itself as Europe’s leading low-fares airline.” Ryanair aims to offer low fares that generate increased passenger traffic while maintaining a continuous focus on cost-containment and operating efficiencies.” (www.ryanair.com)

Ryanair was established in the year 1985 by the RYAN family and has grown from a small airline flying a short hop from Waterford to London, into one of the Europe’s largest carriers. The company expanded and within 4 years it had 350 employees, 14 aircraft, and carried 600,000 passengers a year. It is currently serving to 26 European Countries with 148 destinations. It operates on 794 different routes daily serving by more than 1050 flights in a day. It has totally 169 aircrafts running for different routes with 5986number of employees working in it However, Ryanair’s costs rose drastically and it recorded losses of £20 Million sover four years despite its growth. Although consumers were continuing to fly Ryanair

Ryanair consists of a centralised functional organisational structure. Normally, employees positioned within a centralised functional

It is obvious that Ryanair is using Cost Leadership Strategy judging by the organisation’s behaviour.

Ryanair incorporated at no-frills, low-cost, quick to reach consumers destinations in a much modernized aviation industry. For instance, it is more cheaply, and more reliable, than any other airline including British Airways. They do not compromise on safety, top-drawer punctuality, near perfect baggage handling and efficient ‘green’ policy. The target markets of this particular airline are those who compromises on comfort and fare conscious customers. For example: Students, low-income earners, busy businessmen, and family (Ryanair.com). On the other hand, British Airways strategy is to become the world’s leading global premium airline by making cost that is base more efficiently and focus on outstanding customer service, which is a critical part of their strategy. The 5 strategy goals are to be the airline of choice for long haul premium customers, deliver and outstanding service for customers at every touch point, grow their presence in key global cities, build on the leading position in London and meet customers’ needs and improve margins through new revenue streams (British Airways PLC .com). The target market of British Airways is leisure travellers, consumers who want comfort and cost is not an issue (marketingmagazine.co.uk). Both aviation companies are customers based but they do differ from each other in their operation strategy.

The aim of this report is to carry out a strategic analysis of Ryanair. This will involve investigating the organisation’s external environment, to identify opportunities and threats it might face, and its strategic capability, to isolate key strengths and any weaknesses that need dealing with. Finally, a SWOT analysis will be carried out to assess the extent to which Ryanair’s strategies are suitable to what is happening in its task environment.

1. In-depth environmental analysis of the European Airline industry and discuss the implications for the budget sector and especially for Ryanair. 2. An integrated understanding of the functioning of a company – its human and technical operations, leadership, customer relationships and financial structure. 3. Implications of the internal functioning to create viable strategic positioning and discuss any changes to Ryanair’s approach to ensure an improved sustainability 4. Evaluate the strategic leadership style of Michael O’Leary

This paper is to examine the key potential drivers within the present internal environment. Several models would be applied to support the answer and they are Stakeholder Power/Interest Matrix, Cultural Web, Resource audit, Value Chain, and threshold and core competences. With using Ryanair as an industrial example, this essay would talk about how important strengths and weaknesses are to be used in designing strategy.