Please read the Swissair stuck in the middle case study and answer the following

Question

Please read the Swissair stuck in the middle case study and answer the following questions

1) Summarize the case and your understanding of it

2) What are the factors in a firm`s culture that may keep it from clearly choosing a strategy and also allow structured decision making similar to that which led to the crash of Swiss Flight 111

3) Would you classify airlines that seek to be both low cost and differentiation as being stuck in the middle? Why or why not?

4) What would be the means to avoid being stuck in the middle?

Please write atleast 3 pages or 1000 words in your own words.

Thank you.

SWISSAIR: STUCK IN THE MIDDLE Historically, Swissair was one of the Swissair itself was a major European through a differentiation strategy flagship international businesses in carrier offering a differentiated ser and aims to set new benchmarks in Switzerland, and the airline was ce, but then the firm had sought to customer service and product quality known for excellent quality throughoutn bankrupt and troubled air- Swiss International Airlines operates a Europe. Swissair, however, filed for lines throughout Europe that wereodange of short and long-haul bankruptcy in early 2001. It had operating with low-cost strategies. As aircraft sought to be a global player but never result, Swissair's image became was able to reach the critical mass blurred. Was it a high-quality airlinestrong direction and make decisions needed to be successful. In large part or a regional airline? Was it offering when faced with a crisis is reflected in these problems were rooted in the fact a differentiated product or a low-cost more than just the firm's bankruptcy. In that the airline never developed a product? clear strategy. The firm, in the late 1980s, sought to form an alliance egy was, as stated earlier, bank- United States. The pilots smelled smoke with high-quality airlines in Eroperuptcy. At the time of the filing Swisand requested that they be diverted to AUA, KML, and SAS), all of which sair grounded its fleet, stranding a nearby airport for an emergency followed a differentiation strategy. thousands of customers throughout landing. The pilots then, in accordance The alliance failed, however, because the world. The Swiss are known as it was never clear who was to lead the stoic people, but in response to the unknown origin, shut off the power sup- alliance. Swissair the expand into small regional airlines. the streets, in one of the largest dem- For example, in 1995 the firm bought onstrations by the Swiss in recent circulation fans to shut 49.9 percent of Belgian Sabena Air-memory, with 10,000 participants lines, and later pursued a major investment in the Polish Airline LOT.situation in Swi Swissair also bought a 70 percent the 1970s when the Swiss watch share in a low-cost regional airline industry collapsed. However, that named Crossair. These regional air- industry has been aided by an inno- lines had significant problems, how vative new watch enterprise, Swatch ever, and Swissair did not have which created a major new position expertise in restructuring airlines-itthe Swiss in the watch industry: the was not even able to reorganize its differentiated fashion watch. How- own cost structure Swissair's inability to identify a 1998, 229 people died in the crash of The outcome of this confused strata Swissair flight from Europe to th with the rules when faced with smoke of n sought to grounding, citizens demonstrated in ply to the cabin. But in this case, follow ing the rules to the letter caused the The only comparable corporate cockpit. Ultima caused the fire to spread back into the the fire destroyed itzerland occurred inthe various control systems, and cause the plane to crash. This lack of creative decision making is often cited as an example of when following the rules can be the wrong decision. This deci- sion making will be covered in more detail later in the book. ever, no new product category hasBonsu, H. (2001). A nation in shock: Swis In reviewing the airline's actions, yet been created for the Swiss airlinesair crisis. BBC News. hftp://news.bbc.co. ndustry. In the wake oft ssair appeared to lack strategy-it was attempting to use Swissair, Swiss International Airlines both the low-cost strategy and the dif- was created from Crossair. Swiss ferentiation strategy at the same time nternational Airlines is currently posi- by investing in various airlines. tioning itself as a premium airlin One. www.wsj.com. rammes/crossing_continents Garstka, M. (2002, April 4). When global strategies go wrong

Explanation / Answer

1.This case is all about the swiss airlines and the strategies followed by them to become successful airline but it explains how the strategies followed by them led to the failure of the airline.Initially the airline was known for excellent quality throughout the europe but later it failed due to bankruptcy in 2001.The firm wanted them to be a global airline so they decided to form alliances with other high quality airlines but the alliance failed due to improper leading of it.Later the firm analysed their failure and framed to follow new stategies ie.Low cost and differentiation strategy.But due to its low cost strategy there was a confusion that would they offer a high quality so this confusion led to failure later Swissair were also not strong in decision making at the right time.Their wrong decision led to the crash of flight from europe to US.After the collapse of swissair ,Swiss international airlines created from crosssair followed differentiation strategy and now they have set a new benchmark for high quality and service.

From this inorder to become successfull airline correct strategies must be followed and strong decsion making should be made at the right time.Decision making and strategy can set a benchmark for a firm .If these two things go wrong then it will lead to whole failure of the firm

2.factors in firm's culture:

The firm's inability to identify a strong direction and lead the path to the success

Employee involvement is the main thing for making wrong decisions.If the employee is involved with the work then he has the ability to make right decisions

Their postioning of the airline also led to failure of their strategy

The firm did not have the expertise to restructure the airlines

The firm also was also not able to reorganize its own cost structure.

3. Low cost strategy can lead the airlines to get stuck in the middle.Because of low cost they may not have used high quality in structuring the airlines which may lead to some failure in quality in the middle of the flight.Due to low cost they might compromise the quality and service.But using differentiation strategy in a right direction by providing high quality and service the airline may avoid some quality issues during the middle of flight.But in some cases they can get stuck in the middle due to various issues.So the low cost and differentaition strategy cannot fully assure that airline cannot get stuck in the middle.

4. To avoid getting stuck in the middle the airline should go through a quality check of all its componentsf.It should ensure that every component is working properly and if any issues arise ,They should manage the issue with some other alternative.So all these things should be checked for every airline before every take off.So this can avoid the airline to get stuck in the middle They should also provide high quality product so that most of the quality issues can be avoided in the middle of flight.

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