PAKISTAN INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES

Pakistan International Airlines



Pakistan International Airlines

Strategic Business Management and Planning

Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning is a top-down approach to business planning, with an emphasis on long-term business wide issues. Strategic planning models encouraged the view of markets as aggregations of competitors rather than as aggregations of customers (in contrast to the marketing concept). They also tended to emphasize general management solutions to problems, often at the expense of ignoring implementation issues in specific functional areas (e.g. finance, marketing, human resource management, etc.) though each of these areas may have its own planning processes, as is the case with marketing planning). While general management solutions continue to be put forward (e.g. total quality management, re-engineering, total performance management, customer relationship management, knowledge management systems, organizational learning) there is now wider recognition of the need to consider implementation issues, to think about bottom-up as well as top-down approaches, and to create processes that are flexible and allow for adaptation. With this view, it is as relevant to consider 'how' management should plan as to decide 'what' should be planned (Andersson 2005, pp. 255-361).

Strategic planning, by its nature, is very analytical and is dependent on the preservation and rearrangement of established categories of the firm. For example, it usually analyses the existing levels of strategy (corporate, business, and functional), the established types of products (identified as strategic business units) overlaid on the current structure (divisions, departments, etc). In large organizations this type of work is undertaken by planners, who lack managers' authority to make commitments and access by managers to soft information that is so critical to strategy-making. However, they do have time to undertake analyses and are therefore critical to the process. Closely linked to the planning of strategy is the creative process of strategic thinking; indeed, it is often difficult to disentangle the two activities. The two terms are linked together under the umbrella of strategic management. This involves the softer concepts, e.g. intuition, vision and creativity. The outcome of any strategic plan should be an integrated perspective of the enterprise, and a vision of its future direction.

Vision

PIA has a vision to be a world class airline, meeting customer expectations through excellent services, on-time performance, innovative products and absolute safety.

Mission Statement Analysis

PIA mission statement is as follows:

Employee teams will contribute towards making PIA a global airline of choice through

Offering quality customer services and innovative products.

Using state-of-art technologies.

Ensuring cost effective measures in procurement and operations.

Developing safety culture.

The analysis of the mission statement reveals that the company's goals and mission are in alignment with stakeholder such as customers. Customers want to have quality service at low price with safety (Surhone 2010, pp. 123-156). However, there may conflicts in interests between stakeholder such as the management and the customers. The mission statement does indicate that the company wants to use state-of-art technologies, which can improve overall customer service, but lack of funds may hinder such initiatives.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Leading Market Position

The market share of Pakistan International Airlines is approximately ...