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Engineering homework help

Engineering homework help. Due Week 4 and worth 100 points As an intern software developer for a retail bank, you have been tasked with developing use cases to support the ATM service.Prepare a 5-6 page paper in which you:Describe (in a one to two (1-2) page narrative) a use case, complete with typical and alternate courses, that documents the event of a bank customer withdrawing money from an ATM. Illustrate the use case using Visio or a similar product. Describe (in a one to two (1-2) page narrative) a use case dependency for making an account deposit. Illustrate this use case with Visio or a similar product. Describe (in a one to two (1-2) page narrative) a use case dependency for making an account transfer. Illustrate this use case with Visio or a similar product. Identify and explain at least one (1) ethical issue that the use case exposes in connection with the development or use of the ATM system. Research and cite at least three (3) authoritative academic sources. Your assignment must: Be typed, double-spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student?s name, the professor?s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. Include charts or diagrams created in Excel, Visio, MS Project, or one of their equivalents such as Open Project, Dia, and OpenOffice. The completed diagrams/charts must be imported into the Word document before the paper is submitted. The specific Course Learning Outcomes associated with this assignment are: Summarize the various requirements modeling techniques. Create a use case based on relating functional requirements. Analyze and articulate ethical, cultural, and legal issues and their feasibilities among alternative solutions. Use contemporary CASE tools in process and data modeling. Use technology and information resources to research issues in systems analysis and development. Write clearly and concisely about Systems Analysis and Development topics using proper writing mechanics and technical style conventions.Engineering homework help
The Importance of Business Models for Private Sector Organizations Organizations’ overall competitiveness was often evaluated with the help of such indicators as profit, return on investment, market share, and sales. Kassem et al. claim that the modern business world requires a more complex assessment that involves such categories as corporate citizenship, public opinion, customer service, and organizational performance (734). Companies and corporations no longer focus on the financial domain but have to consider their input related to social and environmental aspects. The introduction of business excellence in the early 1980s, as well as the launch of several management quality awards, encouraged organizations to be more committed to their impact and total quality principles (Mann et al. 1237). Business excellence is associated with such major themes as leadership, customer focus, strategic alignment, organizational learning, people focus, results focus, partnership development, social responsibility, and fact-based processes management (Porter and Tanner 6). Some businesses pay more attention to certain themes, which is associated with their strategic goals, organizational cultures, capacity, and other characteristics (Kassem et al. 735). Organizations tend to adhere to these principles due to external and internal factors. This is specifically important for private-sector companies that have to address fierce competition (Saizarbitoria Iñaki et al. 807). As far as the external factors affecting companies, governmental regulations, public opinion, and competitors’ focus on excellence have proved to be instrumental in making organizations adopt the model and comply with existing quality standards. It is also noteworthy that the development of networks where partners follow specific guidelines and standards based on business excellence models has become common. These networks are positively viewed by the public and customers are more willing to buy from the companies that show their corporate citizenship. Saizarbitoria Iñaki et al. also state that internal factors vary significantly across companies and depend on numerous aspects (819). Some businesses adopted the excellence model in order to gain a larger market share while others concentrated on the quality of their products and services. Some companies try to improve their employees’ motivation and their overall performance. Companies operating in different regions also have different approaches to business excellence. Evidence from an Emirati Organization Grand Stores is one of the most successful retailers and distributors of technology, beauty, luggage, and home sector products in the United Arab Emirates that has embraced business excellence principles (“The Label of Trust”). Bitar claims that the UAE aims at becoming one of the countries where businesses completely comply with business excellence principles. This strategic goal is regarded as a way to the country’s economic stability and its leading position in the global economy. Emirati people share this view and try to consume the products and services of organizations that follow the established standards. Grand Stores earned Business Excellence Awards several times, which shows its focus on total quality and the transformation into a leading corporate citizen in the country. Get your 100% original paper on any topic done in as little as 3 hours Learn More The constant growth of the company and its leading position in the market shows that the chosen strategy is effective. The company was established in the 1980s, but it faced the need to change significantly in the 2010s due to its expansion and considerable competition (“The Label of Trust”). Grand Stores pays their most attention to such business excellence themes as customer focus, leadership, organizational learning, people focus, partnership development, and social responsibility. The company tries to ensure the provision of high-quality services and products to its clients, and it also pays considerable attention to its partners’ business practices, cultures, and their compliance with the existing standards (“The Label of Trust”). The adherence to the principles of the business excellence model enables the company to address such issues as total quality control, employee motivation and retention, and employee development. The company provides extensive training to its employees who are motivated to follow the principles of business excellence. However, there is still the need to increase transparency and improve the company’s communication with its customers and the public. The growing bulk of studies shows that business excellence involves close contact between the organization and people. The communication within the company, its interactions with partners, and the public ensure the development of the community where people’s needs are understood and met while business goals are sustainable and achievable (Saizarbitoria Iñaki et al. 814). The use of social networks can be one of the most effective strategies to improve Grand Stores’ interactions with customers and the public. Conclusion To sum up, it is necessary to note that the use of the business excellence model is beneficial for private-sector companies in many ways. In the western world, the models contributed to the improvement of numerous companies’ performance in the 1990s. Middle Eastern companies also have found their way in the global market by following the principles that have proved to be effective. Grand Stores, a leading Emirati retailer, is one of the illustrations of the successful implementation of the model as the company has earned a substantial market share and the recognition of the public and the government. The compliance with standards and adherence to business excellence model enables the organization to provide high-quality services as well as ensure the most favorable working environment for its employees who constantly improve their skills. Works Cited Bitar, Zaher. “Dubai Recognises 32 Companies and Entities for Business Excellence Awards.” Gulf News. 2013. Web. Kassem, Rassel, et al. “The Relationship Between Organizational Culture and Business Excellence: Case Study from United Arab Emirates.” Organizational Culture and Behavior: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, IGI Global, 2017, pp. 732-751. We will write a custom Essay on Grand Stores’ Business Excellence Model specifically for you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Mann, Robin, et al. “Awareness and Impact of Business Excellence in Asia.” Total Quality Management

Global Marketing Power and Biases Discusisons

Global Marketing Power and Biases Discusisons.

Part 1: Global Marketing Journal: Countertrade: the country in the Part 1 File.Part 2: Option A and Option B, You could choose one of them, Be specific. When you done, you need response one peer’s response.Option A: Reflect on the reading about power. Option B: Reflect of the reading on the Point/Counterpoint “The End of Management” Part 3: Option A or OptionB, You could choose one that You like. In Your response please be specific. Then when you done, I will provide you 2 Peer’s Response, and you need to response them, 3-5 sentences.Option A: reading the assigned sections of the articles Tung (1984)’s “Human Resource Planning in Japanese Multinationals” OR Option B “In Thinking, Fast and Slow, you learn about several biases including the (1) availability bias, (2) anchoring effect, (3) hindsight bias, and (4) focusing illusion.”
Global Marketing Power and Biases Discusisons

Failing Organization PowerPoint- Toys R US

write my term paper Throughout history, organizations have failed. Many have failed due to their lack of innovative structure and culture. Research the Toys R US organization that failed because it was unsuccessful in implementing innovation. In this assignment, build 4 slide PowerPoint presentation with a title slide, presenter’s notes, and references slide. In the presentation, address the following questions: 1. What external factors contributed to the organization’s failure? 2. What internal factors contributed to the organization’s failure?

The Overview For The Customer Loyalty Marketing Essay

This chapter starts with the introduction of the research’s topic. Firstly, I will explain the overview for the customer loyalty. After that, research background, problem statement and research objective will discuss on this chapter. Besides, the justification, scope of the study, and limitation of the study hand been thoroughly discussed in chapter one. Finally, I will give definition for the importance term that I often use in this research. Nowadays, Customer loyalty is very important if an organization want to retain its current customers. Gaining customer loyalty becomes a key objective for banking organizations. Customer loyalty defines loyalty as “a deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatronize a preferred product or service consistently in the future, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior”. (Oliver 1997,p.360) This has lead to a different definition of customer loyalty, “an ongoing propensity to buy the brand, usually as one of several” (Uncles et al., 2003, Gee et al., 2008,). Customer loyalty can be determined by looking at the number of purchases made by the customer from the product portfolio of a company, the frequency of acquisition, the percentage from the total expenditures made by a customer for a certain product or service. (Filip and Anghel, 2009). Besides, customer loyalty can be determined through consumer preferences and their affective disposition toward the bank, which are combined with repeat purchasing. Due to Filip and Constantinescu, 2007, we can conclude that repetitive customer behavior is not enough for us to be considered loyal towards the banking industry. (Filip and Anghel, 2009) Many academics need have more knowledge and better understanding to the process of developing customer loyalty (McMullan and Audrey, 2008, Oliver, 1999; Knox and Walker, 2001; Tsaur et al. 2002). When the academic have enough knowledge, they can know how to segmentation the customers according to different levels of customer. So, Different level customers have different strategies based on their background. In addition, the relationship between competition and loyalty becomes stronger when level of competition increase. Services sector is one of the examples because this sector has a lot of choices and rapidly emerging innovative products and services (McMullan and Audrey, 2008, Stevens, 2000). However, the academic and practical knowledge of the determinants of customer loyalty is very important for a organization to survive in market. In overall, we can say that develop an efficient customer loyalty strategic is very important for a organization includes banks. A successful strategic can help the organization to retain the customer in order to survive in highly competitive market. So, bank must build a strong customer relationship with their customer. 1.2 Background of the research In Malaysia, there are many bank located in different states, banking sector becoming increasing competitive from day to day. Due to the rapid development of information technology, it has made a great impact in the banking industry deeply. The high technology can provide the customer better alternative than before. It can help the customer to fulfill their financial needs. So, many bank need to keep improve themselves with the high technology to retain the customer. In order to retain the customer, the bankers need to have different kind of marketing and management strategic. One of the strategies is to understand their customer needs and try to satisfy their needs. There are several reasons that can influence customers’ selection of a bank. The range of services, rates, fees and prices charged can influence the customer mind when they want choose the suitable bank to keep their money .(Cohen et al., 2006;Abratt and Russell, 1999). Furthermore, providing service excellence, innovative products are vital to succeed in the banking industry. As conclusion, description above is my research background. It relate to the problem statement and objective that I am going to study during this research. 1.3 Problem statement Customer loyalty becoming an important element of banking strategy in today’s increasingly competitive environment. Nowadays, the entire bankers need to compete with each other to survive in this highly competitive market. The entire banker must identify the problem occur in the bank and try to manage the problem in a proper way. Employees play an important role in a banking industry. Employees represent the professionalism of an organization. So, the banker must make sure their employee willingness to solve problems when emergency case happens. They must train their employee when how to dealing with customer. The employee must deal with customer friendliness and have sufficient knowledge to help customer. Other than that, the employee must have communication skills, and selling skills when dealing with customers. Many researchers conclude that retaining an existing bank customer costs less than creating a new customer. They discover that the cost of creating a new customer has been expected to be five times more than that of retaining an existing customer (Gan et al., 2006,Reichheld, 1996). Some researcher has explored the influence of several factors on loyalty. There are service quality, customer satisfaction, corporate image, commitment and conflict handling. Based on the research, this several factor have great impact on customer loyalty. Unfortunately, many banking industry does not fulfill the requirement of this several factor. Some banks do not understand the customer needs and provide the wrong information to customer. Other than that, some banks do not provide the good quality of service. The bank staff does not know how to deal with customer; the customer will think the staff no manners and do not professional. Besides, some bank does not build the strong relationship with the loyalty customer by giving them some special offer. If retention criteria are not well managed, customers may still leave their banks and find another bank to manage their wealth. In order to settle those problems, the bank must know how to handle the problem and try to satisfy the customer needs. Research question: Is there any significant relationship between reliability and customer loyalty? Is there any significant relationship between responsiveness and customer loyalty? Is there any significant relationship between assurance and customer loyalty? Is there any significant relationship between empathy and customer loyalty? Is there any significant relationship between tangibles and customer loyalty? Is there any significant relationship between customer satisfaction and customer loyalty? Is there any significant relationship between corporate image and customer loyalty? Is there any significant relationship between commitment and customer loyalty? Is there any significant relationship between conflict handling and customer loyalty? 1.4 Research Objective Research had show that customer loyalty is very important for an organization. Therefore, the objective of this research is to analyze the factor that can influence customer loyalty towards banking industry. Besides, the purpose of this study is to investigate how the bank to strengthen the relationship between bank and customer. The target respondent for this research is undergraduate university student. The study has some specific objective are as follow, i) To determine important factors affect the customer loyalty on bank ii) To analyze the relationship between reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangibles, customer satisfaction, corporate image, commitment and conflict handling. iii) To make suggestion that could assist bank manager to increase customer loyalty towards bank. 1.5 Research Justification Nowadays, gaining customer loyalty becomes the purpose of a bank in order to survive in the competitive market. So, all the banking organization tries to make every customer satisfy their services. The result of this research will be able to provide an insight into how the bank manager to determine the factor that can affect the customer loyalty towards banking industry. All the relationship between the factors and customer loyalty can help the bank manager to making more effective market strategic. Besides, this result also can benefit all organizations includes banking industry. With the research, they can determine the factor that can influence the customer loyalty and the relationship between the factors and customer loyalty. Therefore, they can learn and make decision at the better way. Furthermore, the findings of this research are very useful to local banking industry. The findings of this research can provide some useful feedbacks that help the bank manager to improve the bank service quality. It is important to banking industry as it has direct impact of customer loyalty. If the improvement of the bank services parallel with the needs of the customer, the bank can increase the amount of customer satisfaction. High level customer satisfaction will reduce the customer switching. 1.6 Limitation of the study This study only focuses on banking industry in Malaysia due to the time limitation and other country banking industry hard to do more research on it. Besides, the customer loyalty also affect buy other external factors such as price. Besides, the research only focuses on undergraduate university students which include the local university and private university. It is hard to find target respondent other than undergraduate university student to do the survey. It is assumed that the respondents will answer the question in an honest manner. So, the results get from the research maybe not accurate. 1.7 Scope of the study This research target respondents consist of a group of 200 undergraduate university students. The undergraduate university students must be a bank customer. In this research, data are collected through primary research by the questionnaire survey form. Suggestion, recommendations from the bank customer can get through the survey form. In order to achieve the objective of the research, the questionnaires will be set based on research objective and hypotheses statement. It can make sure that the data that had been collected are more accurate and useful for the research. 1.8 Conclusion As a conclusion, bank should always keep improve the services in order to compete with other competitor. Customer loyalty is a key success for a banking industry. The cost of creating a new customer has been expected to be five times more than that of retaining an existing customer (Reichheld, 1996). 1.9 Definition bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits and channels those deposits into lending activities. Banks primarily provide financial services to customers while enriching investors. Government restrictions on financial activities by banks vary over time and location. Banks are important players in financial markets and offer services such as investment funds and loans. Customer loyalty Customer loyalty can be define as “a deeply held commitment to rebuy or repatronize a preferred product or service consistently in the future, despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behavior”.(Oliver 1997,p.360) Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction is defined as “the customer’s response to the evaluation of the perceived discrepancy between prior expectations and the actual performance of the product/service as perceived after its consumption”. (Che-Ha,Tse, 2007 and Tse and Wilton, 1988,p.127) 1.10 Organization of Research Project This research project consists of five chapters which is introduction, literature review and research methodology, results and discussion, conclusions and recommendations. Chapter one is introduction of the research project. It begins with the overview and background of the topic. After that, this chapter also covers background of the research and problem statement. After identify objective of research, research justification will be discuss. Finally, limitation of the study and scope of the study will be explained. Chapter two is literature review. It presents the variables that involve in this research. The variables include reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangibles, customer satisfaction, corporate image, commitment and conflict handling. First, I define the key terms and variables, and then followed by literature review in the context of factors affecting customer loyalty towards bank. Finally, a small conclusion will be discussed. Chapter three states the research methodology. It begins with introduction and then followed by a complete research framework to illustrate the relationship between the dependent variable and independent variable. After that, nine hypotheses were developed to test the correlation. Sampling procedures and sources of data will also discuss in this chapter. Furthermore, some technique to develop questionnaire also will discuss. Chapter four presents the results from the data analyses. The analysis examines the results how whether the variables can influence the bank customer loyalty. The analysis can find out there is any significant relationship between the independent variables and dependent variable. Chapter five states the recommendation and conclusion. It discusses the major finding and concludes the study. It also highlights the implication of this study, limitations and some suggestion for the future research.

Pestle Analysis Of Ryan Air Management Essay

INTRODUCTION Ryanair is an Irish airline competing in European low cost short haul airline industry. They are one of the key players within this market with the jersey of cost leadership and a vision of flying at the cheapest rates to any of their destination. ‘if you find it cheaper elsewhere, we will give you a refund’-Micheal O’Leary, They are perhaps the most profitable. This report undertakes a detailed strategic analysis of Ryanair against the backdrop of an evolving global airline sector impacted considerably by the financial and economic markets’ crisis. It looks at Ryanair’s current strategy and who and how of the management of that strategy. It identifies how the business functions impacts on the carrier’s customer relations and leaderships with regard to being a cost leader. It also attempts to give a brief evaluation of Ryanair’s financial structure as well as an environmental analysis of the European airline short haul industry and how this affects Ryanair. STRATEGIC POSITION. This is shown using tools like: PESTLE analysis for the macroenvorit, Porter’s five forces for the industry structure Resources and capabilities. Opportunities and threats of the SWOT analysis developed by Albert Humphrey for the analysis of Ryanair’s external factors 2.1 PESTLE Analysis Quite a number of these factors can be discussed but has been written in this paper in an order of priority. PESTLE Factors Comments Political EU directives prohibit direct subsidies by governments to their airlines as they work to establish a level-playing field among the region’s airlines (Charalambous, 2009). This approach was driven by political developments, as various countries were willing to have a level-playing field across the European Union, not only in the airline sector but also in other various and relevant sectors in their countries. Economic The global airline sector is currently experiencing downfall in passenger travel and have seen falling revenues and also compounded by passengers making bookings at the last minutes for their travel and falling ticket values (Walters, 2009). For the consumer, the economic downturn has impacted the spending of individuals and families, and this has reflected in the lower airline travel being done by consumers (Blake, 2009). Socio-cultural Consumers attitudes towards travel has changed largely in recent times as the high cost of travel compared to other modes of transportation has made consumers more observant and aware not only of other transport alternatives but results in consumers demanding lower cost of travel from airlines. (Flanagan, 2008). This trend was aggravated by the financial and economic downturn which has made consumers manage their finances more closely given the uncertainties that the environment holds. Consumers will be expected to continue to pursue this trend as poorer economic outlook continues in the near future. But, a significant improvement in the confidence in the markets will lead consumers back to utilising airline travel again. Technological There have been technological developments in the airlines sector particularly those relating to improved fuel efficiencies of airlines (Harvey, 2008). In as much as they may be considerably costly at the time of investing or replacing, they are expected to generate substantial cost improvements that would be worth it These improvements, though beneficial would not be considered priorities in the current environment where considerable numbers of airlines are struggling to meet their passenger forecasts and revenue targets, and are posting large losses in their financial results. Legal The directives mentioned in the political factor will be implemented in this factor in specific countries across the European Union to ensure that it is strictly adhered to by each of the members Environmental These issues have been a key focus for the global airline sector in recent years as there has been increased demand for airlines to do their share in lowering the impact of the use of airplanes on the environment and the carbon footprint (Harvey, 2008). Ryanair has been one of the targeted airlines basically because of the large number of flights that it makes every day. This is due to their business model which calls for having their planes in the air for most of the time. This can be in contrast to the goals of environmental awareness for Ryanair to minimise the impact of the carbon footprint on the environment. In as much as environmental issues are important in the airline sector, this may take a back seat as other stakeholders will focus on more pressing issues including the viability of the airlines. This analysis showed that there are a number of developments impacting the airline industry globally and also some others affecting the European airline industry specifically. 2.2 INDUSTRY STRUCTURE The Michael Porter’s Five Forces of competition will be used to analyse the European short haul airline industry. This analysis shows as well the changing influences in the sector with the key developments leading to actions for each factor that were deemed unthinkable only a few months ago. Five Forces Comments Entry Barriers The major barriers to entry include the large capital and relationships across the global airline sector to develop the network plan (Ionides, 2008). I could argue that the entry barriers actually just became even stronger with the poor performance of the sector due to the economic climate and the challenging periods that the players in the sector are facing. Buyer Power The key buyers are the individual consumers and also the travel agencies. Across these groups of buyers, the power would seem to have increased relative to previous situations. The key reason for this is the decreased demand from these groups of buyers (McCartney, 2009A; McCartney, 2009B). Based on this, the buyer power has increased, as much lower prices will be in demand versus previous years. Supplier Power Supplier power has decreased relative to the influence of the other factors. For example, airlines have been willing to reduce the work force considerably as a result of the falling passenger figures. Nevertheless, research has shown that the airlines which work closely with its workers (e.g. Lufthansa) perform better versus its competitors which have a relatively adversarial approach to the management of its work force (e.g. British Airways) and thus have an advantage (Creedy, 2009A). It is interesting to that in this time of hardship for various stakeholders in the global airline sector, it seems that different parties are working closely with each other for the sake of survival Threat of Substitutes There is an increased threat of substitutes. These come from (1) alternative modes of transportation, and (2) alternative activities resulting in lower airline travel. The alternative modes of transportation can only affect destinations where alternative modes of transportation exist and also where it does not become too stressful or inconvenient for the traveller e.g, between the UK and continental Europe. Across these region, alternatives modes of transportation exist, and travel time is not too excessive to make it unacceptable (Anselmo, 2008A). The alternative activities that result in lower demand for airline travel include people and families deciding to travel to destinations that do not require air travel. In the UK, a large number of families have opted to stay within the UK instead of travelling to continental Europe for holidays and weekends (Dick, 2009). Industry Rivalry The industry is expected to continue to see increased rivalry as the competitors try to capture the increasingly limited number of passengers. (Betts, 2008). Rivalry is driven by the decreased demand for travel which led some airlines to lower prices and now compete almost directly with the low-cost carriers such as Ryanair. The competitive position is seen to be high and will continue to do so as the players have put in their investments for the planes and infrastructure and would not manage these differently in order to drive returns. 2.3 Value networks and business partners As for the value chain of Ryanair, their relationships with suppliers provide it with the merit to deliver its low-cost strategy. Key suppliers include amongst others: its work force delivering the services to its customers: working intentionally within the guidelines of Ryanair to deliver its low-cost model to the consumers. the airports in which Ryanair operates in: the government airports work closely with Ryanair in ensuring an agreement that benefits both Ryanair and also the local community where Ryanair lands in. the supplier of its airplanes and other equipment : the supplier of its airplanes and equipment work with Ryanair to customise their fleet for Ryanair to provide their basic low-cost service model to travellers. RESOURCES AND CAPABILITIES 3.1.Strategic capabilities Their major capability is their ability to manage their low-cost business model and continue to operate within the parameters set by this model (Wallace, 2009).. Within the context of decreased demand for travel by consumers, its low-cost model has positioned the business extremely well. Ryanair has an advantage over other airlines which are only now adapting to a lower-cost model to match the requirements of the sector due to customers demand and what they are willing to pay for. As part of the low-cost business model, Ryanair relies on a strong, talented and efficient work force that delivers the services promised to customers within the cost model of Ryanair. This is an area that cannot allow for copying the low-cost model of Ryanair, particularly as personnel cost is significant in the airline sector together with fuel cost. 3.2 Key success factors The critical success factors for Ryanair have been their: ability to deliver their low-cost business model, capability to work with and coordinate closely with their suppliers through their talented work force ability to remain consistent to their stated business model and strategy. external recognitions In delivering this model, Ryanair maintained their approach even in the face of rising fuel costs (Ryanair, 2009). The recent year has shown how Ryanair manages their business with their consumers. They manage their cost base well amidst looking for alternative revenue sources to be able to generate additional revenues to offset increased costs from the impact of the oil prices. In working with their suppliers, Ryanair showed that the way to excel in the sector is to ensure that suppliers are also reaping the benefits of doing business with Ryanair (Wallace, 2009). There is a two-way relationship. Whether the current environment remains or the outlook becomes more favourable, Ryanair is positioned to capture the large part of the consumer demand for air travel to their destinations The success of Ryanair can also be seen from external recognitions. In December 2008, Ryanair was included in the list of Britain’s Most Admired Companies (BMAC), the first time it had been included in the list (Management Today, 2008).Over the past years, Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary, has been included in the list of the 30 Most Respected CEOs of Barron’s, a global list of CEOs noted for “doing outstanding jobs of keeping their companies out of trouble and on course through conservative financial management, a strong focus on the customer and relentless innovation” (Barron’s, 2009). IMPLICATIONS OF STRATEGIC POSITIONING Dennis Foster (2006) stated in his lecture on Managing Strategic Change that change is a ‘people based process’. This means that both staff and customers will have implications on Ryanair’s strategic positioning and any changes they make to it. As supported in the leadership section of the report there is a good working atmosphere and relationship between O’Leary and his employees. Cavendish (2006) argues that ‘Ryanair’s revenues last year apparently included almost two million flights that were booked by passengers who never showed up’. While this is good for Ryanair from a financial point of view, it does not reflect good will on them from a customer relations aspect and could affect their position and strategy. Ryanair’s recent trouble profit wise certainly would have had implications on their strategic positioning as they would have had to re-evaluate their strategy. The following table indicates the themes across the relevant strength and weaknesses derived from their core competencies factors in looking out for Ryan airs resources and capabilities SWOT Factors Comments Strengths Ryanair’s business model is their major strength. In the current environment where travellers are searching for the lowest cost alternative to travel, Ryanair continues to provide customers with airline travel as an alternative that is worth considering (Moorcroft, 2009). Quite unusually, the current economic crisis has also helped Ryanair increase their market share in the sector as customers have moved to lower-cost airlines to manage their various costs of travel and this has helped fuel the continued growth of Ryanair despite the crisis, and has also helped position Ryanair to continue to see strategic growth initiatives in the sector (Brothers, 2008; Creedy, 2009B). Ryanair has developed strong relationships with various stakeholders. They are aware of the importance of working with their stakeholders to deliver the necessary services to consumers (McDonald, 2007). This is a key strength of Ryanair. Weaknesses Ryanair is largely a European airline even though it has the largest number of flights internationally among the world’s global airlines (Done, 2009). Thus, its revenues are undiversified in terms of regions, and thus any impact on the European airline market has a significant impact on the performance considerably and much more relative to other airlines which have geographically diverse revenue sources. The above strength and weaknesses showed that there are a considerable number of opportunities available for Ryanair. However; this would have to be carefully looked into given the significance of existing threats in the sector. 5. STRATEGIC CHOICE In an industry where news of poor performances has been seen largely on the front page of newspapers since the start of the financial and economic markets’ crisis, the performance of Ryanair has been a tremendous positive news to the industry as it has faced the challenges brought on by the crisis. Ryanair continues to benefit from the crisis as the consumers switch to lower cost travel alternatives (Milmo, 2008). However, the lower revenues generated and the falling number of passengers has still impacted the business as Ryanair announced losses for the first time since 1997, and expect that there may be further challenges in the near future (Bhargava, 2008). In a recent announcement of results, “Ryanair, Europe’s largest low fare airlines today, announced a Q3 loss of EUR102m, (compared to a profit of EUR35m in last year’s Q3), as average fares fell by 9% to EUR34, fuel costs rose by 71% to EUR328m, revenues rose by 6% to EUR604.5m, as traffic grew 13% to 14m, as more consumers switch to Ryanair’s low fares from high fare competitors” (RNS, 2009). Ryanair’s strong position in the industry has allowed it to pursue inorganic activities despite the financial and economic markets’ crisis and even in the face of a challenging environment for the airline industry. While most of the players in this sector will likely pursue the lowering of costs to managing its operations, Ryanair continues to surprise analysts and investors alike. Ryanair continues to pursue its interest in Aer Lingus. A key reason for the interest of Ryanair in Aer Lingus is that it owns a substantial part(29%) of the airline and is concerned about the poor performance of the airline and the impact it has on the value of Ryanair’s shareholdings (Hancock, 2008). In as much as these opportunities exist for Ryanair. The global airline industry is currently facing a large number of threats that may be hindrances to achieving these opportunities. Some of which are the fluctuating US$ exchange rate and the fuel prices. These threats have prevented airlines from realising a stable stream of earnings in recent periods with a considerable amount of time being spent on management, with some pursuing to hedge, the changing value of the US$ and also the volatile oil and fuel prices (Anselmo, 2008B).Another threat is the continued recession seen in the major economies which is still playing an impact on the reduced travel of airline passengers with substitutes for air travel seeing increased volumes. 6. STRATEGIC DECISION AND RECOMMENDED STRATEGY Going forward, Ryanair can continue to be positioned as a niche cost leader in the global airline sector by pursuing the opportunities that currently exist and also addressing the weaknesses that exist within the firm. By so doing, Ryanair will be able to capture the demand from consumers of low-cost travel and also position it to weather any further difficulties in the market that may be limited only to specific regions in which Ryanair operates in. For low-cost carriers in particular, a key threat is the potential move of full-service airlines into the business model of carriers such as Ryanair and easy Jet given the demand of passengers for lower-cost travel (Furlonger, 2009). This will only increase the competition in the sector overall and, in particular, in the low-cost segment of the market. Ryanair’s Innovativeness has ensured its sustainability and will carry them forward into the future. To recommend any major changes would be to predict how the airline industry will change which ultimately cannot be foreseen. However, the following decisions can be considered the advent of new routes will bring more customers, from both departure points. a subtle shift in their strategy could be appropriate. For example offering drinks vouchers onboard for the customer’s next flight might entice more people back