Strategic Management – Communication of strategic decisions to two distinct stakeholder groups

Communication of Organisation Change to Qantas Board of Directors

• Firstly, lobby each member of the board of directors and send them the full report
• Secondly, lobby each member of the corporate governance and send them the full report
• Third, Send out the following email three days before the next board of directors meeting and make it an agenda item with the chair of the meeting.
• Fourth, at the meeting with the board of directors ask for a vote if you believe you have support during your lobbying otherwise ask for their consideration and vote at the next meeting.

Dear Board of Directors,

Below are the strategic recommendations as of 25^th October, 2015.

The following strategies focus on increasing our core competences to help us achieve sustainable above average returns.

Qantas’ safety record is a competitive advantage that cannot be copied. We have a monopoly on safety and need to leverage this. Qantas must keep its core competence in maintenance and that must be seen in the eyes of our customers.

A marketing campaign focused on safety with Qantas maintenance overseeing all maintenance aspects must be started and conveyed to the public.

Expansion into businesses that are outside our current capabilities should be avoided.

The key to success is to expand our global presence by partnering with Dubai airport only if Qantas marketing its maintenance standards and safety record is approved.

Qantas should offer other airlines including competitors the opportunity to have their aircraft maintained by Qantas safety standards. Any new maintenance work will be done by contractors in Australia under our strict supervision and approval.

Based on EBIT projections, Qantas must continue to support its core competence while reducing costs. International has the highest volatility but also the highest potential for growth and this is all due to Alan Joyce’s recent efforts in keeping to core competence.

Price competition from Emirate Airlines flooding our international routes reduced our international EBIT. To counter this we must market our safety record while we partnering to reduce supply chain costs, at the same time we must keep our core competence in safety that cannot be copied.

Figure 1Annual EBIT by segment (Qantas Airways Ltd 2015a)

Qantas needs to develop core competence in integrating horizontal acquisitions and building a business outside of Australia.  External market trends show growth in Asia and Africa and Qantas needs to be closer to those markets in order to offer new customers its safety record core competence

Regards,

Milan Pintar

Communication of Organisation Change to Qantas Employees

• First, setup a partnership with Dubai airport and the local government ensuring no barriers to entry for advertising and setting up operations.
• Second, Inform the management leadership and make sure they understand the changes and impact including time lines and strategy
• Third, send out an email announcement that includes a link to the intranet home page with the announcement. Include a video explaining the exciting new changes. This should be sent on the same day a new advertising campaign is launched on social media and TV.

Dear Staff,

The executive board of directors and corporate governance are excited to announce the following changes to the business.

We will continue to focus on our core competences and leverage our best in the world safety record. We do not want to lose this strength so we will not only look to keep it but we want to use to as an advantage.

Qantas is started a new marketing campaign showcasing our safety record. We will go further than that and showcase our safety standards. I ask you all to continue working hard in upholding our values and safety standards.

We believe international flights is a growth area and we are looking at expanding to Dubai. This will mean that we will have to setup a hub of operations there. We will continue to do maintenance in Australia but we will market our safety record through are new partnerships. We also have potential new maintenance contracts coming in and will be expanding our maintenance capacity when we maintain other airline aircraft.

Here is a <link> to videos describing the changes.

Here is a <link> to our new advertising videos launching today.

Here is a public <link> to the official investor presentation.

(Example: https://www.qantas.com.au/infodetail/about/investors/investor-day-presentation-2015.pdf)

Please talk to you management team if you have further questions.

Regards,

Milan Pintar

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• Fourth, setup regular governance meeting with the different departments to review progress and sentiment. During the meetings reinforce the strategy and ask the management team to provide progress based on forecasted plans.

Justification of Different Communication Approaches

It is important to talk to each of the board individually to get their support. As soon as possible after talking to each member it is crucial to get talk to the corporate governance board members individually because they may push back and block the changes. After the lobbying each person the full report should be sent to them for reference. After a three days before the next governance meeting an email letter should be sent to the board of directors and the agenda should be updated with the chair of the meeting. These steps need to be taken to have better control of the outcome of the meeting and very importantly to give each person a chance to fully understand the recommendations.

The letter to the board should also be printed out and handed to each member during the governance meeting to help them refer to the recommendations. During the meeting the recommendations should be discussed, voted and appropriate due diligence steps taken.

According to Akasha Karia (2014), the core message should be in a power phrase. The core message for Qantas is “we must focus on our core competence and ensure we protect and market our safety record”.

Once the board of directors has approved the changes then a program needs to be setup to communicate the changes to the rest of the business. The managers of each area of the business need to be educated and a plan need to be given to them with regular updates from management on progress. This is to make sure that the plans are executed on time and correctly.

The emailing to staff should include a video presentation located on the home page of the Qantas intranet site. Each executive should also explain the changes to the management teams and direct them to the plan to help management communicate the changes and the timing.

To help with questions a forum on the home page should allow all staff to post questions and the executives should be there to answer. This will help with questions that the management team might not be sure about.

For executives it is important that they see numbers that show above average returns on their investment. They also need to know they will not go to jail if they take the recommended actions. Reliable evidence is very important.

For the corporate governance committee they need to know giving up on dividends they will have improved sustainable future return on the investments. Reliable evidence is very important.

For managers and employees they need to have excellent visual material including clear and actionable plans. Vision and culture if very important.

References

Karia, A., 2014. How to Deliver a Great TED Talk: Presentation Secrets of the World’s Best Speakers (How to Give a TED Talk Book 1). 4 edition ed. s.l.:AkashKaria.com.

Qantas, 2015. Annual Report 2015. [Online]
Available at: http://www.qantas.com.au/infodetail/about/investors/2015AnnualReport.pdf
[Accessed October 2015].

Qantas, 2015. Qantas Investor Day Presentation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.qantas.com.au/infodetail/about/investors/investor-day-presentation-2015.pdf
[Accessed 5th October 2015].