Global business environment has changed drastically and its affect can be seen on the operations of all the companies irrespective of the industry they are working in. The change in the global environment has brought many kinds of challenges for the internal managers in all the companies. These changes can be seen with the change in the dynamics of factors in the global business environment. The case is also the same in Australia. In the last two decades there are number of companies which have crossed borders so as to expand their business reach. But in the changing global business scenarios there are huge amount of factors affecting this expansion (Grant, Butler, Orr & Murray, 2014). The most basic challenge that managers are facing in the modern day business is of competition. Company need not only facing competition from local market but they are also facing challenge from the international competitive forces.
Qantas Airlines is one the biggest Airlines companies in the world. It has expanded its business in many parts of the globe with the help of its subsidiaries and presently it is flying to maximum possible destinations of the world. This company plans for new kinds of expansions in new areas in which they will face other types of challenges. But the biggest problem that they would face is of competing with other airlines that is present in the industry at the same time (Albers, Baum, Auerbach & Delfmann, 2017). In the coming years Qantas plans to have huge amount of investment in the domestic markets of many countries. In such an environment it is crucial that Qantas does a market research that would help them in making of the strategies which will give them competitive edge over the other rivals. Every functional unit faces a very different kind of challenges in their operations. It depends on the managers of the departments to ensure that smoothness gets maintained in the business process. In order to stay stable in the modern day business, it is crucial that company understands the best approaches in the business and make changes accordingly. Change management is highly essential in this regards.
In my view, organisations utilises approaches of polycentrism and geocentrism in their work process as per the need of the market. In polycentrism company start making strategies, using techniques and taking use of methods that are used in the host country. This is most common in the case of decision making of the firm as companies prefer to make decisions according to the nation in which they are operating (Lawton, 2017). This is also most common in the case of Human resource management like recruiting of staffs. Apart from this company like Qantas also takes use of geocentrism approach. In this approach multinational organisations have a world-view towards making of the decisions. Irrespective of the country in which company operates, they resolve their problems according to their world-view. In this approach company is run as a global firm rather than as a large corporation that has deeper roots in any particular country. Following both these approaches company also takes use of local and global strategies. The local strategies are generally used by any company when they face challenges related to the local market while at the multinational levels they utilises global strategies. This is common in the case of dealing problems that are related to supply chain, technology use or quality management (Dowling & Moran, 2012). This is due to the fact that all these factors affect the business process in the same manner irrespective of the country they are working in.
In the international market competition has gone very high and it has become essential for the organisations to ensure that they manage their resources in an effective manner. Long term growth of the company can be ensured when there is sustainable utilisation of resources. Since resources are depleting at much faster rate hence sustainable utilisation of resources needs to be achieved. Qantas need to understand the increasing pricing of fuels and hence be ready for the challenges that are coming in the future. This will also help in increasing the profit margins of the company and hence resulting in revenue increase. Sustainable revenue growth is the need of the organisation in the modern day business (Sarina & Wright, 2015). Since the fuel prices have increased in the whole world hence a global strategy for sustainable utilisation of resources is required. In the coming years this problem is going to enhance. For solving this challenge management needs to ensure that the strategies like lean production are implemented as soon as possible so as to be ready for the future challenges.
Flouris & Yilmaz, (2016), suggests that strategies also need to be made according to the demand of the future that company has to tackle. If the company does not makes itself ready for the future demands then the chances of business failure increases. Qantas needs to have long term investment in the predictive technologies that predicts the future requirements based on analysing the data that has been gathered in the past business. This is a bigger challenge for the multinational company as they have lot of areas to deal with in various parts of the world. Qantas has a huge client base and it is essential that company puts efforts to understand their need and respond accordingly. For dealing with the challenge, they need to do a thorough market research which also includes taking responses and feedbacks from the customers so that changes could be made effectively and according to their demand.
According to Latemore, (2013), another major Problem that Qantas is facing in the modern day business is the use of technology and the advancement that is going on in the technology. Since the technology is expanding at much faster rate hence it is essential that company takes care of all the innovations that are going on in the technology. This will help the firm in gaining competitive advantage over the rivals. The aviation industry has seen a great deal of modernisation in terms of the automatic systems that is used within the organisation. Qantas needs to invest a huge lot of money in research and development projects so as to build machineries that are advanced and bring disruption in the whole business process. The use of technology should also be in terms of making satisfied customers. Since people these days are demanding of the bookings system that gives them facility to book and cancel tickets from anywhere with the use of best of technologies. Customer’s queries and problems should also be solved using the technological means. Company must ensure that problems that customers are facing must be resolved with the help of technological means. This will benefit the firm in managing their CRM which is very essential in the modern day competitive environment. It is also essential because any fault technology can lead to serious accidents which in airlines industry results in image failure. This problem can be confronted with the help of having its own technology enhancement unit that helps them in managing the problems related to technology as well as works for improving the their usage in the business operations (Maitland & Sammartino, 2012).
In the views of Aharoni & Noy, (2012), technology must also be used in terms of data management. There are various functional units within the organisation and the operations of each unit generate a huge amount of data. These data are highly crucial and needs to be safeguarded from the hackers and other competitors so that they do not have idea about the strategies that company is going to make based on the data obtained. This is also true in terms of the fact that managing of data helps in making of strategic decisions that gives Qantas an edge over the rivals. Since it is multinational firm hence data is generated at multiple points in the whole world and managing a centralised database is extremely essential. Centralised database is also essential at the time of decision making as the companies decision makers can access the data as per their requirement. I believe that with the help of data analytics tools it is easier for the company to sort, filter and access the data as per the requirement. This gives specific information to the company about any issue. With the development and implementation of the technologies like IoT, this problem becomes bigger and the necessity of data management tools becomes greater. Cloud and IoT infrastructures promote the use of privacy and security software that can protect them from any external attack. This challenge is going to become more serious in the coming future as the hacking activities are increasing on everyday basis.
Srisaeng, Baxter & Wild, (2014), has a viewpoint that there is an increase in the number of people who are choosing air mediums as a medium of transport. This increase is most significant in the domestic market where there are many new countries which are becoming major target markets for Qantas. One of the primary examples in this regards is India where the number of people that are increasing in the domestic market is increasing at much faster rate. It is also crucial that company understands the basic need of the domestic market as people in this market wants to have flights at lower rates. For understanding of this opportunity it is essential that company focus on behaviour analysis especially the ones that are linked with purchasing behaviour of the customers. The major opportunity that is available with the company is in the developing market. This is due to the fact that there are less numbers of players in this market but the numbers of travellers are increasing at much faster rate. With the help of subsidiaries company could easily grab this opportunity. There are many countries in the Asian market that can be wonderful target for Qantas.
In my view, the major challenges that company would face in different nations will be related to cultural variance that exist in the host nation and the home nation. Inside Qantas there is a very different kind of organisational culture that exists. The culture of Asia is highly different and diverse. In such situation polycentric approach can be used inside the firm as it helps in managing the cultural difference between the two nations. The strategies must also be made as per the polycentric approach and the nature of the market. In this the role of the decision makers becomes very essential as they would have to make changes in their plans according to culture of the nation (Gleeson, 2012).
In my opinion, for international managers, corporate social responsibility has become a major challenge. This is due to the fact that company has to make a balance between CSR spending and overall revenue generation. CSR is important in the modern day context as it improves the image of the organisation in the market. Qantas being a multinational firm needs to invest a whole lot of money in different countries in different welfare projects (Crawford & Northey, 2013).
Adding to this i believe that one of the biggest challenges that company and its managers had to face in the international market is related to the Human Resource Management. This is due to the fact that Qantas has huge number of employees from different cultural backgrounds. It is the role of the HR managers to implement strategies that could improve the cooperation and coordination at the workplace irrespective of the fact that from which culture they all belong to (Waldron, Rivers & Yeo, 2012). This can be done by both approach either a global strategy or local strategy. The appraisals and trainings which is the major challenge for the HR managers needs to be done with at most priority. At the time of appraisals, company needs to follow equal criteria for everyone irrespective of the place they belong to. This is necessary for the motivation of the employees which is further essential for improving their performance. Motivation has a direct impact on the overall productivity of the organisation. This challenge can be confronted by managers with the help of financial and non-financial rewards so as to keep the motivation level of the employees on the top. In distribution of the rewards company’s overall profit has to be evaluated. It must strictly be based on the performance of the employees which needs to be evaluated based on the data from performance analysis system (Whyte & Lohmann, 2015).
I believe managers at Qantas need to evaluate the changing global business environment before entering into the new market. Various environmental factors impact on the business operations in different terms and it is crucial that company understands their impact on the performance of the firm. Since the political scenario in the world is changing and has created new direct flight routes between the two nations (Mules, 2013). The economic condition in the world has changed especially in the European and American region. Both the economies have seen a decline in their growth rate. The stagnation in the growth of American market has created tensions for the managers especially in terms of new investments. Along with this social factors in the world has changed and this change can be noticed in terms of choice. With the increase in the number of traveller going for the purpose of tourist new opportunities for the airlines industry have come up (Gulliver, 2012).
On the contrary Caddy, (2012), believes that Marketing has become difficult as the competition in this field has also gone. With the advancement in the digital marketing techniques companies will have to invest a large amount of money in the digital marketing campaigns. Digital marketing needs to be done in such a manner that it does not violate the privacy of other people. With the amount of competition that is going on in the market, this could easily be a case. For resolving this challenge local and the global marketing strategies needs to have a balance in order to comply with company’s image in the local market as well as in the global market. Blending of the local and international flavours in the marketing campaign can help in making the campaign successful.
Shaffner, Mills & Helms Mills, (2017) believes that all managers in the aviation industry also have to think about the environmental issues that is becoming a global concern for the world. In the years to come there will huge scarcity of the clean fuel and hence Qantas will have to rethink about other options so that long term growth of the company can be ensured. Reduction in the availability of fuel may result in increased prices. Sustainable resource utilisation could help the company in managing this problem.
In addition to this risk management is another bigger challenge for the company as the number of threats for the business is also increasing. In order to avoid business failure this is highly crucial. In the concluding remarks it can be said that Qantas being a multinational national firm had to deal with the many types of challenges both in their operations as well as in their expansion plans. With the changing environment of business, there is change in the factors influencing the business. In such an environment, it is crucial that Qantas checks their impact on their activities and take decisions accordingly (Qantas, 2018). Since Qantas has huge opportunities in the Asian market hence they need to understand the buying behaviour of the segments in the new market.
References
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