Solution: Assignment Business Health Check

Business Health Check

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
1.1 Analyse the objectives of business .......................................................................................1
1.2 Explain factors that impact on business.................................................................................2
1.3 Determine potential improvements to business ....................................................................4
M1 Analysis of objective into SMART criteria ..........................................................................5
D1 How Ansoff matrix contributed in improvements of Thomas Cook.....................................5
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Review effectiveness of business ..........................................................................................6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
2.2 Business Development Plan...................................................................................................7
M2 Contribution of Different Areas of Organization..................................................................9
D2 Plans To Improve the performance of individual department...............................................9
3.1Current Skills of Management and Employees......................................................................9
3.2 Skill Development Plan for Employees and Management..................................................11
M3 Effect of Current Skills of staff and Management on Performance of Organisation..........12
D3 Methods to Develop New skills...........................................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
A business is required to identify improvement areas so that it can grow and develop. This is
because there are many factors due to which operations are affected. There are several strategies
which are developed including goals and objectives. Business health check up refers to the
checking up of the internal and external analysis of the ongoing practices of an organization
(Schawel and Billing, 2018). For this, the management of the firm must focus on gaining
viewpoints to gain the competitive advantages and this is done through proper evaluation
techniques. Such tools include SWOT, PESTLE and Ansoff Matrix that help in fetching the
important information about the trends and tactics used to maintain the reputation and credibility.
Moreover, it puts emphasis on understanding the components such as departmental relationships,
brand value in the markets, employees' engagement etc. for better exploration of the present
situations in the marketplaces.
This report will describe objectives of business and factors that impact on it. Also, it will
determine potential improvements required in operations. Moreover, business effectiveness will
be reviewed and plan will be explained. In last section current skills of management and staff
will be discussed and plan for improving it is described.
LO 1
1.1 Analyse the objectives of business
Hospitality industry consists of many sub sectors and is expanded into wide area. It provides
different types of products and services. There are many companies operating in this sector and
each one of them goals and objectives differs. However, organisations are facing stiff
competition. The industry is growing rapidly in many countries and is generating huge revenues.
Thomas Cook is a British international travel and tourism company founded in 1841. The
company merged with Thomas Cook AG in 2007 (Dawes, 2018). It is now a public limited
company providing variety of tour and travel services. Company is listed on London Stock
Exchange. The company provides various services such as package holidays, hospitality, cruise
lines, etc.
Generally, there are two divisions of Thomas Cook, one is tour operator and second is
airline. The total number of employees are 32,722 and having a large customer base of 19.1
million. It is the second largest group operating in tourism industry in UK.
Formation
1

It is analyzed that in February 2007 the companies Thomas Cook AG and My travel
Group PLC merged. In this shareholders of My travel were having 48% shares. It resulted in
formation of Thomas Group PLC.
In 2000 the company bought website hotels4u.com for 21.8 million. Also, in 2008 they entered
in Middle East and Asia. Besides this, Elegant resorts hotels were bought by them. By coming to
2010 -15, Thomas Cook bought Oger tours of Germany. This was lead through an agreement
between them. Furthermore, in 2016 company sold their airline operations to Lufthansa.
Now, at present 52% shares of are owned by new company Arcandor which is German based
department store company. 48% are still owned by My travel Group PLC.
The mission and vision of company is as follows :-
Vision- To be world’s best loved holiday company, delighting out customers, staff and
shareholders.
Mission – To profitability grow by consistently delivering high quality and distinctive holiday
experience
Goals and objectives
To become number one company in tourism sector.
To have a rapid and sustainable growth and development in tourism industry.
1.2 Explain factors that impact on business
A business is affected by many factors that can be either internal or external. This is because any
change in it highly impact on business operations (Kreutzer, 2019). Also, organisation operates
within external environment and factors related to it are legal, social, etc. so, they are not
controlled. Whereas internal factors include suppliers, customers, etc. which can be controlled.
Thomas Cook is also affected by factors that are described below :-
External factors:- In order to analyse these pestle analysis is done which helps in identifying
change in external environment. This is explained below :-
Political – It plays a vital role in growth of organisation and can highly impact on Thomas Cook.
The factors are change in political condition, taxation system, relation with neighbouring
country, etc. so, any change in it directly affect business operations. As Thomas Cook operates in
many countries they have to follow laws and regulations. Any change in political condition will
impact on growth of company.
Economic- the economic factor of a nation determine its economic condition. They factors
included in it are inflation rate, foreign exchange, GDP, etc. So, any change in these factors
2