Strategic Issues and Solutions for Saga Cruises

This report discusses the strategic issues faced by Saga Cruises due to the pandemic situation and provides solutions to overcome them. It covers PESTEL and SWOT analysis, challenges, and implementation process.

Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The business environment is getting dynamic every day which becomes a reason for
increasing strategic issues for the company. Strategic issues are unresolved question in the
organisation which is necessary to resolve in order to stay in the market. It is important to
note that the company need to take the right step in order to deal with strategic issues. They
need to find out the possible and best ways which assist them to overcome the situations. This
is the report that aims to discuss strategic issues and related solutions so that company can
overcome them.

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY........................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................4
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................4
Strategic issues.......................................................................................................................4
Challenges..............................................................................................................................8
Solutions.................................................................................................................................9
Implementation.....................................................................................................................11
CONCLUSION........................................................................................................................12
RECOMMENDATIONS.........................................................................................................12
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................14
Books and Journals:..............................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Today’s business dynamics are continuously increasing which becomes problematic
for organisations as they are unable to accept the change (Haque, 2021). Due to this, it is
found in the market that strategic issues are continuously increasing for organisations. In this
situation, it is very important for a company to take the right measures in order to deal with
the strategic issues. If companies are unable to deal with the challenges then they are not able
to survive in the market. This report is based on Saga Cruises which covers strategic issues
and their solutions. Saga Cruises is the shipping company of England. The headquartered of
Saga Cruises is situated in Folkestone, England. The business of cruise lines is started in
1996. Currently, it is found that they are facing many strategic issues due to the pandemic
situation. COVID-19 provided a negative impact on the functions and business of Saga
Cruises. This report will cover all the important strategic issues faced by the company. In
addition to this, it will also cover the solutions and the process of implementation in the
company which helps them to overcome the issues as well as achievement of goals and
objectives.
MAIN BODY
Strategic issues
Strategies are playing an important part in the success and growth of an organisation.
It is very important for the organisation they make their plan strategically so that they can run
and survive their business in the market (Ekberg, 2020). Every organisation has a strategy
that helps them to run its business in the market. It is very important for them to continue to
review their strategy so that they are able to make changes whenever requires. The strategic
issue is found to be the unresolved questions that need to be solved for future events. The
issues are strategic so that’s why it is provided with a great impact on future events of the
organisation. If organisations want to achieve their objective then it becomes necessary for
them to resolve the issues. This will assist them to achieve their desired goals and objective.
It is also found that currently, Saga Cruises is facing strategic issues due to the negative
impact of COVID-19. This pandemic situation becomes drastic for organisations as it put
lockdown in countries which results in a stoppage of trade not only in the international
market but also in the domestic market. This was because of stopping the propagation of

viruses in the countries (Heikkinen, Kujala and Inha, 2019). The another strategic issue is
change in continuous technology, customer preference and law decline the sales of company.
As all most all companies operate their travelling business online as well as use digital
marketing for promotion of their travelling services. It has been analysed that employees of
Saga Cruise are not skilled to use advance technology which decline the productivity and
profitability of company. To identify strategic issues, the company can use different types of
theories and models which help them to identify the main reason for problems. It includes
PESTEL analysis, SWOT analysis, Porter's five forces model, etc. These tools are very
helpful for identifying the strategic issue of the company. It can be better understood with the
help below explanation:
PESTEL analysis
Saga Cruise is a shipping company that provides holiday vacations to the customers
but due to pandemic situations and other factors, it is identified that they are facing many
issues and challenges which can be identified with the help of using PESTEL analysis (Musa
and Suryono, 2022). The business environment is getting dynamic in nature every day and
that's why it becomes very important for a company to understand and analyse the external
market which impacts on organisation. PESTEL analysis is a tool that is very useful in order
to identify and analyse the market which includes 6 important factors such as political, legal,
economic, social, technological, and environmental. Each element is elaborated in the
following points: Political: Political factors include the impact of government rules and regulations. It
includes taxation, trade policies, restrictions, etc. These all are provided with a great
impact on business organisation. For example, currently, the government of the UK
announced a lockdown in the pandemic situation which provided a negative impact on
Saga Cruise as all business transactions are stopped due to the announcement of the
government. Another issue is arise due to Brexit which impacted the operations of
company negatively as Saga Cruise have to stop their operations in EU WHICH
decline their sales and revenue. Economic: Economic factors include the unemployment rate, inflation, income level
economic growth of the country and other economic factors. It provides a direct and
indirect impact on the purchasing power of an individual (Kumarasiri and
Dissanayake, 2020). In UK, people does not spend money on their vacation and

travelling due to the negative impact of COVID-19. It is found that the economic
condition of the country is decline which results in decreasing the purchasing power
of an individual. Now people are not able to afford the holiday packages of Saga.
Due to this the sales of Saga Cruise is decline which impacted their decisions related
to investment along with they suffer from huge loss. Social: Every day it is found that there are continuous changes in the taste and
preferences of customers. In UK, people are become aware of new products and
services and also so very well know about the trends. They want to follow trends
which results in making pressure in the Saga Cruise that they need to continually
change their products and services in order to increase customer experience. Such as
management of Saga Cruise make new policies and add more package which contain
all measure or safety related to COVID in order to attract customers. Technological: The current environment of business is found to be very technical in
nature which means now Saga Cruise are focusing on continuous changing their
technologies with updated techniques so that they can run their business with more
efficiency. In UK, there are various advance and digital technology is available relted
to marketing, online payment and booking. But it is found to be very costly as
changes in technology are found to be expensive in nature. It becomes a challenge and
an issue for Saga Cruise that how they can plan and their expenses and investments
for purchasing new technologies. After the pandemic situation, it becomes more
challenging for Saga Cruise as they need to complete change their package, booking
system and payment mode which increase their cost also. Legal: It is important to note that there are many legal factors in UK that need to
consider by the organisation have it can be an increasingly strategic issue if they are
not considered by the company (Nusantari). For example, Saga Cruise is setting rules
and regulations after pandemic situations related to their staff and customers. In this
case, it becomes very important for Saga to consider all the related laws such as
Employment law, Health and Safety law, etc.
 Environmental: To save our environment is one of the basic important components
which need to be considered by each and every organisation. In UK, government
made various rules related to eco friendly practices and sustainability which every
firm must follow. It becomes more crucial for the organisations that provide travelling

as they are increasing pollution in the society. So it is crucial for Saga Cruise to
follow environmental law for sustainable development in future. If they fail to follow
laws they the have to pay penalty charged by government which impact their image
also.
From the discussion of external factors, it is identified that external factors provided a
direct impact on business performances and that's why it is necessary to consider in order
identify the strategic issues. From the discussion of PESTEL analysis, some important
strategic issues are found that includes business strategy as affected due to Brexit issue,
decrease number of customers as the purchasing power is decline due to bad economic
conditions, organisational change, technical challenge, etc. Strategic issues are not only found
from the external business environment as the internal business environment it is also playing
a very important role to identify the strategic issues (Fosher, 2018). For that purpose, SWOT
analysis is the tool which identifies the strategic issues.
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is a tool that is used for the analysis of the internal environment of an
organisation. With the help of using this tool, Saga Cruise can easily able to find out more
strategic issues. The SWOT analysis of the company is mentioned below:
STRENGTH WEAKNESSES
 Saga is found to be one of the
leading company and its industry as
they maintain its prominent position
with the help of analysing and
reviewing swot analysis.
 They have effective coordination
among their departments such as
marketing, operation, finance,
strategic planning and management
information system.
 They have a strong dealer
community which is not only helpful
for promoting production services in
the market but also so helpful in
 It is identified that they are not
efficient in financial planning as their
current asset and liquid asset ratio
suggest an organisation that they need
to use more efficiently as compared to
the present one (Vukelic, Vizentin
and Hadzic, 2021).
 It is also found that their research and
department is not as effective which
becomes very challenging for the
company after the pandemic situation.

investing in providing training to the
sales team (Benzaghta, and et.al.,
2021).
 They are providing a high level of
customer satisfaction with the help
of an effective and dedicated
customer relationship management
department.
OPPORTUNITIES THREATS
 They have an opportunity to grab
new customers from the online
channel as after the pandemic
situation it is identified that
customers are now focusing on the
online platform.
 It is also identified that new trends in
consumer behaviour become a great
opportunity for Saga as they are able
to build new revenue streams.
 Every day the competition is
increasing which needs to be
understood with the help of porter's
five forces model. It is found that
stable profitability in this industry
becomes an important issue as it
increased the competition.
 Saga is a shipping company as it
provided many cruises (Teoli,
Sanvictores and An, 2019). It is
identified that every country has
different liability laws which become
very challenging as they need to
change their policies in those markets.
In the discussion of SWOT analysis, Saga faces inefficiency in financial planning and
also ineffectiveness in the research and development department. It is very important to know
that company need to understand the challenge and take the right actions in order to cope.
Challenges
Every day pandemic situation is provided a negative impact on the economic situation
of the country as it destroys the economy because no one person earns any income. Due to
this effect, organisations are faces many strategic issues as their planning get failed. All the
planned activities were failed due to the pandemic situation (Bijsterbosch and et.al., 2020). It
was very difficult for the organisations to run their business in the market. Currently,

companies are unable to run their business as people have no purchasing capacity so how
they can afford products and services. Some strategic issues are involved strategic
competencies, focus, resource limitations, organizational change, e-commerce products,
strategic alliances, etc. The another challenge which the Saga Cruise faced is old method of
business and advance technology as well as innovation of competitors. Such as company fail
to adopt new technology and advance online methods of business due to less skilled staff
which decline their sales or revenue. Nowadays, customers prefers new innovation and
advance services which allow them to increase their experience in less time and cost.
Employees of Saga Cruise are unable to adopt online technology as they did not use social
media to spread news about their company in whole world. Also, company did not operate
their business online which decline their customer base and increase their cost of operation.
After COVID-19, there are some more issues found in Saga Cruises such as decreased
number of customers, sales, business performance, and many others. These are the important
challenges which are explained in below points:
 Decreased number of customers: It is identified that due to pandemic situations
there is a direct impact on the customer's number as it is declined. The reason behind
this is a reduction in purchasing power of customers (Rony, 2019). When the people
are not able to afford the services and how they can purchase goods and services of
Saga Cruise. The services of Saga Cruise are found to be expensive and that's why
people are not able to enjoy it as their economic conditions are become adverse due to
the pandemic situation. All the businesses and jobs are lost because of the pandemic
situation which provides a negative impact on the purchasing power of an individual.
It becomes very challenging for Saga as their numbers of customers are continuously
declining needs to increase in order to stay in the market.
 Declining sales: It is very obvious that a decrease in the number of customers is
providing a direct impact on sales as it is also declining (Akbar and et.al., 2020).
Saga is facing the challenge of declining sales because customers are not able to
purchase the services of Saga. It results in reducing the profitability of the company
which becomes challenging to increase. It is important for an organisation to make
sure that they need to choose the right strategies which helps them to increase their
sales and number of customers.

 Declining business performance: When employees are losing their jobs then it will
automatically be found to reduce the business performance of the company. It is
identified that Saga's performance is declined due to the decline of an employee's
morale. After the pandemic situation, it is identified that employees are feeling alone
and anxious which reduces their productivity. It provided a direct impact on the
performance of the business. It becomes challenging for Saga to increase business
performance as it is directly related to human resource management.
 Failing of business strategy: Business strategy is found to be the heart of any
organisation which needs to be very effective and efficient in nature. But due to
unforeseen situations such as a pandemic, Saga's business strategies get failed
(Bradley, 2020). They are not able to run their business in an effective way as desired
because all the situations have become advanced which they even not thought about
it.
 Resource limitations: It is very important to know that resources are limited in nature
and that's why it requires a strategy that helps an organisation to use the scarce
resources in a more effective way. After COVID-19, it is identified that people are not
able to cope with the situations and that's why organisations are in problem as they are
not able to manage and limited resources. It is very difficult for companies to manage
and maintain their position in the market with few resources. The resources are
declined after the pandemic situation which becomes a great challenge for the
company to work with it.
These are the important challenges that are identified by Saga that needs to be
resolved in order to stay in the market. It is very important for them to take to write actions
otherwise they are not able to survive in the market as the business environment is becoming
complex in nature.
Solutions
For the survival of company in the market, it is important for an organisation to find
out the solutions which helps them to cope up with all the challenges and issues. So, the Saga
found some important solutions which help them to stay in the market and cope up with the
challenges (Kumar and Ayedee, 2021). Some important solutions are mentioned below that
really helpful for organisation to overcome with the situations:

 Providing training and development sessions: It is important for an organisation
that they need to provide training and development sessions as it is identified from the
strategic issues that people are not using their full productivity in business operations.
They are negatively impacted due to the COVID. With the help of training and
development sessions, people are able to accept the challenges in a more effective
way and they are not fear of them (Kaushal and Srivastava, 2021). The morale of
employees is also increasing with the help of effective training and development
sessions. It increases their employability skills which are very crucial to perform a job
in an effective way. It does not only work on employability skills but also increases
the efficiency and productivity of the employee.
 Makes a friendly behaviour in the organisation: It is very important for an
organisation to make sure that the company have a culture that includes a friendly
nature. It is really helpful for the company as employees get friendly behaviour then
they are able to give their best for the achievement of goals and objectives of the
company (Bolisani and et.al., 2020). Even in the situations of the complex business
environment, people will agree to continue their duties as they get a good culture and
environment in the organisation.
 Organisational change: Change is constant in nature and that's why it becomes very
important for a company to make its employees were ready for accepting change. But
it is generally identified that people are not interested in accepting change as it is out
of their comfort zone. For the purpose of making employees more flexible for
accepting change, the company need to use different theories and models of change
such as Lewin's change management model, Kotter's change management theory, etc.
These are really helpful for an organisation to stay competitive in the market as their
employees are ready to accept change.
 Digital platform: Every organisation knows that there is a continuous increase in
digital platforms and it is crucial for Saga to use a digital platform in order to increase
the number of customers. After the pandemic situation, people are not interested in
offline stores as they are required to book tickets with the online platform. This is an
important strategy that becomes a solution after a pandemic situation (Ajaz and et.al.,
2022). With the help of using different digital platforms, companies are not only able
to book the customer's order by online method but also able to do marketing for their

products and services in the market. This is found to be a solution for Saga which is
really helpful for them to overcome their strategic issues. It is easy to accept by
customers. There are many digital platforms found such as social media that include
WhatsApp, Messenger, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. These are the
important online platform found by Saga Cruise which helps them to achieve the
target market.
Implementation
After finding the solutions by Saga Cruise, it is very important for them to implement
in the organisation in an effective way so that company is able to gain maximum profit. There
are the steps which are mentioned below that helps to implement the solutions in a more
effective manner:
 Firstly, it is very important for an organisation to identify the actions which are
required. In this step, an organisation need to do more and more work on finding the
solutions which help Saga to overcome the strategic issue. It is found that this is type
is already done in the previous discussion as Saga already found many important
ways which help them to survive in the market.
 After finding the solutions or actions required, now it is important for the company to
schedule the actions which they find out. This is really helpful as it reduces the time.
It is important to know that organisations need to focus on time as time management
is very important for them (Jallow, Renukappa and Suresh, 2020). This can be
possible only with the help of scheduling the actions in an effective way. For that
purpose, the company needs to prioritise each task according to its importance. This
will help them to reduce the confusion and duplicity of actions. It is also found out
that this is type is really helpful in order to use this scarce resources in an effective
way.
 The next step is the identification of resources. It is found to be a very important start
in the implementation of solutions. When an organisation knows the resources
requirement then they are able to do the business in a more effective way. They
cannot waste their time. It provides effective time management.
 Now is the time when an organisation needs to implement their solutions. It is found
to be the most important step in which the company needs to make sure that the
solutions which the identified should be implemented according to the planning

(Costa and Peixoto, 2020). That means it is very important for a company to
implement a solution according to the needs and requirements of the company's
situation.
 The end of this process is not to implement the solutions which they identify in order
to overcome the strategic issue but it is very important to manage their actions with
organisational functions.
 The last step is to review the plan and make sure that each and every solution is
implemented according to the requirement of the issue (Akpan, Udoh and Adebisi,
2022). It should include the review of each and every step which is really helpful for
them to achieve the desired goals and objectives.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discussion that every day the business dynamics
are increasing which creates a problem for the organisation as peoples are resistant to change.
One important reason is that organisational changes are not an easy task as they included
many employees who have different opinions which can create conflicts between them. From
the description of this report, it is also analysed that due to pandemic situation there are many
strategic issues and increasing which provides a negative impact on the company. They are
not able to run their business in an effective way if they are not taking any measures. It may
be destroyed their business that's why this report is also included some important solutions
and recommendations which helps to survive in the competitive market.
RECOMMENDATIONS
 It is identified that training in development sessions are found to be expensive in
nature and currently company is not able to provide expensive pieces of training due
to COVID-19. The financial situation of the organisation is not as effective which can
invest in training programs. So it is recommended to the company that they need to
the higher skilful and talented workforce who helps them to achieve their goals and
objectives in an effective way. Still, if they require any training programs then they
need to provide with less and limited resources. It is found that company can achieve
their goal with minimum resources.

 It is recommended to the organisation that they need to try to focus on clearing of
goals and objectives so that they can understand the requirement of resources. It is
important to note that a company cannot achieve their goals if they are not clear. In
addition to this, it is also recommended to the company that they should divide the
rules and responsibilities of each employee in an effective way so that there will be no
confusion between their responsibilities. This is really important for the success and
growth of the company.
 It is also recommended that there are many e complexities that come due to the
dynamic environment so the company needs to always be ready for accepting change.
It is very well known that this is not an easy task for a company as people are resistant
to change. But in that case, it is recommended to the organisation that they need to
identify the requirement of situations and they should adopt effective tools and
theories which encourage people to accept change.
 One more important suggestion is to motivate people to do work with more
productivity. It is not an easy task for a company as every person has different
requirements which they need to fulfil. The company need to identify that which
employee has which type of requirement. It can be extrinsic or intrinsic. An
organisation can achieve their goals and objectives only when its employees are ready
to do work with their full capacity. That's why human resource planning a very
important role in the success and growth of any organisation.

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