602MAN: Change Management & Strategic Direction in UK Travel Tourism

This essay explores change management and strategic direction within the UK travel tourism sector, focusing on TUI Group as a case study. It evaluates the significance of a clear vision, mission, and objectives in setting strategic direction, assesses the change management processes employed by TUI, and analyzes relevant change management models and tools. The essay also examines the internal and external factors influencing strategic management, including strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, as well as political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal considerations. Various strategies for mitigating risk are discussed, along with the application of Kurt Lewin's and Kotter's change management models. The role of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) in strategic planning and change management is also highlighted.

THE THEORY BEHIND
THE STRATEGY

Table of Contents.
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................2

Topic: “How can a UK Travel Tourism company best manage change and shape its
strategic direction?”
Change management refers to the process of systematic dealing of various approaches,
strategies, theories, models which helps in the transformation of the company's objectives and
goals (Manuti and Giancaspro, 2021). The purpose of this is to effectively implement the
strategies to be ready for the drastic change. The essay will discuss the change management
process of TUI Group which is UK's Travel and Tourism company providing wide range of
services to the customers. The quoted company have the market share of 2.75bn EUR and
around 51,000 employees worldwide having Manchester Airport as the hub for TUI Airways
which is UK's third busiest airport. It will further evaluate the clear vision and mission by
studying the micro and macro environment elements. It will explore the theoretical schools of
change management and strategic business which results in managing the risk at different levels.
Lastly, essay will analyse the planning and management process with the assistance of KPI.
Strategy refers to the action which are being taken by an organisation to achieve the goals
and are the guidelines which are to be followed for desired needs in the future. Strategy is
significant for the operational efficiency of the business resulting in enhancing market share,
profitability and durability. Tourist Union International (TUI) Group, a British Public Company
which is one of the apt example of change management. Until 1997, the company was working
as a mining one and with the change management they shifted to travel and tourism industry
being headquartered in Germany. It is one of the leading business in the sector of tourism
owning their own aircraft, hotels, cruise, holiday destination agency etc. The aim of the TUI
Group is to provide better experience to its loyal customers and at the same time minimizing the
ecological damage with sustainability. Creating and fulfilling their customers dreams with
unforgettable moments is the vision of the Group. To know the strategic planning, there is a
requirement to evaluate the internal elements i.e. strengths & weaknesses and external factors
such as threats & opportunities which could be possible by the Design School of strategy
management (Johann, 2022). With the help of strategic management framework, the quoted
company could be able to evaluate the performance of its strategies by repeating and
implementing the steps of strategy into different activities. Vision, mission, objectives, approach
and tactics are the essential elements of the strategic framework which are discussed in the essay.

The Tourism company proactively formulate its objectives and aims so to achieve the long-term
compatibility in the tourism environment. This would go side-by-side considering the
government plans for the tourism industry. The model aids the company to frame sustainable
development plans keeping in mind all the environmental factors which could impact the process
of the TUI Group. Thompson's and Martin's strategic management framework create linkage
between the capabilities, competencies and competitive edge of the TUI Group comparing with
the mission and vision of the company. This would assist the company to target new customers
and achieve overall aims of the Group. The biggest reason to utilize this strategy is that it aids to
keep the team aligned by preventing the risks and challenges occurred during change (Bishop,
2018). It also prepares the internal management to be ready for the change by becoming more
flexible as well as to hold the members accountable for the acts done by them. Performance of
the Group could be measured on the long-term as well as short-term goals and the most common
kinds of indicators are operational, functional, strategic, leading and lagging key performance
indicators.
One of the biggest strength of the Group is to have more than 150 charter planes flying
over worldwide destination and with a direct selling of holiday plans directly to the customers.
Highly competitive market as well as cultural & social issues are the major weakness that the
company has to deal with. Further, the quoted organization has the opportunity to expand its
market share in emerging market and should focus on the websites and apps. Pandemic, Brexit,
fiscal crisis and foreign exchange risk are the few threats that the company is currently facing.
The external factors which are being responsible for framing strategy management is through the
Environmental and Cultural School (Hattangadi, 2019). The key role of political factor on the
Group could be visible as British Government policies to boost up the tourism industry is
beneficial for the Group. Potential customers spending power has a significant impact post-
pandemic as there was a decrease in the income of the audience which is a major economic
factor. Society's class structure and demographic elements of people aid the company to plan its
strategies. The recent development in the technological aspect by the competitors and shifting
towards automation could be a challenge for the quoted company. Environmental and legal
factor are consider to be important for the TUI Group because it would help to maintain the
global reputation of the company and attracts new customers.

Due to the tourism industry, the Group is focused on the customer-driven approach
providing them better experience by evaluating or prioritizing the experience of the potential
audience. They should analyse the functioning of their strong competitors to know where they
are lacking behind in the competition market. The key elements of customer-centric approach is
to meet the demands of the audience which helps to build the customer loyalty by resolving the
feedback of the customers (Gupta and Ramachandran, 2021). This is the best strategy to attract
more customers. It also helps an organization to make change regarding the functioning by
conducting R&D of the given industry. TUI Group airline provides rewards for using their flier
which is again the appropriate approach to attract the consumer. The quoted organization has
focused on the different strategies which are being used to survive in the market and to fight the
challenges to combat the political, social, economic, global, pandemic, competition factors.
There are many methods through which risk could be minimized at the regional, national and
international levels of conducting the business. There are various strategies that the Group could
follow to mitigate the risk. The first step to prevent the risk is to carefully plan or outline the
task and by whom it must be conducted. There is a need to distribute or delegate the work to the
potential employees, and proper channel of communication regarding the concern is being stated.
The next strategy is to be absolutely transparent regarding the change and must be
communicated to the employees (Krakoff, 2022). This would help to prevent the panic the
situation and provide a comfortable atmosphere for the staff members of TUI. Training and skill
education could be another strategy to lessen the effect of risk within an organization and help
the employees in better ways. The next strategy to follow is to never follow hasty changes
because it would create a feeling of demotivation and provide an ample amount of time to
prepare for changes. Demonstrating strong leadership skill is another strategy to mitigate the
risk factor as the TUI Group has wide variety of services and strong leader could help the
company to fight in a better possible manner. These all strategies would help the Group at every
level whether the company is working at local, national or international. This might reduce the
problems at domestic as well as global level.
The Kurt Lewin's model which is also known as Three-Stage Theory was also helpful in
change management as this theory is based on the analogy of change in the shape of ice block
into cone with the help of unfreezing. Three stages of this model are unfreezing, change and
refreezing (Memon, 2021). The first stage of the process requires that there is a need for a

change which could be evaluated by effective communication within the TUI Group and new
ways of working are better in the existing market. The next step is known as transition stage in
which change is actually implemented. The quoted company utilize technology for providing
better experience to the customers as well as the employees are tech-friendly with proper
knowledge and skills. Next stage is of equilibrium stage where the consequences because of the
change are more stable and the stakeholders are accepting the new ways.
TUI Group has applied different models before modification or amendments in the
working of the company. Practical approaches to strategic business which are important for
gaining competitive advantage are cost leadership, differentiation, focus according to the
Porter's Generic model (Islami, Mustafa and Topuzovska Latkovikj, 2020). Further there are
more approaches which plays a key role in change management and business strategy includes
innovation & technology, collaboration, development & policy modification, capacity building
are the other approaches which could be followed by the TUI Group for setting their business.
They should be clear in framing their vision and formulate strong plan which mitigate the threats
and challenges coming around in the particular market. They primarily focused on the two
models of change management i.e. Kurt Lewin's and Kotter's 8 before successfully
implementing any major change. For the quoted company changing from mining industry to
tourism sector was not at all easy. This was a difficult and big step in regard to the company's
decision-making. Apart from that, the TUI Group has created major changes in the existing
tourism business for growth and success. Kotter model highlight the 8 steps which the given
company has to follow to fight challenges and effectively bring changes (Harrison and et.al.,
2021). The first step TUI Group sensed was the urgency in the technological and innovation in
online booking and managing the lists of the loyal customers within the organisation which was
necessary for the employees to be competitive in the market. Next step is to assemble a
competent team with the right leadership qualities to influence the stakeholders. Another step is
to develop a clear and sensible vision which assist the company to create a better future image. It
is essential to communicate the strategies and vision to the employees which are necessary to
deliver them so that they would prepare themselves for the change is the fourth step. The next
step is to remove the obstacles or barriers which could be evaluated by examining the macro and
micro environment. Acknowledging small achievements or wins helps the company to witness
that change could be possible. TUI Group has implement innovation and creativity in the

organizational culture and working to improve the employees efforts. The next step is to be
consistent regarding the change as teams should be focused on sustaining implementation of
change. The last step which the TUI Group perform is to nurture the change by sticking to it.
The role of Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in strategic planning and change
management process is significant because it is a measuring instrument which helps to track the
progress and leaders are able to set benchmark that could be measured with the current
performance. KPIs meaning is that they are the indicators which helps to work towards the
intended goals. It is important for an organization to measure the progress of the task. This would
help the company to better perform towards minimizing the gap between to achieve end results.
There are many kinds of KPIs which could be used by TUI Group, mainly focus on improving
profit, cost reduction, enhance efficiency and better customer satisfaction (Hristov and Chirico,
2019). The main goal is to identify the problems or challenges which are coming in between to
achieve the goals. It also helps to set target for the company by determining whether change is
being required or there is a need for strategic planning. The Group has conducted an audit on the
environmental performance indicator which study the TUI Group emissions, waste, energy and
water man management. The quoted company has launched sustainability strategy with a moto
of “Better Holidays Better Homes”. TUI Group opted for computer software for measuring the
performance i.e. CloudApps which assist to calculate the emission count which results from the
TUI aviation, cruises, resorts & hotels, shops, transportation etc. Impact of covid-19 pandemic
has resulted in the big changes in the structure because of the regional lockdowns and restricting
international borders. Nevertheless, quoted group has major carbon contribution through the
Airlines and to mitigate the emission, performance indicators measure the TUI's goals and
objectives to reduce the carbon consumption. They also substitute their old version of cruise
which provide more emission. It is clearly visible that KPI's plays a key role in the TUI Group
strategic planning and change management which is important to figure out the path for the
better outcomes.
This essay has been concluded by explaining the concept of change management which
was essential for the TUI Group to survive in the competitive market. UK's tourism industry has
been one of the important contributor in regard to the revenue for the government. It was having
clear vision and for strategic planning design, culture and environmental school was analysed to
know the internal and external factors of the Group. It has been summarized that change is

necessary but it must be applied after following Kurt Lewin's and Kotter's 8 models of change
management. Further, it analysed strategies to minimize the risk at different levels. Lastly, the
role of KPI was discussed to determine the performance of the Group and the changes which are
being required to control environmental factor.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bishop, D. A., 2018. Key performance indicators: Ideation to creation. IEEE Engineering
Management Review. 46(1). pp.13-15.
Gupta, S. and Ramachandran, D., 2021. Emerging market retail: transitioning from a product-
centric to a customer-centric approach. Journal of Retailing. 97(4). pp.597-620.
Harrison, R. and et.al., 2021. Where do models for change management, improvement and
implementation meet? A systematic review of the applications of change management
models in healthcare. Journal of healthcare leadership. 13. p.85.
Hristov, I. and Chirico, A., 2019. The role of sustainability key performance indicators (KPIs) in
implementing sustainable strategies. Sustainability. 11(20). p.5742.
Islami, X., Mustafa, N. and Topuzovska Latkovikj, M., 2020. Linking Porter’s generic strategies
to firm performance. Future Business Journal. 6(1). pp.1-15.
Johann, M., 2022. CSR Strategy in Tourism during the COVID-19
Pandemic. Sustainability. 14(7). p.3773.
MANUTI, A. and GIANCASPRO, M. L., 2021. The meaning of the organization or the
organization of meaning? Metaphors as sensemaking tools to understand organizational
change management. TPM: Testing, Psychometrics, Methodology in Applied
Psychology, 28(1).
Memon, F. A., 2021. Improving Employee’s Engagement in Change: Reassessing Kurt Lewin’s
Model. City University Research Journal. 11(1).
Online references
Hattangadi, V., 2019. Evaluating Mintzberg’s 10 schools of thoughts for strategy
formulation[Online]. Available through
<https://www.financialexpress.com/opinion/evaluating-mintzbergs-10-schools-of-
thoughts-for-strategy-formulation/1609541/>
Krakoff, S., 2022. The 10 Best Organizational Change Management Strategies
[Online]. Available through <https://online.champlain.edu/blog/best-organizational-
change-management-strategies>
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APPENDIX
1. KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
<https://www.global.weir/the-weir-group-plc-2020-annual-report-accounts.pdf>
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2. SWOT ANALYSIS
3. PORTER'S FIVE FORCES
3