Business Simulation: Analysis of Mars Airline Report

This report analyzes a business simulation centered on Mars Airline, delving into various aspects of its operations and strategic decision-making. The report examines employee turnover, training budgets, and the impact of marketing strategies, including pricing discounts and promotional activities. It highlights decisions related to human resource management, such as hiring and employee development, and their effects on turnover rates and quality ratings. The analysis further explores the company's marketing efforts, including advertising and social media presence, alongside an assessment of the company's use of the marketing mix. The report also discusses the application of Kotter's 8-step change model to facilitate organizational improvements. The report concludes with recommendations for enhancing business performance and adapting to industry challenges.

Business Simulation
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents.............................................................................................................................2
Executive summary..........................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Analysis............................................................................................................................................4
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................7
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
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Executive summary
The present report covers different types of decision which are made by company in
respect to accomplish success. There are wide range of services which are provided by the firm
to customers. at the time of carrying out business there are various strategies company need to
adopt which can help gaining competitive advantages. Different types of promotional strategies
which can help Mars Airline company to grab attention of customers. Mars company needs to
make the approachable target goals and strategies in order to accomplish the company objectives
and goal. Company should set target for its employees and ensure that all of them get
accomplished in time. In respect to increase the brand value company to purchase new
equipment’s that can help in providing luxury services to the customers. further, firm need to
bring change within the firm that can help in introducing new and innovated products for
customers. For that, company required to identify what will change, present a solid business case
to gain buy-in, create a Road map, gathered data for evaluation. company needs to increase new
thinking and problem-solving approach that will helps to control the best productive nature in
order to handle the approachable task-oriented performance. Company can make improvement in
its human resources management. Through adopting appropriate model and strategy firm can
bring new changes within the firm and make their business successful.
Introduction
The airline industry of UK is comprised of a large multitude of airlines. It is different
from low cost carrier models to international airline groups. In UK airline industry is among the
most active airline industries in all over the world. Airline companies are making lots of money
but they are also facing huge problems. The present study is based on Mars Airline company
which is operating its business in airline industry. There are various types of decision which
company need to make in respect to carry out business in an effective manner and successfully.
There are wide range of marketing activities which company to need to maintain along with
focusing on customer satisfaction (Hayes, 2018). Further, company also need to maintain their
expenses and increase profit to survive in a competitive market. It is important for company to
provide discounts to its customers on products and services in order to grab their attentions.
There are wide range decisions which company to make in relation to management, marketing
and strategy that can help company in accomplishing success. The present study will cover
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different decision made by company in respect to carry out business successfully. Along with
this, different theories which are linked with the decision and assist in conducting all the business
activities in successful manner. Reason for covering all the points is to develop understanding
related to the successful factors to make effective decision in respect to marketing, management
and other areas are business. Further proper analysis will be done on the basis of decision made
by company to selling products and services. At last recommendation for improvement based on
the results will be provided. Recommendation will be fully feasible and justified which consider
all the cost, priority level, time scale etc.
Analysis
From the performance of airline company, it is analysed that in first quarter there was an
up down in employee’s turnover. Further employees were provided training and development
facility which help in delivering a quality service (Doppelt, 2017). further, it can be said that
budget of training was increases yearly. In the first quarter Mars Airline started providing
discount on fair structures that is 28-31 cents. In this free drinks and pretzels or peanuts are
provided to customers with charge cost $1.00 per passenger. It can be said that to provide
discount in fare structure is one of the effective strategy to grab the attention of customers. It is
analysed in second quarter that customers will expect fewer amenities with discount pricing such
as free soft drinks, and small snack meal for certain flights. it is analysed that in different
quarters company has made different decision. Discounts in fair price help company in retaining
customers and increase profit of the firm (Rodrigues, Nikhil. and Jacob, 2016).
Mars Airlines in their preliminary phase did not hired or fired any salesperson. The current
employees in the organisation was 81 with fleet expansion or reduction of 27. The projected
employees estimated by the management was 108 with turnover replacement of 11 and turnover
rate of 9.9%. In order to develop the employees, management sets the quality & training budget
to $1000. In the first quarter, the management hire 2 salesperson and the number of employees
increased to 108. The turnover replacement reduced to 10 but the turnover rate got increased by
12%. The quality rating increased to 62 and budget for quality and training increased to $5000.
The projected wages and benefits set by the organisation was $584000. According to human
resource developmental theory, employee development is described as the process of enhancing
organisational performance and individual learning due to developments in human resources,
organisation and career. In order to sustain in the competitive environment it is crucial for
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business management and firms to devise precise strategies and should focus on developmental
needs of employees so that they could retain in the organisation for longer period (Hayes,
2018.).
Employee development is the process of enhancing and developing the skills of
employees through organisational development, training and development which further helps in
improving the performance of the organisation. In the fifth quarter, the human resource
management hired two 2 salesperson for the organisation. The current employees number in fifth
quarter reached to 142 with projected employees to 171. Fleet expanded to 27, turnover
replacement to 18 and current turnover rate in fifth quarter was decreased to 10.6%. The quality
rating of the organisation increased to 78 and budget for quality & training was increased to
$35000. The projected wages and benefits for 171 employees were estimated to $948000. In
order to attract employees towards the organisation, firm needs to focus on providing both
intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation. Human resource management at Mars Airlines
needs to focus on providing more benefits and training to the employees so that their attraction
and retention can be increased and ultimately the turnover rate get reduce. In the tenth quarter,
the current employee in the organisation was 226 which equals the projected employees.
Management didn't hired or fired any salesperson and the fleet expansion or reduction
reduces to 0. The turnover replacement got increased to 21 and current turnover rate was reduced
to 9.3%. The quality rating got increased to 78 but the budget for training and quality remained
constant to $35000. According to the theory of human resource development, it is the process of
systematically planning, allocating resources in the right way so that organisation can achieve
their desired goals and objectives in effective and efficient manner. In order to gain competitive
advantages, the management needs to focus on hiring more and more employees within their
organisation so that the performance of the company can be improved. In the 10th quarter the
management estimated the project budget for wages and benefits to $1252400 which was
adequate enough to retain employees
After analysing the marketing activity of Mars company, it is determined that company
spend money on promotion and advertising. Along with this, through the use of social
networking sites company is used to make good relation with its customer and show their active
presence on social networking sites. However, it is identified that company do not provide in
flight magazine to customers. there are total 3 regions and company has only put marketing
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efforts in third region. Further it is marketing decision impact on q2 is $11,000 while estimated
in quarter 3 is $26,000. Company has not taken any step regarding social responsibility and
environmental causes. There was increase in marketing efforts put by company quarterly and
cost of promotions and advertainment was also regular increase. Hence it can be said that Mars
Airline company has adopted marketing mix elements so that more and more people came to
know about the Mars company products and services. Company is using promotional strategies
such as creating awareness among customers through social networking sites on Facebook,
twitter etc (Huet, Frail and Snyder, 2015). further putting efforts on marketing shows the impact
on profit of the firm. As compared to other companies, Mars companies promotional budget and
advertising budget is $60,000 and $60,000 respectively. Along with this they used to promote in
three regions. Along with this, they also hired 13 sales persons in respect to carry out sales and
promotional activities. However, no cargo business was carried out by company in quarter 3.
Hence, it clearly shows that marketing efforts of company increases yearly. Apart form this, it is
analysed that Mars Company has started some additional cleaning and maintenance services.
Cost which is charged by them are $25000 per aircraft per quarter. Company has avoided to take
cargo services because it leads to increase the expenses which can impact the marketing decision
of the firm. .
It is analysed that company need to bring changes within its system so that it can easily provide
more services to their customers on time (Rezaei, Chandran and Oh, 2018). There are various
forces that lead to stop an individual to avoid changes. But company need to understand those
changes and adopt them in respect to carry out business in effective manner. Here company can
used Kotter’s 8-step change model
Increase urgency
In respect to create urgency company can focus on identifying and highlighting the potential
threats and the repercussion which can be crop up in the future. Further Mars, Airline company
can examine the opportunities which can easily tapped with the help of effective intervention
(Huet, Frail and Snyder, 2015). There are many initiatives which can fail to accomplish the
provided target because firm either lack of interest in the proposed change effort or because of
higher energy of resisting the change management process. Company need to understand
importance of making changes and try to implement them in a successful manner.
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Building the guiding team: Further company can form guiding coalitions through identifying the
effective change leaders in the firm and key stakeholders through requesting their involvement
and commitment for the whole process. Mars airline can focus on forming a powerful change
coalition who can work as a team. In respect to implement changes successfully company can
easily identify weak area in the coalition team and make sure that team get involve in the
influential people from different cross functional department (Stark, 2015).
Getting the right vision: Mars Airline company can determine the core values and ultimate vision
and the strategies in respect to realise the change within the firm. Along with this, it is important
to make sure that change leader can easily describe the vision effectively and in systematic
manner which help employees to understand them and follows. If all the employees working in a
team came to know about the vision of the firm the it will help in working in more effective
manner (Hornstein, 2015).
Communicate for buy-in: Through communicating the change in the vision can be often
powerful and realistically. To handle all the issues easily and in honest manner can help in
carrying out business successfully (Kim, Kim and Magnini, 2016). The main goal of
organisational change is to get many people to work toward the goal with full efforts. Good
communication is important in respect to understand the important of changes and implementing
the effective manner
Remove obstacles: It is important to make sure that firm process and structure is linked with the
overall organisational vision. Manager of Mars airline need to check any type of barriers which
can resist change. Further proactive action should be implemented in respect to remove obstacles
which are involved in the process of change (Kim, Kim and Magnini, 2016). Along with this
company can also focus on rewarding people who endorse changes and support the change
process.
Create short term wins : through creating a short term win company can feel victory in the first
stage of changes. Through creating a various short term target rather then moving toward the
long one can help in lesser the possibilities of failure. Company can reward to those people who
accomplished the short-term target on time.
Don’t let up: There are wide range of changes which can be failed due to victory which is
declared at early stage. It is because changes are slow going process and it should be driven in
the entire culture. Quicks wins are the way of the beginning of long term changes. It is important
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for the firm to keep looking for improvements (Rezaei, Chandran and Oh, 2018). This can be
done after accomplishing multiple success. So that changes can be done within the
Make it stick: In order to create successful change management plan for Mars Airline, it is
important to make any changes with stick. It is most important and core part of the enterprise
which consider corporate culture and often determines vision of day to day work. With the help
of continuous efforts, it is important to make changes in the organisation. Furthermore, it is also
important to change solid place with organisation culture. As results, it assists to focus on
bringing new change with coalition. Leaders have responsibility to take proper support with
changes among staff members and new leaders (Huet, , Frail and Snyder, 2015).
In order to take advantages of this model, it is important to know about progress of Mars
Airlines. Hence, successful outcomes need to be share with all members to attain desired results.
Changes includes ideals and values to hire and training new staff members. It will incorporate to
replace key leaders that assists to make successful business functions. In order to work hard, it is
important to carefully build proper foundation. Implementation must be easier so that it assists to
develop organisation culture. Skills assists to make happy and successful career with using
different tools and resource that added values in business.
Recommendation
Mars company needs to make the approachable target goals and strategies in order to
accomplish the company objectives and goals. In order to enhance the strategic management
goals and strategies company requires break the task and activities in order to accomplish the
better generating work (Cotter and Fritzsche, 2014). For example, Mars company will be
planning to increase 25% sales by next year. Then the focus of the company should on the target
that has already set by seniors. For that, employees needs to set their own milestones and targets
to accomplish the overall target plans. In spite of that, another major success factor that should
be consider by company is brand value in the market. For increasing brand value in the market.
For that, employees needs to build emotional connections with customers and other stakeholders
to get approachable task making performance and strengthen the brand internally. Overall, it
brings new productive environmental growth to deal with better performing task. In order to
enhance the company image in the market Mars also required to look upon the change
management to introduce innovation and new services. For that, company required to identify
what will change, present a solid business case to gain buy-in, create a Road map, gathered data
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for evaluation (Williams, Mummalaneni and Erramilli, 2015). Besides, it also helps to get the
better effective growth nature of better performing level. New change will connect new
customers and sales of the company. Besides, company needs to increase new thinking and
problem solving approach that will helps to control the best productive nature in order to handle
the approachable task oriented performance. New thinking will give new strength and stability in
the competitive market. For that, employees requires to cohesive thinking, learn to pitch new
ideas and bounce ideas off to others.
Conclusion
From the basis of above section, it has been analyzed that effectiveness is the most
enlarging and effective process that helps to take the productive decision making approach.
Airline companies are the most profitable and high earning business sector. That enact the luxury
services and provides a hundred percent comfort zone to the customers. Present study was based
on Mars Airline company which is an operating business. Overall, study has been analyzed that
customers attracts towards the company services on the behalf of discounts and fairs. Besides, it
also identified that due to low services of customer attraction, clients of Mars company will
rapidly distract from the company. In spite of that, it also measured the creating climate for
change such as increase urgency, building the guiding team, getting the right vision,
communicate for buy-in, create short term wins, Don't let up, Make it stick etc. overall, study has
covered the effectiveness of the challenging growth in order to keep the best productive growth.
Company needs to enhance the services or customer focus in order to take up the market growth.
Firm also needs to take action to remove customer dissatisfaction and in order to get the
approachable profit revenue. Further it is concluded that Employee development is the process of
enhancing and developing the skills of employees through organisational development, training
and development which further helps in improving the performance of the organisation
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Altamony, H., Al-Salti, Z., Gharaibeh, A. and Elyas, T., 2016. The relationship between change
management strategy and successful enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations: A
theoretical perspective. International Journal of Business Management and Economic
Research, 7(4), pp.690-703.
Cameron, E. and Green, M., 2015. Making sense of change management: A complete guide to
the models, tools and techniques of organizational change. Kogan Page Publishers.
Cotter, R. V. and Fritzsche, D. J., 2014. The business policy game. Developments in Business
Simulation and Experiential Learning. 21.
Doppelt, B., 2017. Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Hayes, J., 2018. The theory and practice of change management.
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
management is now a necessity. International Journal of Project Management, 33(2),
pp.291-298.
Huet, A.L., Frail, C.K.,. and Snyder, M.E., 2015. Impact of passive and active promotional
strategies on patient acceptance of medication therapy management services. Journal of the
American Pharmacists Association, 55(2), pp.178-181.
Kim, J., Kim, P.B., Kim, J.E. and Magnini, V.P., 2016. Application of construal-level theory to
promotional strategies in the hotel industry. Journal of Travel Research, 55(3), pp.340-352.
Rezaei, S., Chandran, R. and Oh, Y.M., 2018. Pre-Purchase User Perceptions of Attributes and
Post-Purchase Attitudes in Building Successful Online Retail Promotional Strategies. In
Digital Marketing and Consumer Engagement: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and
Applications (pp. 368-382). IGI Global.
Rodrigues, J., Nikhil, S. and Jacob, S., 2016. Promotional Strategies of McDonalds and Market
Effects. Journal of Management Research and Analysis, 3(1), pp.53-55
Stark, J., 2015. Product lifecycle management. In Product Lifecycle Management (Volume 1)
(pp. 1-29). Springer, Cham.
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Williams, J. D., Mummalaneni, V. and Erramilli, M. K., 2015. An Innovative Classroom
Approach to Analyzing the Role of Culture on Business Relationships using the Global
View International Business Simulation. In Proceedings of the 1997 World Marketing
Congress (pp. 130-132). Springer, Cham.
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