Team/Department Coaching Analysis of TopTravel SL: A Case Study

This project analyzes team/department coaching, focusing on the case study of TopTravel SL. The analysis begins with an overview of the company's challenges, including leadership changes and market competition. The project utilizes PESTEL and Porter's Five Forces frameworks to assess the industry and identify key issues. It then delves into the importance of human resources, the structure of team coaching processes, and different coaching types. The project covers the coaching process, including needs assessment, design, and implementation phases. Additionally, the project explores the application of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) as a coaching tool. The goal is to provide insights into how team coaching can address organizational challenges and improve team performance within TopTravel SL.

Running head: TEAM/DEPARTMENT COACHING
Team/Department Coaching in context to the case study on "TopTravel SL"
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Table of Contents
1. Analysis..........................................................................................................................2
2. Goals............................................................................................................................18
3. Team coaching process..............................................................................................18
a. The structure of the phases.....................................................................................18
References.......................................................................................................................25

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1. Analysis
An organization is a mixture of a varied range of physical, human and financial
resources. These resources must be present in enough amount to facilitate routinely
organizational activities and think of counter unexpected business circumstances. Out
of the physical, human and financial resources, human resources is of high importance
both for the attainment of the individual as well as organizational goals and objectives.
Human resources can further be disintegrated into two different groups such as
individuals and teams. Both these groups need to pay serious attention to their work
responsibilities to ensure no damage is caused to operations for their ignorance of work
responsibilities. However, this is something that has happened to the case study
company 'TopTravel SL'. TopTravel SL in recent days has faced numerous issues due
to the change in a leadership position and the growing market competition. The growing
market competition compelled them to invest more in their online market department to
remain one of the most preferred choices for accommodation booking for travelers (de
Carlos, Araújo & Fraiz, 2016). While during the improvement process, the ex-leader of
the company decided to quit. The decision to quit from the ex-leader of the company
has not just affected the ongoing improvement process of its online platform; but also
the work morale of many senior employees. Some of them followed the footsteps of the
ex-leader and quit their jobs. The rest of the others are not satisfied with the leadership
style of the current leader.
Now, the business circumstances in the case study company will be analyzed by
using relevant management frameworks and models to shortlist the problem areas as
well as points of opportunities. The sorting of problems will help to take the best and
relevant problem remedy action to overcome the current issue that prevailed in the
company and get the operations on track. Therefore;
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
In this section, industry analysis will be performed by taking help from various
management frameworks and tools such as PESTEL analysis, Porter's five forces
analysis and supply chain operations.

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PESTEL analysis
To identify and assess the competency for a business, it is primarily important to
assess the business environment in which the company operates. The data obtained
from the PESTEL analysis of the industry will indicate whether it is competitive
concerning the business environment or lacks notably into a few areas.
Political and Legal
TopTravel SL promotes and facilitates various kinds of trips such as for business
people or those who love visiting new places. Business travelers are the potential and
most valuable customer groups for TopTravel SL as they are the ones who do the
maximum booking on its official online booking platform. Leisure travelers follow
business travelers in terms of the frequency and amount of online reservations. To
address the political and legal concerns attached to the travel industry, TopTravel SL
follows and effectively adheres to many acts such as the “Travel Promotion Act of 2009”
to promote and facilitate leisure, business and other kinds of travel to and within the
United States (Travel.trade.gov, 2020). They have to follow this act or else their
operations will be under the scrutiny of the concerned body. TopTravel SL has its
offices situated in other parts of the world as well such as Singapore, Amsterdam and
Spain.
Since, the Airline industry is widely regulated across the globe for passenger
safety, tax policies and information, international trade, etc., it is very vital for TopTravel
SL to appropriately confirm a few things. These are the details of its customers,
customer profiling and place of a visit, which should be safe and under good conditions.
The necessity to ensure passenger safety and offer the best deal to them are what
forms competition in the online hotel reservation industry (Kaakinen & Purkayastha,
2016). TopTravel SL is vulnerable to many uncontrollable external activities such as
war, terror attacks and diseases. A disease outbreak can affect the online reservation
severely. For example, the recent outbreak of Coronavirus has severely affected the
global economy and worldwide industries. It is due to this virus outbreak, traveling to

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many overseas locations is prohibited currently. The flow of people from one country to
another and one place to another is completely stopped in many parts of the world such
as Spain, Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Iran and Asian nations (The
Economic Times, 2020).
TopTravel SL has one of its offices based in Spain, one of the countries to have
badly affected by the virus. It is a situation of ‘Lockdown’ across the globe. People are
locked inside their houses across the globe and are not allowed to roam freely here and
there. They can only go outside in case of a medical emergency or as decided by the
government.
Economic
Consumer spending across developed nations such as the United States, Spain
and Singapore has considerably increased. According to the World Travel & Tourism
Council’s (WTTC) annual research into the social importance and economic impact of
the travel and tourism industry for 2018, this sector has globally grown at 3.9% to
contribute to the global economy through a record $8.8 trillion of revenue and 319
million jobs (WTTC, 2020). These facts and statistics suggest that consumer spending
has increased globally. These are some favorable economic conditions for TopTravel
SL provided it can accommodate these growing opportunities.
The oil prices are constantly declining and are touching record figures. This has a
definite positive impact on the fuel consumption of the airline industry. The declining oil
prices also affect airline ticket prices. The ticket prices are falling as well (Dumičić,
Žmuk & Čeh Časni, 2015). These are some positive trends for travelers as well as
online ticket booking companies.
The global GDP is temporarily getting affected by disrupted supply chain in the
wake of the Coronavirus outbreak. There is a lockdown situation in many parts of the
world. Those who are in the United States, the United Kingdom and other parts of the
world for the study purpose, they cannot move to their homes. These situations are very
similar for many who live outside their home nation for the study as well as job purpose
(The Economic Times, 2020). Circumstances as such these do affect the global

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movement of travelers and as a result, the business of travel companies such as
TopTravel SL.
Sociocultural
Business travelers, leisure travelers and many other groups of travelers prefer
and find an online ticket reservation system as the best to book accommodation in
advance. It is the ease of booking tickets, the ability to compare offers on different
online sites, etc., which motivate consumers to book tickets and accommodation online.
The increasing usage of smartphones across the globe has played a supportive role in
the growing popularity of online hotel reservations.
Fig 1: Number of smartphone users worldwide from 2016 to 2021(in billions)
(Source: Statista, 2020)
The above are statistics showing the number of smartphone users worldwide. It
shows a comparison between different years from 2016 to 2021. The user base that

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once was close to 2.5 billion worldwide in 2016 will expectedly grow to 3.8 billion by
2021.
The fact that more and more people are finding smartphones as important for their lives
has encouraged entrepreneurial ventures, industry incumbents and leaders to take full
advantage of the opportunity. The growing opportunities in the online hotel reservation
sector have encouraged others to be a part of this industry. As a result, the level of
competition has increased for TopTravel SL.
There are many online companies existing today such as Expedia.com. These
sites do not just allow booking airline tickets, hotel reservations, cruise ships and car
rentals; but, also review the deals offered across many online booking sites. It gives
consumers leverage of things hardly realizable from physical booking on counters. The
ability to review the deals in real-time has made online sites, a favorite destination for
many for booking airline tickets, accommodation services and much more (Emir et al.,
2016).
Technological
The use of the internet unarguably has revolutionized everything from ticket
booking style to making payments for it. The benefits of using the internet could also be
observed along with the online hotel reservation and ticket booking sites. Companies as
such of TopTravel SL could not have come to existence, had there been no usage of
the internet at least for personal reasons. The importance of the internet can be realized
and understood by common people, industry experts and other concerned groups of
people. The growing popularity of the internet has proved beneficial also for many
online travel agencies like TopTravel SL. It is because of these online agencies such as
TopTravel SL has a healthy customer base. When the use of the internet was limited
just to PCs, Laptops, etc. the scenario was different for online travel and
accommodation booking agencies. Travelers were increasingly reliant on physical
booking sites. However, the use of the internet on smartphones has changed it all.
Today, travelers can book their tickets and accommodation service by themselves just
by visiting several online booking agencies (Žmuk & Mihajlović, 2018).

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The growth of internet booking has severely affected the business of brick and
mortar travel agencies. Long queues outside of some brick and mortar travel agencies
was earlier a common picture. However, the increasing usage of the internet on
smartphones has greatly affected the business for brick and mortar travel agencies. The
picture of the ticket and accommodation booking system has changed drastically
(Gössling et al., 2019).
Environmental
The airline sector faces many environmental issues, which might also affect the
business for online travel agencies. Airline companies face constant pressure to
improve fuel efficiency. The changing fuel consumption behavior in airline companies
affect ticket pricing. The recent oil price drop has brought the airline ticket prices down.
The impact of fuel prices is always felt on airline tickets (Kalinić & Novaković, 2019).
This also suggests that airline companies by being more fuel-efficient such as by the
use of advanced technologies can significantly help travelers by offering low price deals
to them.
Any flight cancellation due to sudden issues is also a loss of business for travel
agencies. It can be said that online travel agencies just like brick and mortar agencies
suffer from flight cancellation due to many reasons such as the recent Coronavirus
outbreak. The Coronavirus outbreak has put indefinite breaks on air transports (The
Economic Times,2020). This situation is a straight loss to the air business, the indirect
impact of which would be on online travel companies such as TopTravel SL.
The environmental scan of the business as performed above helped to
gather a few important facts concerning the online travel booking sites. The online
booking sites such as TopTravel SL has many opportunities such as the growing
consumer spending, changing lifestyle of people and increasing demand for
international visits. These opportunities will help to mount up a good business
performance provide there is the effective utilization of these opportunities. On the other
hand, sudden disruptions on airline services such as the impact of Coronavirus
outbreak incur direct business losses to online booking sites, such as to travel SL.
Therefore, TopTravel SL must have a very flexible workforce to take quick decisions

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and avoid potential losses done to the business in the wake of external business
challenges.
Porter’s five forces analysis
As researched by He (2019) to be able to identify the industry relative strength of
a business, it is important to assess the analysis of the industry. More specifically it
requires an assessment of microenvironment factors through effective and careful
utilization of Porter's five forces analysis. Below is an industry assessment of TopTravel
SL using the five forces framework:
Bargaining power of customers
The industry of online booking is less concentrated although a few competitors
have emerged and occupied a significant space in the market. TopTravel SL was doing
exceptionally well until few rivals entered this industry and stared affecting its business.
Talking about the volume and frequency of purchases, it can be said that booking of
airline tickets and accommodation services are distributed among the online travel
companies. Hence, one company does not enjoy a dominating position as long as the
volume and frequency of online purchases are concerned. However, it is otherwise
advantageous to agencies because customers are restricted with limited online booking
agencies. A high number of travel agencies could have provided more bargaining
opportunities to travelers. Lack of financial capacity also weakens the capability to
invest more on features needed to attract the booking. Online travel agencies have
perhaps outperformed brick and mortar travel companies; however, physical travel
companies can still be a problem for them. Travelers instead of going for an online
booking service can also go for brick and mortar agencies and Airbnb. Price sensitive
customers will pose the maximum threat to travel agencies. These customers will push
travel agencies to offer low deals, which otherwise can be difficult for online travel
booking sites (Kuzmanović & Langović, 2018).
The assessment of the bargaining power of customers reveals that buyers
possess a low bargaining capacity. Consumers have very few online booking options

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available for them to roam between. They have to accept the best deal as offered in
online sites.
Bargaining power of suppliers
The industry is densely concentrated with travel agencies existing in numerous
forms such as online travel agencies, shared booking sites like Airbnb, and brick and
mortar booking agencies. They all compete for offering the best deals concerning
pricing and accommodation services. The industry has quite a very few substitutes
available for online travel agencies. Airbnb is a substitute for online agencies that offer
shared services to allocate best room space to travelers at affordable prices. The
existence of a high number of substitutes could have exerted more pressure on online
agencies to be exceedingly flexible with the industry trend. Forward integration of
services is already taking its ground in the travel and tourism industry. This means the
services will get better and offers will be more attractive for travelers. Due to a very
broader nature of industry suppliers, there are high possibilities for some price-related
discrimination. Customers get victimized of price discrimination as they are usually told
that online booking of their holidays will save them more on hotels and holidays. Online
travel sites use the browser history of users to encourage them to sign a membership to
receive the best deals. However, the offers received by members may vary depending
on the devices they use to book the service (Zhao et al., 2015). This kind of price
discrimination is not illegal as travel sites are told to be clued up after they make certain
payment for this. However, it still is not a very healthy offer for customers as prices are
only slightly adjusted for the members.
The bargaining power of suppliers assessed as above indicates that
suppliers enjoy a high bargaining capacity on customers. Since they can discriminate
their offers and has less threat of substitutes, the online travel agencies have more gain
than losses.
Industry rivalry
The industry is less concentrated with sellers. Online travel agencies and its
other variants face low to a medium challenges from rival firms. Due to low industry

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growth, online travel agencies face huge industry competition. The industry offers low
switching costs to new entrants, which means a low barrier for a new business.
Additionally, industry players do not invest more in product differentiation. Product-
oriented innovation challenges are, therefore, very few on travel agencies. A new
business venture does not need to invest too much in business activities. Indeed, just a
small investment can do the needful for a new venture. The price war between
companies is intense. Pricing strategy is primarily used to keep the offers effectively
differentiated from rivals and attract the customers (Bilgihan & Bujisic, 2015).
After investigating the level of rivalry existing in the industry, it becomes
evident that rivalry is intensely placed because of many favorable factors. The cost of a
startup venture is one of the factors. It just requires a physical presence, a handful of
tools and devices and a network of partnered companies to initiate a business. The low
industry growth has facilitated the existence of intense price war. The competition is
there for offering the best deal, so that, customers are satisfied in terms of pricing and
service quality.
Threat of entry
In this industry, consumers generally show low trust in a particular brand as they
have many service providers to choose from. It is just a deal that affects the level of
loyalty of consumers for a brand. Consumers will switch easily to a service provider they
have never purchased from if the offered deal is better than the rest. Those who want to
book tickets or accommodation online, they can easily reach to the service provider as it
just requires an internet connection and a handful of a device such as smartphones or
laptops to book tickets online. On the other hand, those who are comfortable visiting
physical stores of travel agencies can reach easily their preferred locations due to the
dense spread of stores across the globe (Lien et al., 2015). Any new venture willing to
enter the industry can easily do this, due to the nature of business. It just requires very
minimal knowledge of the business nature to serve the target market. A low capital
needs to enter the industry makes it more feasible for new entrants. Any new venture
having good knowledge of a few simple business steps, a physical presence, a set of

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tools and devices, and one or few partnered suppliers can get its venture to enter the
industry and run smoothly.
From the analysis of the business feasibility for the new entrants done as
above, it becomes evident that the threat of new entrants is high for the industry. It is
due to the consumer attitude to shuffle between different brands in search of the best
deal. It is because travel agencies are easily accessible to consumers both online and
physical locations. An easy nature of the business and low capital needs to initiate it,
makes the industry highly vulnerable to new entrants.
Threat of substitute
The days of online travel agencies may turn into bad times. It is due to many
factors such as direct bookings available on the official websites of hotels, airlines, etc.
With hotels and airlines offering booking services, customers’ reliance on online ticket
and accommodation booking sites will considerably decrease. This perhaps should
affect the business for online travel agencies. It has been many years since Airbnb, the
home rental service provider entered the travel and tourism industry. Airbnb affected
the business of accommodation service provides, travel agencies and others to a
notable extent. Studies reveal that Airbnb in 10 different cities of the United States did
big damage to hotel revenue. As a result, the hotel sector witnessed a drop in revenue
by 1.3% for booking for night stays. The competition between traditional
accommodation service providers and Airbnb has intensified (Forbes, 2020). A drop in
revenue for traditional hotels would also mean a reduced service request for online
travel agencies.
The assessment of online travel agencies concerning the 'threat of
substitute' reveals some important facts. The threat is high due to the growing
presence of alternative service providers such as Airbnb. The offers of Airbnb are much
cheaper than traditional hotels. Besides, the different hotel chains and airline companies
are allowing consumers the opportunity to book airline tickets and accommodation
services on their official website.