Business Health Check Report: Thomas Cook's Performance Analysis

This report presents a business health check of Thomas Cook, a global hospitality company, evaluating its objectives, market position, and potential for improvement. The report begins by defining Thomas Cook's objectives, including market share expansion and brand promotion, and then identifies factors impacting the business using PESTLE, SWOT, and Porter's Five Forces analyses. The PESTLE analysis examines political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors. The SWOT analysis assesses strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. The report then reviews the effectiveness of the business and proposes plans for improvement, including market development and diversification strategies using Ansoff's Matrix. Finally, the report evaluates the current skills of management and staff and suggests plans for skill development. The report concludes with a summary of findings and recommendations for Thomas Cook to enhance its performance and achieve its goals.

Business Health
Check

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Defined the objectives of the business..................................................................................3
1.2 Described the factors which can impact the business ..........................................................4
1.3 Potential improvements to the business organisation...........................................................7
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................8
2.1 Review the effectiveness of the business..............................................................................8
2.2 Develop plans to improve the business, justifying their value.............................................9
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................10
3.1 Evaluate the current skills of management and staff..........................................................10
3.2 Devise and justify plans for the development of skills for management and staff.............11
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................13
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
Business health check refers to that process which is adopted by an organisation to
evaluate and assess all the current elements of an organisation. The main purpose of this
evaluation is to know that enterprise is going on the right track or not and if implements some
changes if required, it will help them to enhance their overall performance by proper utilizing of
the resources and capabilities. In this report the taken hospitality organisation is Thomas Cook
which is world famous British global company, leading in almost 47 countries and its
headquarters are situated in London, UK, and England. This reports consists the study about the
objectives and all those factors which can impact the association and their overall improvement.
Also, develop plans to improve the working of enterprise and its effectiveness. At last, plans
which is conducted by an organisation to evaluate the current skills of management and staff will
be understand.
TASK 1
1.1 Defined the objectives of the business.
Thomas Cook is one of the well-known hospitality industry which was established in the
year of 2007. this industry was founded by the Thomas Cook who is successor of Thomas Cook
& Son and My Travel Group plc. This company owns a range of tour operators which includes
Thomas Cook, Air-tours etc. The company was established with the aim to fulfil their objectives
within the time frame. Some of their objectives are mentioned below:
Expand their market share: As Thomas Cook is leading in the hospitality industry so
they have to face tough competition in the market (Artac and et. al., 2013). Due to the high
competition they are not able to cover huge marketplace. But their main focus on the expanding
their business and enhance their overall performance so they able to cover a big mark-share and
beat their competitors.
Growth plan for opening new hotels across the world: Thomas Cook wants to expand
their business in across the world they have already coved the market in UK and Europe, now
they want to expand their business in other national and international countries.
Promoting the brand: Thomas Cook wants to introduce more and more customers from
their services and expand their business in the market. For promoting their brand in the world

wide they are adopting various promotional activities like advertisement, Print in magazines,
holder etc. Also, they are taking part in various conferences, events and sports programs.
Approaching to the customers and clients: The main objectives of Thomas Cook is to
increase their customer base so they will able to achieve their organisational goals and
objectives(Nagaraj, 2016). They are more concern about their customers, for attracting various
customers they offers discount offers and some special packages. By attracting various
customers in their services they can enhance their overall profitability and sustainability.
SMART criteria: For achieving these above mentioned objectives Thomas Cook will
adopt SMART criteria in which they are tend to increase their market share from 60% to 80% by
measuring the market segments, competition etc. so they will be able to effectively increase their
profit from 70% to 90% within the 6 months.
1.2 Described the factors which can impact the business
An organisation is greatly affected by all the internal and external factors of the
environment. All the factors of environment can impact on the overall performance of the
organisation in the both positive and negative manner. For better analysing the external, internal
factors and others factors Thomas Cook can apply PESTLE, SWOT, Porter's five force model in
their business which are described below:
PESTLE analysis: This tool helps Thomas Cook to determine about all the macro
environmental factors which can impact on their organisational performance. PESTEL contains
six factors within which are described below:
 Political factors: These are those factors which can impact on the organisation long term
profitability and sustainability in a specific country or market. It includes tax policies,
foreign trade policy, labour law and many others. All these factors have huge impact on
the performance of Thomas cook. For instance, the UK government has introduced with a
new tourism tax which has greatly affected the travel and tourism industry.Economic
factors: This factors is related to the economy which have directly impact on the overall
performance and profitability. These factors includes interest rates, foreign exchange
rates inflation rates etc. (Joshi, and Cheung, 2015). For instance, in the UK employment
rates are mostly high which create lack of workers or high pay to workers issue for
Thomas Cook due to which they have suffer a big problem.

 Social factors: These factors are related to the customs, norms, values of the population
etc. in which the organisation is operating their activities. These factors include age and
income distribution, population growth rate and many more which have impact on the
business. For example, As UK is well known for its strongest economy due to which the
disposal income of the customers are high which provide great profit to the Thomas Cook
as people will more spend on the travelling (Chang, et. al., 2016).
 Technological factors: These factors are related to innovations in technology which will
affect the operations of the business. If Thomas Cook want to increase their online
presence globally then it will be possible if they will use modifies and latest technologies
in their production activities.
 Environmental factors: These are related to the surrounding of the business such as
climate, waste disposal, recycling procedures etc. which can impact the overall
performance of the business. For instance, if the Thomas Cook will rise the contribution
in CSR then they will be able to attract more customers in their business or increase their
brand value.
 Legal factors: These factors include all the legal formalities includes consumers law,
health and safety law and many others. If Thomas cook follow the employment law in the
organisation then they will be able to maintain the employee’s belief which results higher
productivity and profitability, other if they not follow the rules they will be trap in the
legal formalities which has negative impact on the employee and their brand image.
SWOT analysis: This tool is used by Thomas Cook for evaluating their strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats. The SWOT analysis of Thomas Cook is defined below:
Strengths Weaknesses
 One of the major strength of Thomas
Cook is that it is the largest and oldest
company which is offering various
travel services like airlines, forex,
bookings, etc (Kamio, et. al., 2014).
 The another strength of them that they
are providing customized and flexible
packages according to the customers
 Thomas Cook have to face the tough
competition in the market which create
difficulties to cover huge market share
and maintain their sustainability. s
 As they are dealing in globally due to
which they are sometimes unable to
maintain the standard effectively, that

needs. leads them in a downfall position.
Opportunities Threats
 Thomas Cook have huge opportunities
to penetrating the market globally by
digitizing their operations so they will
be able to reach most of the people
across the globe.
 In the present scenario, travel industry
is in the growing position so it us
opportunity for Thomas Cook to adopt
new technologies and inventions in
their organisation so they will be able
to cover huge marketplace.
 As Thomas Cook is also leading in the
airline business and the profits of going
in the downfall position which becomes
a big threat for them.
 They have to face threat of lower cost
strategy of their competitors as their
competitors are providing services
same services at lesser cost compare to
Thomas Cook which create a big issue
for them.
Porter's Five Force model of Thomas Cook:
Threat of New Entrants: New entrants in travel industry brings new ideas, innovations
in the business. It also pressurised the Thomas Cook to adopt lower price strategy, decrease their
cost, and needs to provide new effective services to their customers. In this situation they needs
to maintain all these challenges and built effective strategies so they will be able to maintain their
position in the competition(Philbin and Kennedy, 2014).
Bargaining Power of Suppliers: In the travel industry, most of the companies purchase
their raw material form many suppliers. In this case, some of the supplier who are in dominant
position can decrease their prices which will provide benefit to the Thomas Cook and some
powerful supplier can take advantage of their negotiating power to infusion high prices which
results lower profitability of Thomas Cook.
Bargaining Power of Buyers: This is the factor which can directly impact on the overall
performance of the company. In this factors customers demand from Thomas Cook to offer
services at minimum prices. If the customers base is small and stronger then in this case the

bargaining power of the customers will be higher and in this case Thomas Cook have to decrease
their prices and give discounts and offers.(Boulanger, et. al., 2015).
Threat of substitute: This issue arise when the competitor of the organisation provide
the same products and services at lower prices, in this case the industry profitability will be
suffer. For preventing themselves from this situation Thomas Cook have to decrease their prices
so they able to sustain their position in the competitive market.
Industrial Rivalry: This situation arise when the existing firms are giving higher
competition to each other. Thomas Cook will affected by this factors greatly so they needs to
decrease their prices which will help them to increase their profitability(Ghaddar, et. al., 2012).
1.3 Potential improvements to the business organisation
Potential improvement are not based on the customers satisfaction, productivity and
completion time but it is related to the improvement of technology, staff development, team
management, supplier management etc. For identifying the improvement areas, Thomas cook
can use Ansoff's Matrix which will help them to develop improvement options and enhance their
profitability and sustainability as well. This tools contains four factors which are described
below:
Market penetration: In this strategy, Thomas Cook will focus on their existing market
by developing their existing services. For covering a huge market share and enhance their
customers base in the existing market they have to adopt various activities such as decrease their
price, improve its distribution channels, increase production capability etc. This will surely help
them to attract a range of customers in their services which results higher profitability and brand
value.
Market development: In this strategy an organisation think about the selling of their
existing products in a new market. For this they need to expand their business internationally and
produce some effective products by using new technologies and innovations so they will be able
to success in the new market.
Product development: This refers to the development of new products to existing
market for becoming the succeed in the existing market they need to include new technologies,
new development in their production(ABoedker, et. al., 2017).
Diversification: It refers to attain the customer base by serving new product in the new
market.

From the above discussed strategies Thomas Cook will adopt the market development
strategy which will help to attain more customers base, profitability, and sustainability.
TASK 2
2.1 Review the effectiveness of the business.
It is essential for any of the organisation is to evaluate the effectiveness of the business
for maintaining the long term profit of the business. Effectiveness refers to examine the
strategies or activities of the business and for evaluating the performance of the employers and
employees.(Uronen, et. al., 2017). This helps an organisation to increase its profitability and
productivity so they will be able to meet their goals and objectives. As Thomas Cook is the
world wide known travel company because of its working ethics and standards. All the
employees of Thomas Cook follow all the ethics of the company due to which the management
of the company able to create healthy environment in the organisation. Moreover, they also
believe in continuous improvement and reviewing of their effectiveness so that they can improve
whatever they are facing.
Through business health check, they able to evaluate their growth and success. This helps
the business to tell that they are going in a right direction or not and also helps them to
implement required changes. There are defined about some departments which needs critical
review:
Product or services: This is the main factor of the organisation on which they need to
focus. For offering the best services and products to their customer management of Thomas
Cook needs to measure the effectiveness of their services and products. It will help them to find
about the not required products and services so they will change this with new products which
able to satisfied the needs of the customers.
Marketing: It is an essential process which is adopt by an organisation to introduce their
products and services in across the world. It is crucial for Thomas Cook to review their
marketing strategies in order to accomplishing the organisational goals and objectives. With
effective analysis, they will be able to identify their competitors and develop better strategies to
improve their overall organisational performance(Smith, et. al., 2012).
Sales: The most important factor of the organisation is sales on which an organisation
profitability is completely depend. It is important for Thomas Cook that their how much their

services are delivering to the customers and how much they are able to satisfying the needs of
the customers.
Finances: This factor is related to the fund which is required to any organisation in order
successfully completing their organisational activities. In this case Thomas Cook needs to review
their budget timely so they able to reduce the extra cost and implement them in a productive part.
Business image: It is important for Thomas Cook to stay concern about their business
image because it will help them to attract more customers in the organisation which results
higher sales, profitability, and brand value.(Urbanos-Garrido and Lopez-Valcarcel, 2015).
2.2 Develop plans to improve the business, justifying their value.
Planning is that function of organisation in which the management of the organisation is
determining about that activities which they are going to do in near future. With the help of
proper planning an organisation is able to execute their activities effectively and timely. Thomas
Cook needs to do planning for operating their activities smoothly. Some of the operations for
which they needs to do proper planning are as follow:
Sales and productivity: This is the most important element in the every organisation as
the success of the organisation depends on it. It is essential for Thomas Cook to maintain the
balance between their availability and providing the services they need to do efforts for
enhancing their customers base so they will be able to achieve great success in the market.
Financial management systems: For operating their activities smoothly Thomas Cook
always do proper planning of the financial system of the organisation so they never have to the
problem of lack of funds for operating their activities.
Roles and responsibilities of management and staff: An organisation should make the
proper plans for deciding the roles and responsibilities of the management and staff. If the roles
and responsibilities of everyone within the organisation is decided then the employees will do
their work with honesty and efficiently(Ajunwa, Crawford and Ford 2016).
Performance monitoring: Thomas Cook needs to make plans for establishing the proper
monitoring channels. This will help them to monitor on their employees performance so if they
are doing something wrong then the management of the company can give proper training in
order to do their efforts in right direction for achieving the organisational goals.

TASK 3
3.1 Evaluate the current skills of management and staff.
For operating the organisational activities smoothly and achieve the desired profit and
growth the management and staff of the Thomas cook should have appropriate skills. As Thomas
Cook is leading in the hospitality industry so they have to interact various customers on daily
basis for this the management of this company needs to have effective skills in order to achieve
organisational goals and objectives(Joshi, 2013). Some of the skills which Thomas Cook
required mentioned below:
Technical skills: This skills pertains the capabilities and knowledge about that how the
various techniques are used for accomplishing this organisational goals and objectives. This
skills not only include the technique knowledge like how to operating the machines and software
but this is used for enhancing the sales, market services and products.
Operational skills: These activities are those which is essential for operating the
business activities smoothly. The operational managers of Thomas cook should have these skills
so they will be able to maintain the proper supervision and controlling on all the activities of
employees and other subordinates. Also, this will help them to interact with various customers on
daily basis with an appropriate manner which will assist them to meet the objectives and goals of
the organisation.
Managerial skills: In order to complete their responsibilities and duties related to the
planning, organising, controlling etc. the management of an organisation should have the suitable
skills in order to achieve the organisational goals. Managerial skills are divided into three parts
includes technical, human relation, and conceptual skills.
As it has been discussed that Thomas Cook is one of best leading firm in the hospitality
industry which is only possible because of their effective management and staff skills. The
management and staff of Thomas Cook have unique skills, talents, and knowledge in order to do
achieve their organisational activities effectively(Chang, et. al., 2016). They are always
performing their responsibilities and duties in an effective manner which able to them
accomplish their targets and objectives easily. These skills are essential in the managers and staff
because it will help the managers to motivates their employees towards their work and it will
assist the employees to do their efforts in right direction so they will be able to achieve their
goals easily and timely. If management and employees accomplish their activities with

perfection, then Thomas Cook will be able to execute all their short tern as well as long term
goals within time and will also provide better services to their customers((Ghaddar, et. al., 2012).
3.2 Devise and justify plans for the development of skills for management and staff.
Development plan for the staff and management are given as follows :-
Skills Technique of improvement Time required Main target
Strategic
development
(management)
Management of the
company can improve their
various strategies with the
help of professional advice
or conducing research
related to the effectiveness
of the strategies in the
organisation.
Continuous
development
To formulate proper
decisions and strategies
for the Thomas and cook
so that this will help them
to achieve their objectives
and target in a effective
way.
Flexibility
(staff)
Staff members need to
understand the importance
of flexibility and also tried
to implement such skills by
the help of their seniors.
Continuous
development
Flexibility is very
essential for the Thomas
and cook to serve the
customers effectively
according to their
continuous changing
needs and demand.
Problem
solving
(management)
Management must be
effective in problem solving
skills so that they can solve
different problems of the
company due to which
management also save time as
well as cost of the company.
Continuous
development
Problem solving skills are
very essential for the
managers of Thomas and
cook to solve various
complex problems of the
company so that they not
affect organisation
negatively.
Participation
(staff)
Staff members of the
company need to equally
Continuous
development
Participation of staff
members are very

participate towards
organisational goals with the
use of their skills and
knowledge more effectively.
important for the Thomas
and cook to perform
regular activities as well as
to accomplish
organisational objectives.
It is very essential for the Thomas and cook to adopt above given development plan for the staff
and management. It is a well known travel company which offers various services related to the
travel such as visa, travel insurance, passport, foreign exchange etc. so management of the
Thomas and cook needs to formulate and develop effective strategies which contributes towards
company's goal and also they must have skills and qualities of problem solving to solve different
complex problems of the company. On the different side, employees of the company needs to
adopt flexibility to deal with changing situations and continuous changing taste and preferences
of the customers(Uronen, et. al., 2017). The staff members of the Thomas and cook must adopt
participative style so that it will leads participation of staff members in regular activities and
decision making which contributes towards organisational goal as well as also smooth the
functioning of the company.