Business Report: Thomas Cook Group's Strategies and Recommendations

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Thomas Cook Group, a global travel company. It begins with an introduction to the company, its services, and its competitive landscape. The core of the report includes a detailed SWOT analysis, evaluating the company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. It examines the company's use of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through initiatives like child protection, supplier partnerships, and women's empowerment. The report also explores the company's innovation and creativity, highlighting technological advancements and marketing strategies. The conclusion summarizes the findings and offers recommendations for improvement, such as employee training, technological adoption, and effective marketing strategies, aimed at enhancing the company's competitive advantage and profitability. The report uses various sources including journals, books and online resources to support its claims.

THE CONTEXT OF
BUSINESS

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Analysis...........................................................................................................................................3
SWOT analysis of business.........................................................................................................3
Use of corporate social responsibility by the business................................................................4
Innovation and creativity in business..........................................................................................5
Conclusion and recommendation....................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is now a days very much important for all types of business. it helps the business
in growing more popular and results being more familiar with their customers and clients. CSR is
the corporate social responsibility which is done by organisation to enhance their business
(Bikshapathi, 2021). the business which is taken in this report is Thomas cook group. As it is a
global travel group which was founded in the year 1841. Company is having their headquarter in
London. And the products in which company deals is package holidays, hotel and resorts and
schedule airlines etc. company is providing services like flights and package holidays and hotels.
Company is earning revenue £9,587 million and it is having operating income £250 million.
There are several competitors of the company these are BCD travel, Kuoni travel holdings and
Hays travel etc. this report includes SWOT analysis of company, using of CSR and innovation
and creativity in the company. At last, there is a recommendation made.
Analysis
SWOT analysis of business
SWOT analysis is called as a tool which is conducted by managers of the organisation to
identify its strength, weakness, opportunity and threats which are facing in a current business
situation. SWOT analysis of Thomas Cook group is discussed below.
Strength: Strength of company is that it protects the market share in the existing market
and the penetrating new market. It is having successful track of record of innovation and
creativity of new products and services. company is having highly skilled workforce and their
providing training and development session regularly to them. there are reliable suppliers of raw
materials and they help the company in overcoming any supply chain bottlenecks. then
companies having strong distribution network and there is a strong brand portfolio.
Weakness : Weakness is that the profitability ratio is low in the average industry.
Company is having less opportunities as compared to its competitors and also it is not having
very good at demand forecasting that is why it is keeping high inventory in house and channels
(Gabrielli, Baghi, and Bergianti, 2021). company needs more investment in their technologies so
that they can update with new technologies. there is a need of financial planning properly in the
organisation. companies having high attrition rate of workforce when comparing with its

competitors. it is having high attrition rate and that is why they have to spend more on training
and development programs of the employees.
opportunities : Some of the opportunities that company could gain is there is a
government green drive which helps them in opening their opportunities for procurement of their
products and services by this state. there is a decreasing cost of transportation because of
lowering in the shipping price and this help the company in providing opportunities to them and
boosting their profitability (Ghaleb, and et.al., 2021). company should follow new trends that are
coming in the market and that are being liked by customers. this helps them in creating
opportunities and building new revenue stream.
Threats : Threats are changing customer buying behaviour is the important that can be
faced by a company in their existing physical infrastructure. there is no regular supply chain
services and products. this can become threat for them and there is no regular supply of new
products and services. also, there is a shortage of skilled work force. as new technologies are
coming in the market and they are being utilised by its competitors so this can become biggest
threat to the company and decrease in its revenue.
Use of corporate social responsibility by the business
Corporate social responsibility is initiative to take responsibility for a company's effect on the
environment and its impact on the social behaviour. this is applied to the company efforts that
can be required by company effort that can be required by environmental protection groups.
there are some of the components of CSR these are employees, customers, suppliers and the
local community (Gyane, and et.al., 2021). the Thomas Cook group is doing their CSR strategy
through education and industry, employee volunteering, charity in the related market and
corporate community engagement. These are:
 Protecting children's: in these problems that is faced and tourism industry is that it
creates opportunity for children's to exploit. for that company is making solution as their
partnering with the ECPAT that is an international organisation.
 Partnering with suppliers : from the problem that can be faced by tourism industry of
tackline sustainability issue that is related with social and environmental impacts. The
solution companies making is that they are partnering with Travelife that helps hoteliers
in implementing sustainability measures (CSR and Corporate Governance at Thomas

Cook, 2020). also, they are providing training to the employees and encouraging and
motivating them to win travelife awards.
 Women empowerment: Thomas Cook focus on the women's education their
empowerment, health and arts and crafts, also on the wildlife and environment. they are
keeping at least 10 lakh rupees every year for this purpose and also, they are nominating
five employers as a trustee for the organisation (Ryu, and Chae, 2021). Company also
focusses on the quality of a product provided to the customers. they are focusing on
making dreams come true. it is important for them that their holiday should have highest
quality experience to the customers and their clients. by managing a good quality of
products and services to the customer they can get increasing in reputation of the
business.
Innovation and creativity in business
Thomas Cook group is making various innovation and creativity in their working
environment so that customers will feel more motivated and they get enhanced by their product
and services for restaurant. now company has announced various latest technology innovation
that is there providing beautiful holiday destinations and facilities while having a better digital
technology. they are creating new Sunconnect resort in which people wants to stay connected in
their holidays. Then they are providing Wi-Fi technologies in resorts and online gaming zones,
spacious pool and beautiful dining tables, family rooms etc. they are all will be available in
reasonable prices and was all included in the holiday packages. they are doing various other
innovations and creativity in their products and then booking so that customer will feel motivated
and good. they are booking daily activities through tablets and smartphones. also, they are
providing wireless internet connections to the customers who are visiting to their resorts
(Shahrour, Girerd-Potin, and Taramasco, 2021). Company is more focusing on their advertising
and marketing techniques so that they could deliver their products and services to the customers
and enhance their business. They are thinking forwarding in the business direction so that they
could adapt new technologies and marketing strategies and travel industry. Further, the company
is looking forwards in order to gain customer engagement towards the brand. They are making
continues innovation and creativity in order to gather customer attention and focusing on
providing them quality and services. there is a use of various other facilities in their hotels like a
guider is provided to the customers as this will helps them in guiding all the places they visit.

Then in flights, services are providing very good by providing them free internet connections and
quality of food and beverages. Company allows customers to book their flights and hotels
through online websites and company application. This will be done 24/7 hours. Customers
could also share their problems and issue through live chatting on their application and websites
(Vărzaru, Bocean, and Nicolescu, 2021). This will help them in listening to customer needs and
making improvements in their products and services. continuous innovation leads to customer
satisfaction.
Conclusion and recommendation
From the above it is concluded that Thomas Cook group is the innovation and creativity
company which is providing various innovations and better facilities to the customers. they are
more focusing on their travel facilities and advertising that is through social media platforms and
other platforms so that customers will be more enhanced. Company is the best travel
organisation and it is having some of the weaknesses like not having more skilled workforce and
also there are various competitors of the company. for that company has to focus on them.
Thomas Cook group should have to turn threats into opportunities so that they could deliver
more profits and revenue and leads to building in reputation in front of customers.
It is to be recommended that company should train their employees in very effective manner
so that they could not lose confidence in front of customers and treat them well. they should
work more on the updated technologies that are coming in the market so that they could compete
with their competitors and create more profits. This will have them in reducing their time and
effort. Also, if company want to expand in the other countries than it should have to deal with
various challenges and issues which could be considered in mind and develop their marketing
strategies in effective manner so that they could gain competitive advantage in the market.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bikshapathi, V., 2021. TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT FOR CORPORATE SOCIAL
RESPONSIBILITY IN SMALL & MEDIUM ENTERPRISES.
Gabrielli, V., Baghi, I. and Bergianti, F., 2021. Brand scandals within a corporate social
responsibility partnership: asymmetrical effects on for-profit and non-profit
brands. Journal of Marketing Management, pp.1-32.
Ghaleb, B.A.A and et.al., 2021. Corporate social responsibility, board gender diversity and real
earnings management: The case of Jordan. Cogent Business & Management, 8(1),
p.1883222.
Gyane, A.T and et.al., 2021. Sustaining the Oil and Gas Multinationals’ Operations Through
Corporate Social Responsibility Practices.
Ryu, H. and Chae, S.J., 2021. Family Firms, Chaebol Affiliations, and Corporate Social
Responsibility. Sustainability, 13(6), p.3016.
Shahrour, M.H., Girerd-Potin, I. and Taramasco, O., 2021. Corporate social responsibility and
firm default risk in the Eurozone: a market-based approach. Managerial Finance.
Vărzaru, A.A., Bocean, C.G. and Nicolescu, M.M., 2021. Rethinking Corporate Responsibility
and Sustainability in Light of Economic Performance. Sustainability, 13(5), p.2660.
Online
CSR and Corporate Governance at Thomas Cook, 2020. [online] Available through <
https://www.slideshare.net/avkoo7/csr-and-corporate-governance-at-thomas-cook-india
>