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ASSESSMENT TASK 1:
Assess the impacts of innovation and technology and how it has affected the sales, profits and growth of one of the following companies
Innovation refers as the procedure to add value and provide radical changes in the product or service to make the business productive. Along with this, technology is the knowledge that can innovate through consistent efforts. These two goes hand in hand with the technological advancements to leverage the possibilities and creating something new and interesting. It must focus on building the market environment less competitive, easy accessibility and must consider these elements as essential. The purpose is to discover the approaches that are not traditional but helps in safeguarding contemporary operations. It has been noticed that some innovative business concepts established a few growth opportunities for overall success of a company.
TUI Plc is the largest group in the world of tourism and has a well established portfolio. It symbolises the sustainable tourism over two decades now and covers the value chain of holiday destinations at global scale. The roadmap to its success lies in the innovation and the awareness about the sustainable tourism. Since its beginning, the company’s management focus is to give inspiration to their customers and promote more interaction. The goal of this giant group has been always to create an enriching experience for their customers while taking a vacation (Buijtendijk, van Heiningen and Duineveld, 2021). For this, TUI’s expert professionals overlook the operations effectively and put efforts in simplifying processes and systems as well. The cruise ships are the best example of this group that are standing on number of technological innovations and also bringing radical changes.
Such a company has been always dependent on the innovation that is mostly considered as a vague concept. It has accelerated a few positive connotations at an executive level and mostly technological innovation is observed as the management tool. This company has explained the organisational performance by understanding the knowledge and expertise require to conduct the tasks and result in recognising the previous circumstances. It led to make the collaborations for achieving the entrepreneurship and made some innovations. They had some stakes in one of the shipping lines named Hapag Lyord and also some natural disasters affected their revenues as many tourists cancelled the bookings.
Moreover, the Brexit even had an influence on its business units and impacted their working practices. For this, the company has strategically made some decisions to incur no losses and also maintain the bookings. It was achieved by centralizing all the major functions and focalised at the headquarters. Their portfolio also got under a turnaround change with ‘Think travel, Think TUI’. The focus was also on maintaining the content management of associated cruises, destination, hotels, IT and airline management. Next collaboration was in all the airlines (including TUI Airways, TUI fly Nordic, TUI fly Netherlands, TUI fly and TUI fly Belgium,) that not only optimised their pricing strategy but also proved beneficial by having a better buying ability. The flights scheduling, planning and crew management were handled by the airlines whereas the responsibility was to inform them about the bookings, cancellation fees etc. prior to clients. Thus such collaborations helped in maintaining the innovation and promoted the use of technological platforms as well.
After the lockdown were lifted and international travelling has started, the management of this group worked on their operations platform of airline companies with IBS Software. They are together working for more than 10 years now and are focusing on maintenance aspects. Due to pandemic, the airline sector has been hit very badly and was also the most affected. Nonetheless, both IBS software and TUI group are planning innovative strategies to overcome this crisis and continue with work without getting exposed to effects of this virus. The ideation is to make a safe travel plan so that the customers as well as the crew/ hotel staff lives are not in danger. For this, digitalization is the keyword that helped in fetching the need to access the information to the clients. Both social media platforms and web has laid the marketing teams of this group to contact and build a better network of information to their customers.
Each update is very informative and appealing as well as the use of smart phone, tablets and mobiles has made the handling easier (Gössling and Lane, 2015). It is important because of changing perceptions of clients who are technologically sound, knows the markets and are also aware about the changing trends, discounts, sponsorships etc. Many influencers have also received paid partnerships with TUI to make the right promotion about their airlines, agencies and package deals. However it was more physical earlier and now the management is planning a more aggressive approach.
Both innovation and technology have helped this group in enhancing the overall sales and maintain the profits. The economic development is easily found to be steadfast and has made the tourism more attractive. It is a known fact that Internet of Things (IoT) is useful for the employees’ to take decisions and improvise the relationship management. With rise of drone technology, artificial intelligence and more, the organizational culture at any workplace has improvised. The working practices are made clutter free and there is a flow of ideas and many projects was achieved. It did make lives comfortable and less complicated plus helped the companies to have a better vantage point in finance domain.
Many tools and gadgets are helping the travellers to visit any place easily and thus, here TUI comes into picture. They have started tapping the potential of being an ally to their tourists who can stay, roam and can also compete in one of their activities to win. The winners would get points that help in travelling light for the next visit. Further to these, many Hotel properties that are in association with this group are offering features like app to control TV or thermostat in the room. The airport authority has also allowed the TUI passengers to use special suitcases with devices. It does allow them to know the exact location using their mobile phones in order to avoid losing it or any other place.
Moreover, it has also proved that there might be some difficulties in the financial and ICT domains. The information and communications technology is indeed a quite expensive affair at an organizational level. The security and safety of the visitors are the prime motive and with shift from traditional tourism to digital tourism, it is going to be another strategic analysis. The group has a well established network of a total 1,600 travel agencies, 6 airlines including 150 aircraft, more than 300 hotels with approximately 214,000 beds, and 17 cruise liners. It is indeed a vast management to support and thus, ICT must be robust and comprehensive in nature.
The economies are at the highest level that creates a better approach in making the sustainable tourism more attractive. Additionally, it has made a move to have potential partnerships with the technology based start ups and also is planning to work on the block chain technology as well. The difficulties must be eliminated with taking some initiatives and this will TUI group to survive the Covid phase. There are possibilities to include robots for taking the daily activities as it is currently used for supporting the customers’ services (Schäfer, 2020). Moreover, the focus must be to be completely online and be more interactive on other social media platforms. It leads to maximum profitability to this company and its economic development on the whole.
ASSESSMENT TASK 2:
Evaluate the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for TUI Plc
Corporate social responsibility is an indispensable component of a company to encourage the sustainability and few policies must be adhered for influencing the business decisions. CSR at an organizational level helps in society’s welfare as a part of developmental responsibility. Many multinational companies like TUI Plc consider the impact on both the environment and society, and further aim to contribute for the good. There is a need to be upfront by the group’s management in taking the right decisions through implying all the rules, regulations and policies.
Their leaders and managers who are active in both Germany and the United Kingdom must ensure staff handling under the country’s legislative frameworks. In its absence, there is a possibility of failing the system on the whole and not able to attain the expected objectives. The 6 fleet of Airlines companies have always managed to be environmental friendly and contribute by reducing the carbon emission (Geerts and Dooms, 2020). For instance they have joined and follow the regulations of the International Air transport association to minimise the carbon emission and improvise the fuel efficiency viz carbon- neutral growth. It helped also in the cruising part and other logistics part as well. In addition the materials in the construction of hotel buildings are also based on green technology and stating the example to be sustainable.
Moreover, the company’s strategy for 2015-2020 was based on ‘Our Better Holidays, Better World’ that was established on the four core pillars (Sustainability strategy, 2021). The firm is using such a Four- Pillar strategy to deal with a variety of climatic changes, ranging from operational, technological and economic measures.
The focus was to minimise the carbon footprint by 10 % through operating the airlines that are carbon-efficient and to deliver a ‘greener and fairer’ holidays that is 10 million times sustainable. For this, the company has also expressed the interests from its TUI Care Foundation through investments for fulfilling the good causes and making the world a greener place. Furthermore, TUI had also considered a sustainability space in the form of a Greener Cruising link at one of its Travel’s website. It has explained about the needs to be more environmental conspicuous and about destinations, crew etc.
However, TUI has a transactional relationship with its supply chain partners and has all the evidence about the practices that are adopted and is related knowledge. It is mostly based on agreeable terms with the suppliers and contractors to have fair information about health and safety, wages and benefits, working hours and more.
It is important to understand that CSR is pivotal in shaping the world’s outlook towards preservation and conservation of natural resources. The companies must be involved in revolutionary designing with minimal wastage in considering the market based measures. Also, the corporate responsibility activity might be beneficial for employees’ engagement in order improve their performance.
It would build a market reputation that aids in the development of self- esteem and the managers might also be able to identify the problem areas. The management of this company is highly encouraged all the way through CSR activities at the community level (Runte, 2019). The chosen company has also initiated many charities, donations, and sponsorships for supporting the community groups in increasing the people trust to the business. Besides that, it increases in providing a higher return by investments that might prove competent decisions for the future benefits. It must always be important to deal with any such activities for better engagement and also influence the entire foundation.
Apply Archie Carroll’s (1991) CSR model to TLC Plc
Carroll’s CSR model is defined as a framework for having accountability to the management and its people in taking social responsibility. It was developed by Archie Carroll and has four important components, which reflects the most important types of responsibility of organisations.
- Economic responsibility is the most fundamental element and has a foundational term for profits that are feasible. It is integral in shaping the basis to deliver the features or attributes. Here the TUI management is focusing on economic aspects as it helps in making the deliverables on time.
- Legal responsibility is the second most important feature that assists in following up the principles that comes under code of ethics. It must be codified as per the society and must be applied.
- Ethical responsibility is the set of moral responsibilities that has all the internalized obligations to be fulfilled. It must be encouraged to make the management, taskforce and the people involved more serious in doing the right parts.
- Philanthropic responsibility is mostly related to the entire corporation in acting as a good corporate citizen by promoting the social welfare. It focuses on sharing quality of life by obliging all the social welfare based activities under a good corporate.
The elements are inter-dependent and are tightly intersected with one another to make the prioritization of CSR at a new level. It is seen that the administration at TUI Plc is still relevant by following this pyramid of four components. The distribution and chain of hotels that are under this group meet all the legal obligations in order to supply the minimum legal frameworks. It is definitely useful when embracing the standards and practices that are adopted by the company’s management at an internal level (Syriopoulos, Tsatsaronis and Gorila, 2020).
The company’s employees must be acknowledging the integrity and ethical behaviour to make the business infringed in identifying the moral standards and also prevent from any misjudged act. Moreover, the business are also adopting some discrepancy responsibilities that help in community developmental works and also encourage the community in making ethical considerations for the mutual benefits. The management herein is known for such works and is continuously giving back to the society. Its charitable fund organisations are useful in generating awareness about social causes and raise a huge sum of amount to help the needy people. The brand is known for its ethical decisions while managing the economic aspects and also promoting the technological innovation to meet the standards that would keep them safe at top slot in the tourism sector.
Additionally, it has brought concerns on the need to consider practices in which management of the external factors are included. For a successful business run, it is essential to use the integrated sustainability accounting in order to keep up the dynamic processes. It does provide assistance in making things more approachable and also leads in creating the business processing less difficult. Here the shareholders of the chosen company must ensure successful implementation of accounting and other aspects of reporting to make taskforce vigilant. On the other hand, there are few elements that are incorporated to mange in productive manner and also monitor, review, evaluate and assess the socio- economic, and environment perspectives.
It does lead to bring improvisation in the CSR policies and also make the preservation initiatives as well resources conservation as a prime usage (Koseoglu and et.al., 2021). For example when one of the local managers of this company’s branch needs to take decisions regarding discounts or giving package deals then the focus must be to have expertise. The company’s SOPs (standard operating procedure) would come in handy during decision making for making a change or any addition. It would be useful in keeping a check on all the operational activities to keep an eye on the employees’ performance and stakeholders’ engagement.
References
Buijtendijk, H., van Heiningen, J. and Duineveld, M., 2021. The productive role of innovation in a large tourism organisation (TUI). Tourism Management, 85, p.104312.
Geerts, M. and Dooms, M., 2020. An analysis of the CSR portfolio of cruise shipping lines. Research in Transportation Business & Management, p.100615.
Gössling, S. and Lane, B., 2015. Rural tourism and the development of Internet-based accommodation booking platforms: a study in the advantages, dangers and implications of innovation. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 23(8-9), pp.1386-1403.
Koseoglu, M.A., Uyar, A., Kilic, M., Kuzey, C. and Karaman, A.S., 2021. Exploring the connections among CSR performance, reporting, and external assurance: Evidence from the hospitality and tourism industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 94, p.102819.
Runte, C., 2019. Corporate Social Responsibility Management in tourism business: The impact of TUI Group and Intrepid Group on low-and middle-income countries.
Schäfer, J.C., 2020. The case of TUI: sailing into a bright future or sinking like Thomas Cook? (Doctoral dissertation).
Sustainability strategy. 2021. [Online]. Available through :< https://www.tuigroup.com/en-en/responsibility/strategy>.
Syriopoulos, T., Tsatsaronis, M. and Gorila, M., 2020. The global cruise industry: Financial performance evaluation. Research in Transportation Business & Management, p.100558.
