In this report, we will discuss the strategic performance objective of Qatar Airways which is based on five key characteristics i.e. Speed, Cost, Quality, Dependability, and Flexibility.

1. Strategic
Performance
Objective of Qatar
Airways
2016

2. 2
Contents
1. Introduction.............................................................................................................................. 3
2. Literature Review .................................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Business Strategy and its Importance.................................................................................... 4
2.2 Strategic Performance Objectives ......................................................................................... 5
2.3 External and Internal Perspectives ........................................................................................ 6
3. Application of Concepts ........................................................................................................ 10
3.1 Strategic Performance Objectives: Qatar Airways.............................................................. 10
3.2 Implementation of Strategic Performance Objective .......................................................... 11
3.3 Weakness of Qatar Airways........................................................................................... 11
4. Conclusion............................................................................................................................. 12
References..................................................................................................................................... 13

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1. Introduction
Qatar Airways is the national airline of Qatar that was established in the year 1993 and
commenced its operation in the year 1994 with its major hub at Hamad International Airport. It
has its headquarters in Doha and this airline functions as a core and spine network that links
around 151 intercontinental destinations across Central Asia, Europe, South Asia, North
America, Africa South America, Far East, Middle East and Oceania. It has a fleet of around 162
aircrafts and 40,000 employees and is the member of One-World Alliance since 2013. Qatar
Airways is operating under the leadership of Akbar Al Baker who is the Chief Executive Officer
since 1996 and also a member of Board of Heathrow Airport (Qatar Airways Team, 2016). The
company is owned by the Government of Qatar and has many divisions that include Doha
International Airport, Qatar Aircraft and Catering Company, Qatar Aviation Services, Qatar
Duty Free, Distribution Company, Qatar Airways holidays, Qatar Executive and United Media
International. The Aircraft is divided into three different classes i.e. First Class, Business Class
and The economy class and the entertainment services are provided by Oryx Entertainment (Reji,
2013).
The major competitors of Qatar Airways as of the year 2016 are Emirates Airways,
Ethiad Airways and British airways. The vision of Qatar Airways is to become World’s five star
airlines which it will achieve its strategic objectives. In this report we will discuss the strategic
performance objective of Qatar Airways which is based on five key characteristics i.e. Speed,
Cost, Quality, Dependability and Flexibility.

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2. Literature Review
2.1 Business Strategy and its Importance
Every business organization is apprehensive about their survival and prosperity in the future for
which they need to plan some strategic plan. Therefore, a business strategy is referred as a plan
or set of goals which will be established as a direction for a long-term for the course of actions
that are required to make sure that organization will achieve success and growth in the future.
Though it does not matter that how huge a plan has been established, what goals have been set,
the strategy planned for an organization, can only become a significant reality, if it is endorsed
operationally (Barnes, 2007). The operations of an organization are strategically significant as
most of the organizational activities consist of routine and regular tasks contained by the
functional operations. It is the number of routine operational actions if taken in totality will
constitute to the long term strategic direction of an organization.
The association between the strategy of an organization and its functioning determines its ability
to attain the success and prosperity for the long term that enables its survival in the competitive
business environment (Mutiso, 2013). The success of an organization is only possible if short
term operational activities are in harmony with long term strategic goals and helps in achieving
the competitive advantage.
A Strategy for any business organization is planned to achieve the goals that help in survival and
continuous growth over the long term. Therefore the decisions made and the course of action
used within its function directly affects the growth and development of an organization. So it is
essential that an organization plans a strategy keeping in view the possible outcomes and
associated risks.

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2.2 Strategic Performance Objectives
An approach which assists and organization to secure, organize and utilize its resources
efficiently and demonstrate to what extent it can achieve the strategic goals successful refers to
the strategic performance objectives. These performance objectives affect the main stakeholders
of an organization i.e. Customers, Suppliers, shareholders, employees and society. Slack (2004)
contented that there are five strategic performance objectives which are listed below:
1 Cost: Production at Low Cost
2 Quality: Meet the quality standards defined by Standard Organizations
3 Speed: Ability to meet the customer expectations and fulfill their demands as early as possible.
4 Dependability: Delivering the products and services as promised to the customers
5 Flexibility: Ability to make transformations in the products as demanded by the customer
(Staffs UK Team, 2009).
Flexibility may consist of the following aspects
i. Ability to transform the volume production
ii. Ability to change the production time.
iii. Ability to change the combination of products and services.
iv. Ability to introduce innovative products and services (Moodle Plc. NSW Edu., 2012).

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Table: Competitive factors and operations Excellence
Excellent Operational Performance in Ability to Compete on
Cost  Low Price
Dependability  Reliable Delivery
Flexibility  New products and services frequently
 Broad range of Products and Services
 Change the delivery time
 Change the volume of products and
services
Quality  High Quality
Speed  Quick Delivery
An Organization that has to achieve the competitive advantage, it has to make sure that it
achieves any of the strategic performance objectives. Though it is significant to realize that the
success of a business strategy does not only depends on the capability of operations to attain the
excellence in strategic performance objectives, but critically on the consumers who values the
competitive aspect selected on which business strategy is based. Incorporating the excellence in
operations with the customer demand lies at the core of any strategy based on the operations
(Tyler, 2015).
2.3 External and Internal Perspectives
From the above discussion it is clear that strategic performance objectives help in achieving
excellence in operations as well as customer demands. It is important that an organization should
focus to implement at least one performance objective in their business strategy that helps in the
survival and growth of the organization. Each Performance objectives have importance of their

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own which is realized from the internal as well as external perspectives which are discussed
below:
I. Quality: Quality refers to a measure of the excellence of something in conformance to the
defined standards. Any performance objective needs to comply with internal and external
perspectives.
 Internal perspective with respect to quality refers to the inside operations that affects the
operations. If the quality conformance is high in all defined operational processes and
activities the probability of mistakes is very low. This means that dependability increases,
the response of speed increases and cost are saved. This happens when the operation is
making corrections at regular intervals and gets delayed in responding to the customer
requests (Nordmeyer, 2015).
 External perspectives refer to the impact of external factors that affects the quality of
products and services within an operation is that the consumers who use the products and
services will have fewer things to complain. And in case they don’t have anything to
complain that means they are happy and satisfied with the products and services offered
by the organization. This means that the customer will refer the organization to other
people also and it will increase the sales and growth of an organization and thus the
strategic goal is achieved (Adam, 2011).
II. Speed: Speed refers to the time taken to make a response. It means time taken by the
organization to respond to the customer request by providing them with the product or a
service that they have demanded. An organization may charge more prices for the quick
delivery of the product. This can be realized from internal as well as external factors
which are discussed below:

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Internal factors are associated with how an organization works to meet the customer
requirements
The external factor is associated with responding to the customer request as soon as possible.
This can be viewed in a positive way as customers may associate with the organization for the
long term and refer them to other people also which will help the organization to grow. For such
high delivery of services organizations may charge a high price.
III. Dependability: It means reliable delivery of products and services. From internal and
external perspectives dependability is viewed as follows:
Internal dependability has an effect on cost. There are three ways in which cost is affected i.e. by
saving money, saving cost and organizational stability.
External dependability has a great impact on the customers specially the traders. Reliable
delivery is regarded as a good sign in business development.
IV. Flexibility: It refers to the capability of making adjustments in all possible areas say it is
time, design, services etc.
External perspective: There are different types of flexibility associated with the external factors
that allow an operation to adjust the products and services as per the customer requirements. The
flexibility of Products and services allows creating new products and services that incorporate
the ideas that may attract the customers. The flexibility in delivery and Volume allows the
operation to make an adjustment in its levels of output and procedures of delivery so that it
becomes easy to cope up with the changes that are not expected.

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Internal perspective: There are three factors that are viewed from the internal perspectives i.e.
saves time, increase response speed and increases dependability.
V. Cost: Cost refers to the capital or expenses involved in product or services delivery and
production. Cost is associated with all the objectives that may help an organization to
achieve the target goals (Baker, 2016).
The table below is an illustration of association of internal and external perspectives with the
strategic performance objectives: -
External effects of
performance objectives
Strategic Performance
objectives
Internal effects of
performance objectives
Short time in delivery Speed Fast throughput
High margin, Low price,
or both
Costs Total productivity is High
Dependable delivery Dependability Reliable processes
New products/services
Broad range of
product/service range
Adjustments in volume
and delivery
Flexibility Capacity to change
On specification
products/services
Quality Error-free process

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3. Application of Concepts
3.1 Strategic Performance Objectives: Qatar Airways
As per the literature review there are five strategic performance objectives that help an
organization to meet the target goals and prosper on the lines of growth and development. An
Analysis of Qatar Airways is done on the basis of these Strategic Performance Objectives which
is discussed below:
 Cost: Qatar Airways offers the airline services at a very affordable price. It has special
offers for students who wish to travel abroad for study. For senior citizens there are
special privileges such as they are offered a discount of 15 % every time they wish to
travel (Arif, 2013).
 Quality: Qatar Airways offers high quality of hospitality services in all the three classes
of travel (economy class, first class and business class). The entertainment services are
offered by Oryx Entertainment and for the business class passengers there is the special
arrangement.
 Dependability: Qatar Airways though offers good services but may lack in reliable
delivery. There are some issues associated with baggage services that trouble the
customers sometimes.
 Flexibility: The services at Qatar Airways are not that much flexible in all the areas as
changes in any service is a cumbersome task and involves lots of problems and this
sometimes harasses the customers (Barnard, 2013).
 Speed: Offering excellent hospitality services, still there are some areas where the
delivery involves a lot of time and therefore customers have made a lot of complaints
about that and this area needs to be focused.

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3.2 Implementation of Strategic Performance Objective
The Strategic objective that is implemented by Qatar Airways is Cost which means it provides
services at an affordable price. It has launched many schemes and offers for Students, Senior
Citizens and Business Executives.
For students it has offered an Excess Baggage allowance i.e students who are migrating abroad
for their higher studies are allowed to carry a luggage of approximate 40 kg and 3 pieces.
Though this offer comes with validity of 1 year but for future there are some others plans also.
For Senior Citizen above 65 years on the booking, are given a discount of 15% on business class
and 10% discount of the first class (Haseeb, 2015).
Cost is one of the important factors in organizational operations that attract the customer in a
huge number. Cost is somehow associated with all the four other objectives in which people may
compromise. Therefore, Qatar Airways has focused more on the cost reduction of their services
and offer a great value price for all other customers also which helps in the organizational overall
growth.
3.3 Weakness of Qatar Airways
No doubt Qatar Airways is doing well in the services that are offered by them but somehow in
some areas it lags and needs an improvement to become world class airline which is its vision.
The area as per the strategic performance objectives where Qatar Airways is lagging is
Flexibility in the services, Speed and Dependability. From a number of evidence it has been
observed that there are some issues related to the baggage delivery of the customers and they are
being harassed over it. This is the major area of which Qatar Airways has to make an
improvement. Secondly the quality of Hospitality services in Business Class and First Class is

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good but in Economy class there is a delay in the services and quality is not upto the standards.
Though as per the above discussion it is stated that at least one performance objective should be
implemented but if all other areas are also improved will help Qatar Airways to become world
class Airline services which it aims to become (Isvoc Team, 2016). Customer feedback is an
important method that can help Qatar Airways to make changes as stated by the customers.
Customers are the main stakeholders of the organization and working on their interest should be
a major priority.
4. Conclusion
In the light of the above discussion it is clear that planning strategy for an organization is
significant for survival and to achieve the target goals. A business strategy is important in which
it is required to set the objectives and develop guidelines of how that target or objectives can be
accomplished. This report discusses the services offered by Qatar airways that how they
implement the strategic performance objectives in their organizational strategy to attract a large
number of customers. There are five strategic performance objectives discussed in this report
namely Cost, Speed, Quality, Flexibility and Dependability. Qatar Airways implements a Cost
Objectives that offers Services at an affordable price under the leadership of Akbar Al Baker to
meet the customer expectations and make them happy and satisfied with the services.
Undoubtedly Qatar airways offer good aviation services as per the review of customers, certain
areas of weakness is supposed to be improved. The organization should therefore take feedback
of customers to make enhancement or improvement in the areas that they feel the airways is
lagging behind.

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References
Adam, 2011. Qatar Airways SWOT Analysis. Qatar Airways SWOT Analysis, 20 February,
Available at: http://www.freeswotanalysis.com/aerospace-airline/175-qatar-airways-swot-
analysis.html
Arif, A., 2013. SWOT ANALYSIS OF QATAR AIRWAYS. SWOT ANALYSIS OF QATAR
AIRWAYS, 03 December.
Baker, A., 2016. QATAR AIRWAYS FACT SHEET (June 2016), Available at:
https://www.qatarairways.com/iwov-resources/temp-docs/press-
kit/Qatar%20Airways%20Factsheet%20-%20English.pdf
Barnard, L., 2013. Qatar Airways sets target to become second-biggest cargo airline. Qatar
Airways sets target to become second-biggest cargo airline, 13 March.
Barnes, 2007. OPERATIONS, STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS STRATEGY: cws.cengage.co.uk.
Haseeb, 2015. SWOT Analysis of Qatar Airways. SWOT Analysis of Qatar Airways, 18
November.
Isvoc Team, 2016. Continued weakness in the growth of foreign air cargo companies still want
to overweight Chinese. Continued weakness in the growth of foreign air cargo companies still
want to overweight Chinese, 16 June.
Moodle Plc. NSW Edu., 2012. Operations - Performance objectives demystified, Available at:
http://moodle.plc.nsw.edu.au/pluginfile.php/6370/mod_page/content/20/November%202012%20
Thinking%20Business.pdf

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Mutiso, P., 2013. Qatar Airways Company | Strategic Retail Planning. Qatar Airways Company,
January.
Nordmeyer, B., 2015. Objectives of Operational Performance. Objectives of Operational
Performance.
Qatar Airways Team, 2016. Qatarairways official website. [Online]
Available at: http://www.qatarairways.com/in/en/homepage.page
Reji, R., 2013. Qatar Airways. [Online]
Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/reyareji/a316731
Staffs UK Team, 2009. Operations performance objectives, Available at:
http://www.staffs.ac.uk/sgc1/faculty/bsb10214-2/Performanceobjectives.docx
Tyler, T., 2015. Annual Review 2015: IATA, Avaialable at:
http://www.iata.org/about/Documents/iata-annual-review-2015.pdf