Running head: British Airways Case Study 1
British Airways Case Study
David Filipkowski
Liberty University
BMAL 504 – Leading Organizational Change
Running head: British Airways Case Study 2
British Airways at the time one of the largest airlines in Europe, the result of the merging
of two state run airlines by the Civil Aviation Act of 1971 was a large colossus of an airline
plagued with inefficiencies and redundancies and a culture that was more concerned with on-
time performance at all cost than customer service and employee satisfaction. Problems stemmed
from the leftover thinking of the early days of the two airlines that created the merger BEA
(British European Airways) and BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) which for the
longest time were more concerned with pioneering the aviation industry in Europe and building
an aviation infrastructure rather than changing employee culture and reducing inefficiencies and
redundancies and streamlining operations.
Several events lead to the transformation of British Airways over the decade of the 1980s.
In February of 1981 Lord John King took over as chairman of the company. Along with other
executives King launched a survival plan reducing staff, freezing pay, closing routes and
enacting several other cost restructuring initiatives and by 1983 the BA staff had been reduced by
a quarter. King also brought in a CFO, Gordon Dunlop, whose creative financing also deeply
impacted the initial turnaround. With the financial transformation well under way King hired Sir
Colin Marshall to tackle the massive customer service problem at British Airways. Marshall
made customer service a personal crusade, focusing on little else in his first years with the
airline. With customer service being turned around a second effort was made to improve culture
for employees of the airline with the PPF (Putting People First) initiative and later MPF
(Managing People First) initiative. Both MPF and PPF were resounding successes with
employees and managers sensing a true culture change.
Running head: British Airways Case Study 3
The most critical factors in the transformation were the appointment of Lord John King
and Sir Colin Marshall. The initial programs implemented and then fostered by these two
executives lead to true financial and cultural change within the airline. Without the appointment
of these two remarkable executives, the transformation of British Airways would never have
happened.
After reading the case study it’s hard for me to find anything that I would have done
differently with the financial and cultural transformation at British Airways. While the financial
outlook was dire in 1981, the radical steps taken to save the airline from bankruptcy which
included a 20% reduction in workforce in just nine months seems to be extreme. Finding a way
to reduce the amount of layoffs or at least spread it out over a longer period could have helped
those employees affected by the decisions made. “ Let each of you look not only to his own
interests, but also to the interests of others”. (Philippians 2:4).
After reading both the British Airways case study and the accompanied reading “ Re-
Energizing the Mature Organization”, there are several aspects from the latter that are relevant to
the case study. British Airways whether knowing it or not incorporated the four renewal
principles discussed. With the appointment of Sir Colin Marshall a customer perspective and
focus on customer demands were made a critical focus area of British Airways. Furthermore,
British Airways empowered employees to act as leaders at all levels of the organization with the
creation of (PPF) Putting People First program and then followed up with (MPF) Managing
People First program to ensure that management understood the value of such concepts as trust,
leadership and vision among their teams.
Running head: British Airways Case Study 4
