Ryanair Case Study - Consultancy Report

7. Conclusion and Recommendations
Within this consultancy report, our company A+T Management Consulting analyzed Ryanair’s strategic position identifying external as well as internal influences. The main problem of the report was to find an answer to the following question: “How can Ryanair adapt its strategy to maintain its leading position in Europe within the next 5 years?” Therefore four research questions were set up to explore external and internal influences on Ryanair, stakeholder’s interests and possible future strategic options. Within the external analysis it became clear that the main key drivers that present threats and opportunities are the open sky agreement, uncertainty of fuel costs, trend on travel distances, technological developments and EU regulations. The internal analysis showed that the most important distinctive capabilities of Ryanair are that they offer the lowest fares on the market combined with the extravagant leadership of Michael O’Leary which ensures a sustained competitive advantage. Furthermore, the financial analysis highlights that Ryanair’s profit increased over the last years and a high current ratio as well as return on equity emphasize that the airline is operating in the black. Additionally, the report identifies key stakeholders with a high level of interest and power, namely the Ryan’s family, Michael O’Leary, shareholders, employees and customers. Resulting out of PESTEL, Porter’s five forces, VRIO, financial analysis and stakeholder mapping a SWOT analysis was created to summarize internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats. Afterwards, a TOWS matrix was developed and the most important drivers of the SWOT analysis were combined, to create new strategic options. The four most suitable possibilities were evaluated according to the SAFe method, to identify the strongest strategic option which will help Ryanair to maintain its leading position. This option will be elaborated on in the following recommendation.
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