When Jan Carlzon took SAS over in 1980, the company knew troubles times and was losing money but at this time the entire airline industry had to deal with the same problems. The first objective of Jan Carlzon was to focus on the customers orientated company instead of the product oriented company. But the main change that happened at the beginning of his era were the changes in the middle management. He reduced the staff and tried to aim them towards more efficient inter-departmental communication, which was by his opinion the main reason of low performance.
From his point of view, the point of departure must be the customer. So Carlzon changed the organizational structure of the company, first of all because in a customer driven company , the distribution of roles is radically different and because he choose a strategy where he wanted employees to participate actively in the company’s future. He reduced the imaginary relationship that companies have a strict boss and the employees as an obligatory factor of the system. He also turned around the typical company pyramid and put on the top the customers and found himself at the bottom.
For him SAS should have the reputation of the quality contact between an individual customer and SAS employees who serve the customers directly as an individuals. For him, employees must become empowered to respond to customer’s unique needs with speed and courtesy. In order to reach it, Carlzon persuaded his staff that by thinking about interactions and making very small changes that improved on their quality and excellence the company could enhance service and find its rightful niche in the market place. Silent features of the organization chart (decentralized).
Alternatively, a description of how the separate entities of the organization are tied together, patterns of status and control. In our case we see that Carlzon approved a high level of delegation and responsibilities. By doing this employees could make decisions from which the customers would gain most. Strategy Analysis of environmental, competition, customer needs and one’s own strengths and weaknesses leading to a plan or course of action that determines the allocation of SAS’s scarce recourses, over time, to reach the determined goals.
They are service orientated and spend a lot of attention to customers needs with a great variety of services. Systems Procedural reports and the routine processes. On the intangible side, includes routine processes such as meeting formats and norms of conflict management. The main thing that had to be accomplished at SAS was the cooperation of all levels of organization. In today’s world it is very important for a company to be as computerized as possible.
Out of this characteristic they have to upgrade their databases, which can help them with their marketing. As well they had to produce a system where it was easy to access to information. Style Description of behavioral patterns on common traits of key managers and the organization as a whole. The purpose of this segment in SAS was to keep a small distance between the top management and the employees. This would prove to be an efficient way towards optimizing the company’s performance on the market. Staff
The staff is characterizations of the major grouping of people within SAS by education, functional discipline or working background. After the reorganization of the company most of the employees where highly motivated. They had a common goal and work well as a team, which only helped the company to achieve their goals. Skills The one or two distinctive capabilities of the organization that authentically differentiate it from the competition. At SAS they tried to implement these skills towards understanding the market and how it works.
The main perspective at what they aimed a lot of skills was understanding the customers needs or in other words doing more to satisfy customers with high quality of services and friendly, helpful employees at the front line. By making the staff do more things they found there self with new ideas. Shared values The significant meanings or central belief that SAS imbues in its members (“To became the world’s best airline for business traveler”). These overarching values act as a “tie breakers”.
