Company Profiles
Introduction
The following exercise is focused on the profiles of two business organizations that differ in their orientation and approach to profit. The organizations that have been selected for this analysis are Virgin Atlantic Airways and American National Red Cross. The profit making organization is Virgin Atlantic Airways while American Red Cross takes the place of the non- profit oriented organization (Frantz, 2005).
Profile of Virgin Atlantic Airways
This is an international passenger airline company that was started in 1984 by the famous billionaire Richard Branson. It grew to be Britain’s second largest carrier with over 30 international destinations. In Britain it mainly operates from Manchester and Gatwik Airports from where its long haul flights originate. In the course of its operations, Virgin Atlantic Airways has managed to be awarded several accolades in different categories of airline competition. The airline’s popularity stems from its use of innovation in product development thus ensuring quality for its customers. This has led its trends to be followed by other players in the industry effectively making Virgin a market leader. The company’s mission statement is “To embrace the human spirit and let it fly (Virgin Atlantic, 2013).”
Company Details
Head Quarters: The headquarters of this company are at Crawley, West Sussex in the United Kingdom. Internationally however there are other offices in regions where the airlines cover.
Major branch offices in the United Kingdom are found at its major airlines which are Gatwik, Heathrow and Manchester.
Financial Facts:
Despite an increase in revenue by 2.9 Billion in the airline overally posted a loss of 135 million pounds sterling. The revenue for the period was 2.5 Billion.
Historical growth of Virgin Atlantic’s Revenues
In the year 2011, the airline’s revenue stood at 2.263 billion Pounds Sterling. This figure increase to 2.402 billion in 2012 and 2.505 Billion in 2013. These represented percentage growths of 6% and 4.3 % respectively.
Virgin’s closest competitor is The UK’s flagship airline British Airways. In terms of destinations, British Airways has over 140 while Virgin’s barely go beyond 30. When it comes to international coverage however, Virgin seems to be more widespread as British air is mainly focused on Europe while Virgin covers other continents such as Africa, Asia and America.
The company employs approximately 9000 personnel internationally.
The main challenge that the company is facing in its operations is the increasing cost of fuel which eats into its profits. This coupled with financial crises in markets where it focuses on makes it difficult to pass on the increased costs to customers as this will serve to scare them away. In the last three months, the company\s performance was much better than a year ago. This is 477 million euros up from 268 in a similar period last year. The company is however now part of a conglomerate known as International Consolidated Airlines Group and this boosts its performance across the region as well as with Trans-Atlantic flights.
The recent incident that threatened the operations of Virgin Atlantic was a strike by its employees who were pushing for increased remuneration. This took place in 2011 and led the company to making major losses as well as negative publicity. Negotiation between the Airline and the employee representatives however saved the situation.
An analysis of the American Red Cross, a non-profit organization
The American Red Cross is a humanitarian organization that specializes in the provision of emergency and relief aid to people who have been affected by a wide range of artificial as well as natural disasters. At the same time, the organization engages in a wide range of community assistance projects in the areas of health, blood donation and also education. In the United States its headquarters are in Washington DC with offices in different parts of the country. The nature of its operations means that it can’t have a stationary operating base.
Mission Statement: “The American Red Cross prevents and alleviates human suffering in the face of emergencies by mobilizing the power of volunteers and the generosity of donors.”
The vision statement is to turn the compassion of volunteers and donors into action to ensure that all those with different urgent needs get the help they need (American Red Cross, 2013).
Personnel: The American Red Cross has a total of 300,000 employees and from this number only 18% are on the organization’s pay roll while the rest volunteer.
The organization was founded by Clara Barton in 1881 in Washington DC and is recorded to have responded to the Great fire of Michigan in the same year as well as the Johnstown flood in 1889 which were humanitarian disasters of the time. Over the years the organization’s national operations spread and as a result several chapters of the same are in existence today. Funding for the operations of this organization take place through sourcing for money from religious organizations, percentage donations by business entities, the use of the brand by business entities and also individual donations from auctions of items online among others.
The umbrella organization that the American Red Cross falls under is known as International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Being classified as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization, the American Red Cross is exempt of Federal taxation.
The key obstacle that the company faces in its operations is inadequate funding for its operations. As a result what it does is to improve its financial management by putting in some of the donations into long term plans.
Following Hurricane Katrina, Red Cross lost over 200,000 dollars in fraudulent withdrawals by individuals who worked closely with the organization but not as direct personnel. Though a small percentage in comparison to the 1.4 billion collected, this threatened to discourage donors. The president however stated that due diligence would have to be employed in the collection of donations.
References
Frantz, P. (2005, February 13). Company profile template. Connexions. Retrieved from http://cnx.org/content/m12649/1.1/
American Red Cross (2013)The American Red cross www.redcross.org on December 30, 2013
Virgin Atlantic Airways (2013) Virgin Atlantic Official Website www.virgin-atlantic.com on December 30, 2013
