Flying High in a Competitive Industry: Secrets of the World's Leading Airline [Hardcover]

Loizos Heracleous (Author), Jochen Wirtz (Author), Nitin Pangarkar (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 9, 2008

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is widely acknowledged as one of the world's leading airlines, if not the best airline, globally. This book provides insights into a simple but intriguing question: How has SIA managed to outperform other flag carriers for decades in an industry where it is notoriously difficult to succeed consistently?
This revised edition of Flying High in a Competitive Industry begins with an analysis of the airline industry and its key trends, moving on to a broad outline of SIA's strategic drivers of success. Empirical research was conducted at SIA to gain a deeper understanding of its strategy, core competencies and internal organisation, innovation processes and human resource practices, in order to instill strategy lessons that can inform the strategies of any organisation competing in intensely competitive industries.
This book ends with some strategic lessons that apply to any organisation that aims to achieve sustainable success in hypercompetitive markets.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Loizos Heracleous holds a Chair in Strategy at Warwick Business School. He is also an associate fellow of Green Templeton College and the Saïd Business School at Oxford University. He has lived and worked in Asia for eight years in his previous post as associate professor of business policy at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Dr Heracleous earned his Ph.D. at the Judge Institute of Management Studies, University of Cambridge. He is the author of Strategy and Organization: Realizing Strategic Management, (2003, Cambridge University Press) and Discourse, Interpretation, Organization (2006, Cambridge University Press) as well as the co-author of Business Strategy in Asia: A Casebook (2004, Thomson Learning).
Jochen Wirtz is an associate professor of marketing at NUS, the founding director of the UCLA - NUS Executive MBA Program, and an associate fellow of the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Dr Wirtz is a leading authority in the field of services marketing. Services Marketing - People, Technology, Strategy, (2007, 6th edition, Prentice Hall), which he co-authored with Professor Christopher Lovelock, is the bestselling services marketing text book worldwide, and Essentials of Services Marketing (2009, Prentice Hall), which he co-wrote with Lovelock and Professor Patricia Chew, is the world s first full-colour services marketing text.
Nitin Pangarkar is an associate professor of business policy at NUS Business School. Previously, he held academic positions at the University of Minnesota (USA) and the Helsinki School of Economics (Finland). His research interests lie in the areas of strategic management and international business - specifically cross-border strategic alliances and global strategy. Dr Pangarkar's research has been presented in several international conferences around the world and published in more than 30 international journal articles, conference proceedings, cases and books. He is a member of several professional organisations and serves as the vice president of the Asia Academy of Management, the leading regional association for management scholars in Asia. He also serves on the editorial boards of two international journals.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 268 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education (Asia); Second edition (December 9, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0071281967
• ISBN-13: 978-0071281966
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,521,803 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great insights to a world-class service benchmark, January 5, 2009

By 

Ron Kaufman "Uplifting Service Worldwide" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flying High in a Competitive Industry: Secrets of the World's Leading Airline (Hardcover)

Singapore Airlines has TWO very strong and successful company cultures.

The first is externally facing and everyone sees: "service excellence". The second is equally essential and embraced throughout the company: "cost-effectiveness".

It is the combination of these two cultures that wins Singapore Airlines so many awards, and such consistently high profits. Hence the accurate subtitle of an earlier edition of this excellent book: "Flying High! Cost-effective service excellence at Singapore Airlines."

The three authors of this book have a unique "inside track" to discover and reveal policies Singapore Airlines has applied for more than 30 years - with practical examples you will read and immediately understand. Singapore Airlines does not grant such access lightly.

In this new edition, the authors have added numerous updates, interviews and a case study that is as challenging as it is insightful.

If you want to learn the secrets Singapore Airlines applies on every flight, in every country, every day, this is the book to read.

Great writing about a powerful company that delivers consistently world-class service. Highly recommended.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Answer to Your Case Studies on SQ, March 19, 2006

By 

Singapore Girl - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flying High in a Competitive Industry: Cost-Effective Service Excellence at Singapore Airlines (Hardcover)

This is the best reference for students doing Tourism Studies or Service Marketing!

I have done many case studies on SQ when I was taking my Tourism Management degree; it's HRM, finance, marketing strategies, service quality... and now, after 4 years, most of the answers I needed is in this book!

Great airline! Although many people are clueless of where Singapore is (some even thought it is a part of Japan or China or Vietnam), they sure know Singapore Airlines is the Best Airline in the World.

I hope SQ continues to revolutionalize its strategy in achieving peak service performance.

4.0 out of 5 stars Very informative & worth reading, January 30, 2010

By 

Nicholas Lee (Melbourne, AUS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flying High in a Competitive Industry: Secrets of the World's Leading Airline (Hardcover)

A great book for those interested in not just understanding the success of SIA but also how they continue to excel in a holistic management of a truly great services company.

The chapter structure and length makes for a fairly easy read. The presentation of material in tables and graphs helps break up the sections of information.

Having access to "insiders" within the company also adds to the authority and accuracy of details.

A highly recommended read for individuals who are followers of SIA, management students and execs.