The Singapore Airlines Group

Singapore Airlines (SIA) is renowned as one of the important players in the airline industry worldwide. However, SIA's competitive advantages are diluted gradually because competitions within existing competitiors become more intensive, factors such as competitive pricing, barriers to operate new routes, cost effectiveness, service homogeneous and imitation, etc.

In order to deal with those issues, SIA should investigate their existing resources and capabilities to beter utilize their strengths. Therefore, we generalize their resources and capabilities first, and then discuss what their distinctve competencies as well as sustaintable competitive advantages are.

The following table summarize all the key internal factors that SIA possessed:

1. Physical R/C V U L C S T SCA

Number of destinations H L

Latest, most updated aircraft H H L M H H Strong

Ability to gain new market and destinations H L

Airport facilities H L

Non stop flight service H L

In-flight entertainment H H M L L L Weak

Kitchen complex H L

Comfortable environment - quietest cabin H L

Global satellite and fax telephone service H H L L H L Weak

Complimentary bag of toiletries M L

Japanese cuisine L L

Virgin's Transatlantic network H L

Alliance for low-price trip - Aeroineas Argentianas H L

Joint Cargo H L

SIA Engineering Company's capacity H H L H M H Strong

2. Financial R/C

V U L C S T SCA

Sufficient financial resource H H L H M H

Strong

Managing the investment in Training H H L H M H

Managing the investment in Technology H H L H M H

Acquisition of virgin, air new Zealand H M

3. Human R/C V U L C S T SCA

Pilot Training program H L

Job rotation H L

Routine meeting H L

Stewardess- Singapore Girl H L

High Quality Service Staff H L

Influence of labor union M L

Low labor cost H H M H M H Strong

Customer oriented H L

Systematic Training Mechanism H H L L M L Weak

Motivation on staff performance programs H L

4. Technological R/C V U L C S T

Highly automated systems - Passenger handling capacity and facilitated H L

Training simulation system H L

Ware catering washing system H L

APIS - Advanced Passenger Information System H L

Internet check-in 1996 H L

Centralized baggage "tracing" unit M L

Life- saving equipment H L

E-tickiting H L

Code- sharing H L

Reservation System - Global Travel Information Services H L

5. Reputational R/C V U L C S T SCA

Brand reputation H H H H H H Strong

Customer survey H L

"Reaction" of the result survey/compliant H H L H H H Strong

Focus group research H L

Awards worldwide H H H H H H Strong

Relationship with government H H H H H H Strong

Here, we will justify what resources and capabilities are distinctive competences and sustainable competitive advantages (SCAs):

 Physical R/C

1. They possess the latest, modern, youngest fleets that physically provide better safety, comfortable environment; better fuel efficiency and flying range to achieve cost reduction. This is a distinctive competence because this approach requires a high financial support and it is very hard to buy a fleet of aircrafts without a huge funding. In addition, it could be considered as a strong SCA because it is quite hard to update "all" aircrafts into the youngest and modern fleet. It could only be achieved by having a huge amount of funds to invest.

2. The in-flight entertainment is a distinctive competence because they can provide the latest news, good games, and a number of abundant channels selected. The degree of freedom that passengers have is quite rare at that time. However, it is a weak SCA because it is easy to be imitated by others. Also, others can achieve the purpose of using this system even though the ways and the context of entertainment are different.

3. The global satellite and fax service is a distinctive service because the service demanded is first fulfilled by SIA. At that time, these are new standards and so SIA possesses a cutting-edge technology that others don't have. However, it is a weak SCA because it is again easy to be imitated. Competitors could simply acquire those facilities these would no longer be a sustainable advantage.

4. The engineering group contains technologies that other airlines' ground service hasn't. The scale and the capability is achieved to a SCA that they have.

 Financial R/C

1. For the financial resources and capabilities, SIA has the distinctive competency since SIA has strong capital resources that are very valuable and it is also difficult to find a competitor that has such financial power. Therefore, we think that the financial resource