Risks and Decision Making: Using the example of British Airways

Seminar paper from the year 2008 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: B, University of Birmingham, language: English, abstract: Nowadays strategic planning comes more than ever to the fore. In the course of an onward globalisation and with an increasing stress of competition, it becomes more and more difficult for entrepreneurs to keep or to improve their market position. For this account, strategic planning comes into the main focus to choose the best strategy for a business. However, every business man knows that there are always chances and risks in economic life. For this reason, risks cannot be eliminated, but they can be managed. Especially in the airline industry, the competition is on a very high level. Since 2001 more and more low cost carriers have been competing with the big well known national airline companies like Lufthansa or British Airways. That's why a well thought out strategic management, strategic planning and of course risk management are essential to overcome the stress of competition. This report will analyse why risk management is so important in strategic planning. By evaluating different models and techniques, the best method to analyse the internal and external environment will be elaborated. By using a current business paper, in that case the annual report of British Airways Plc 2007, different kinds of risks will be analysed and strategies will be given, to overcome and mitigate those risks.