Easy Jet plc is a Britain bases low-cost airline. It is headquartered in London Luton airport. The airline operates both international and domestic scheduled services on more than 1000 routes. It is operating its flights in over 30 countries through affiliate airline like Easy Jet Europe, Easy Jet Switzerland, and EasyJet UK. The company is listed in the stock exchange of London. It has strong capital base as the market capitalization is about £4 billion. The net cash position is of £213 million as of 2016 (EasyJet, 2020).
VRIO Analysis of EasyJet
VRIO framework is an analytical tool which helps the company in achieving sustained competitive advantages. VRIO analysis helps the company in assessing the resources and capabilities of the company which improves the efficiency and bring effectiveness in the operations. Here is the detailed VRIO analysis of EasyJet.
Value
VRIO model believes that resources and capabilities of the company should be valuable. The resources will be considered as valuable when they bring efficiency in the implementation of the business strategy. The valuable resources along with other components help the company in achieving competitive advantage. EasyJet has won the award on its digital platform, as it is considered as company’s core competence. The digital platform of EasyJet is continuously monetarized to avoid glitch. As it is a low-fare airline, it still maintained its quality of service and provide good customer experience, which increased its customer base (Exalted Value, 2020).
Rarity
This is the second component of the VRIO analysis which focuses on the resources to be rare as much a possible. It means the very few or any one company own the resources. If the resources and capability will not be rare, every firm will use it in the same way for their own benefits. EasyJet works on low-cost airline business model, which is rare. It implements the application of lean and other process to achieve its target and improve its services. This capability is not acquired by many low-cost airline. Its implementation of strategies is rare but it’s not technologically advances as compare to big airlines like Emirates (UK essay, 2018).
Imitability
The resources are needed to be difficult to imitate, so that companies would not be able to replicate it. The resources should be either costly to imitate or hard to find the alternative for. The company should avail this opportunity to stand odd one out in the industry and attract more customers. Companies usually achieve temporary competitive advantage with the help of valuable, rare, and difficult to imitate resources. EasyJet believes in maintaining good relationship with its stakeholders, which is a good approach not implemented by many companies. The company has achieved strong brand recognition in the industry due to its continuous improvement and efforts in its strategies (Exalted Value, 2020).
Organization
This is the fourth and last component of the VRIO framework, which deals in resources of the company should be organized. It is an important element as it helps in achieving sustained competitive advantage. Organized resources will help the company in achieving goals and objectives quickly and easily. EasyJet has one of the top customer relationship management capability which is highly organized and manageable. The company’s human resources worked hard to achieve the customer loyalty and grow its revenues. The online platform of the company is always monitored and run efficiently. The company make sure it provides good working environment to its staff to motivate them towards work (UK Essay, 2018).
Conclusion
EasyJet is a low-cost airline which believes in availing new opportunities and exploiting resources efficiently to increase the operational efficiency. Moreover, the resources and capabilities also help EasyJet in capitalizing the available resources which results in high performance.
| Resources/Capabilities | V | R | I | O | Competitive Advantage |
| Digital platform | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustainable competitive advantage |
| Brand Equity | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustainable competitive advantage |
| Marketing | ✓ | ✓ | Competitive parity | ||
| Service quality | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Sustainable competitive advantage |
| Talented HR | ✓ | ✓ | Competitive parity |
References
EasyJet plc, 2020. About us-What we do. [Online], Available at: http://corporate.easyjet.com/about/what-we-do, [Accessed on: 17th May, 2020].
Exaltedvalue, 2020. Case study of EasyJet. [Online], Available at: https://exaltedvalue.com/index.php/1183-2/, [Accessed on: 17th May, 2020].
UK essay, 2018. EasyJet Generic Strategy. [Online], Available at: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/management/overview-and-summary-of-easyjet-airline-management-essay.php?vref=1, [Accessed on: 17th May, 2020].
UK essay, 2018. EasyJet overview and strategy analysis. [Online], Available at: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/easyjet-overview-and-strategy-analysis-marketing-essay.php?vref=1, [Accessed on: 17th May, 2020].