Business Deconstructed - QANTAS AIRWAYS LIMITED (ePub)

Seminar paper from the year 2007 in the subject Business economics - General, grade: 2,0, University of Sunderland (New College Durham), language: English, abstract: The Group's principal activities are operating international and domestic air transportation services, providing freight services, selling international and domestic holiday tours and associated support activities including information technology, catering, ground handling and engineering and maintenance. (http://www.qantas.com.au)

Qantas flies to more than 142 destinations in about 40 countries. Besides Qantas the company's operations include an Australian regional carrier, QantasLink, and a low-fare carrier, Jetstar. Overall, the company's fleet includes about 219 aircraft. Qantas is part of the Oneworld global marketing and code-sharing alliance, which is led by British Airways and American Airlines. A proposed purchase of Qantas by an investment group led by Macquarie Bank and TPG failed to win shareholder approval in 2007. (http://www.qantas.com.au)

Stakeholders are all groups and individuals who have an interest in the company being analysed. In order to focus on these groups which have the power to influence, corporate level activities have to be identified first. This can include large shareholders, governments and trade unions. The power and interest of those stakeholder groups have an impact on the process by which strategy develops at the corporate level and in each individual business.(Williamson et al, 2004, pg. 9)

Qantas' stakeholders are its shareholders, employees, customers, business partners and the community, indirect stakeholders include academics, the media, governments and non- governmental organisations. They all have a major influence on the business, its strategy and therefore its performance.
According to the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales "the objective of financial statements is to provide information about the reporting entity's financial performance and financial position that is useful to a wide range of users for assessing the stewardship of the entity's management and for making economic decisions".(Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, 2002/2003, pg. 22) Furthermore, it says that this objective can usually be met by concentrating only on the information needs of present and potential investors which are the defining class of user. That is the reason why I will focus on present and potential stakeholders in the main part of this assignment.