STRATEGY COMPARISON: CLUB MED AND SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL AIRLINES
This research compares the strategies of two firms Club Med, Inc., the American based subsidiary of Club Mediterranee based in Paris, and Singapore International Airlines (SIA). Club Med is responsible for the North American operations of Club Mediterranee. SIA is an international air transportation carrier. Essentially controlled by the Singapore government, SIA, in 1990, sold a substantial share of its ownership to private investors.
This comparison of strategies is presented in the context of five factors market niche, differential advantages, strategic thrusts, organizational culture, and existing cultural gaps. Comparisons between the tow companies are made in the context of each of these factors.
Club Mediterranee, originally founded as a non profit vacation club in France in 1950, was quickly successful, and was soon reorganized into a formal shareholding organization providing packaged vacations to exotic locations for all western Europeans. Early on, Club Med adopted a strategy of acquiring ownership of vacation destinations (referred to as villages), and of operating the vacation facilities for its guests, which continue to be referred to as members.
As time passed, Club Med expanded its area for vacation destinations to include sites in most of the desirable areas of the world, and, in the process, the character of some of the villages were transformed from the rustic to the luxurious.
Thus, by the early 1980s, Club Med was operating 90 villages, in more than 40 countries, and was able to accommodate the needs and desires of a wide variety of vacationers.
The Club Med concept is to provide a complete vacation package for club members within the Club Med villages. The cost of the complete vacation is included in the price for the time booked into a village. Bar costs (other than wine with meals) and purchases from Club operated...