Introduction
In any modern business, the leader is tasked with promoting the growth of a brand and ensuring that the company remains competitive. The ability of the leader to inspire employees and maintain high-performance standards is vital to the success of a business. The team of the CFO, Operations Director, HR Director, and Commercial Director are all key to ensuring that the CEO realizes their vision and implements strategic plans effectively. It is important to keep the team focused on the organization’s vision and make critical decisions on the key values reflected in the company.
In this case, the primary purpose of the airport is to serve customers. Further, the organization intends to behave responsibly towards the environment and the local community. The company also seeks to provide customers with the highest quality of service and cultivate openness, honesty, and fairness in all dealings.
As part of Team Anikulapo, I had to internalize and understand what value I brought to the business and how I could impart my personal touch to ensure they remained paramount in all business practices. It was especially important to make key strategic decisions on expanding the business, inspire employees to achieve higher, and realize higher levels of customer satisfaction.
Description
As a CEO of an airport business, making critical decisions is an essential part of your role. Data analysis is essential in making informed decisions and collecting and analyzing data on the airport’s performance, including passenger traffic, revenue, expenses, and customer feedback. This was essential in anticipating future challenges and opportunities and making decisions that align with the broader industry landscape. I was tasked with achieving a 50% growth in flights, improving passenger satisfaction and employee motivation, and 15% yield growth per passenger. These definitive goals helped me in the development of the five-year strategic plan, identification of the priority areas, and how to measure performance for each objective.
I understood the value of examining the industry standard regarding customer prices, employee salaries, and overall growth projections. The relationship with key industry stakeholders was meant to give an insight into the business trends, the best ways to optimize performance, and how to address critical issues such as environmental impact and passenger flow in and out of the airport (Sonmez Cakir, & Adiguzel, 2020).
The CEO was supposed to make decisions on infrastructure, such as the maintenance of airport buses, addressing the number of flow systems, and increasing the efficiency of the existing infrastructure. These strategies were crucial in improving the customer experience in the airport. The changes resulted in a reduction in the time spent booking a flight and getting to the plane and an improvement in luggage management.
Feelings
The decisions as CEO have wide-ranging impacts, not only on the organization but also on my profile as a leader. I had to consider the implication of my decisions on all stakeholders, including employees, customers, shareholders, and the wider community. For any CEO, the decisions you make should be in the best interests of everyone involved. The initial forecast was a 50% growth in flights and a 10% improvement in the passenger satisfaction index. All stakeholders would assess my success as a CEO through these metrics. The strategic plan should incorporate a step-by-step guide to how the airport would achieve all these objectives and the main contributions of the CEO.
To realize these goals, it was paramount that I develop contingency plans for unforeseen events that may impact the airport’s operations, such as weather events, natural disasters, or other crises (Sonmez Cakir, & Adiguzel, 2020). This would help in quickly and effectively responding to any challenges that arose. The airport industry is vulnerable to external factors such as weather, government regulations, and unforeseen events such as a global pandemic. During the COVID-19 pandemic, most airports had their businesses significantly impacted, and some went out of business. Therefore, I had to ensure that the airport was resilient against such adverse events and could quickly adapt during massive external pressure.
Evaluation
I understood the value of communicating key decisions effectively to all stakeholders, including employees, customers, and shareholders. This was crucial in building trust and transparency and ensuring everyone was on the same page. The KPIs defining my main objectives as CEO were a roadmap on the key focus areas. Managing KPI performance requires a systematic approach to achieving the desired goals and objectives. It is important to align them with your overall business strategy and objectives (Sonmez Cakir, & Adiguzel, 2020).
These KPIs should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Once you have defined your KPIs, you must set challenging yet achievable targets and align them with your organization’s strategic goals. Further, regularly monitor progress towards achieving your KPIs to identify any areas where you fall behind and take corrective action (Sonmez Cakir, & Adiguzel, 2020). In addition, analyze the data related to your KPIs to identify trends, patterns, and insights. This will help you make informed decisions and adjust your strategy as needed.
I learned that the CEO had to adapt to changes in the company and across the industry. More importantly, setting a schedule for the KPIs and regularly reviewing the progress throughout my reign was crucial. There was a need to set performance metrics for each department and each individual to ensure that everyone was moving in the same direction and motivated to achieve certain performance standards. If the organization was falling behind its KPI targets, my responsibility was to take corrective action to get back on track. This could involve changing strategy, reallocating resources, or implementing new processes. Continuous evaluation and improvement of the KPIs and performance management system were crucial to staying relevant and responsive to changing market conditions and customer needs. Finally, it was crucial to communicate the results of KPI performance to relevant stakeholders, such as employees, management, and customers, helping to build transparency and accountability within the organization.
Analysis
A leader can create an open, transparent culture that encourages communication and collaboration. A culture that values transparency and open communication can prevent conflicts from escalating and enable team members to discuss and resolve issues constructively. The leader can promote this culture by being transparent in their communication, encouraging open dialogue, and facilitating team-building activities that promote collaboration (Sonmez Cakir, & Adiguzel, 2020). I sought to establish clear roles and responsibilities for each team member and clear expectations for how they work together. This was vital in preventing misunderstandings, and conflicts arising from unclear expectations and ensuring everyone understood their role and how it fits into the overall team structure.
Leaders can also provide training and development opportunities to help team members develop their skills and capabilities and work more effectively as a team. In the past few years, the airport industry suffered significantly from external forces, which was reflected in employee satisfaction levels and passenger expectations from the industry. Through these challenges, the industry had to adjust the business model to allow for the motivation of employees and improve service delivery. Similarly, as team leader, I had to ensure that each member could overcome external pressures and fulfill their responsibilities as expected.
I learned that customer service was crucial to increasing passenger traffic within five years. To achieve this, it was paramount that employees felt appreciated and valued through better pay, better working conditions, and integration into the decision-making model of the organization. The CEO can encourage a culture of constructive feedback and continuous improvement.
Feedback is critical for managing relationships and conflict within the management team. By providing regular feedback, the leader can help team members understand how they can improve and work more effectively together. Additionally, the leader can provide coaching and mentoring to team members who need support in developing their skills and capabilities.
Conclusion
The team experience was valuable in learning how to implement changes in an organization. I learned that the CEO holds significant sway over the outcome of a business as a team leader and overall manager. I understood the value of the learning experience, understanding my capabilities as a leader, and preparing me for a future leadership position in the business. The value of a united team working towards a common objective cannot be understated.
Therefore, as a leader, I can leverage a better working environment, encouraging positive relationships in the workplace and uniting all employees and staff towards specific goals. The lessons I took from this experience will stick with me throughout my personal and professional life. I plan to implement them efficiently to promote businesses and inspire positive social change.
References
Sonmez Cakir, F., & Adiguzel, Z. (2020). Analysis of leader effectiveness in organization and knowledge sharing behavior on employees and organization. Sage Open, 10(1). Web.