“Thoma´s Cook failure”

Paper details:

I need to resit the Essay attached on a strategy failure of a real company. Based on a FT (FT.com) news article, select a company that is facing a failure/decline and analyse possible reasons of its strategic mistakes. The task requires demonstrating the following: • providing an overview of a company strategy • explaining what is meant by failure/decline • analysing the possible reasons of failure/decline • suggesting how this could be avoided. It is essential to include relevant academic literature into the discussion. The news article(s) must be included in the references list. Applying strategy tools is NOT required for this task

INTRODUCTION:
In the present essay it analysis the business failure of one of the most important tour operators
“THOMA´S COOK” in the tourism sector. (FT, 23rd September 2019).
This essay focuses on the analysis of possible macroeconomic circumstances and sectors that led to
the bankruptcy of Thomas’s Cook. Starting from the analysis from the economic situation to the
possible impact that Brexit may have caused on the bankruptcy of this tour operator, and whether
it could have been a relevant factor for this.
HISTORY OF THE COMPANY:
The company was founded 180 years ago (It is widely considered to be the world’s oldest travel
firm) by businessman called Thomas Cook (a cabinet-maker) in 1841.
It began life by organising railway excursions to carry temperance supporters between the cities of
Leicester, Nottingham, Derby and Birmingham and expanded steadily to develop a broader range of
travel-related businesses.
In the late 1920s, the grandchildren´s founder sold the business to the Belgian owners of the Orient
Express, but with the outbreak of World War II it was nationalized by the British Government. After
the war, the company flourished again thanks to the packages vacationers abroad, although over
time it faced increasing competition and was privatized in the 1970s.
In 1992 it was bought by the German bank Westdeutsche Landesbank and in 1999 it was
established Thomas Cook Airline.
Thomas Cook Airlines Limited was a British charter and scheduled airline headquartered in
Manchester, England. It was founded in 2007 from the merger of Thomas Cook Group and
MyTravel Group, and was part of the Thomas Cook Group Airlines. It served leisure destinations
worldwide from its main bases at Manchester Airport and Gatwick Airport on a scheduled and
charter basis. It also operated services from eight other bases around the United Kingdom.
Peter Fankhauser, inherited the company and set up a £150m hotel joint venture with the Dutch
real estate investment company LMEY and took Thomas Cook to China through a partnership with
shareholder Fosun (owned 18 per cent of Thomas Cook), which ended up putting more than £200m
into the business before it failed.