INTRODUCTION

This is an assignment which is done to undertake critical analysis and demonstrate an in depth understanding of organizations management framework.
This assignment is based on Thomas Cook, travel agency as I have to select an organization from the travel and tourism hospitality industry.
The assignment will be based on the overview of the organization, identifying its size and type of ownership, the types of product they sell and how the service is delivered to the customer. I have also evaluated the design of the organization in terms of operations objectives and the four V’s. And also have analyzed the issues and problems which they face and the main elements and how the service concepts benefit both the customer and the organization.

The main sources of information have been taken through the internet and also from articles and journals.

A travel agency is a private retailer or public service that provides tourism related services to the public on behalf of suppliers such as airlines, car rentals, cruise lines, hotels, railways, and package tours . In addition to dealing with ordinary tourists most travel agencies have a separate department devoted to making travel arrangements for business travelers and some travel agencies specialize in commercial and business travel only. There are also travel agencies that serve as general sales agents for foreign travel companies, allowing them to have offices in countries other than where their headquarters are located.
I have taken Thomas Cook , a travel agency from our industry to do this assignment.

OVERVIEW OF THE ORGANIZATION
Thomas Cook Group plc is a British online/offline travel company created on 19 June 2007 by the merger of Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group plc. At flotation on the London Stock Exchange 52% of the shares in the new company were held by the German mail order and department store corporation Arcandor (former owners of Thomas Cook AG) and 48% owned by the shareholders of MyTravel. On 9 June 2009 Arcandor filed for bankruptcy. The merger, which was backed by 99.9% of shareholders, took place through the formation of 'NewCo' which effectively purchased MyTravel and Thomas Cook and was then listed on the London Stock Exchange under the name of Thomas Cook Group plc (LSE: TCG). It is a constituent of the FTSE SmallCap Index.
It was announced on 8 October 2010 that the UK high street travel agency and foreign exchange businesses of the Thomas Cook Group were to merge with The Co-operative Travel to create the UK's largest travel network.

TYPE OF OWNERSHIP
Thomas Cook plc's 5 major shareholders as of August 2011 were Lloyds Banking Group - 9%, Blackrock Inc - 4.99%, AXA SA - 4.8%, Massachusetts Financial Services Company - 4.65%, and Standard Life Investments - 4.14%. The remainder of the stock floats freely.

STAFFING STRUCTURE
Fig. Governance structure

Board of Directors
The Board is chaired by Non-Executive Chairman, Frank Meysman. In addition to the Chairman, the Board currently includes two Executive Directors and four Non-Executive Directors. Each of the committees of the Board is chaired by a Non-Executive Director.

Group Executive Board
The Group Chief Executive Officer chairs the Group Executive Board, which oversees the strategic development and operational management of the Group's businesses. The Group Chief Financial Officer is also a member of the Group Executive Board.
Thomas cook has a more flexible organization structure, which is combined by Geographical Departmentalization and Functional Departmentalization. Departmentalization by geographical regions groups jobs on the basis of territory or geography. If an organization's customers are geographically dispersed, it can group jobs based on geography.
Departmentalization by function organizes by the functions to be performed. The functions reflect the nature of the business. Activities can be grouped according to function (work being done) to pursue economies of scale by placing employees with shared skills and knowledge into departments for example human resources, IT, accounting, manufacturing, logistics, marketing, and engineering. Functional departmentalization can be used in all types of organizations.

Types of products they sell and how service is delivered
Their core business remains their mainstream business, which is primarily the sale of charter packages where two or more components of travel, such as flights, hotels, transfers and rep services, are bundled together in advance and sold to customers through brochures and agents in stores, online through their various websites or over the phone from their call centres. The charter package holiday remains very popular as customers appreciate the value for money it provides, the ease of choice and selection, and the security offered. However, in the long term, growth is expected to be moderate in established economies. Our strategy is to maximize the value of our mainstream business through cost efficiencies and through increasing the proportion of higher value product such as all-inclusive board basis, four and five star properties and medium haul destinations.
In independent travel, they plan to make further changes and investments in their e-commerce capabilities to strengthen their position as an online travel agent. They also continue to invest in their dynamic packaging capabilities and our independent product portfolio in general.
Travel-related financial services broadly fall into the categories of travel money, which are products that help customers pay for goods and services whilst travelling such as pre-paid foreign exchange; travel assurance, which are products that cover the various risks associated with travel such as insurance for accidents and thefts; and travel finance which are products that allow customers to finance their travel, such as credit cards. These are typically high margin products, and are naturally sold alongside other holiday components. Their strategy is to make the most of their brands and distribution capabilities to continue to grow this important part of their business
To support their growth drivers, we are constantly open to opportunities to bolster their business through mergers, acquisitions or partnerships. As developed markets mature, they are focused on the one hand on ways to consolidate these markets and maximize the value from them, and on the other on the new growth areas of emerging markets.

EVALUATING THE OPERATIONS OBJECTIVES AND THE FOUR V’S.
Organizations operations Departmentalization by geographical regions groups jobs on the basis of territory or geography. If an organization's customers are geographically dispersed, it can group jobs based on geography.
Departmentalization by function organizes by the functions to be performed. The functions reflect the nature of the business. Activities can be grouped according to function (work being done) to pursue economies of scale by placing employees with shared skills and knowledge into departments for example human resources, IT, accounting, manufacturing, logistics, marketing, and engineering. Functional departmentalization can be used in all types of organizations.

Volume dimension:
The volume dimension has different implications whether it is in a high level or low. In the low levels of volume, the company's operations have specific characteristics such as having low repetition in the everyday procedures, each staff member performs more than one job in other words they are multifunctional, less systemization and high unit costs. In the high levels of volume, the company's operations have its own specific characteristics such having high repeatability in the everyday procedures, there will be specialization, systemization, more capital intensive and low unit costs.

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/The_four_Vs_volume_variety_variation_in_demand_and_visibility_in_an_organization
Variety dimension:
The variety dimension has its own implication as well whether it is high or low. In the high side of the scale there will be more flexibility in the procedure, complex, the company will make sure to match customer needs and of course the unit cost will be high. In the other hand, when the company is in the low side of the scale the procedures will be well defined, there will be routine, standardization, and of course low unit cost. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/The_four_Vs_volume_variety_variation_in_demand_and_visibility_in_an_organization Variation in Demand dimension:
The variation in demand has many implications that can be seen from the company's characteristics. If the company is in the high levels of demand variation then it has changing capacity, anticipation for what the customer might demand, flexibility, in touch with demand and high unit cost. While in the other side of the scale, the company would have a stable and predictable demand, routine, high utilization of resources and low unit cost. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/The_four_Vs_volume_variety_variation_in_demand_and_visibility_in_an_organization Visibility dimension:
The visibility dimension which is the customer ability to track his or her order through its different stages has its implications whether it is high or low. When it is high the customers have short waiting tolerance, satisfaction governed by customer perception, customer contact skills are needed and very important and the receive variety is definitely high. And when it is low, the time lag between production and consumption, there will be standardization, the customer contact skills will not be very important or needed, the company must have a high staff utilization and centralization. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/The_four_Vs_volume_variety_variation_in_demand_and_visibility_in_an_organization so when evaluating the volume dimension, we know that Thomas Cook travel agency is making much more products than the other travel agencies and its now one of the largest in the world. And when looking at the variety dimension, they provide travel a packages which means they are selling different types of products and services. In variation dimension, demand is the main concern. But in this travel agency they have done enough packages which will be needed for demands in seasons and to the customers like honeymoon travelers etc. They often slashes holiday resort prices during the winter season to encourage customers to switch the time they go on holiday, also discounts are offered to encourage customers to book earlier before peak season The final dimension is the visibility dimension, which is the customer ability to track his, or her order through its different stages has its implications it is high or low(wiki.answers.com). This travel agency have a high visibility dimension as the hotels satisfaction is governed by customer perception, and as .they receive variety in high level.

IDENTIFYING THE TRANSFORMING AND TRANSFORMED RESOURCES AND DESCRIBE THE OUTPUT OF THE ORGANIZATION
All operations produce products and services by changing inputs into outputs. They do this by using the ‘input-transformation-output' process. In other words, operations are processes that take in a set of input resources which are used to transform something, or are transformed themselves, into outputs of products and services.
There are two categories of inputs in any operation's processes; transformed and transforming resources. Transformed resources are the resources that are treated, transformed or converted in the process.The three main types of transformed resources include:
Materials: involves transforming either physically (e.g. manufacturing), by location (e.g. transportation), by ownership (e.g. retail) or by storage (e.g. warehousing).
Information: This can be transformed by property (e.g. accountants), by possession (e.g. market research), by storage (e.g. libraries), or by location (e.g. telecommunications).
Customers: They can be transformed either physically (e.g. hairdressers), by storage (e.g. hotels), by location (e.g.airlines), by physiological state (e.g. hospitals), or by psychologiucal state (e.g. entertainment).
The other set of inputs to any operations process are transforming resources. These are the resources which act on or carry out the transformation process. There are two main types of transforming resources:
Facilities - the buildings, equipment, plant and process technology of the operation.
Staff - includes all the people involved in the operations process.
Although products and services are different, sometimes it can be hard to differentiate between the two. Therefore as a general guideline, products are usually tangible while services are intangible. That is, you can physically touch a product, such as a computer, but you cannot touch a consultancy advice. Also, services usually have a shorter stored life while products can usually be stored for a period of time. http://toolkit.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/part/13/63/262#_ftnref1 The transforming process in Thomas Cook. The Traveller (customer) has to reserve the tickets (material) and provide her credit card information with a Reserve Tickets operation and a Reservation Request message(information). Next, the Travel Agent (staff) confirms the reservation of the seats to the Traveller.
Then, the Traveller can either book the tickets by the Book Tickets operation and the Booking Request as the actual message passed or request a reservation cancellation with a Request Cancellation Request message. In the first case, Thomas Cook reservation Agent will reply with a booking confirmation, where in the second case, the process will trigger the Accept Cancellation operation as a notification back to the Airline which as a result, it will generate an error and terminate. In the meantime, there is a limited period for reserving tickets, which if exceeded, a Reservation Time Out exception is received. That in turn, it triggers again the Accept Cancellation operation and the process will be terminated as previously. Afterwards, the Traveller waits to both receive from the Airline her e-ticket, encapsulated within a Ticket message through the Receive Tickets operation, and from the Travel Agent a statement message, providing charge details and description of the planned trip, through a Receive Statement operation. The business process is then terminated. (output)

JOB DESIGNING OF THE ORGANIZATION AND THE MAIN ISSUES OF THE ORGANIZATION.

There are clearly many alternative designs for any given job.
1. Quality
The ability of staff to produce high-quality products and services can be affected by job design. This includes avoiding errors in the short term, but also includes designing jobs which encourage staff to improve the job itself in such a way as to make errors less likely.

2. Speed
Sometimes speed of response is the dominant objective to be achieved in job design. For example, the way in which the jobs of emergency service personnel are organised (the range of tasks for which they are trained, the sequence of activities in their approved procedures, the autonomy which they have to decide on appropriate action, and so on) will go a long way to determine their ability to respond promptly to emergencies and perhaps save lives.

3. Dependability
Dependable supply of goods and services is usually influenced, in some way, by job design. For example, in the postal services’ working arrangements, multi-skilling, accurate use of sorting equipment through good staff-machine interface design, and the ‘design’ of postal staff’s clothing, can all aid dependable delivery of letters and parcels.

4. Flexibility
Job design can affect the ability of the operation to change the nature of its activities. New product or service flexibility, mix flexibility, volume flexibility and delivery flexibility are all dependent to some extent on job design. (See Chapter 2 for a full description of these different types of flexibility). For example, staff who have been trained in several tasks (multi-skilling) may find it easier to cope with a wide variety of models and new product or service introductions.

5. Cost
All the elements of job design described above will have an effect on the productivity, and therefore the cost, of the job. Productivity in this context means the ratio of output to labour input: for example, the number of customers served per hour or the number of products made per worker.

DISCUSS THE MAIN ELEMENTS OF THE SERVICE CONCEPTS OF THE ORGANIZATION AND HOW THE SERVICE CONCEPTS BENEFIT BOTH THE CUSTOMERS AND ORGANIZATION

QUEING SYSTEM
Queue represents a certain number of customers waiting for service. Typically the customer being served is considered not to be in the queue. Sometimes the customer’s form a queue literally like for example when we are waiting to get serviced for something we are in need of. Sometimes the queue is an abstraction (planes waiting for a runway to land). There are two important properties of a queue that is the maximum size of that queue and queuing disciplining.
The queuing system of Thomas cook is very well planned and handled. All the customers are advised to book tickets through online website or call the agency through phone. However if they can’t do it online or they can call the airline, they can always visit the agency and book for tickets. All the customers are handled in first come first served manner. The customer has to take a number from the machine and wait for their numbers to be served. Up to hundreds of customers visit Thomas to with different matters regarding their booking. Thomas cooks biggest success come from listening to their customers complaints and bringing an action to make sure that the customers are satisfied with their products and services.
The next thing that Thomas cook agency has arranged for the waiting customers is entertainment while they wait for their service is to be served. Many fun games magazines, television entertainments and Internet are available for the customers while they wait. The seating arrangements are made very comfortable for the customers, making sure that everything is handled perfectly. Up to five staff works every working hour each day in order to make sure that the customers doesn’t have to wait that long.
When handling online enquiries all the bookings and other related matters are handled by the staff and are answered back within 12 hours time maximum. Overall Thomas cook handle their customers in a well-mannered professional way, where they think of the customer’s satisfaction comes first. (www.thomascook.com)

FACILITY ARRANGEMENTS
Thomas cook provides all sorts of products and services from cruising to traveling by flight. All the holiday plans are very well planned by Thomas cook. Since Thomas cook provides a lot of products and service, the company has to make sure that the facilities are provided in a way that all the customers’ needs and wants are satisfied when the holiday is over. Thomas cook currently owns a facilities management company that specializes in providing services to smaller businesses that typically own their facilities or are leasing under a triple net arrangement.
Thomas cook airlines has made sure that the customers get the best service by advising their customers to contact them 48 hours prior to departure if they have any questions or matters that needs to be handled. The airline also provides special arrangements for disabled people. For example if a blind person is on board the cabin crew will help them with identifying the names of what food there are eating and etc. wheel chairs are also provided for people who can’t walk.
If the wheelchair user who cannot manage stairs or are unable to walk, they are advised to contact agency, in order that they can make arrangements and advise on the facilities available for getting on and off the aircraft, as these can vary depending on the destination the customer is travelling to.
Customers with all sorts of medical problems should board the plane and the cruise ships with a doctor’s letter. All these arrangements are made by the staff and are handled in a way that the trip is an easy holiday for them.
Travel related the company will also handle financial matters and all matters are made sure to be settled within 48 hours before travel time.
When it comes to baggage handling, the company will take the responsibility if a baggage is damaged or lost. Also if an infant or special need required person is getting on board they are advised to be informed before they travel.
(www.thomascook.com)
(www.thomascookairlines.co.uk)
SERVICE QUALITY
Thomas cook group says in their website that they want to live up to their customers expectations and exceed them where possible. Most of the time the company asks for customer feedbacks from their beloved customers in order to improve in places where they think is weak. So far all the feedbacks they got are mostly positive.
During 2010, Thomas Cook Northern Europe implemented a new complaints management system designed to help them resolve at least 80% of all customer complaints while the customer is still in their resorts. Using this system, simple issues should be resolved within three hours and more complex ones within 24 hours. The only complaints that cannot normally be resolved in the resorts are those that is raised during the journey home or after the holiday has ended.
In 2007, Thomas Cook Germany became the first company to be given both the TÜV award for customer service and ISO 10002 certification for complaints management. Since then the company have passed audits to retain these credentials each year, along with TÜV seals for crisis management and safer online shopping.
The staffs are all very well trained in order to give the customers the best service. Many of the Thomas cook companies use customer questionnaires, as well as regular surveys and online forums to gather opinions on the products and service. Thomas Cook Egypt, for example, conducts biannual surveys as well as using mystery shoppers to assess both products and service. In Thomas Cook Belgium, managers call a sample of customers after their holidays. This system ensures that the management team is directly aware of any issues in customer relations.
HEALTH AND SAFETY REQUIREMENTS The health and safety of our customers is of the utmost importance to them. They recognise their legal and wider responsibilities to their customers. They also recognise the variety of products and services required by, and offered to, their customers: these are delivered by a large number of independent suppliers, operating in many jurisdictions with diverse regulatory regimes and safety standards. Although they ask customers to exercise reasonable care for their own health and safety, they understand their responsibility to contract with reputable suppliers and to provide services that meet legislative requirements and reasonable safety standards.
To safeguard our customers’ wellbeing, their teams across the Group are working together towards a programme of continual improvement, ensuring they maintain compliance with legislative standards as well as our own preferred practices. To achieve this, they:
• developed a comprehensive Supplier auditing protocol
• Reference their minimum safety standards in our Supplier contracts.
• Monitor and follow Government Advice to ensure the safety of their customers through changing times.
• Work with international industry bodies such as the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the European
Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
• Deliver a relevant employee training and qualification programme to ensure the highest standards are practiced.
• Report and monitor customer incidents and illnesses and have robust investigative practices to avoid reoccurrence. Employees they will, as far as reasonably practicable, take the required steps to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of all their employees, contractors and visitors to their premises.
To ensure they meet the required legislation, responsibilities for health and safety are properly and clearly assigned and fulfilled at all levels and across all areas of the Group. Collectively, they are committed to the implementation of this policy and strive to provide and maintain a safe and healthy working environment.
Customers: they aim to be a leader in customer delivery, building trust, encouraging loyalty and protecting the health and safety of everyone who travels with them.
Employees: they aim to recruit and retain people who are proud to work for the company and deliver the best-possible service. They provide a safe working environment, competitive reward packages and supportive training and development programmes. For more information,
Suppliers: they encourage our suppliers to adopt sustainable practices and support them in implementing those.
Communities: they aim to contribute to the communities in which most of our employees live and work, as well as supporting the destination communities where their customers holiday. In addition to the employment their operations generate, this support includes financial donations and action on specific topics such as the sexual exploitation of children.
Environment
Thomas Cook, as a leading leisure travel group, is proud that their business, as part of the global tourism industry, can be an economic driver for the destinations our customers visit and in which we operate, providing commercial benefit and financial impetus as well as a positive cultural exchange. They recognise the importance of tourism for economies and communities, whilst also being aware of the potential impact on the environments, communities and cultures of the places in which they operate. As a result, they strive to ensure that their business operations are conducted in a responsible way. Protecting the environment is very important to the communities that host their customers and staff. For the long-term success of our operations, it is essential that they do as much as they can to protect the resources upon which their business depends. They will continuously strive to improve our environmental performance and to minimise any negative impact resulting from their operations.
DISCIPLINARY AND COMPLAINT PROCEDURE
A disciplinary procedure is a way that your employer can tell you something is wrong. It allows them to explain clearly what improvement is needed and should give you an opportunity to explain your side of the situation. It can lead to disciplinary action, including dismissal in more serious cases. Before taking formal disciplinary action or dismissing you, your employer may try to raise the matter informally with you. This is often a good way of resolving a problem quickly. Sometimes the problem may be the result of a misunderstanding, and you may be able to provide evidence to clarify the issue. The first step that Thomas cook group to keeping the employee discipline problems to a minimum is making sure that the ground rules are clearly communicated to your employees.
This way they know what they can and cannot do. You should also clearly communicate the discipline that will be doled out if employees break your rules. For this reason, you need to have a good disciplinary policy in place.
The discipline and complaint procedure is a process for dealing with job-related behavior that does not meet expected and communicated performance standards. The primary purpose for progressive discipline is to assist the employee to understand that a performance problem or opportunity for improvement exists.
Good communication is important in Thomas cook and is the basis of every successful relationship and we continually look for ways to increase the two-way communication opportunities with our employees. In particular, we ensure that our employees are aware of our Code of Ethics, risk and safety procedures.
With the increasing range and complexity of their activities they are investing more in the flow of information across the Group to enhance commitment to Group values and consistency in how they support their customers and each other. They have extended the scope of their intranet to encourage Group-wide communication and knowledge sharing.
Longevity is one of our business objectives and to be a successful business today we need to be economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. For Thomas Cook Group, that means addressing a wide range of long-term challenges, including providing a great holiday experience for customers while ensuring their security and safety, maintaining a committed and engaged workforce, improving fuel efficiency and monitoring the carbon emissions from our planes; and encouraging sustainable practices in a global supply chain.
The procedure is designed to help and encourage all employees to achieve and maintain standards of conduct, attendance and job performance. The aim is to ensure that all matters relating to discipline are investigated properly, considered reasonably and dealt with fairly. The Company recognises that the need may arise from time to time to discipline employees whose behaviour and/or performance do not meet the Company's standards, rules or policies.
This is not a contractual procedure and the Company reserves the right to amend these procedures from time to time. These disciplinary procedures do not apply during probationary periods.
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
By providing training and career development opportunities for every employee, they ensure their workforce is highly skilled and they retain the best people within their business. In 2009 they invested £11,183,619 in training for their employees around the world (based on currency exchange rates as at 18 Jan 2009).
Policies on personal development reviews vary between Thomas Cook Group companies, but over 90% of their employees have a review at least once a year. At this, they discuss their aspirations and training needs, and then they do their best to support them with appropriate learning and development opportunities. And with such a diverse company, in terms of job types as well as locations, there is plenty of opportunity for their employees to develop their careers in a number of directions. A wide range of training and development programmes are offered to meet the different needs of employees across their various companies. These include apprenticeships and work experience, training on specific job-related issues and programmes to support employees’ progression within the company.
Examples of their apprenticeships and work experience programmes include:
• An apprenticeship programme for school leavers in Germany, which in 2009 won the Education Award from the Willy Scharnow Foundation for its innovative Welcome Week ‘check-in’.
• Their Modern Apprenticeship programme in the UK and Ireland. This programme gives 16- to 18-year-old school leavers the opportunity to train in jobs with Thomas Cook Group while gaining national qualifications. Many past apprentices have now progressed to senior roles in the company. In 2009, they recruited 163 apprentices and a record 83% gained their qualifications. In July 2009, their apprenticeship programme was inspected by 
Ofsted (the UK’s Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills). Not only did Thomas Cook Group receive a ‘Good’ status, a rare accolade for a national employee and unprecedented among national travel retailers, the inspectors took away several of our processes as examples of best practice, commenting that they have never before seen such quality in these areas.
• Thomas Cook India’s ‘On the Job’ scheme provides travel and tourism students with training placements lasting three to six months. In 2009, 200 students were given placements covering various aspects of the business. (B. Boyce, 2010)
Examples of training on specific job-related issues include:
• Courses on animal welfare for our UK & Ireland overseas managers.
• Training for their KidsWORLD representatives that counts towards a qualification in play work.
• The Thomas Cook Academy’s programme, launched in May 2009. Tailored to their company’s needs, its courses include Managing Time Effectively, Presenting with Impact and Managing the Thomas Cook Way.
• E-learning packages to support their employees in delivering the best customer service. In North America our e-learning programme includes a choice of 40 courses.
• Training in our anti-corruption procedures, which are backed up by policies provided on their intranet.
Examples of programmes to support employees’ progression within the company include:
• Talent Circle, a development programme for around 150 interns each year in Germany.
• Fast-track, their initiative that prepares employees for their next level of promotion.
• Leadership development programmes for managers and future leaders of the business. Having been accredited by the Institute of Leadership and Management, they can now deliver their exclusive Diploma in Leadership and Management in-house.
In 2009, they also implemented a central recruitment system for all UK & Ireland operations. This means that employees can find out about career opportunities across the whole of our UK & Ireland business, helping them to develop rewarding careers and helping us to retain talented individuals within the organization. (B. Boyce, 2010)
EMERGENCY PROCEDURES
In the case of unexpected events
They are occasionally affected by unexpected events and extreme weather conditions beyond their control. In these situations, they support customers as best we can to minimize disruption to tourist holiday; in the case of natural disasters they do their utmost to arrange flights home, medical assistance and food.
In 2010, disruption was caused by the volcanic ash cloud in Iceland, and this year, by the political and civil unrest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
They regularly practice their emergency procedures and have established a communication and escalation procedure across the Group to ensure they effectively manage significant incidents that affect their customers. In any such situation, their priority is to maximize communication with customers to explain how they are helping them.
All their businesses have special assistance teams, trained by their staff and external experts to support their customers, as well as their family and friends, in these unexpected events. They also have teams trained in how to deal with trauma and support logistical, physical and emotional needs. In addition, their airlines contract and retain the services of additional expertise to cover areas outside of their Group capabilities.
They have comprehensive internal and external training for our airline staff on emergency procedures, first aid and dangerous goods. In case of a crisis, they immediately invoked there tried and tested emergency procedures and set up specialized incident rooms from which to organize their response to the crisis.
Acting as a virtual command and control facility, members of the Thomas Cook emergency procedures team, wherever they are (at the scene, at home, in the office, on holidays!) and with the appropriate privileges can record and distribute records pertaining to an incident. Information filtering enables the senior executives to quickly review and react appropriately to the facts, assess the impact and identify and priorities the actions required establishing normality.
“To be effective it is important that it is easy to invoke an incident and that the team find the system easy to use,” says Boyce. Solcara Crisis Control Centre has enhanced the existing emergency procedures at Thomas Cook, “by making everything easily accessible, ensuring everyone is up-to-date and thereby avoiding confusion about what’s going on.”
The Solcara Crisis Control Centre meets Thomas Cook’s incident communication needs. Boyce advises, “When considering the implementation of an emergency procedure communication system, it is important not to over-complicate the process. Go for a best of breed approach selecting a group of tools for your purposes rather than stretching one tool too far.” (B. Boyce, 2010)