...An Analysis of “Southwest Airlines: We Love Your Bags” I visited the Southwest Airlines website and clicked on the “Our Culture “ tab. On this page, Southwest has culture defined as such: Cul’ture: the development, improvement, and refinement of the originality, individuality, identity, and personality of a given people (“Culture”, 2012). Southwest Airlines has stood out from the rest of the airlines even before I ever read a case study on the company and its business model. Although I have never flown on a Southwest Airline airplane, the difference can be seen just by walking through an airport that they service. The people look more relaxed, happier, and dedicated to their jobs. The company has capitalized by tailoring their culture to fit their customers and their employees versus tailoring their culture to adapt to the market/environment of the airline business. While they may not be the fanciest company in the airport, the friendly service is seen wherever you see their logo. It is an airline designed for the individuals looking for great value and dependability. When you look at the mission statement for Southwest, it is evident that they are committed to its employees. In a Knowledge@Wharton article, Colleen Barrett was quoted as saying ”Our mission statement is posted every three feet, all over every location that we have, so if you are a customer, you’ve seen it”(Knowledge@Wharton, nd, para. 3). The mission statement states, “Above all, Employees will...
Words: 862 - Pages: 4
...Market for Southwest Airlines Steven Garnes MKT/571 August 10, 2015 Denise A. Rueb Segmentation and Target Market for Southwest Airlines Introduction Southwest Airlines was formed in 1967 by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher and started service in June of 1971. The airline is headquartered in Dallas, Texas and originally operated flights within the state of Texas. The company has since expanded and now operates flights from Dallas to almost all major cities in the United States and is considered the largest low-cost carrier in the country. “Southwest seeks to offer a travel product that is built around flights targeted to specific demographics and ticket pricing that is simplified so that passengers know exactly what they getting for what they pay” (Bhutada, 2009). Market Brand Southwest has created a strong market brand by focusing on points of difference. “Points of difference are attributes or benefits that consumers strongly associate with a brand, positively evaluate, and believe they could not find to the same extent with a competitive brand” (Kotler, Keller, 2012). The points of difference for Southwest has been its focus on reliability, the value the airline offers its customers, and the fact it’s a fun airline to fly. Target Market Market segmentation in the airline industry is not as straightforward as it may seem. Airlines may consider it common sense to simply separate the market into business and economy class passengers. “However, airline companies that...
Words: 2006 - Pages: 9
...Southwest Airlines 2002: An Industry Under Siege Harvard Business School: 9-803-133 Executive Summary Southwest Airlines in 2002 faced a serious of important management decisions after the 9/11 tragedy in order to continue the record breaking company growth that Southwest had experienced since the 1970’s. Southwest Airlines revolutionized the airline industry with what is known as the Southwest Effect: low cost fares, point-to-point service, “10 minute turnaround” and an enjoyable friendly atmosphere. After the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978, Southwest adopted a polity that irregardless of the profitability of expansion opportunities, the company wanted to commit to a manageable annual growth rate of about 10-15%. The following questions and discussion will address the historical challenges of Southwest airlines, the direction the company contemplated in 2002, and a brief look at the challenges of today. 1). What is the competitive business environment The airline industry has always been competitive. In an analysis of the most profitably investments as per our class discussion, surprisingly, airlines come in at the lowest return on each dollar invested at around 2.5%. Southwest Airlines experienced 30 consecutive years of profit a mere two years after it’s founding in 1971. Many airports began requesting Southwest service for their passengers, but throughout Southwest’s expansion, the company aimed to maintain a manageable growth rate and focus...
Words: 2701 - Pages: 11
...AIRTRAN: ANALYSIS OF THE CASE AND STRATEGIC CONSIDERATION BMA 5013: Corporate Strategy Jacob Dreizin Rudiger Hesse Robert Martinez Lee Vu Hoang Nhat Victor Ka Sing Tsui Executive Summary On September 27th, 2010, Southwest Airlines announced its intention to buy AirTran Airways for $1.4 billion, with the merger being effected within two years. Although by number of planes, AirTran is just slightly more than one-quarter the size of Southwest, the number of routes that each airline presently flies is the same. We anticipate that the intended merger will thus affect the latter far more than might be suggested by the fleet size indicator. Indeed, if the U.S. Government approves the merger, Southwest would become a different entity. It would transform from a primarily regional airline into a national one, becoming America’s third-largest carrier by number of passengers flown. Its fleet would increase by over 25 percent, and it would fly two airplane types—the Boeing 717 and 737—rather than just one. Moreover, having acquired AirTran’s hub operations in Atlanta, currently the world’s busiest airport, Southwest would, for the first time, come into direct competition with Delta, the number two U.S. airline by number of passengers flown, which also claims Atlanta as its main hub. It would also take over AirTran’s Caribbean routes, thus gaining its first international operations. Our analysis will first provide a background of the U.S. airline industry, so as to illustrate...
Words: 6234 - Pages: 25
...School of Management Coursework hand-in sheet Student name(s) | % | | % | Naomi Wai | 20% | Chukwudubem Joseph Onochie | 20% | Nevena Rakovska | 20% | Anish Rai | 20% | Warren Cannon | 20% | | | For group work – individual % contributions need to be stated only where they are not equal. Department (e.g. Management): School of Management | Programme and Year of Study: Accounting and Finance, Y3 | Name of lecturer: Dr. Sarah Park | Unit title and code (eg MN20010): MN30449 | Number of pages in assignment:17Word count: 2845 | Declaration I/we certify that I/we have read and understood the entry in the relevant Student Handbook for the School of Management on Cheating and Plagiarism and that all material in this assignment is my/our own work, except where I/we have indicated with appropriate references. I/we agree that, in line with Regulation 15.3(e), if requested I/we will submit an electronic copy of this work for submission to a Plagiarism Detection Service for quality assurance purposes. I/we also confirm that the percentage allocation of work is as shown above. Student Signature(s) | | | | | | | If assessment is group based, all members of the group must sign this form When to hand in You should aim to hand your work in before the deadline given by your lecturer/ tutor. The University guidelines on penalties...
Words: 4250 - Pages: 17
...S, Managing and Using Information Systems, Wiley, 2006 (3nd edition) 2. A package of Harvard Business School Case Studies Additional Readings and Cases: Class handouts as needed. Course Description and Goals This course is designed to provide the current and future managers with understanding and appreciation of the issues that are related to the organization’s information technology assets. The course is not to educate technical specialists, rather, it is to give students a managerial perspective on the use of, design of, and evaluations of information systems that exist in organizations today. The objective of this course is to prepare students to manage information services in both today’s and tomorrow’s environment with its managerial, social, political, ethical and global issues. Conduct of the Course All students are expected to read the assigned materials (text, end-of-chapter discussion board questions (DBQ) and Harvard Business School case studies- HBC) before coming to the class. Some days we will discuss the materials in the text book. You are expected to be prepared to actively participate in this discussion, answering questions such as “What are the issues involved in ...?”, “What do the authors mean by ...?”, and “Give an example of...?” The second use of class time will be group presentation on the selected cases from the case study package. You will be assigned a group and lead the discussion for this activity. Those of you...
Words: 4164 - Pages: 17
...executing JetBlue Airlines mission and vision, while striving towards sustainable strategic success. JetBlue is invested in executing and aligning resources and processes to providing every patron the ultimate flying experience. As a result of this commitment, JetBlue has achieved the acme of being ranked highest among low cost carriers for eight consecutive years by patrons within the airline industry for customer satisfaction dating back since 2005 (Mutzabaugh, 2012). JetBlue has strategic alignments in place that can replicate South West Airlines success when it comes to managing and sustaining congruent and horizontal fit human capital architecture. The portability of executive employees from South West Airlines to JetBlue has created an organizational advantage by incorporating successful components of HCA, while avoiding disadvantageous philosophy of closed culture to innovation using their retrospective experiences to make prospective decisions. This was the first step in securing valuable company specific pivotal human capital which translates into achieving a commitment to attaining and sustaining a competitive advantage. Resource support through innovative approach financial investment and industry experience has been integral for JetBlue’s successful start. JetBlue was started up with cushion of the initial capital 130 million dollars. Together with acquisition of a talented team, JetBlue is gaining a wealth of knowledge within the airline industry from strategic...
Words: 1852 - Pages: 8
...prevent and resolve workplace issues with employees. For example, Germany's Volkswagen utilizes a program called, Works Councils (Finkin, & Kochan, 2014). This program allows employees to share their work to reduce working hours rather than allow management to lay off employees at the company. On the other hand, Southwest Airlines, and Kaiser Permanente tailored programs specific to fit their individual company needs (Finkin, & Kochan, 2014). Lima Tire Company, a subsidiary of Treadway Tire Company was having issues with high operational cost and high turnover among foremen. Although the programs that were designed to control labor relations for the company; they were not effective as the company hoped. The company still faced the issue of a dysfunctional organization (Skinner, & Beckham, 2008). So, what are some of the strategies utilized by U.S. union free organizations today and why is it critical to the success of an organization to meet its goals and mission? This paper presents a summary of Lima Tire Company, a non-unionized organization, provides an alternative to handling its major problems, and provides a recommendation to help with the major issues. Brief Case Overview By the opening of the Lima Tire Plant in January 2008, Ashley Wall, the current Director of Human Resources has to devise plans that will correct several serious problems the company faced. Currently the HR Director saw an increased turnover rate among foremen, lack of training, skyrocketing raw material...
Words: 1230 - Pages: 5
...University Southwest Airlines Case Study Analysis MBA 6143: Entrepreneurial Leadership August 17, 2012 Abstract This paper analyzes Southwest Airlines Case Study. Southwest Airlines was originally incorporated to serve three cities in Texas as Air Southwest on March 15, 1967, by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. Leadership at Southwest Airlines plays a paramount role in the success of the company. Before its role is discussed in detail though, a definition of leadership will provide a foundation for the rest of this analysis. The paper explains the Southwest Airlines company history, background of the company, the role of leadership at Southwest Airlines, how culture is displayed at the company, competitive dimensions, leadership practices of CEO, recasting the role of the CEO, and 21st century entrepreneurial leader. Keywords: 21st century entrepreneurial leader, Southwest Airlines, Leadership, CEO Company History Southwest Airlines was originally incorporated to serve three cities in Texas as Air Southwest on March 15, 1967, by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher. According to frequently-cited story, King described the concept to Kelleher over dinner by drawing on a paper napkin a triangle symbolizing the routes (Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio). Some of the incumbent airlines of the time (Braniff, Aloha Airlines, United Airlines, Trans-Texas, and Continental Airlines) initiated...
Words: 4445 - Pages: 18
...Review of What Is Strategy Introduction The article---‘What is strategy’ is mainly concerned with exploring the definition of the strategy by distinguishing ‘operational effectiveness’ from ‘strategy’. To explore the real meaning of strategy, the author defines this term from three different perspectives: strategic position, trade-offs and fit. Main part Understanding of the article Some concepts of this article are based on theoretical foundations. Firstly, operational effectiveness is based on the Five Forces Frame Work (Porter, 2008), as its definition ‘performing similar activities better than rivals perform them’ (Porter, 1996) links with external environment, especially for the competitors. Another concept ‘strategic position’, performing different activities from rivals’ or performing similar activities in different ways (Porter, 1996), is related to RBV (Barney, 1991), because both them emphasize on the distinctiveness and uniqueness. The other two concepts ‘trade-offs’ and ‘fit’ are based on VRIO criteria (Barney, 2007), which is the basis of the company to generate sustained competitive advantage. The V of VOIR, value, is consistent with ‘trade-offs’, as they indicate that company should decide what to do and not to do. The ‘fit’ is line with the ‘I-inimitability’, since both of them stress that interlinkages among corporate activities makes difficult for organization to imitate. Wider context of strategy theory Besides, this article could also be...
Words: 1250 - Pages: 5
...1 Comparing internally consistent HR at the Airport Express Train (AET), Oslo, Norway and Southwest Airlines (SA), Dallas, U.S.A. Bård Kuvaas and Anders Dysvik, BI Norwegian School of Management This case study provides a comparison between internally consistent HR in two very different organizations with respect to size (small versus large), age (new versus old), ownership (an independent company reporting to the Norwegian Trading and Business Commerce versus listed), competitive strategy (cost leadership and customer service versus differentiation and customer service), and national context and labor laws (Norway versus the U.S.A.). The main similarity, besides that they both operate in the travel industry, is that they try to achieve competitive advantage through people by implementing internally consistent HR. Internally consistent HR is the degree to which the various HR practices are internally consistent, complementary, and reinforcing each other. Historical background of the SA and AET Despite the severe economic collapse that hit the airline industry in 2009, Southwest Airlines (SA) still prevailed and managed to remain profitable. The results for 2009 marked SA’s 37th consecutive year of profitability. SA was established in 1971, with three Boeing 737 aircrafts. SA became a major airline in 1989 when it exceeded the billion-dollar revenue mark. Southwest is currently the United States’ most successful low-fare, high frequency, point-to-point carrier. SA operates 537...
Words: 4308 - Pages: 18
...The Airline Industry: A Strategic Overview of Southwest Airlines Terra Thompson Ohio Dominican University Running head: SOUTHWEST AIRLINES 1 The Airline Industry: A Strategic Overview of Southwest Airlines Terra Thompson Ohio Dominican University SOUTHWEST AIRLINES The Airline Industry: A Strategic Overview of Southwest Airlines Table of Contents 2 The History of Southwest Airlines ................................................................................................. 3 Target Market and Business Model ................................................................................................ 3 Current Product............................................................................................................................... 4 Southwest’s Culture ........................................................................................................................ 5 Mission Statement .......................................................................................................................... 5 Mission and Corporate Culture....................................................................................................... 6 Employees and the Mission ............................................................................................................ 7 The Importance of the Mission Statement and Corporate Vision................................................... 7 Strategic Analysis .................
Words: 6158 - Pages: 25
...Organizational Behavior & Human Resource Management ECM62BUS Assessment 2: Individual Business Report Name Date Abstract The role of human resources management is indispensable in Southwest Airlines and the Coca Cola Company. The department has the power of steering the companies to success and greatness. Indeed, this department deserve due attention because of the role it plays in the two organizations. However, the two companies, Southwest Airlines and the Coca Cola Company manage their human resources in somewhat different ways. Some of these ways employed by the company contravenes the conventional way of managing human resources. This paper therefore, made a critical evaluation of the human resources management of the two organizations. Apart from critically organizing the human resources management, the paper also highlights the organizational structure and change management issues in the two organizations. From this analysis, the paper claims that the because the two organizations operate in different industries, aviation industry and hotel industry, the manner in which the human resources management practices are conducted is unique for each of the organizations. It is also noted that each of the organizations has a distinct organizational culture. In the same note, it is observed in this paper that the two organizations have different organizational structure. Because of these differences, the PESTLE and SWOT analyses...
Words: 5523 - Pages: 23
...Case studies Learning excellence: Southwest Airlines’ approach Ulla K. Bunz and Jeanne D. Maes Introduction With the airline industry in the USA hardly making financial records, how has it been possible for a small company such as Southwest Airlines to completely satisfy their customers since 1971? (Bovier, 1993). What lessons has the management of Southwest Airlines learned in such a relatively short time period? How have these lessons enabled the company to capture such a portion of the market? (Bovier, 1993; George and Jones, 1996) Southwest Airlines began its service in 1971. Since then the killer-whale painted planes have become familiar to their customers and to corporate America. Besides being profitable, expanding constantly and defending its high place on the Fortune 500 list, Southwest has a very special trait: attitude (Bovier, 1993). The Southwest perspective stems from CEO Herb Kelleher and Southwest’s employee motivation. The purpose of this article is to discover the sources of success of Southwest Airlines as a company with high employee motivation. Three factors will be addressed: (1) Southwest as an “excellent” company; (2) the source of employee motivation in this “excellent” company; and (3) whether lessons learned can adequately address potential future problems for Southwest. The authors Ulla K. Bunz and Jeanne D. Maes are based at the University of South Alabama, Mobile, AL, USA. Abstract In an era in which adapting to change means survival, it is...
Words: 4766 - Pages: 20
...Lincoln Electric Case Analysis Situation: Through the year 1974, the Lincoln Electric Company experienced rapid growth in net income and overall sales. Though a small company, Lincoln Electric was able to dominate the welding market by focusing on reducing costs and raising quality. These goals were achieved by rewarding employees with an innovative financial incentive program. Lincoln Electric paid their employees a base salary that was slightly lower than market. However, all employees were included in a merit-based profit sharing program. This program rewarded hard-working, efficient, and quality-conscious employees with big bonuses that could potentially equal up to 100% of their full-time salary. After having gone through an initial work probation period, all employees were guaranteed employment. One of the founders of the company, James F. Lincoln, believed that competition was a fundamental foundation of employee development. He set up a system that would reward the hardest working and most efficient workers with large financial prizes. The workers were encouraged to skip smoking breaks, take short lunches, and work as quickly as possible, while still paying attention to quality standards. Though challenging, the work environment was viewed favorably by the employees who were interviewed for this case. All respondents admitted that there were serious deficiencies in the system, but that it was generally favorable. The employees accepted that...
Words: 1615 - Pages: 7
