Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Southwest airlines a strategic perspective
Southwest airlines a strategic perspective
Overview of southwest airlines
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Southwest airlines a strategic perspective
Who is Southwest CEO Gary Kelly?
Gray Kelly is one of the world most loved CEO’s, he is well known for putting the personnel first and clients second. Kelly believes by creating a culture where the subordinates are respected, appreciated, and held accountable for the organization success; in return, the members would enjoy being a part of a winning team and have fun while they are serving others.
Gary Kelly is the chief executive officer and chairman of Southwest Airlines. He partners with the organization in the late 80’s as an Air Traffic Controller. Within two years of joining Southwest Airlines, he diligently worked his way up the ladder making power moves, working his way right into a leadership role as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Finance. It wasn’t long before Kelly was acting as the Executive Vice President of Southwest Airlines.
Kelly served a
…show more content…
Gary Kelly has a unique leadership approach, he is a firm believer that integrity, behavior, respect, fun, and trust all are a key element when building a rapport with your colleagues and subordinates. Southwest CEO Gary Kelly has a different perspective when it comes to what makes a company successful, his members know that they are Southwest's priority customer and that the old motto client is always right remains a cliché. Kelly believes this type of thinking the client is righteous and could never be wrong demoralizes confidence between management and subordinate. The projected outcome for Southwest stands that staff loyalty is the branding of the heart, if the organization cultivate an atmosphere of excellence, company spirit, and treat their members well, the members will redirect the same morals in turn. They will treat the clients with a spirit of excellence going well beyond the call of duty making Southwest clients experience as pleasant as possible. As a result, the organization improves their reputation; build a loyal clientele listing, and profits
Southwest Airlines is one of the most successful airlines in the United States. There has never been layoffs or strikes in the history of the company, although there were several times when layoffs could have been justified, including the months following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. However, Southwest's Mission statement says “Above all, Employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.” (Southwest, 1988). The Airline has always believed that their corporate culture is one of the keys to their success. The culture recognizes that employees have emotional intelligence and that their attitudes and morale are key to the teamwork and creative environment.
Southwest airlines is one of the most widely respected companies among those profiled by Firms of Endearment. They are recognized for having one of the best corporate cultures, which is emphatically encouraged from the top down. Southwest’s model clearly exemplifies the concept of servant leadership, and we will elaborate on how this creates a firm of endearment.
Southwest Airlines is “America’s largest low-fare carrier” (Southwest, 2014). The Headquarters for Southwest Airlines reside in Dallas, Texas. Southwest Airlines was founded by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher and was originally planned to serve only a small three city area. “Southwest Airlines was incorporated in Texas and commenced Customer Service on June 18, 1971, with three Boeing 737 aircraft serving three Texas cities - Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio , and grew to become a major airline in 1989 when it exceeded the billion-dollar revenue mark (Southwest, 2014).
I. Introduction Southwest Airlines has come from an underdog to being one of the best airlines in the industry. This reputation translates from its strategic management of resources. The Co-founder and former CEO, Herb Kelleher, established a unique corporate culture that leads to high customer satisfaction, employees’ morale, and is one of the most profitable airlines in the industry (Jackson et al., 2012). Corporate culture concentrates on empowering the workforce. It shows through Southwest Airlines core values that “happy employees lead to happy customers, which create happy shareholders” (Jackson et al., 2012).
“Our people are our single greatest strength and most enduring long-term competitive advantage,” reports CEO Gary Kelly on the Southwest Airline website (https://www.southwest.com/html/about-southwest). The company works hard to hire great individuals and then rewards and supports them to make satisfied, productive employees (Ross & Beath, 2007). In fact, Southwest Airlines has received repeated recognition as a great place to work (“Southwest Corporate Fact Sheet,” n.d.). As a result, Southwest Airlines is able to provide a low-cost, fun-cultured experience with excellent customer service (Ross & Beath, 2007). This has allowed the company to build its final strength in this evaluation: a strong brand
...e company’s competitiveness. Satisfied customers can help a business gain more customers through word of mouth. Ensuring excellent and consistent service and products will help the business perform better. Tim’s must embrace technology in its human resource management, bookkeeping, as well as its Marketing activities. This will improve efficiency, and reduce man hours considerably. Tim should consider investing more money into the business to allow him expand on product offering, which will help attract new customers.
Southwest Airlines strategy of focusing on short haul passenger and providing rates as low as one third of their competitors, they have seen tremendous growth in the last decade. Market share for top city pairs on Southwest's schedule has reached 80% to 85%. Maintaining the largest fleet of 737's in the world and utilizing point-to-point versus the hub-and-spoke method of connection philosophy allowed Southwest to provide their service to more people at a lower cost. By putting the employee first, Southwest has found the key to success in the airline business. A happy worker is a more productive one as well as a better service provider. Southwest will continue to reserve their growth in the future by entering select markets only after careful market research.
Southwest Airlines is also well-known for having a very productive and loyal workforce. Such loyalty and productivity among the employees were brought by the way Southwest’s management treats them. As they say, the employees are willing to work hard for the company because they feel appreciated by the top management. Southwest maintains good employee relations because what they believe in is that if employees are happy, satisfied, dedicated, and energetic, they'll take real good care of the customers.
More than 37 years ago, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher got together and decided to start a different kind of airline. They began with one simple notion: If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline. And you know what? They were right. What began as a small Texas airline has grown to become one of the largest airlines in America. Today, Southwest Airlines flies over 104 million passengers a year to 64 great cities all across the country, and we do it more than 3,400 times a day.
Innovation is an essential ingredient in today’s competitive landscape (Denning, 2011). Unless innovation moves beyond initiative and becomes part of an organization’s DNA, innovation is doomed to fail. Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) has embrace innovation as an essential part of its culture. The innovation and importance of the Southwest culture is demonstrated throughout customer service, business strategy and green initiatives.
Southwest Airlines provides a Career Development Group that helps employees focus on personal and career growth. This is accomplished by working on a component that aligns the employee’s personal development needs and strengths so they can grow more. It also encompasses a skills assessment that’s structured toward helping employees align their degree to a specific job within the company. As stated before, Southwest’s purpose is to encourage employee fulfillment and by their Career Development services help them become more fulfilled in their jobs. According to their philosophy, Southwest Airlines hires for attitude and trains for skills.
There are few things that are impressive about Southwest Airlines first one is how they treat the employees. For Southwest Airlines employees are first and customers are second. If the employees are treated well that will bring in happy customers. Next is that Southwest is not only with their low prices but is able to create a competitive advantage by offering a fun and humorous experience when flying. Finally another impressive fact is when Herb Kelleher’s retire from CEO position yet remained a Southwest employee till July 2014. Even after the retirement he was still active with the Southwest Airlines that reflected his enthusiasm and dedication for the
It all started in 1971, when Rolling King and Herb Kelleher decided to challenge the existing rut of charging high prices for air travels. They considered the railways and roadways their competitors and decided to offer cheaper travel for smaller routes. The company was incorporated in 1967, apart from initial entry troubles, Southwest has been the only US airline to have earned profits since 1973. The eccentric company’s outlandish way of conducting themselves has been the sole reason for Southwest Airlines to succeed in a highly competitive and packed industry.
The mission of Southwest Airlines is a dedication to the highest quality of service delivered with warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit (Mission…, 2007). The company also provides opportunities for learning and personal growth to each employee. Creativity and innovation is very important and highly encouraged, for the purposes of improving effectiveness. Employees are to be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that the employees are expected to share with the customer. Southwest Airlines was initially created to be a low-cost alternative to high price of intra-Texas air carriers (Freiberg, 1996). Southwest’s fares were originally supposed to compete with car and bus transportation. It was a little airline, and it would withstand the test of time. As a discount, no-frills airline, it would provide stiff competition for larger airlines. Their strategy was to operate at low cost, offering no food, no movies, no first class, and no reserved seats. They created their own market and provided increased turnaround times at the gate, by avoiding hub-and-spoke airports and opting for short-haul, direct flights. Through this market approach, Southwest has a majority of market share in the markets they serve.
Focusing on the benefits to the business organisation, this is a very important concept for them to gain their maximum potential profits and the success of the business as a whole.