Southwest Airlines
(1) What is the Southwest¡¦s position along the four dimensions?
a) Geographic scope
Southwest airline provides point-to-point service between midsize cities and secondary airports in large cities. This can help avoiding congestion in large airports and hence save an average 20% of average flight time.
b) Choice of business (corporate portfolio)
SWA focuses on only airlines services, especially the short-haul flights.
c) Vertical Integration decision
Southwest airline does all of its own ticketing, not making its seats available through computerized systems such as Appllo or Sabre. And it also bypasses most of the travel agents and their commission fees.
d) Product market positioning within a business
Southwest treats itself as a short-haul airline that flies directly from city to city, with just high frequency and the lowest costs. And there are no luxury services like assigned seating and in-flight meal.
(2) What are Southwest¡¦s key resources and capabilities?
a) Tangible resources
Physical: Southwest has enough reliable Boeing 737 aircrafts.
b) Intangible Resources
Good reputation: They won ¡§triple crown¡¨ for numerous times, meaning they got the fewest complaints, fewest delays and fewest mishandled bags among the major airlines.
c) Human Resource
Helpful and cheerful employees: Its employees are friendly. They have a genuinely open spirit that really like people and want to help the passengers. The relationship between employees and passengers are great.
d) Organizational Capabilities
SWA identified customer¡¦s need for reliable and fast transportation at short distances. So, it came up with the idea of a reliable services with frequent departures, short turnarounds time and most importantly, low fares.
(3) What are the key features of Southwest¡¦s organization?
a) Architecture
Incentives and compensation policies: There are high level of employee stock ownership and high compensation for employees to provide incentives for
a) Geographic scope
Southwest airline provides point-to-point service between midsize cities and secondary airports in large cities. This can help avoiding congestion in large airports and hence save an average 20% of average flight time.
b) Choice of business (corporate portfolio)
SWA focuses on only airlines services, especially the short-haul flights.
c) Vertical Integration decision
Southwest airline does all of its own ticketing, not making its seats available through computerized systems such as Appllo or Sabre. And it also bypasses most of the travel agents and their commission fees.
d) Product market positioning within a business
Southwest treats itself as a short-haul airline that flies directly from city to city, with just high frequency and the lowest costs. And there are no luxury services like assigned seating and in-flight meal.
(2) What are Southwest¡¦s key resources and capabilities?
a) Tangible resources
Physical: Southwest has enough reliable Boeing 737 aircrafts.
b) Intangible Resources
Good reputation: They won ¡§triple crown¡¨ for numerous times, meaning they got the fewest complaints, fewest delays and fewest mishandled bags among the major airlines.
c) Human Resource
Helpful and cheerful employees: Its employees are friendly. They have a genuinely open spirit that really like people and want to help the passengers. The relationship between employees and passengers are great.
d) Organizational Capabilities
SWA identified customer¡¦s need for reliable and fast transportation at short distances. So, it came up with the idea of a reliable services with frequent departures, short turnarounds time and most importantly, low fares.
(3) What are the key features of Southwest¡¦s organization?
a) Architecture
Incentives and compensation policies: There are high level of employee stock ownership and high compensation for employees to provide incentives for