Case #20 – Southwest Airlines Company History 1966 Rollin King approached Herb Kelleher’s law office with plan to start low-cost/lowfare airline Ran into legal problems‚ rival airlines in Texas did everything they could to block new airline Herb Kelleher was determined to start up airline 1971 – Lamar Muse Southwest CEO‚ background in industry to get it up and starting Raised $7 million in capital and private investors to purchase planes and equipment Flights started between Dallas
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Leadership of Southwest Airlines Southwest Airlines is often a modeled by other companies for its organizational structure. Organizations that have an effective management team are successful in developing a strong organizational culture‚ utilizing managerial controls‚ and leveraging diversity. Effective management teams are developed by cultivating leadership skills in those that supervise the company’s associates. Organizations want managers that can motivate their associates to achieve the
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Introduction Southwest Airlines is one of the largest domestic carriers in the United States‚ with over 3400 flights every day from 64 domestic destinations. Since 2011‚ Southwest Airlines is the airline that “carries the most domestic passengers of any US airline” ("Scheduled passengers carried"‚ 2011). The major factor that contributes to the success of Southwest Airlines and makes it different from the other airlines is its approach in designing and managing the processes. Measuring capacity
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Executive Summary Southwest Airlines has been a strong growth company over the last 35 years. Using its low-cost‚ passenger friendly‚ point-to-point operational strategy‚ Southwest has been able to sustain considerable growth year after year and remain profitable for 33 straight years. While Southwest has gained market share in recent years‚ legacy carriers have struggled due to depressed market conditions. The entire airline industry has endured expensive labor contracts‚ soaring energy costs and
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Introduction Southwest Airlines is a company that aims at having happy management‚ employees and customers. Unlike some companies‚ Southwest welcomes the idea of their employees being members of a labor union‚ agreeing that they need someone to speak for them in an effective way. Sure there are still some issues and differences that need to be worked out but that is what the union is there for. Review/Analysis of the Case As with any relationship‚ there is going to be goals and issues that the parties
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Southwest Airlines has been known for is inexpensive flights and upbeat‚ jokester employees since 1971. In 1980‚ Southwest adopted its mission statement as‚ “A dedication of customer service delivered with ‘a sense of warmth‚ friendliness‚ individual price and company spirit”. (Anonymous‚ 2005‚ p. 16). In 1997‚ Southwest Airlines celebrated its 25th anniversary. “The celebration centered around ten philosophical principles‚ such as ‘under promise but over deliver’ and ‘take competition seriously
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Southwest Airlines 2011 Diagnosis: Southwest airlines began first flight in 1971. They experienced finance loss only in the first year. Southwest’s company vision is to keep a low fare with better customer service. According to different surveys‚ Southwest airline has the highest margin in all years except 2007 and passenger yield. Southwest has lowest average revenue passenger miles per passenger‚ load factors‚ unit costs per available seat per mile‚ and net debt. In order to maintain their
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Southwest Airlines Case Study 1. Company Overview Southwest airlines began in 1967 as a low-cost‚ low-fare‚ customer-friendly air service shuttling passengers between San Antonio‚ Dallas and Houston‚ Texas. Founded by Rollin King and Herb Kelleher‚ Southwest moved from a small commuter transport of 18 round trip flights within Texas to a bustling market share leader providing more domestic flights than any other airline within the industry. Within two years of its first flight the airline
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Southwest Airline Analysis The goal of this paper is to explain the prominent success of Southwest Airline in the United States through a single case study analysis making use of the McKinsey’s 7-S framework. Developed in the early 1980s at the McKinsey & Company consulting firm by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman‚ this framework looks at 7 internal factors (Structure‚ Strategy‚ Systems‚ Style‚ Staff‚ Skills‚ Super-ordinate goals) which‚ according to its authors‚ need to be aligned for an organization
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BASIC STRATEGY: In order to make up for increasing expenses Southwest needs to expand. My recommended strategy for Southwest to pursue‚ is to merge with Air-Tran and expand into areas where Air-Tran has a heavy presence and Southwest has none. With Southwest having a weak presence in the southeastern U.S.‚ a key area to expand would be Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International‚ which is the busiest airport in the U.S. There is obviously a need for the low air-fare company at this site. Southwest’s
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