Southwest Airlines: The corporate culture of the LUV airline
Southwest Airlines is known for a unique corporate culture that is particularly distinctive, in contrast to its competitors. Southwest Airlines has "a raucous corporate culture that is the exception in the grim airline industry" (Bailey 2008). From the Airline's inception, its founder and chairman, Herbert D. Kelleher ensured that there was "a startling amount of office hugging and kissing in lieu of handshakes; elaborate practical jokes; and on-the-premises beer drinking at headquarters, as long as it is after 5 p.m." (Bailey 2008). The Airlines' quirky sense of humor is communicated through everything from its abbreviation on the stock exchange (LUV) to its behavior of flight attendance on board, which often involves cheering, singing and dancing. "The service, while no-frills, is generally cheerful. And on many days that is enough to distinguish it from other airlines, where the workers have a hard time….

Southwest Airlines
Effectiveness of Southwest Leadership

Southwest management has defined a clear and simple business purpose. The management has also chosen the right business model that supports the business purpose. The management consistently demonstrates the core values and behaviors derived from the key business purpose (Emerald, 2005). The quality of the airline customer service is synonymous with warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit. This has kept the staff morale high. The leadership has opted not to do their business the usual way by providing low fare air transportation service in 34 states in the United States of America (Emerald, 2005). This has forced its competitors into bankruptcy. The airline's decision making bodies are capable of executing the business model through perfect strategic alignment. Southwest Airlines' organization is kind of upside-down pyramid making it very much in line with the way they want to do business. The upper management is at the….

Southwest Airlines originally began operation in 1967, but as Air Southwest Co. In 1971 its name was changed to Southwest Air Co. The purpose behind its foundation was to provide passengers with a cheap means of air travel within Texas. Today they have a fleet of 550 Boeing 737s and 37000 employees. Although it's a relatively small, domestic airline, taking passengers to 73 American cities, but it provides remarkable customer satisfaction. Its $178 million Net income provides a good estimation of its profitability. The company has a high position in the Fortune 500 companies and the Department of Transportation's survey of customer satisfaction placed it at number one. Its complaints ratio per passenger is the lowest among all airlines operating in U.S.. Its popularity among customers as well as employees is legendary. The airline empowers employees with decision making rights for immediate resolution of problems. The airline boasts of: close….

Southwest Airlines
The deregulation of the United States domestic civil aviation industry in 1978 saw airlines begin to compete freely. However, the capital-intensive nature of the business, along with undifferentiated products and services, has led to 120 airline bankruptcies since then. In the light of this context, Southwest's ability to compete is particularly interesting as it has not only continued to expand, but has been the only one to earn a profit every year since 1973 (Freiberg, 1998, p. 4-5).

Today, Southwest is the fourth largest major airline in America, flying more than 64 million passengers a year to 58 cities (Southwest Airlines, 2002). Southwest attributes its success to its unique business model of rock bottom fares, low costs, and outrageous customer service that entails getting passengers and their baggage to their destinations on time and ensuring that they have some fun along the way (Peters, 1998, p. xiv). This business model….

Southwest Airlines Case Analysis
Southwest Airlines is a company that has grown from a small regional carrier in exas and surrounding states to the largest U.S.-based airline. he primary strategy of the company is to be the low-cost, no frills option for people wanting to travel within the United States. Recently, Southwest acquired another carrier so they will soon begin international flights to the Caribbean and Mexico. his paper discusses the company, its competitive environment, how it relates to external forces, and how the company has built and maintained its reputation with a creative internal focus.

Until recently the company has maintained a spotless maintenance record, but there have been several incidents that have worked to temporarily tarnish the reputation of the airline. Due to some faulty aircraft inspections, Southwest has had to rethink it maintenance program. Since the issue was connected with maintenance, the primary recommendation of this paper is to….

Southwest Airlines
Value chain and resource-based view of the firm

Southwest Airlines has a famously unique business model for an airline, one which has enabled it to sustain a profit even during times when the rest of the airline industry's fortunes were flagging. Southwest is a budget airline that offers relatively limited flights to a fixed number of destinations, in comparison to its competitors. However, it strives to offer superior service, thanks to its enthusiastic and well-trained staff. It offers value to customers based upon price as well as programs such as its apid ewards loyalty program (Thompson & Gamble 2008: C-287). "Southwest was a shrewd practitioner of the concept of price elasticity, proving in one market after another that the revenue gains from increased ticket sales and the volume of passenger traffic would more than compensate for the revenue erosion associated with low fares" (C-287).

Southwest was also one of the first….

Southwest Airlines
efore 1978, the federal government regulated the U.S. airline industry. Airlines were given profitable routes but were also obligated to serve unprofitable routes in the public's interest. Increases in airline costs were routinely passed along to customers due to the lack of price competition.

In 1978, the airline deregulation act enabled airlines to set their own fares and enter or exit routes without government approval (Lam, 2003). The major airlines responded by dropping the unprofitable routes, in favor of the more profitable ones that were the long haul flights between big cities. Short haul flights still operated, but only as feeder flights to the major airports where the long haul flights departed from. In many cases, passengers had to fly short haul to a hub airport, then connect to another hub airport and take another flight to reach their final destination.

Deregulation allowed smaller regional airlines to expand quickly, being more….

Southwest Airlines: We Love Bags
Determine how Southwest Airlines' corporate culture differs from other airlines.

Southwest Airlines was founded on the premise that an airline needs to put its customers and their needs at the center of all operations, and further create a customer experience that is highly differentiated, memorable and sought-after by passengers. Southwest has surpassed even its own initial expectations in these areas. The culture of Southwest galvanizes the employees, customers, stakeholders, suppliers and partners into a cohesive value chain all aimed at keeping costs down and increasing lifetime customer value through loyalty (Krames, 2003). Due to its excellent control of costs and aggressive use of fuel hedging, all supported by a very customer-centric, positive culture, Southwest is the only U.S.-based airline to never file for bankruptcy protection, much less ask for a government handout (hoades, 2006). Southwest is one of the most unique service businesses in the world due….

Southwest Airlines
Air travel is still the preferred means of transport in the United States of America largely because it is faster. However, it has in the recent times experienced decreased growth from the peak in before the 1990s. The period between 1980 and 1990, there was a sharp increase in the number of people travelling by air. Today, major carriers have cut costs in the face of intense rivalry and low profit margins. Nonetheless, the economic downturn experienced in the U.S. has not made the situation any better for the aviation industry. Many airlines have greatly been affected by the increase in fuel prices and demand for high cost of labor. However, through product and service differentiation innovation strategy of low cost, reward and convenience, Southwest has successfully distinguished itself from market competitors in a bid to maintain profitability in this excessively aggressive industry.

Differentiation Innovation Strategy

Products and services can be….

Southwest Airlines is one of the most successful low-cost airlines in the world. The company's focus on constant innovation, excellent labor relations, and sound financial management have ensured its success at a time when many companies have suffered from the economic downturn. In this way Southwest Airlines has created an example of business success for many. The company's success is also due to the consistency among its organization practices, which even imitating companies have found difficult to truly replicate. Indeed, the company has used its tangible, intangible, and other resources to ensure its security in the world.
Southwest's response to 9-11 has shown its attitude and commitment to the industry. It has set itself apart from its competitors by avoiding layoffs in an industry where most major airlines cut their workforces by 16%. Southwest, in turn, maintained its labor force and expanded the availability of its product to the flying public.….

Southwest Airlines
The airline industry has been one that has consistently lost money during the last decade. Even before that, if an airline did not have a good business strategy, they were most likely doomed to failure. Many people do not remember Braniff, TWA or Pan American, but for a long time they were among the largest air carriers in the world. He present model, for airlines as well as other businesses, is to determine what they can do to streamline their costs, and the costs to their customers, while still remaining profitable. This may seem like what companies have always done, but that has not been the case. When the economy is doing well customers do not care as much about pricing and carriers offer more for the price of a ticket. Unfortunately this balance has been destroyed by the economic downturn, and many businesses have not been able to….

Southwest Airlines has been a model of success for the past forty years. It is a success based on company values, on low prices, on business innovation, and on the quality of the service, among other elements. The company built on these values and used an adequate promotional campaign and strategy to build brand loyalty. Today, many of the company's clients use its services because of what is known as brand loyalty: customers buying the same services because of an attachment to the company that often goes beyond simple decision making factors such as price or quality.
The paper concludes that Southwest Airlines has been successful for many different reasons, but primarily through a successful combination of good promotion, relaxed and fun marketing and advertising and a solid set of values and competitive advantages, which it continuously emphasized in its integrated communication strategy. Its promotional mix was adapted to the characteristics….

Southwest Airlines has been an innovator in the airline industry. The company has steadily implemented one of the most interesting operational strategies since the company was founded. As a result, Southwest Airlines has earned countless awards rated against factors such as employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and profitability. Furthermore, Southwest was able to claim these awards while being able to also claim some of the lowest operating costs in the industry. Despite the company's long track record of success, it will face brand new set of challenges and risks in the coming years since the airline industry seems to be evolving. The evolution of the airline industry will be driven by rising fuel costs, slow demand, and many environmental issues. Therefore Southwest will have to be able to further refine its strategy to meet the challenges in the new continually evolving external environment.
External/Internal Industry Analysis

Threat of New Entrants -- Low

The global….

Margins have fluctuated and are down, indicating short run cost control failure. However, company performance in the long run is strongly attributable to the corporate culture. Southwest has had consistent performance since its inception, despite many swings in the fortunes of the industry overall. This indicates that management fostered a culture that over the long run will drive customer loyalty and will drive steady, incremental cost reductions. Success for Southwest is not measure in short-term results so much as long-term and on that measure the culture has contributed to a long run of success for Southwest.
One of the strategic decisions in the case is how to deal with the declining revenue environment. The airline industry has struggled in recent years leading to industry-wide cost reductions. To address this issue it is recommended that Southwest simply ride it out. The corporate culture has been a source of value for the….

The secondary gross margin measure, Gross Margin after Depreciation, shows the costs of having a rapidly growing infrastructure to support new routes and the purchase of additional planes over the five-year period. The reduction Gross Margin after Depreciation would be flat or slightly down during a strong economic period as well. This measure of gross margin indicates that the capital investments that are often amortized over seven years as fixed assets are being depreciated on the Southwest Airlines balance sheets through the 2004 -- 2009 period. In summary, the Southwest Airlines financial statements reflect how effective the strategies of continually improving productivity through process improvement are which are tied very closely to the culture the company has worked so hard to create. The activity-based ratios shown in Table 1 including Inventory Turnover, reduction of Operating Cycles and stabilizing Days to Sell Inventory stabilized at 9 days is impressive. This….