Quality management strategies at Southwest Airlines and Ford Motor Company

Quality Management

A Comparison between Southwest Airline and Domestic and International Business Operations

Southwest airline is an American company that offers services domestically. The company's main competition is other domestic airlines. Ford Motor Company is an American automaker that operates in the United States and worldwide. Ford competes in the United States and globally. The decisions made by the leaders of these two organizations have directly impacted the outcome of these organizations. In this paper I will discuss Southwest airlines and how the organization manages to stay competitive domestically. I will discuss Ford and their strategies for remaining competitive globally. I will also discuss the distribution of power in both of these organizations.

Southwest Produces Competition Domestically

Southwest airline is the most successful low fare airline in the United States. This company has modified the way traditional airlines functions and conducts daily business. "Southwest airlines is the largest airline in the United States, based on the domestic passengers carried as of June 30, 2010" (Wikipedia, 2010). The airline operates in more than 3400 cities in the United States and currently only offers domestic flights. Southwest has differentiated itself from the competitors by changing a few key business strategies that have given them the opportunity dominate the industry.

The company's main business strategy is keeping cost low, ensuring that they operate as a low fare high frequency airline. The organization has completely transformed air travel. Southwest airline has now reported 38 consecutive profitable years of operation. The company operates with 550 aircrafts and remains profitable by keeping the aircrafts up in the air. The airline keeps cost low, by cutting out the frills that other airline provide such as in flight videos, priority seating, and assigned seats. These are the strategies that keep the airline profitable even in a bad economy. The no frills strategy allows the airline to turnaround their flights in record time, which keeps the plane up in the air.

Southwest remains a successful competitive airline mainly because of it's of the organizations unique business strategies. The company can offer low fares because they keep cost low. The organization can remain profitable in an unstable economy because they can continue to offer low fares, becoming the customer's choice of airline when disposable income is low. The differentiation strategy gives the business an advantage that allows them to be competitive and offer the lowest fares to customers, competition against other airlines.

Quality Management of Southwest

The chief executive officer (Gary Kelly) of Southwest airline has been focused on profitability from the beginning. One of the main financial goals of the organization is increasing shareholders wealth (Box & Byus, 2007). The leaders of Southwest airlines are carefully selected; they are capable, powerful leaders who can lead the organization to success. The managers at Southwest have made many decisions over the years that have led to the continuous success and profitability of the organization. The leaders of Southwest airlines focus on customer service, customer satisfaction and keeping cost low. Mr. Kelly was employed with Southwest prior to the downturn of the economy. He managed to make decisions that would keep the organization profitable during the recession.

Quality Management at Ford

Alan Mulally is a transformational leader. He inherited Ford after the company was facing bankruptcy. Mulally has made decisions for Ford that kept the company from going bankrupt. He is known in the industry as a great leader, someone that was able to pull this organization up from the bottom of the barrel. He has conviction and can generate critical mass, which are all important attributes of a great leader and a transformational leader (Taffinder, 2007). The decisions made by the leaders of Ford have kept the company alive and made the organization a giant in the industry again. Mulally's main focus was setting goals for the employees, all departments and the organization in itself. Goal settings are the business strategy that the leaders of Ford utilized to change direction of the organization. Ford also has leaders located and responsible for operations in different parts of the world. These leaders understand the different cultures in which they operate and lead those areas accordingly.

Distribution of Power for Both Organizations

The diagram listed below is pyramid of the organizations power. This pyramid of power is found in both Southwest Airlines and Ford Motor Company. Both organizations are led by chief-executive officers (CEO). The major decisions of the organizations are made by the executive level (top level) of management. Middle management is responsible for communicating information between top management and lower management. Middle management concentrates resources where it is needed and relocates resources when necessary. Middle management is also known for motivating employees to work hard and to remain focused on the goal. Lower management is responsible for leading the employees, reaching set goals of the department. The lower management is responsible for communicating with the employees, and ensuring productivity and efficiency are being achieved. The employees of both organizations are the ones who do the majority of the work. In Southwest airlines the employees are the pilots, the mechanics, the customer service agents and others. In Ford the employees are the sales agents, the customer service agents, the mechanics and autoworkers.