Strategic Analysis of Southwest Airlines the Mission,

Strategic Analysis of Southwest Airlines

The mission, vision, values, and goals of Southwest Airlines, as provided on the company's Website and in its Annual Report, are analyzed in this paper with regard to inclusion of stakeholder interests and goodness of fit to classic management strategies. In particular, the paper makes this assessment against the background of Michael Porter's comments in an interview for Fast Company, in which his comments hint preference for an approach not unlike Blue Ocean Strategy. The book, Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant, was not published until four years after this interview. As usual, Porter was ahead of this times..

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to critically evaluate the mission, values, and goals of Southwest Airlines. The analysis includes identifying which values and goals pertain particularly to certain stakeholder groups, and to make recommendations about any improvements that could be made to the mission, the vision, the statement of values, and the statement of goals. Readings were utilized to make this analysis, along with supplementary materials retrieved from the Internet. It is the opinion of this author that the mission, vision, values, and goals of Southwest Airlines -- though somewhat unconventional in orientation -- are robust, applicable to the industry, and fundamentally without major flaws.

Strategic Analysis

The mission of Southwest Airlines is very visible on the Website, in Spirit Magazine, and in various customer-facing publications and collateral. The mission is provided below.

The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.

Mission. Somewhat surprisingly, the mission of Southwest Airlines does not make hard references to employees. This seems like a deliberate omission since Southwest Airlines has, on numerous occasions, made statements to the effect that the carrier puts it employees first and its customers second -- the idea being, that if the company takes care of its employee, the employees will take care of the customers, and the customers will keep coming back.

The mission's focus on customer service seems apt, as the ability of employees to provide exemplary customer service is part of the hiring and evaluation processes. The company really means what it says through its mission statement -- employees are held to it every day. Unlike many mission statements, it is not something that was written in an off-site meeting and then tucked away to be forgotten about until the next strategic planning retreat.

References to customer service being delivered with warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit exemplify the overarching values of the company, and are also a nod to the company's origin and historical hallmarks. When Southwest Airlines was a small and struggling carrier, it gained notoriety by springing out of the plains and capitalizing on the loveliness of pretty girls, Texas grit, and three airplanes that could turn in 20 minutes. In this way, the employees are represented in the mission statement. However, investors are left out of the mission statement, yet it is well-known that they are well served. Southwestern Airlines has made a profit for nearly four decades.

Values. There are a number of value statements on the Website, as the company embeds value statements in the agreements with suppliers, and so on. One value statement is included here which is fundamentally a statement of commitment to employees of Southwest Airlines.

We are committed to provide our Employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. 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.

Since this value statement is written for employees, other stakeholders are not represented. Southwest's Website contains several value statements for safety, the environment, contract of carriage, procurement policy, supplier diversity program, and tarmac delay contingency plan. The company strives to be transparent in its dealings, and everywhere in the collateral and documentation, reference is made to how much they value customer service.

It is notable that the commitment to employees makes reference to encouraging creativity and innovation that targets improving the effectiveness of the carrier. From the perspective of Michael Porter (Hammonds, 2007 ), a guiding principle for strategic planning is to move beyond just improving best practice.

Goals. Southwest Airlines' goals are evident in their "pledge to provide safe, affordable, reliable, timely, courteous, and efficient air transportation and baggage handling service on every flight we operate, as well as produce a fair return on our Shareholders' investments" ("Southwest, Contract of Carriage," 2011). The goals below are included here as illustration of the way Southwest Airlines embeds their values and goals into their working documents; they are from the procurement policy.

We believe that electronic commerce is a key component of efficient processing and are committed to expanding the use of e-procurement technology…. Our goal is to measure the effectiveness of each supplier program. We regularly re-evaluate programs, and are willing to consider new suppliers that provide improved value to Southwest Airlines. We value longterm relationships with our suppliers when their loyalty is evidenced by competitive, proactive service to Southwest Airlines.