Introduction and Background
Southwest airlines
is one of the largest low cost carrier
in this earth which has been headquarters in Texas, U.S. the case describes us
about the history of more than 45 years as it was established in 1967 with the
different name and the name now given was adopted in 1971. They have one of the
highest employee record of almost 46000 employee till December 2014 they not
only have more employees but they also operate in a very high flame they almost
have 3400 flights per day, it is one of the highest carrier of passengers in
U.S. they have been giving their sir services to more than 41 states and in
about 93 destinations. They are one of the largest operator with largest number
of employees record in worldwide thy have widened themselves to 737 with over
650 in service only.
It uses Boeing 737 as their main source as per the
information it has made them the largest operator among many airlines service
providers. It only has more than five hundred Boeings with their operation in
more than 93 cities only in U.S. they have earned goodwill relating with their
cost, affordability and fun environment they have excelled themselves in
customer service.
The core values of Southwest airlines as per my
understandings are:
·
Low cost service
·
Excellent customer service
·
Environment friendly
·
Corporate social responsibility
·
Equality treatment to every customer
Current operating strategy
of southwest airlines
They have always made them focused on two things as their main operating strategy one is
customer service and another is low cost making them focus on two important
factors they have excelled the market with competitive advantage on their side.
the main competitive advantage becomes their low cost and legendary service to
their valuable customers as while undergoing he case I came to know about some
of the strategies they have used to excel the market and to gain competitive
advantage which are:
·
They
have reduced the traffic delays at the airports and increased the convenience
for customers
·
Clear
strategy to reduce their time at airport
·
low
cost ticketing
They have always
provides high quality of customer service to their valuable customers. They
have been honored with the awards many times above them they have got Triple
Crown award for 24 times as they have got the best performance on among three
sectors one is customer service, on time performance and the least but not last
for the baggage handling. These three are always important when you are
travelling somewhere.
To maintain their
relationships with their customers they also send valentine cards, birthday
cards to their customers and they are creating a bond with the customers with
the emotion attached with the south west airlines they have create, maintain
their relationships with customers.
As to gain the competitive advantage
they have always used many models and strategies in the market some of them are
as follows:
·
Low
cost conventional
·
Have
fun together
·
Treat
employees as their family
·
Hiring
employees who fits on the job the most
·
Involvement
of employee on various activities of the organization
·
Solid
growth
·
Refunds
to their customers
·
Customers
needs and desires are carefully examined
So, the southwest airlines have made them
stronger through their customer’s service and the careful examination of their
works, as they have excelled on their activities including their staffs and
clicking with their emotion.
Culture and people empowering to the success
of southwest airlines
Going through the case I have gained an important sight of culture and
values of SWA as they have followed the transactional leadership who values for
the individual expression rather than collective. The management always carries
a friendly and fun environment with their environment so that the employee
would feel themselves as the core part and the service and the ideas could be
generated efficiently. The top level managers in the SWA keep up to date with
their employees through creating comfortable environment for the employee. The
interaction is made in the regular basis, they have very comfortable management
cycle, to motivate their employee they have a good reward system, CEO of the
SWA is treated equal to their staffs, decentralized power system, fun working
system and a very lively environment in the office has made the culture of the
SWA to their performance. While going through a case, success of SWA depends on
their culture the most, the adoptive and the friendly culture of the SWA has
led them attached with heir core values and the core values is the main source
of the organization success.
As per their culture I have highlighted some major points of the SWA
which are:
·
Casual
dress code
·
Strong
guidelines to every employee for their cor values
·
Industry
norm
·
Field
visits
·
Profit
sharing plan and the reward system
·
Pension
plans
People empowering success of SWA
For every organization people acts as the very important factor for
their success. Employees, customers will define about the organization values
and they are the one to take organization into another level. they are the one
to make the organization excel on the markets and to excel the competition so,
how SWA has used people as their success factors and how are they related with
their success to answers the question I would like to first give a small
background of how employee for the SWA are chosen.
They are always careful on selecting employee for them as they only
select those employee which are very core to their values, the candidates best
fit to the values are selected. That shows how careful are SWA to recruit them
as their family.
Carmine Gallo on his article named Southwest airlines motivating
employee through purpose more than a pay check explains that the vision and
purpose are two different entities and both are made clear on their employee
perspective in order to gain the both .co’s customers and competitive
advantage. Their happy employees which are friendly with their customers service
and more than happy to serve and Satisfy them in the article it is shown that
how in 43 years of time the employs not only customer service providers but
also pilots, and other staffs are equally clear with their purpose and the way
more than helpful to their customers in terms of service. So they are also
known as customer service champs.
So with the people who are always striving for improving their
knowledge, abilities, skills and their service, culture and to create more
loyal customers? Having those motivated employee will always be a treasure to
any organization and so implies to south west airlines the importance of people
and the clear distinction between their purpose and vision has always made them
motivate to work more and serve more which has made SWA a better than any
competitors they got.
Social Management approach
Key performance indicators
Apart from the question of the case I myself is adding this topic
because while researching SWA I found it interesting to reads and to write
about what I understand as a social management approach to value their key
operations and the strategy south west airlines to nurture long term
relationship with their customers they have gained some of the factors like:
Community
They have always remained devotee to their customers and the committee
they are developing ways to help them and to serve communities through many
ways. Community relations and charity relations are the two teams they have
added to serve community.
Avoiding corruption and anti competitive
behavior
They strive to maintain the clean and transparent work environment so
that the corruption and anti competitive behavior environment could be
eliminated. low fare and high quality services to the customers is the prime
focus.
Public policy
Adopting new laws and regulations. Behaving properly with laws and
regulations with the government come under this section, in the simple way
ethical business is the policy for the SWA.
Compliance
They have been compiling with laws, regulations within the states and
communities they serve. They follow policies and procedures in order to perform
their task.
Concluding South west Airlines with their
operations
As concluding the case and the southwest airlines I came to know a lot
about them and their strategies this is how I am gained an insight of how can
we gain competitive advantage through ways like low cost leadership they are
the perfect example of how to excel the market with the quality and the low
cost service besides that some of the best things southwest airlines have with
them and been keeping and nurturing with them those factors are as follows:
·
training
and development
·
Customer
focus
·
Leadership
·
Performance
management
·
Team
players and team works
·
Commitment
of their employee
·
Friendly
work environment
·
Mission
and aligned strategies
·
Communication
As having so much of competitors all around them are running
successfully and on their gull phase. The weakness is overcome through the
practice and their experience and they are stronger with their strategies which
has led them gain competitive advantage, they are the market leader. The
constant adaptation to the new demands and wants of the customers has made
their values stronger to touch and to be with their customers. The core vision
and the values of the SWA have brought success to the airlines in these 45
years of time.
Southwest airlines are set as the example to the other entrepreneurs,
students and business persons to set their values it teaches how we should
focus our strategies so that it can excel the market. The focus strategy and
their main 2 co’s customer’s service and competitive advantage which has made
them successful. They have always focused on making a low cost and affordable
ticketing to the customers and they have also focus on giving high quality of
services to their customers.
Their low cost strategy and high quality product and service has attract
many customers to come and be on the 100 million satisfies customers not only
this according to the data the errors have been minimized year after year and
the service has been added year after year which proves that they are committed
to give the excellent service and the friendly service to their customers.
Bibliography
Agrawal, G. R. (2009). Emerging Human resources
Management. Kathmandu: M.K. Publishers.
Agrawal, G. R. (2010). Strategic Management. Kathmandu: M.K.
publishers.
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