Southwest Airlines 2002: An Industry Under Siege Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

ANSWER TO QUESTION # 1

The top management of South West Airlines created a winning strategy for the company efficiently and effectively, which enabled the company to earn profits as well as it also enabled the company to enjoy economies of scale in its early stage. Moreover, in order to speed up the turnaround time of the flight, South West Airlines adopted a point to pit route system.

Furthermore, the top management of the company has overemphasis the team efforts of the employees. The employees are supposed to make their back breaking efforts and work along with teams on board and on the ground in order to ensure punctuality. The company has a high speed boarding process, which has enabled the company to facilitate their customers on time.

However, there were few factors in the South West’s strategy that acted as a hurdle in optimizing the efficiency of the company as well as it also acted as a hurdle for the company in increasing their overall profitability.

Unlike other gigantic companies, South West did not adopted hub and spoke route system, which was designed to increase the revenue of the company by facilitating large volume of customers at the same time. The company does not have a well-managed system of providing in flight entertainment and meals to its passengers as well as the company does not offer reasonable amount of luggage to its passengers in a normal 1 – 1.5 hour flight which dissatisfies the customers of the company.

The top management of the company has changed its strategy over the time period in order to cater the needs of its customers more efficiently and more effectively. The company has setup effective cost controlling systems in order to ensure profitability as well as in order to offer comparatively low fares to its passengers. The company does not sell interline tickets in order to avoid complexities as well as the company does not allocate seat numbers to its customers in order to provide the customers with early booking benefits.

The top management of the company does not focus on spreading its network extensively by penetrating into a widespread range of markets. In addition, the top management of the company has focused on limited number of markets and provides frequent and excellent services to its customers. The company offers flights for 7 days a week in order to fill up the consequences of the missed flights. Hence, the company has maintained the simplest flight structure in the entire market.

ANSWER TO QUESTION # 2

Strengths:

The major strengths of the company include that the company has an extensively strong brand image in the entire industry as well as the company has earned the confidence and satisfaction of its customers by facilitating its customers with excellent fleet services as well as by providing its customers with exceptional customer care services. This has enhanced the customers’ loyalty towards the company as well as this has enabled the company to trail blaze the entire industry by capitalizing a gigantic market share.

The company has enormous cash reserves, which act as a strength for the company in surviving strongly even in the depression phase of the industry. Furthermore, this also acts as a competitive advantage for the company as it reduces the threat of the company to plunge into liquidation problems.

The company has strong regulatory policies as well as security policies in order to ensure security and satisfaction of its customers. Moreover, the company effectively complies with all applicable laws and regulations, which has increased the overall reputation of the company.

The company stands as a second largest airline domestically due to its wide spread extensive domestic network. This acts as strength to the company as it increases the reputation of the company as well as it allows the company to attract customers in the entire market.Southwest Airlines 2002 An Industry Under Siege Case Solution

Weaknesses:

The major weakness of the company is that it has limited its target markets to some extent which has limited its revenue to some extent. Moreover, the company does not provide in flight entertainment to its customers which has decreased the satisfaction level of its customers.

Furthermore, the company is unable to maintain its costs efficiently and effectively, which has decreased the overall profitability of the company to some extent. In addition to this, the company is unable to maintain friendly and healthy working relations with its employees which has decreased the overall efficiency of the company as well as it has also decreased the motivational level of the company’s employees.........................

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