Business Level and Corporate Level Strategies

How do we get there? (Strategy formulation – corporate level, business unit level, and functional level)

Company’s Strategy: Southwest’s strategy is to improve efficiency in its operations and pass cost saving to its customers by offering them low and competitive prices. Southwest Airlines is dedicated to providing the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company Spirit.

I would add safety as they continually rate as one of the world’s top safest airlines year after year. As an example, they have never had a fatal accident or the loss of a plane hull since they began in 1929 which is why they are a trusted airline and value each and everyone that boards their planes.

What are the key success factors for Southwest airlines? What are the key things it does to keep its costs lower than competitors?

business strategy because it develop into long term benefits that are more valuable to an

Strategy formulation are decisions made by a company reading investments, commitments and other operation that create and sustain a competitive advantage (Dess, McNamara, & Eisner, 2016, p. 14). Strategy formulation has several levels. The levels are the business-level, the corporate-level, internal strategy and effective entrepreneurial initiatives strategy. The business-level strategy focuses on how to compete in the industry to attain competitive advantage. The corporate-level strategy focuses on what business to compete in and how to achieve synergy (Dess, McNamara, & Eisner, 2016, p. 14). StilSim Personal’s current line of business consists of permanent placement employees. Most placements consist of low level staff

Southwest Airlines possesses a very flexible and dynamic organizational structure that allows it to react rapidly, adapt swiftly and view environmental changes as opportunities rather than threats. After September 11, many companies went bankrupt due to this there was an unmet demand of flights. Southwest has taken the need of people to fly faster from one place to another and used it to their advantage by offering safest, fastest and cheapest way. The improved website can help attract more customers. As, it uses only one kind of aircraft its engineers can model an alternative fuel to lower fuel cost and conserve the environment. As proven

Southwest Airlines is a very aggressive company striving to increase its competitive advantage in the market without compromising the core values that have been set to differentiate itself from its competitors. It’s only by keeping the values of working hard, having fun, and treating everyone with respect that Southwest Airlines and its affiliates will continue to be an award winning organization. Southwest Airlines has been known to create a synergy between the multitude of personalities and behaviors which make up its workforce. Southwest has benefited from its successes by being able to acquire other

The first source of competitive advantage is its low price tickets. After the terrorist attacks in Sept 2001 where most of the airlines were making losses due to a decline in air travelers, Southwest was still in a good shape due to its low cost model. Most of the travelers are willing to give up comfort such as in-flight entertainment and fancy seats for a cheaper ticket. Secondly, cost advantage for Southwest plays a huge part in its competitive advantage. Only Boeing 737s are used and only coach seats are offered. This leads to the competency of Southwest’s crews on 737 which helps to achieve faster turnaround time on the ground. Company’ cost of training, maintenance and inventory decreased significantly as well. The third competitive advantage is the cultural values that are instilled in Southwest’s organization. Employees are placed first and are armed with tremendous information that assists in understanding the company’s mission, customers and competition. Happy employees lead to satisfied customers through excellent customer services.

The lack of international flights for Southwest presents a tremendous opportunity for the company. Currently Southwest continues to offer cheap flights which could serve as a base for expanding its business into possibly cheap international flights (Koenig, 2009). In July of 2008, Southwest made a smart decision to partner with WestJet in Canada and offer international flights mainly to Canada and the Caribbean ( CBS News – (AP), 2008). While this is a good start the opportunity would benefit Southwest more by trying to expand into international flights through either a merger or acquisition such as the domestic acquisition of Frontier Airlines (Seetharaman, 2009). The opportunity is further magnified due to the economic situations that have hurt Southwest’s competitors and thus are unable to make a move such as the one for Frontier (Seetharaman, 2009). Analysts are already praising the move to acquire Frontier due to the amount of slots gained by Southwest in Denver (Seetharaman, 2009). The international airline market has tons of potential for Southwest as outlined by Jet Blue’s recent introduction to Brazil (Sellers, 2008). Along with international opportunity the domestic scenery has also provided some opportunities such as the recent mention of Atlanta by Southwest’s executive vice president of strategy and planning Bob Jordan (Burress, 2009). Ultimately Southwest should try to acquire more

network and this allows the company to dominate the short haul segment of the airline

Southwest Airlines is a well-respected leader within the airline industry internationally and domestically due to the friendly, reliable and friendly

These strategies are of significant value to how the organization looks at the long term operation of the company. These strategies are: 1. Where to put your financial and people resources, 2. Structure and processes that can deliver the strategies; 3. Metric and rewards to support strategy, structure, and process; 4. Values and behaviors required to achieve goals; ( www.managementparadise.com/forums/foundation-human)

According to Michael Porter, "Almost no consensus exists about what corporate strategy is, much less about how a company should formulate it"[1]. This is due to a combination of factors that relate to strategy terms, concepts and principles – and their practical application.

.Furthermore, it is commendable that, the three core values of the company which reiterates the value of work and people, but allows the employees to have fun, are reinforced by the company at all times. From all indications, these unique core values have partially helped to catapult the airline to the financial statutes they are