The Core Competencies Of Southwest Airlines And Gary Kelly

Improved Essays
Register to read the introduction… By locking up fuel hedging contracts, Southwest was able to pay less for the fuel than other competing airlines. While facing possible layoffs, Kelly challenged his ground crews to reduce the turnaround times from 55 minutes to 15 minutes. The crews were at to achieve that goal and eliminated the possibility of layoffs. By having a fleet of only having Boeing 737s, Southwest has been able to keep maintenance cost extremely low. Southwest has had their flight attendants play games with their customers, while in flight. An example of this is the flight attendants would say that the first customer to show them that they were wearing socks with a hole in them would receive a free round trip ticket anywhere that Southwest flew. As for treating their employees better than the customer; the whole cookout idea pretty much covers that core competency.
I have provided concrete examples of how Southwest Airlines display its corporate culture. I had explained the traits and skills that make Gary Kelly an effective leader. I had identified the core competencies of Southwest Airline. With what I have learned about Gary Kelly and Southwest Airlines, the more companies and their leadership that try to immolate

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In addition, Southwest’s rapid gate turnaround, achieved by well-paid ground crews and flexible…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    9/11 Case Study

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As it began to appear that the aviation industry’s economic status was starting to improve, the industry was faced with three more worldwide disasters; an increase in jet fuel prices, a declining economy, and Hurricane Katrina (Money.cnn.com, 2014). Airlines began making operational cuts in order to stay afloat financially and rise above their competition during this financial crisis (Money.cnn.com, 2014). Delta airlines cut seats on international and domestic flights and reduced and ended flights flying from “Cincinnati to London 's Gatwick Airport and Frankfurt” and “Atlanta and Detroit to Mexico City” (News, 2014). To remain competitive during this economic downfall Southwest Airlines, one of Delta’s competitors, cut non profitable flights, added fees, and continued to have airfare sales and promotions to gain new and keep old customers (News, 2014). This was a rough and unsteady period for the aviation industry.…

    • 1159 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Southwest Airlines in 2010 Southwest Airlines started from a small carrier in Texas to become one of the best commercial carriers west of Atlantic. The company has grown over time to include other states and airlines. Under the leadership of Herb, the company has had many changes that affect it. The internal and external environment of the company is looked into in the table below.…

    • 65 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Great Essays

    Southwest Airlines Thesis Statement: Southwest Airlines have never made promises it could not keep and considering its history makes it obvious and clear that it has always been a company whose key characteristic or attribute was “trustworthiness”. Introduction A half a century ago, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher decided to join together and to start a different sort of airline. So, in 1967 South West Airlines was started. However, the company’s name at the time was Air Southwest and then subsequently changed to South West Airlines as it progressed.…

    • 1475 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Honestly, I'm feeling a little behind on this next project; however, I have managed to do a lot of research on Delta Airlines who is my competitor of choice. From my research, I have learned that Delta is a very different company compared to Southwest. Delta has a hub/spoke strategy that services customers on longer flights such as oversea, whereas Southwest focuses more on domestic non-stop shorter flights. Southwest is also a low cost no frills carrier and Delta is pricier and offers more perks. Southwest focuses on leisure travel while Delta caters to business customers.…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Why Southwest Hospitality, compassion, and quality are all words that come to mind when I think of Southwest Airlines. Travel is something that I have been fortunate enough to experience throughout my life, domestically and internationally. Whenever I have the opportunity to take Southwest Airlines, I know I am in good hands. It’s that kind of trust that makes any travel experience more than just getting from point A to B. What is unique about Southwest, is that that level of compassion and care can be seen not only through the service, but also the people that make up and fly Southwest.…

    • 601 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    i Gary, how you doing? Ken Kemper, Captain, Flight Operations. Three weeks ago, Professor Randy Gibb, who is the Dean of the Business School at Grand Canyon University, gave a lecture to the business college entitled ‘Conscious, Capitalism, Purpose and Servant Leadership’ and essentially it’s when a company strives to make a profit ethically with a greater good in mind. Southwest, rightfully so, is held up as the shining example of a company who does conscious capitalism right. And they stressed it was because of our philosophy of: Employees first, Customers second, Shareholders third.…

    • 717 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    The Us Airlines Case

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages

    35). Many factors contribute to this environment; fuel costs, labor costs, government regulations, national disasters, economic uncertainty and changing customer travel preferences (KPMG, 2013, p. 11). Since low cost carrier airlines face few entry or exit barriers, the core challenge for this industry and the lesson for other businesses is how to compete successfully when all of the competitors do not face the same structural forces of competition. Synopsis of the Case Since the deregulation of 1978, the airline industry weathered wave after wave of major challenges; recessions, labor issues, terrorist attacks and fluctuating crude oil prices.…

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The kind of research that was used to support this campaign was the traditional four-step model. When the Authority public affairs team collaborated with the public relations firm Porter Novelli, this gave them the resources they needed to research, plan, evaluate, and communicate what they needed to expand the San Diego airport. One of the main things that they did was research to make sure that all their expansions would be under code so that the Environmental Impact Report would approve their requests. Then they started doing focus groups with many different sample groups. Not only were they using local stakeholders but also ones from different industry sectors.…

    • 813 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Southwest airlines has several unique qualities that help distance itself from their competitor. The overall corporate strategy of Southwest Airlines is based on the following three internal operations pillars. Human Resources Management One of the important quality that sets Southwest Airlines apart is their unique emphasis on work culture and worker attitude. Human resources is an intangible resources that can indeed be leveraged into a distinct competitive advantage. Southwest Airlines’ strategy is that they manage to train workers to do the task and hold the skills that are required, but a person’s attitude is not something that easy to change.…

    • 1398 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Eastern Airlines, once one of the largest iconic airlines in the industry, known for its growth due to The Air Mail Act of 1934, also became known for it ’s power struggles and a an ongoing to war with themselves, precisely between management and workers. Like many carriers in the industry during the 1970’s and 1980’s, Eastern was subjected to difficulties due to deregulation which brought on competition within the market, airfare wars as well as waged wars against competitive rivals and in-house management. During those times mostly all industry carries struggled to keep their business up and running and out of bankruptcy, however many lost the battle and were subjected to hostile takeovers, mergers as well as eventually closing their doors…

    • 1329 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Culture is the soul of an organization.” - Dee Ann Turner "It's my pleasure," is the response heard by all their customers across the nation. This organization has achieved tremendous successes by any industry standard. Ironically, the chicken is not the reason why millions of people dine at this restaurant chain multiple times a month.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Given that the services an airline provides isn’t a something that can be imported or exported, it makes taking a look at the global strategy within this industry a little more complex than most. In most cases, airlines rely on alliances, mergers or acquisitions as a way of expanding into new markets or for global penetration. Southwest Airlines is one the largest domestic operations in the United States, and recently the company acquired AirTran in a bid to boost its global…

    • 900 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The aviation industry is one of that is always evolving and growing over time. One of the major factors that keeps the industry growing every day is the growth of low-cost carriers worldwide. LCC 's have been helping grow and shape the industry for not only consumers but for air carriers. In 2005 the European market share for low-cost carriers was estimated at 17% when reevaluated in 2013 it was estimated at 32% which was a 15% increase.(airlineprofiler.eu) In 2013 it was also estimated that the worldwide percentage of LLCs was estimated at 22%.…

    • 1055 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In 2014, airliners paid $223.6 billion on aviation fuel alone (Cros, 2015). The small fluctuation in the price of oil can have a dramatic impact on firms’ margins. An increase of one percent in jet fuel prices translates to $530 million for the US airline industry (Baazargan, Lange, Tran, & Zhou, 2013, p. 55). Many airliners are actively trying to mitigate this unpredictability. Many carriers are now employing hedging strategies (Yu-Hern & Pei-Chi, 2011, p. 10405).…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays