Southwest Airline

Southwest Airline’ competitive advantages are:
1. The company’s cost structure. They concentrates on flying to airports that are underutilized and close to a metropolitan area, which recognizes that short-haul flying is inherently more costly than longer flights and in turn saves customers up to 20-30 percent in comparison to other airlines.
2. The only types of aircraft that they use those that are fuel efficient. Being green is the new black
3. consistent with their customer service motto that “customers come first” by providing with low cost fares at off peak seasons, with frequent flyers, offers only two fares, doesn’t regulate the assigned seating policy, and waive the $40.00 meal ticket in exchange for free snacks.
4. Southwest’s travel agents consist of 55 percent of their booking agents, as compared to 90 percent of other competitive airlines, which enforces the idea that we take our business seriously, provide ownership to our company and deal with our customers directly rather than transferring them to a third party.
5. Personalized customer service. Employees are willing to treat customers like family Ex. Taking care of their dog when the airline enforces the “no pet onboard” regulation.

My assessment of Herb Kelleher’s contribution to the success of Southwest is that he leads by example and participates in all aspects of problems that show up. Ex. Staying up with a mechanic in late hours to figure out the issues. He’s willing to recognize and commemorate all employees and their families by providing a budget for parties. I would like to work for Herb (not in the airline industry) because he’s a leader that is personable and sensitive to the concerns of employees, but tough when he needs to be.

I really liked their motto “The People Department” that reflects on their dedication to their employees and sends the message that “our people are the competitive advantage.” SW also spends a lot of time identifying the key components that comprise effective performance and behavior, especially within their pilots’ ability to work as a part of the team.

I would like to see more strict recruiting policies like those listed in SW Airline. They’re extraordinarily selective in their recruiting. Out of 98,000 job applicants, less than 3 percent of all interviewees are chosen to remain in the company. They focus on specific messages the candidate convey in the interview with certain uses of “I” which reflects on their lack of team work and solidarity.

The company believes that most skills can be learned and doesn’t screen heavily except for certain specialist jobs. My profession requires individuals to fully understand their abilities and their areas of expertise. Therefore, the idea of hiring people who are not highly skilled might work in the lower sectors of the airline industry; it certainly doesn’t work in higher education. Keller expressed his decisions on hiring people with little or no experience with the basis of “we draft great attitudes. If you don’t have a good attitude, we don’t want you, no matter how skilled you are. ” He makes the valid point that attitudes can’t be changed, but as we discussed in class that attitude is a psychological tendency expressed by some degree of favor or disfavor, that perception can be changed depending on their job satisfaction.