Preview

Southwest Culture

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1122 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Southwest Culture
Southwest Culture

Southwest Airlines: “We Love your Bags.”
Taylor, April R.
Strayer University

Business 508 Contemporary Business
Dr. Faith Glaspie-Ellis

July 21, 2012 “The Mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit.”
Southwest Airlines was born in 1971, to Herb Kelleher and Rollin King. And this baby has yet to stop growing. Kelleher and King wanted to provide low cost, safe, and frequent airline service to the Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio area. Now they provide these same services to more than 100 destinations worldwide. Its success is built on a signature style of low costs, low fares, frequent flights and a quick expansion into new cities and countries.
During Southwest’s’ first year of operation, it experienced a cash flow problem. The owners had to make some very tough choices either sell some planes or lay-off some employees. Before making any decisions the owners met with their ground-service people and struck a deal, if the ground-service people could reduce the planes turnaround time from 55 minutes to 15 minutes, then Southwest would not lay-off any employees. Kelleher and King knew that by reducing the turnaround time of the airplanes, they would significantly improve the revenue production of the planes. The ground-service people received and accomplished the challenge and no employees were laid off, thus begins Southwest culture. Southwest culture focuses on people as valuable company assets. They promote a relaxed corporate culture that provides employees with the independence to operate at their most optimal level. At Southwest, the employees are considered to be the “first customers” and the passengers as next in line. They feel that if they treat their employees like customers, attending to their needs and appreciating their worth, then their employees will love their jobs and perform above



References: With LUV, we build on our strong foundation to prepare for another 40 years of success. http://www.southwestonereport.com/2011/#!/people/future-people We emulate a Culture of LUV for our Stakeholders, treat our Customers like guests in our home, and give back to the communities we serve. http://www.southwestonereport.com/2011/#!/people/social-management-approach Harkin, Brian http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/business/13southwest.html?pagewanted=all Kurtz, David L. (2012) Southwest Airlines: “We Love Your Bags”. Contemporary Business 14th Edition (pp. 78) New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Larson, Mark. Corporate culture is Southwest 's edge. http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/1997/01/13/editorial2.html?page=all Mouawad, Jad (2010) Pushing 40, Southwest Is Still Playing the Rebel. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/21/business/21south.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all Smith, Gene Culture is the key at Southwest Airlines. Measuring Business Excellence Volume 8 Number 4, 2004 Pp. 26-33.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Southwest Airlines

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Southwest Airlines strict adherence to its mission to provide the highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company spirit is a key factor to the company’s success (About Southwest Airlines Co, 2013). The airlines ability to commit to employees to provide them with a stable work environment that ensures equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Southwest prides itself on allowing all within the company to be creativity and innovative to help improve the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. The most important benefit, employees will be provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the organization that they are expected to share externally with every Southwest Customer.…

    • 474 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Mkt 500 Assignment 1

    • 1860 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The corporate head office of the Southwest Airlines is located in Dallas, Texas and that was where it was initially founded. They started with only three planes.…

    • 1860 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    On June 18, Southwest Airlines will be turning 40 years old. More than 38 years ago, Rollin King and Herb Kelleher got together and decided to start a different kind of airline. The mission of Southwest Airlines is dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit. They are committed to provide employees a stable work environment with equal opportunity for learning and personal growth. Creativity and innovation are encouraged for improving the effectiveness of Southwest Airlines. Above all, employees are provided the same concern, respect, and caring attitude within the…

    • 1261 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Since its very first round of commercial flights in the summer of June 1971; Southwest was initially founded on the basis as a “low-cost” provider without compromising quality of service.. Its popular low-fares made air travel more affordable that captured an underserved demographic proportion, especially during the economic “melt-down” of 2008 (Gamble & Thompson, 2008).…

    • 1001 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    Southwest Airlines made its first voyage back in 1971 with service based in the cities of Dallas, Houston and San Antonio (Brief History, 2009). 38 years later, Southwest Airlines has more than 3300 flights a day and serves 66 cities in 33 states (Factsheet, 2009). Southwest Airlines has demonstrated a variety of strengths in its 38 year presence. Recent economic events have also caused a renewed focus on the company’s weaknesses. Aside from its weaknesses, Southwest Airlines has also been keeping track of opportunities that currently exist in the market. Like all other companies, however, they still have some ground to make up when analyzing possible threats to its business.…

    • 2204 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Southwest Airlines: Culture, Values and Operating Practices (in Thompson, A. A., Strickland. A. J. and Gamble, J. (2005) Crafting and Executing Strategy (Fourteenth Edition), McGraw-Hill, New York, pages C-636– C-664).…

    • 9620 Words
    • 39 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    1. Southwest culture entails the company focusing on every individual at the firm not only concerning their work but also about them personally. Its corporate culture has an obsession with putting its individuals first. It is pegged on the belief that the only way to deliver remarkable service consistently more so on the front line is treating persons in a way that reflects how the external clients should be treated. The company considers its workers as its internal customers. It has a culture where the employees can enjoy their work, the individuals they work for, as well as, those that they work with (Nisen, 2013). Herb Keller, while he was the CEO of the company, had put a lot of emphasis on both culture and customer experience, and this persisted even after he had stepped down. He realized that since the business entailed more interaction, he created a pro-client culture that provides the firm with the leverage of getting information on how to…

    • 666 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rollin Kig and Herb Kelleher started the company with a simple notion: “If you get your passengers to their destinations when they want to get there, on time, at the lowest possible fares, and make darn sure they have a good time doing it, people will fly your airline” (We Weren’t Just Airborne Yesterday, 2010). As stated in the interview with CEO Garry Kelly, Southwest follows four basic rules: keep cost down, fly all the same planes so parts and maintenance is fairly simple and cheap, treat their customers like kings and queens, and treat their employees even better (Destination CEO Video, 2010.) This is a great way to keep everyone happy and gain loyal customers who will come back to fly with the airline, and in turn giving them more…

    • 887 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Southwest Airlines (Southwest) is a domestic US airline that provides short haul, high frequency, point-to-point, and low-fare service to and from 60 airports in 59 cities across 31 US states. From humble beginnings in 1971, this airline with only four passengers per flight, and airhostesses wearing hot pants and white go-go boots, has evolved into a leader in the airline industry with unsurpassed employee loyalty. Southwest 's unique and relaxed corporate culture has created a highly successful airline business that has shown a profit for 30 consecutive years. This paper will examine corporate culture of Southwest Airlines and its impact on the company 's success.…

    • 2006 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Southwest Airlines mission statement states that their company is “dedicated to highest quality of customer service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and company…

    • 158 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Southwest Airlines (SWA) is consistent in their culture, business model, and customer interactions and engagement, all collectively reducing costs and enabling their point-to-point, efficient, low cost, friendly service. Their culture favors personal connection, community, recognition, support, and love. This “luv” has been the central theme of SWA for decades, especially with regard to their customer interactions. Luv fortifies the SWA value chain, spanning across corporate vision, operations, marketing, cost control, people, and corporate culture, thus creating value in reducing costs and growing bottom lines, maximizing (minimally spent) marketing dollars, capturing customer interest, sustaining customer loyalty, and maximizing work output of all employees.…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Southwest Airlines Report

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The mission of Southwest Airlines is to provide safe, affordable, reliable, timely, courteous, and efficient air transportation and baggage handling service on every flight they operate, as well as produce a fair return on their Shareholders' investments, with dedication to the highest quality of Customer Service delivered with a sense of warmth, friendliness, individual pride, and Company Spirit.…

    • 971 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    The formation of Southwest Airlines did not take place over night. It was a process that gradually expanded by having a solid core that. In the late sixty’s a San Antonio entrepreneur had a dream and sought out the man who would make this work: Herb Kelleher. Kelleher was a successful lawyer based in the San Antonio area. The original idea that started Southwest was to service business people with a low-cost/low-fare between the major metropolitan cities in Texas. Kelleher was immediately on board with this idea and went to work to get the company going. He fought many legal battles from big rivals to block the potential new entrant; however in 1971 two court appeals were won granting Southwest entrance to the Texas market. Immediately they looked outside for financing and found Lamar Muse, who was brought in as CEO.…

    • 2293 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Southwest Case Study

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages

    billion. Yet Southwest lad reported a profit every year since 1973, chiefly because of its…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Southwest Airlines

    • 2395 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Southwest Airlines (SWA) began services in 1971. In 1972, court order no charter flight beyond Texas in order to make up for the lost revenue they were forced to sell aircrafts and keep just the ones needed to continue business and operate scheduled services. Schedule could be kept if the turning time of a plain was low enough (10 minutes). Nevertheless, Dallas-based SWA achieved 40 consecutive years of profitability and an impressive revenue growth right in the middle of the biggest economic crisis the USA has seen. All this has been achieved thanks to its Low cost advantage and its differentiation strategy through a unique Customer Service delivered at their moments of truth by nearly 46,000 employees to more than 100 million customers annually, consistently having one of the best overall Customer Service records.…

    • 2395 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics