The chart below [taken from Michael Porter XXXXXXXXXXWhat is strategy?. Harvard Business Review pp 61-78] depicts Southwest Airlines’ strategy-supporting activity system. The darker circles depict...

RUNNING HEAD: SOUTHWEST AIRLINES ACTIVITY 1
Assignment 2: Southwest Airlines‟ Activity Service
William A Frudakis
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES ACTIVITY 2
Southwest Airlines‟ Activity System
Introduction
Strategy is considered as the essence of the organization. Strategy is considered as the
general view or perspective that the organization follows so as to do its operations and to attain
competitive edge in the market. The strategy takes into consideration the purpose, goals and
objective of the organization. It takes into consideration all the planned actions that are taken by
the organization so as to achieve the set target and objective. There are different strategies that
the organization considers so as to fulfill the objective of the firm. (Porter, 1990)
“Strategy is the direction and scope of an organization over the long-term: which
achieves advantage for the organization through its configuration of resources within a
challenging environment, to meet the needs of markets and to fulfill stakeholder expectations”
(Porter). According to Michael Porter, the companies are focusing on adopting new rules so as to
attain competitive edge in the market. For this it is important for the company to focus on
nurturing its core competencies which will help the company to stay ahead of the competition.
According to the Porter Operational effectiveness is not a strategy, it is an important aspect of
the organization but not sufficient for the company to attain competitive edge in the market. The
organizations need to have a strong focus on the operational effectiveness which states that the
company can perform the activities better than the rivals. The companies need to have a strong
focus on differentiation so as to attain competitive edge in the market and to sustain in the
competitive world. The companies are adopting different strategies and techniques which help in
attaining a competitive position for the company; this includes adoption of different techniques
like TQM, JIT, time based competition, benchmarking and other strategies. So as to stay ahead
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES ACTIVITY 3
the organizations needs to turn them in a learning organization. (Hitt M A, Ireland R D,
Hoskisson R E, 2009),
According to Porter, 1996, „the essence of the strategy is choosing to perform activities
differently than the rivals, when the organization works differently from their rivals then the
companies are able to attain competitive edge in the market‟. It is important for the organizations
to fit in the marketing environment and as per the needs and requirement of the consumers so as
to survive in the competitive world. According to Porter, 1996, „Fit locks out imitators by
creating a chain that is as strong as its strongest link‟. Thus so as to attain competitive edge in the
market the company should have a strong focus on its strategies.
Managing variations in business model:
Different strategies are adopted by the companies so that they are able to achieve
competitive advantage, for providing differentiated products to the consumers. The companies
focus on adopting different strategies which is adopted at different levels of the company i.e.
Corporate Strategy, Business level strategy and marketing level strategy. (Annual report, 2011)
Companies like South-West Airlines have focused on adopting different strategies so as to attain
competitive edge in the market. Southwest Airlines is one of the largest Airlines...