Today it has nearly 400 Boeing 737 series of aircrafts and operates in more than 59 cities across America. In 2011, it completes 40 years of its existence. Its mission is to provide the customers with highest quality of personal services company. It has been able to sustain its profitability through the turbulent phase of post 9/11 period and current recessive economy even though the rest of the important airlines like United and Eastern were struggling to survive. After deregulation in 1978, the airline industry became highly competitive.
After a trial run, the technology that the firm helped develop became the NASDAQ . At one point, Madoff Securities was the largest buying- and-selling "market maker" at the NASDAQ. Madoff's firm, which is in the process of liquidation, was one of the top market maker businesses on Wall Street (the sixth-largest in 2008),often functioning as a "third-market" provider that bypassed "specialist" firms and directly executed orders over the counter from retail brokers. The firm also had an investment management and advisory division that is now the focus of the fraud investigation. - Securities fraud : Madoff was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on December 11, 2008, on a criminal charge of securities fraud.
US Steel – Andrew Carnegie sold Carnegie Steel in 1900 to a new steel corporation headed by JP Morgan US Steel. First billion dollar company, largest company in the world, owned over 3/5 of the nation’s steel industry 7. Federal Government Aid to RRs – Federal gov’t provided RR companies with huge loans and land grants (170+ acres of land), helped build a transcontinental RR during Civil War (Union Pacific + Central Pacific = Promontory Point), 4 other transcontinental RRs built. Panic of 1893 JP Morgan consolidated smaller RRs into large companies, essentially eliminated competition in RR industry 8. Andrew Carnegie and his Theories of Wealth – “Wealth” – essay arguing the wealth had a god given responsibility to care out charity to benefit society, put over $350M into support for libraries, universities, and other public institutions 9.
He moved into airline industry, starting ‘Virgin Atlantic Airways’, which become second biggest English haul in international airline, which had flights to New York, Miami, Los Angeles and Orland and many others international cities. In 1985 at that time Richard was 35, his boat ‘Virgin Atlantic Challenger II’ in the fastest record time ever cross Atlantic Ocean. In 1987 his hot air balloon ‘Virgin Atlantic Flyer’ again beat all record by crossing Atlantic Ocean. As many of us know Richard Branson has many other businesses, for example Virgin Mobile which are running in Australia, Canada, UK and US and other countries. Another business which is in Virgin Group is Virgin Media which services are TV channels,
What does this imply for the future success of each product? Answers: In the 1970s, Boeing dominated all aircraft market segments before Airbus started to challenge it through a series of innovations. In 1972, Airbus entered the twin-aisle segment with the A300 B1 powered by just two engines, pioneering the concept of “twin-aisle-twin.” Over the years Airbus became a stronger challenger and caught up with Boeing in terms of market share. Since the 1990s, the two companies have been in tight competition for virtually each aircraft order. The orders for Boeing has been more than that of Airbus from the year 1996 to the year 2000 with the orders for Boeing decreasing in the year 1999.
Case Project Assignment Westjet is a company that has been recognized for its strong corporate culture. Several issues have been facing the organization in the past few years that may or may not pose a threat to the culture including: • An agreement to pay $15.5 million to settle accusations of corporate spying • Extensive turnover among the top management team, including many of the co-founders • Difficulty finding enough new employees to hire that match the culture well • Negotiating a partnership with Southwest Airlines • Drastic change in the cost structure of jet fuel Your group should research the background of these potential threats and any other necessary information about the company using the various search tools available to you through the UBC library, diagnose them from an Organizational Behaviour perspective, and recommend a plan going forward to preserve the organizational culture as a competitive advantage. You should specifically answer these questions: • What insights do the theories of Organizational Behaviour provide in understanding these threats? • What possible solutions could help maintain their corporate culture in light of these threats? • Which solution do you recommend?
Southwest Airlines Case Analysis This case is about: Sustaining profitable growth in a highly competitive and regulated industry. Define the problem: Southwest needs to maintain profitable growth while maintaining their low cost / low fare differentiation strategy. Background: • Headquartered at Love Field in Dallas, TX • Southwest was incorporate on June 18, 1971 • Initial fleet of (3) Boeing 737 served only three Texas cities- Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio • Southwest has been profitable for 38 consecutive years • Southwest is the United States most successful low fare, high frequency, point to point carrier • Southwest operates more than 3400 flights per day making it the largest US carrier based on domestic passengers • Southwest has nearly 35,000 employees nationwide • Southwest is traded on the NYSE under the symbol “LUV” • Beginning in the fourth quarter 1976, Southwest paid its first of 138 consecutive quarterly dividends to our Shareholders • 2010 Financial Statistics o Net income $459 million o Total passengers carrier 88 million o Average passenger load factor: 79.3 percent o Total operating revenue: $12.1 billion • The Company's fleet has an average age of approximately 11.4 years. • The average aircraft trip length is 653 miles with an average duration of one hour and 55 minutes. • Southwest aircraft fly an average of 6 flights per day, or almost 12 hours and 30 minutes per • Performance- enhancing Blended Winglets have been added to the 737 fleet to improve performance and fuel Key Issue: Operating cost increases threaten Southwest’s low cost / low fare competitive advantage.
, Walton, who died in April 1992, had built Wal*Mart into a phenomenal s u c c ~ with a 2 0 - par , a venge return on equity of 3376, a nd compound average s a l e growth of 35%. At the end of 1993, WalSMart had a market value of $57.5 billion, and its sales pcr square foot were nearly R O O, c ompard with the industry average of $210. It was widely believed that WalDMart had revolutionized many aspedv of retailing, and it was wcll known for its heavy investment in information technology. David Class and Don Soderquist faced the M e r g e of following in Sam Walton's footsteps. Glass and SoderquLt, CEO a nd COO, had been running thc company since February 1988, when Walton, retaining tlic chairmanship, turned the job of CEO over to Glass.
Case Study US-Airline Since the deregulation of the U.S. airline industry in 1978, a substantial number of new carriers emerged; particularly those following a low cost strategy. Given those airlines’ rapid growth and market success the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) already identified a so called `low cost airline service revolution’ back in 1997. Almost fifteen years after the drafting of the DOT report, the low cost airline service revolution has not only continued – reflected in an increase of the domestic passenger market share from about 13 percent in 1997 to about 28 percent in 2009 – but also led to a substantial rise in the competitive interaction between network carriers and low cost carriers. Against this background of a substantial and further increasing relevance of low cost carriers, the paper aims at developing a comprehensive perspective of the evolution of the domestic U.S. airline industry in recent years. We find that network carriers (NWCs) und low-cost carrier (LCCs) each entered about 1,200 non-stop routes between 1996 and 2009.
How it all started Enron was formed in 1985 by Kenneth Lay after merging Houston Natural Gas and InterNorth of Omaha in Nebraska. Enron Corporation was one of the largest global energy, services and commodities company. Before it was filed bankruptcy, it sold natural gas and electricity, delivered energy and other commodities such as bandwidth internet connection, and provided risk management and financial services to the clients around the world. Jeffrey Skilling was later hired which he developed a staff of executives that were able to hide billions of dollars in debt from failed deals and projects. Andrew Fastow (Enron’s CFO) and other executives misled Enron’s board of directors and audit committee on their accounting practices with the help of Arthur Anderson’s accounting firm.