South West Airlines

INTEGRATED SEMESTER ASSIGNMENT

(FINC 300, INFO 300, MGMT 300, MKTG 300)

DUE: April 12, 2019

INSTRUCTIONS:

The objective of the integrated semester is to help you extend your knowledge of how the finance,

operations, management, and marketing disciplines work and how they integrate their functioning in

the real world of business. This assignment is an assessment of how well you understand this

integration. It is worth 10% of your course grade.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT IS TO ANSWER ALL OF THE QUESTIONS, IN A SINGLE DOCUMENT:

• The assignment should be prepared as a Word document, 12 -14 pages in length (approx. 3

pages for each discipline’s questions).

• The document should be double spaced, using Ariel font #12.

• Label each section (e.g., FINANCE) to indicate which discipline’s questions you are

answering.

• Add any Appendices at the end of the Word document.

• Upload the entire Word file through the link on Canvas to each of your Integrated Semester

courses by the due date.

Note: Your reference sources, in addition to the base case and question sets, should be online sites

and articles, Bloomberg terminals, your Integrated Semester textbooks and PowerPoint slides. Also

note, Turnitin, a software tool that improves writing and prevents plagiarism, will be used to assess

your sourcing of information. Do your own work.

FINANCE ASSIGNMENT

The objective of the integrated semester is to help you extend your knowledge of how the finance,

operations, management, and marketing disciplines work and how they integrate their functioning in

the real world of business. This assignment is an assessment of how well you understand this

integration. It is worth 10% of your course grade.

Use either the Bloomberg terminals located at the Feliciano School of Business or other reputable

sources such as finance.yahoo.com, morningstar.com or Wall Street Journal etc. for the financial data

you use in your answers. You need to provide the references regarding the financial data you use to

support your answers at the end of the finance portion of the term paper.

Questions:

1. Starting service to a new market, such as Havana, Cuba, is a major capital budgeting project

for Southwest Airlines (ticker symbol: LUV). A project of this scale requires coordinated

planning across all functions of a business that you are studying in your Integrated Core

classes. Choose and discuss three items on the income statement and balance sheet that you

think will be impacted by this new undertaking (a total of six items). Explain why you chose

those particular items, and how those items are impacted by the marketing, management and

operations decisions of the company.

2. Explain how the financial decisions regarding starting service to Cuba are related to

management, marketing or operations decisions that the company must make (or has made)?

3. Choose and calculate three ratios for this company for the last two years. Make sure to select

ratios that you think would be impacted by starting service to a new destination, and explain

your reasoning. Identify two competitors of LUV and contrast the ratios. Explain why you

selected those competitors. Describe how the decisions made by management, marketing

and operations functions of the company can impact, and hopefully improve, these financial

ratios.

MARKETING ASSIGNMENT

This assignment will be dealing with Southwest Airlines. It requires you demonstrate your level

of understanding of Integration across the Integrated Core (Marketing, Finance, Management and

Operations)

Below you will find 2 Weaknesses and 2 Threat statements from a Southwest Airlines SWOT

analysis. Following the statements are questions that you need to answer to demonstrate your

understanding of the implications that elements of a SWOT Analysis could have across the 4

disciplines of the Integrated Core.

Read the Weakness and Threats statements carefully then proceed to answer the questions noted

below:

Southwest Airlines SWOT Analysis - Weaknesses

➢ SWA only caters to the Budget Traveler. ➢ Negative comments about SWA on Social Media due to overbooking of flights

Southwest Airlines SWOT Analysis – Threats

➢ Other airlines trying to imitate SWA strategies. ➢ A possible decrease in business travel demand due to technology.

MARKETING ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS (graded for 100 Points)

1) 1). Assume you are the Vice President of Southwest Airlines, select 1 Weakness and 1 Threat from the SWOT Analysis statements above and explain how you would recommend taking that selected weakness and turning it into a strength and the selected threat and turning it into an opportunity.

2) Next provide 2 explanations as follows: a. Explain how the weakness turned into a new strength would impact the disciplines of

Marketing, Finance, Management and Operations. b. Explain how the threat turned into a new opportunity would impact the disciplines of

Marketing, Finance, Management and Operations.

MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT

Southwest Airlines is known for their organizational culture. It is considered one of the key factors

contributing to their success. They are ranked 8th in 2017 as “Most Admired Companies in the World”

and ranked 13th “Best Employer in 2016”.

1. Describe Southwest’s organizational culture. How has the culture contributed to their success?

Southwest is also known for its proven business strategy. They believe in a sustainable future where

there is balance in their business model between shareholders, employees, customers and other

stakeholders. As a result and unique in the airline industry, they have maintained 44 years of

consecutive profitability. They ranked 1st in “Lowest Number of Complaints” in 2016.

2. The company developments as seen in the “Flash Forward” beginning in 2010 have been

significant. Review those accomplishments. What are some of the key elements of their strategy as

seen in these developments? How has the original strategy been altered to achieve those results?

3. Describe how Southwest’s planning process helped establish their organizational objectives,

business model, address problems, adapt to changes in the environment and remain successful.

OPERATIONS ASSIGNMENT

The objective of the integrated semester is to help you extend your knowledge of how the finance,

operations, management, and marketing disciplines work and how they integrate their functioning in

the real world of business. This assignment is an assessment of how well you understand this

integration. It is worth 10% of your course grade.

Since its birth Southwest Airlines has been a one-aircraft airline. Every plane they fly is a Boeing 737. This gave them many advantages when they were a regional airline and flew short hops mostly. Now they are not just a national carrier but have significant numbers of international flights. Other major airlines fly a wide variety of aircraft – from small 20 seater jets to wide-bodied aircraft like the Airbus 340 or the Boeing 747. This gives them a lot of flexibility – they can use small aircraft on small low-demand flights and larger aircraft on the longer more popular routes. To gain this same flexibility, Southwest is considering using smaller planes on some of its regional flights of less than 90 minute duration. As a trial, flights between two small cities in Arkansas will switch over to a small 50-seater aircraft from the usual Boeing 737. This switch is scheduled to happen in June of 2019.

What does the operations function have to do between now and June to get ready for these trial flights?

Focus on any 4 of the following issues. For each issue, clearly describe what roles finance, marketing and HR have to play.

• Scheduling of flights

• Scheduling of personnel

• In-flight services

• Quality of service

• Gate operations

• Crew scheduling

• Maintenance