Southwest Airlines: In a Different WorldNameInstitutionInstructorCourseDate Southwest Airlines: In a Different WorldHow Southwest’s Airlines Plan to Serve La Guardia Would Impact Two Primary Business FunctionsSouthwest Airlines plan to serve La Guardia would impact two primary business functions which are marketing and operations (Daft, 2013). Marketing is an important business function and has a direct impact on an company’s net revenues. Since this is a new slot in the New York’s La Guardia airport, the marketing department will have an increased responsibility in informing their current customers on the new slot as well as new customers who are targeted as business travelers (Daft, 2013). New York is a competitive market, which will require the marketing department to increase their activities and efforts.
This will ensure that the customers are adequately informed on the new slot and that the company has a competitive advantage over other airline companies in New York (Daft, 2013). Since Southwest airlines provides travelling services to other areas in the United States except in New York, the operations of the company will also be impacted as the operations team will have to plan and manage more operations in La Guardia airport (Heskett ; Sasser, 2013). Offering travelling services to customers traveling to New York will mean more business for Southwest airlines, which also means increased business operations (Heskett ; Sasser, 2013).
Coordinating efforts of the marketing and operations business functions to serve La Guardia successfully might affect management and decision making since La Guardia airport is different from the other airports that Southwest airlines have operated before (Heskett ; Sasser, 2013). The marketing efforts should adequately align with the operations of the company as La Guardia airport may pose some challenges to the airline. This is due to the congestion in the airport, which may affect the operations of the airline through slow turnaround times, unplanned flight delays, and low cost flights (Heskett ; Sasser, 2013). For a successful coordination between marketing and the operations function, Southwest marketing efforts should identify the benefits of operating in La Guardia airport while still identifying any expected challenges that may lead to changes in the operations of the company (Daft, 2013). Collaboration among business functions is important to the success of Southwest’s plan by providing accurate information, which is important in the decision-making process. Collaboration helps the different business departments to make a shared decision as this enables transparency between the business function (Daft, 2013). Transparency will lead to improved communication between the management of marketing and operations functions, which will ensure the success of the independent business functions ultimately leading to the success of the company.
This also helps in addressing any arising issues that may affect the company creating a trusted image of the company by the public (Daft, 2013).ReferencesDaft, R. L.
(2013). Management (11th ed.).
Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.Heskett, J. L., & Sasser, W.
E., Jr. (2013). Southwest Airlines: In a different world. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
HBS No.: 910-419.
