Case: Southwest Airlines: Using Human Resources for Competitive Advantage

Topics need to be covered:

1. What is Southwest's competitive strategy? What are the sources of its success? How does it make money?
2. What are the foundations of Southwest's competitive advantage?
3. How are these sources of competitive advantage produced and sustained by what the organization does and how it does it?
4. To what extent are Southwest's sources of advantage difficult to imitate and likely to persist over time?
5. How serious is the competitive threat? To what extent can United and/or Continental duplicate Southwest's business model? Why or why not?