SOUTHWEST AIRLINES - BUSINESS STRATEGY

Background
The great American icon, McDonald’s, known for its infamous golden arches began in the late 1940’s in San Bernardino, CA. Dick and Mac McDonald sought to find ways of improving their existing restaurant business and instead of remodeling and restructuring what they already had in operation, the brothers decided to focus on an entirely new concept. The guidelines for the new concept were to provide restaurant style hamburgers in a relatively speedy fashion while guaranteeing low prices and mass production of the menu items. Initially, the brothers exchanged car hops for self-service at the counter, and ditched the 25 item menu in favor of the limited menu of just nine items. Upon opening up the San Bernardino location, the McDonald brothers slashed the price of their hamburgers from what was a competitively priced 30 cents to a ridiculously low 15 cents. At the age of 53, Ray Kroc founded the company as revolutionized it into what is today is one of the interna...