Delta Air Lines Inc Delta Airlines Inc.

Delta Air Lines, Inc. is an established American airline, which operates under the name Delta Air Lines. Delta Air Lines has her headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States. The airline operates over an extensive domestic and international network, servicing all the continents of the world with the exception of Antarctica (O'Neal, Jacob, Farmer & Martin, 2007). Delta Air Lines operates over five thousand flights on a daily basis in conjunction with its subsidiaries. The corporation has an extensive workforce that has approximately eighty thousand employees. Delta Air Lines started operating in the year 1924 and later expanded and grew over the challenges any other business faces; to become the world leading business-corporation it is to date. As a top company in the market, it covers Delta Air Lines specializes in the service of domestic and international flights only.

The impact of the company's mission, vision, and primary stakeholders on its overall success

Delta Air Lines from the time of inception enjoys a massive competitive advantage in the market it operates. This is due to the commitments that the company established from the beginning of operations. The commitments are evident in the mission statement and the slogans that it uses to forge forward in success and service. The statement states that the employees, and customers of Delta Airlines together with the community partners form a force dedicated to creating a positive local and global change, to better standards of living and the environment in which they operate (Event brief of Q3 2007 delta air lines, inc earnings conference call -- final, 2007). It is clear that Delta Ari Lines recognizes the significance of every partner and person involved in the field of operations. It acknowledges the role of every small business in the overall strength of the United States economy and the ultimate stakeholders in the corporation. The mission statement reflects the values and beliefs of the company in the overall daily activities and the values it holds dear as it operates. The company takes all employees as important partners of the corporation rather than employed 'slaves' hence the reason the employees feel part of the company. Similarly, the community is an integral part of the business as the persons it services are from the community. Therefore, making them partners in the business allows them to engage fully and relate with Delta Air Lines as though they own the company (Delta air lines inc.: Bankruptcy judge quashes union subpoenas of records, 2006). Therefore, this contributes significantly to the success of the corporation as it counters its competitors in the market. Through the mission statement and allied commitments, the company establishes trust and sound ethical relations with the employees and the community hence the reason it continues to hit higher targets of unconquerable success.

The stakeholders and partners of the company play a significant and recognizable role in contributing to the success of the corporation. Particularly, the stakeholders take key observance over the leadership and management of the company, to ensure that the company offers the best service to the people. These stakeholders, who range from customers to suppliers and shareholders in the company, work concurrently with the management of the company to see that the services are of standard. The suppliers provide quality products and services to ensure satisfaction of the customer. Similarly, the shareholders keep the company in operation by maintaining their shares in the company. Through these commitments by the stakeholders, the company experiences immeasurable levels of success in whatever program it launches even when it ventures into new markets.

The five (5) forces of competition and their impact on the company

The company has exploits the forces of competition significantly. Such include, ideas that the company exploits. To enhance the customer experience, the company exploits new ideas for improving its operations regularly, implementing those, which are viable. Secondly, there is the force of creating value. The company exploits its services and reduces the costs while increasing efficiency by focusing on the domestic verses international operations (Delta airlines inc.: Bankruptcy judge quashes union subpoenas of records, 2006). It evaluates and streamlines its supplies to ensure it gives customers reasonable prices for services. The third force the company exploits is customer experience. The company established a communication base that allows it competitive advantage. It has a working website, through which the customers engage the company. Additionally, its other communication channels remain working sufficiently. The force of competition is advertising. The company already has a brand name and does not invest...

Through this force, the other competitors of the airline are overtaking the company. However, through this realization, it can improve its operations and capitalize on advertising. Lastly, it is the emerging issue of technology. The world is changing every day due to new technologies. It is the duty of the corporation to exploit these new technologies to ensure it remains competent and relevant within the market. These five forces of completion drive the airlines industry and Delta Air Lines is not exceptional (Delta air lines inc. 2010). It is capitalizing accordingly on these forces, making it effective and efficient in service delivery.
SWOT analysis for the company

Strength

The company is successful due to the strengths it enjoys within the market it operates. These strengths include the strategic merger of the Northwest Airlines. Through this merger, the company expanded its target market and the shareholding capacity. Therefore, it acquired more customers and financial stability. Secondly, the company enjoys having a strong brand equity and brand presence. This gives the company competitive advantage as the name of the company sells it in the market. It enjoys having the brand that gives it incomparable publicity over the world; hence, the preference by customers in the market. The company has over 5000 flights on a daily basis; hence, the significant heights of income it earns daily. This gives it a large capital base to invest in growing bigger and better (Event brief of Q3 2007 delta air lines, inc earnings conference call -- final, 2007). Additionally the strong employee workforce, who hits over 80,000 personnel, allows the company to provide services effectively. Lastly, it has the strength of having a large fleet size of over 700 caters to 250 destinations; hence, the large market base it covers.

Weaknesses

The company has two key weaknesses that hinder it from achieving the immeasurable success heights. These weaknesses include the overdependence on the North American market. This means that the company invests; its significant efforts in exploiting the North American market rather than venturing into new grounds where it can hit higher targets. Through this overdependence, the company fails to identify the areas f operation that need services, which it can provide hence expanding its activities. Secondly, the corporation also suffers from high debt obligations causing financial issues. For instance, the company suffered bankruptcy previously due to the huge financial strains that caused it to become bankrupt (Knapp, 2007). Therefore, financial issues are a significant weakness for the success of the corporation.

Opportunity

The company has opportunities such as the position it has in the United States regional airline industry, which it can easily capitalize. Secondly, the company can also exploit the growing market of aircraft maintenance, overhaul and repair. Lastly, Delta is the only airline that has no expiration date of the extra miles offered. Therefore, these areas of operation present an open opportunity for the company to grow.

Threats

The company faces threats in its daily operations. The key threats it counters include, the stiff competition from other operators in the industry. It also suffered reputation damage in the year 2010, when the ratings named it as the worst in the market. This set it back in its operations. Lastly, the recent fuel crises in the world caused a fuel hike, which negatively impacted the company and its operations.

Strategy for the company to exploit its potency and opportunities, and lessen its limitations and threats

The company has an established reputation in the market; therefore, it is simple to capitalize on its strengths and explore the available opportunities. The company should cash on the current brand name, by advertising and publicizing itself to the outside market (Delta air lines inc.: Bankruptcy judge quashes union subpoenas of records, 2006). Additionally, the management should cash on the extensive market in the developing nations rather than concentrating its efforts in the northwest America market. This way, it will avert the competition, hence hitting higher targets of financial and global success. The opportunities it has are viable; hence, the company can focus on each of these opportunities to ensure that it capitalizes on them, hence achieving greater heights. In the issue of the weaknesses, the company is already taking measures by establishing a strong finance department with an executive financial officer. This way, it is eliminating the chances of going bankrupt again. Moreover, the threats facing the company can pose a challenge as some, such as fuel crisis they cannot control. However, those that it can control, it can easily manage them by establishing…